In 2008, Hillary Clinton, US senator from New York, former first lady as wife of president Bill Clinton, mother of Chelsey, universal health care advocate and former lawyer, mounted and ran the first really credible political campaign for president of the USA ever run by a woman candidate. She came very close to winning enough delegates to be the democratic party’s nominee for president that year, winning 18 million primary votes. Barack Obama edged her out in the delegate count toward the end of the campaign season and Hillary pivoted to throw her complete support behind Obama.
Obama had said during the primary season that Clinton and he were friends before the campaign, and they would be friends after the campaign. He also recognized that except for his superior political organization on the ground, particularly in states that held caucuses instead of primary elections, Hillary might have won the nomination instead of him. He and his closest advisers realized that Clinton was extremely intelligent, had lived in the White House for eight years, had been engaged as the wife of a president, had traveled around the world as first lady, was a capable and popular senator from New York, and had knowledge, skills and abilities that would be squandered if he did not capture them and access them.
As a result, before the 2008 democratic convention, he met with her in private and asked her to be the next USA Secretary of State. Incidentally, this would place her fourth in line of succession to the presidency should something ever happen to him, the vice-president, the speaker of the house of representatives and the president pro tempore of the senate, in accordance with the US Constitution 25th amendment and subsequent US law.
Hillary was confirmed by the US senate in early 2009 and has served as the USA Secretary of State ever since. She was there with President Obama the night the Navy Seals took out Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan, and she has been instrumental and engaged in international dealings that have benefited the USA.
In November 2010, largely as a result of GOP lies and false propaganda about the newly passed but not yet implemented health reform legislation now known as Obamacare, the tea-party-infested republicans took over as the majority in the US house of representatives. At that point the upcoming presidential election of 2012 became a real horse race. All during that time, Hillary continued to work behind the scenes on the foreign policy issues of the day.
Pundits wondered if Obama should replace vice-president Joe Biden as US vice-president for the 2012 election with her. For her part, she repeatedly made it crystal clear that she was not interested in any way in the job of vice-president or any other elected position…ever. In fact, at this point it became common knowledge that she would be leaving her job as Secretary of State shortly after Obama won re-election. Over and over she has stated that she wants to return to private life.
In September 2012, terrorists attacked the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya, murdering four US diplomats. In its aftermath the public statements about it were confusing and conflicting. Republicans attempted to make a political campaign issue out of that but were unsuccessful. Still, congressional hearings were scheduled, and yesterday Secretary of State Hillary Clinton testified before both houses of the US Congress.
Republicans, who are still reeling over their losses in the November 2012 elections, were told to be respectful of Hillary when she testified. They realized that she is incredibly popular among Americans, with a 67% favorable rating vs. 26 unfavorable. Most republicans were respectful to her, with notable exception made by republican 2016 presidential hopeful senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and GOP senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin. When Ron Paul stated that he would have fired her had he been president (how much more political can you get?), she simply looked away dismissingly as if to tell him that she wasn’t interested in his political campaign statement. And when Ron Johnson asked her something but wouldn’t let her answer, she lit into him in a way that backed him right off. You can watch the exchanges HERE.
For their part, the democrats kept thanking her for her service and repeatedly hinted at their desire for her to run for president in 2016, even though she has repeatedly insisted that she’s all done with public life. Of course, that was before the November 2012 elections. With each hint, she simply smiled or laughed.
think about it. She is much wiser and more experienced now. No republican can come close to matching her skills and abilities in foreign policy. She is clearly the front-run among the democrats and much of the USA, for that matter.
So….will she change her mind? Will she being unengaged bore her to death?
The smart money says….stand by. 
When Rand Paul started his “I’m better than you & I would have fired you” tirade, I was just waiting for Hillary to pull out her Dirty Harry .44 magnum & fire at him right on the spot. (I posted this on another board & got a few war monger diatribes.)
Depending on what Veep Joe does in the next few years…do you think there’s a possibility of a Biden/Clinton combo? How about throwing another Obama into the mix. By that time she’ll be pretty well known & might be able to hold her own against any Republican. Stranger things have happened!
Hillary Clinton is a intelligent, politically astute woman, who was an amazing Secretary of state. I do believe that if she wants to run for president, that she would win. The thing is, does she want to lay back and relax awhile or does she want to enjoy the retirement that she has more than earned?
Frankly, I bet after a couple of months of rest, she will be tired of “rest” and ready to get back into politics. But that may be wishful thinking.
Either party would have an uphill struggle coming up with a candidate who brings the credentials that Hillary has already amassed. She would ensure the continuation of many of the Obama policies.
The GOP will continue their mud slinging, hate driven crusade in an attempt to label her, so I don’t believe she has much time to make her intentions known. Evidence of this unfolded during some of the televised exchanges in the recent senate hearing. As much as the GOP hates seeing a black man in the White House, the fear of a strong woman is an even stronger emotion for them to handle.
You could tell that they came to that hearing yesterday ill prepared. Of course they took their favorite talking points with them, but they had not read the classified documents that contained the information they claimed they were interested in. There is one picture being circulated on the net, showing Hillary with her teeth clenched that as far as I am concerned is being thrown out there to portray her as a “mad” woman unable to deal with being questioned. I watched the hearing from both congressional houses, and to freeze that one nano-second is the most disingenuous portrayal of any news event I have ever seen.
While her passionate answer was maybe a harsh reaction to the question, I believe, as do others including Senator Kerry, that they were talking past each other at that point. Hillary went there yesterday fully prepared to answer the questions that were being fielded; however, the republicans went there looking for the “big I gotta moment”. Obama used that very tool to artfully label Mitt, which contributed to the outcome of the election.
Hillary has a vast following and when coupled with the Obama troops, she would be unstoppable.