Hillary Clinton has a problem. In a new Quinnipiac University national poll, more than one in three voters say that the most important trait they are looking for in a 2016 candidate is being "honest and trustworthy." Almost six in ten of those polled said that Hillary Clinton lacks those two traits."Don't know if" is a fixable problem. I doubt that's the problem she has.
Uh oh.
Clinton's problems with the honest/trustworthy question is not new. As I wrote back in April:There's a widespread belief in her capability to do the job she is running for. There's also widespread distrust in her personally. People admire her but don't know if she's honest.
Well, of COURSE she's capable. President Obama managed to muddle his way through (badly) despite being wildly unqualified and absolutely spineless in the face of international dictators. But he managed it. She would absolutely be able to handle the realpolitik of the world. She'd also manage to alienate anyone who disagreed with her in the slightest way. And while that's not a bad thing if she's only speaking with enemies of the country, she also will be called upon to deal with our allies. And frankly, I'm surprised the British haven't already invited us to piss off as it is.
ReplyDeleteSo yeah, she's capable. She's also a complete viper that won't hesitate to bite anyone and anything that dares to oppose her. And no, I wouldn't trust her with being a dog catcher in a small town, much less with the White House.
She's got another problem brewing. With talk increasing about a Biden campaign, some polls were conducted (and when I find the links again, I'll post them). Against the same three Republican candidates some later polls have Clinton losing to, Biden (in, as I recall, different states, though) does better, even leading one or two.
ReplyDeleteA Sanders-Biden or a Warren-Biden ticket?
Eric Hines
Biden is NOT capable of the job. He is a moron of the first water.
ReplyDeleteI'm unsettled by this casual reconciliation of the two ideas of "capable leader" and "dishonest snake." It's not a good sign if poll participants' idea of a capable leader is a purely amoral Machiavellian standard.
ReplyDeleteLook, one can be both a dishonest, corrupt snake AND effective at a job. It may not be pleasant, and it may take an awful lot of work to undo the damage they do, but it doesn't mean that vice always makes someone bad at everything. Machiavelli's hypothetical Prince would actually have been an efficient administrator. Blindingly evil and oppressive, sure, but the "trains would run on time" so to speak (interesting historical note... under Mussolini, Italian trains did not, in fact, run on time. That was just Fascist propoganda).
ReplyDeleteIt depends on the job you want done. Her dishonesty is all in her own personal service, not the efficiency of government for the public's benefit. When she's doing our business, she's laughably incompetent.
ReplyDeleteI think that's right, Tex. It's not that we 'don't know if' she's honest. We know she's not.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I believe if people think she's super competent either, although she's good at the one thing she really cares about, i.e., getting paid.
...she's good at the one thing she really cares about, i.e., getting paid.
ReplyDeleteApparently not that good. She was, after all, dead broke after having left office the first time....
Eric Hines
Never have I considered her "competent" at anything she was elected to do. Now in the side avocations of graft, extortion, coercion, she seems pretty talented. So was Al Capone. Does not mean he would have been a good president.
ReplyDelete