Hillary Wouldn’t Have Needed Two Phones

Arguing that she used private email for all of her State Department correspondence out of a desire for “convenience,” Hillary Clinton said that she would have needed two phones if she’d used a State Department account.

But that isn’t true.  When I worked on the 2008 presidential campaign, I had one BlackBerry.  It had the official campaign email on it, as well as a couple of email accounts I used for personal correspondence with family and friends.

Her claim that she didn’t want to carry two “devices” is BS.

Progressives and Tea Partiers, Unite

I’ve already noted how bizarre the 2016 contest could be in terms of foreign/defense policy in that we might have a serious GOP candidate (Rand Paul) running to the left of the Dems.  Already there’s talk of neo-cons like Robert Kagan supporting Hillary.

But we might also see some strange turns in domestic policy as well.  A lot of attention is being paid to Hillary’s attitude toward, and relationship with, Wall Street, particularly compared to Elizabeth Warren.  However Hillary runs, you can be sure she’d govern as a friend of Wall Street, as she and Bill have consistently been.

We may well see a “populist” GOP candidate or two in the primary running to the left of Hillary on domestic policy.

What I find especially interesting is the conviction that populist rhetoric should be encouraged among Republicans, combined with a certainty that it would be the kiss of death for the Dems to nominate that “scary” Elizabeth Warren.  Candidates are judged not on the content of their character, but on the red or blue color of their party.

While I know that Warren would be turned into George McGovern, the truth is that if Tea Party voters could listen to her in a “blind taste test” setting, a lot of them would feel that she understands their frustration and speaks for them.  While she’d be painted as anti-capitalist, the more subtle truth is that she is against crony capitalism, and so is the Tea Party.

Both parties represent crony capitalism, and that’s something the Progressive wing of the Democratic party and the Tea Party wing of the GOP agree on.  The Dems are for the rich and the poor, the Republicans are for the rich, but really nobody is for the middle class.  That’s why they have to woo middle-class voters and get us wee wee’d up about issues like abortion and immigration and climate change.

All the 2016 candidates will talk about the middle class, but those most likely to mean it either won’t get nominated or would get painted as a hippie Commie freak in the general.

I don’t know who our next president will be, but I’m certain he or she will be someone Wall Street won’t have to worry its pretty little head about.

Oh, Boo Hoo, Hillary

Hillary Clinton says she and Bill were “dead broke” when they left the White House.  He had a book advance of $12 million, and she had one for $8 million.  $20 million= dead broke?  She’s more clueless than Mitt.

Ready for Hillary?  I am sick of Hillary.

Hillary’s Age

Charlie Cook, at The Cook Report, bluntly asks the question “Is Hillary Clinton Too Old to Run?” that I have previously raised here.

She will be 67 this October, and would be 77 at the end of a second term, in the most demanding job in the world.  Neither party wants to nominate someone who can’t run for and serve two terms.

Is she too old?  I say yes.  The Oval Office is not a place for anyone in her (or his) late 70’s.

Pretty Naive for a SecDef

“The controlling nature of the Obama White House, and its determination to take credit for every good thing that happened while giving none to the people in the cabinet departments — in the trenches — who had actually done the work, offended Hillary Clinton as much as it did me.”

Former defense secretary Robert Gates, in his new memoir Duty

Every president takes credit for the good stuff, this was nothing new or unusual.  Presidents have to get re-elected, cabinet members don’t, and when we look back on successes (or failures), they are always linked, both in our memories and the history books, with who was president at the time.

Probably Not How Hillary Wanted to Announce

Disgraced exhibitionist and fading NYC mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner told BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith that he knows what role his wife Huma Abedin will play in Hillary’s 2016 campaign.

So Weiner appears to have made Hillary’s announcement for her.  I didn’t think the Clintons could be more pissed at him, but I expect they are.

Monica’s Back!

Just as Bill and Hillary are struggling with Weiner and Huma, Monica’s back and just where you’d expect to find her — the National Enquirer, of course.

They are publishing an old tape she made for him after their affair ended, begging to see him alone and proposing that she take off her clothes, plus assorted love notes.

In one note she refers to Gingko Biloba as Gingko Blowjoba.

In the last photos I saw of Monica, taken in New York City, she looked like Rosie O’Donnell.

Bye-Bye for Bi Hillary?

The National Enquirer (yeah, I know, but often they’re right, remember John Edwards) claims that Hillary Clinton will disclose that she is bisexual in her $25 million memoir expected to be published in 2014.

The idea is to put it out there herself, ahead of 2016.  There have been rumors about her sexuality throughout the Clintons’ public life.  I always believed them because she hung out with lesbians at Wellesley.  If you weren’t one, you weren’t welcome in their inner circle.

Voting for a female president is a big deal for a lot of Americans.  It’s a leap we’ve never made before.  I just don’t know if adding bisexuality to that mix makes it too big a leap, if we can have our first woman and first openly gay president simultaneously.

Quote of the Day

“I think the dam is about to break on Benghazi. We’re going to find a system failure before, during, and after the attacks.  We’re going to find political manipulation seven weeks before an election. We’re going to find people asleep at the switch when it comes to the State Department, including Hillary Clinton.  The bond that has been broken between those who serve us in harm’s way and the government they serve is huge — and to me every bit as damaging as Watergate.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R – SC)

Make Way for Hillary

NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo says he won’t run for the Dem nomination in 2016 if Hillary does.

I’d like to see Cuomo run against Chris Christie.  It would be like the best ever episode of The Sopranos.

I’ve disliked Hillary since 1967, not going to stop now.  Of course, I’m not going to vote for Rand Paul either…