Ninety feet from the White House

I’ve thought about this often, ever since her husband won the presidency in 1992. Anyone half-way between reality and dreamland could see the ambition written on her face. When Hillary Rodham Clinton began holding closed-door hearings on proposed health-care reform as First Lady in 1993, I knew then as a 19-year-old college student that it was she who wanted to be president and not her husband. All Bill really wanted was a private office from which to conduct his, um, affairs. Anyone who proposes to convert one-seventh of the U.S. economy to public domain, and who does not hold government office to do it with, must either be crazy or extremely ambitious. The jury is still out on whether it is one, the other or both.
Nevertheless, it was common knowledge inside and outside the Beltway that Bill was a puppet and Hillary was his marionette; she governed through him. The fact that Bill could become president with his political credentials and she could not motivated Hillary to keep their happy home, in spite of Bill’s well-known infidelity. She tolerated the affairs because power was more important to her than loyalty. She wanted the White House more than anything else in the world and nothing or nobody, not even her philanderer husband, was going to keep her from it. First Base.
So, during Bill’s final year in the White House, Hillary decided to make her move. She established a residence in New York State and registered as a candidate for U.S. Senate there. Why New York instead of, say, Arkansas? While I dispute the notion that Hillary is the “smartest woman in the world,” I also concede that she is intelligent, calculating and shrewd. She understands Beltway politics very well. There was a snowball’s chance in hell that a junior U.S. Senator from a backwater state like Arkansas would be taken seriously as a presidential candidate. However, a junior U.S. Senator from New York—one of the most prestigious, power and influential political districts in the entire country—could make a serious run. Furthermore, it was less likely that Hillary would have even been able to secure a House or Senate seat in her home state, considering Arkansas' conservative base.
In a nutshell, Hillary played the averages and decided that the New York senate seat was in her best political interest to run for and win. As a result, she packed her carpet bags for the Empire State, simply establishing residence and never bothering to live there.
Consequently, Hillary succeeded in fooling the voters of New York and got herself elected to the U.S. Senate. Second Base.
Now, after just one and one-sixth terms in the U.S. Senate, Hillary is running for president of the United States and vying for the democratic nomination. She is fixing her power-hungry gaze once again on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Only this time, she’ll be the legal Commander-In-Chief instead of de facto. Third Base.
Hillary is just 90 feet from home plate and in scoring position. She was walked to first, stole second and bunted to third. She is the front-runner for the democratic presidential nomination and is considered by many political pundits to be the one to beat from either party.
So, for the sake of argument, let’s assume Hillary is elected President of the United States—the first female chief executive. In this day and age, I don’t think too many people would oppose the idea of a woman president—provided she’s the right person for the job. But Hillary’s gender is moot when it comes to what makes an effective commander-in-chief. Frankly, I think her motivations alone disqualify her from seeking the office. Her entire political career has been nothing but a power grab. She has positioned herself over the years for this one moment in time when she can seize for herself the highest seat of power and claim it as her own. She couldn’t do that as a first lady to a governor or a president. She couldn’t even do it as a senator, because her power is only as great as her one vote in the chamber. But the President of the United States is the most powerful office in the entire world, and that is why Hillary wants to be elected to it so badly.
If the state of New York and the people in that district were really important to Hillary, then why is she trying so hard to leave her U.S. Senate seat for a better one in the oval office at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? If the people of New York were good enough for Hillary, then perhaps she would stay longer and fight harder than she has for them so far. But the truth is that the people of New York aren’t good enough for Hillary. Of course, neither are the American people, for that matter; but they will have to do in order to get elected President of the United States. No, New York served its purpose. Now, Hillary is in search of much bigger fish to fry. She played New Yorkers like a harp, told them what they wanted to hear, and paid lip service to her constituents long enough to set herself up for a presidential run. Now, what matters to Hillary are Iowa, New Hampshire, California and about 46 other states besides New York.
One question to New Yorkers who voted Hillary into the U.S. Senate: Did she move to New York just to get elected and make a run for the presidency, or did she move there because she really cared about you and the issues of your state? I think it is clear Hillary wanted to represent you about as much as she wants to place second in a presidential election.
The reality is that Hillary used the state of New York for her own selfish purposes. No doubt she wants to use the American people for the same reason.
In the movie “Gladiator,” Marcus Aurelius (played by Richard Harris) urges Maximus (Russell Crowe) to accept anointment as Rome’s next emperor. When Maximus declines the honor, the emperor notes emphatically, “That is why it must be you!” This is because Maximus was not after power. He just wanted to return home to his family, live in peace and be content with what he had. The emperor’s son, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), on the other hand, craved the throne and could not wait to seize power. Those of us who watched the movie saw how Commodus ruled the empire once he took power. While the movie itself is popular fiction, it contains an important message to those of us who still have the power to choose our leaders: Those most fit for public office are not the ambitious and certainly not the zealous; rather, they are the humble and the meek.
The candidate who will make the best president is the one who does not seek the office for his or her personal gain, but rather out of citizen duty to and love of country. The best president is one who does not want the office for all its power, glory and potential; but instead accepts it as a responsibility, the heaviness of which could not in good conscience be wished upon anyone.
By all accounts, facts and evidence, Hillary’s road to the White House is wrought with zealousness and ambition—the very traits we ought not entrust to our nation’s highest ranking representative.