Wednesday, July 22, 2009

A Disasterous Outcome

The year is 2012. Barack Obama is just starting his fourth year in office and is seeking to become his party's nominee for President. It's been a rough couple of years, but Obama's confident that he has enough left in the tank to win reelection.

But there's a snag. Another candidate, one who has been passed over in the past, emerges as a real challenge. This candidate brings foreign policy and domestic policy experience to the table, as well as a touching human story that voters can identify with. And, what's more troubling for Obama? This candidate has a working knowledge of how he operates.

I'm referring to Hillary Clinton. The scenario I painted may be fictional for now, but if current conditions continue, it's indeed a possibility.

As much as I dislike Bill and Hillary Clinton, they are not quitters, nor are they beaten, even when it appears they are. That's why it struck me as odd that they seemed resigned to serving Obama. It wasn't that they were beaten so badly; they were biding time, watching Obama operate so that they could learn what makes him tick.

Something else to consider is that Obama is that he is still relatively new to politics. He may have had great teachers along the way, but his instincts are not nearly as refined as they should be for someone of his alleged intelligence and political skill. One example of this has been how he made Hillary Secretary of State and then either saddling her with an often contradictory and absurd foreign policy stance or undermining her credibility by taking on more of the high profile foreign policy events and not doing very much to recognize the efforts of the State Department to make those events happen.

And if there's one thing Hillary Clinton does not tolerate, it's being disrespected.

Hillary's political career is on its downward slope, so if she wants to fulfill her dreams of becoming the first female President, she needs to jump and jump fast. If Obama doesn't follow through and turn the country around, Democrats may be looking for an alternate candidate. As we've seen in recent weeks, Democrats are no longer afraid to speak out against the President, and should conditions get worse, more and more will speak out. That opens the door for Hillary to come in and take the nomination from Obama.

And that will be a disasterous outcome for Mr. Hopeity-Change.

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