With an opponent like Donald Trump, it must be very tempting to go out every day and point out how unfit he is to be president. And I think that it is important to do that. But Hillary shouldn’t be the one, she has plenty of surrogates that are well respected and can criticize Trump without taking the low road. Really, all they have to do is parrot back what he says (remember how well Tina Fey did it in 2008) without adding any commentary, or perhaps a bit of critique. The electorate already knows who Trump is and what he stands for, they just need to be reminded why those things matter.
But Hillary’s got a problem other than Trump, and whether its fair or not (I don't believe it is), she has an incredibly high number of people who have a negative opinion about her. Her response to Chris Wallace's question last week about the email scandal gave her critics the opportunity to once again paint her as untruthful and untrustworthy. Who knows why she even went on Fox News after Karl Rove put her on notice that they are not going to let up on the email story. And it was clear from the interview that Wallace’s only goal was to get her to say what she said so that they could trot out the narrative that once again Hillary is lying. (Never mind that Trump lies with impunity every single day).
I don’t know how, but Hillary must put this issue to rest. If not, they will continue to work it into their line of questioning and use her answers as a means to remind us that she is dishonest and cannot be trusted. I can imagine after the Clinton/Trump debate in which she eviscerates him on every turn and he stumbles and bumbles his way through every question, the only thing that will be talked about the next day is that Hillary once again lied about those emails. This must not be allowed to happen.
Now is the time that she must let people know who she really is and what she really stands for. Make this election about her and her ideas, not about choosing her instead of Donald Trump because he is a worse choice. Give people a reason to vote for her and not just against her disaster of an opponent. Let every time that she speaks to the press be an opportunity to show people that she is the right person for the job regardless of who her opponent is. She’s a mother, a grandmother and former First Lady, Senator and Secretary of State. Those are honorable and respectable roles, and she must stop allowing Republicans to dishonor her with them.
I’m not going to indulge in trying to predict the future, but there is some indication that Trump may not last until November. If he should be replaced on the ballot, all the money, time and effort spent on creating a narrative that Hillary is better than Trump will be lost. And if Hillary continues to let the media paint her as dishonest and untrustworthy whose only positive role in this election is to keep Donald Trump out of the White House, well, that won’t be much of an argument against a more reasonable opponent.
Now I know that among Democrats on a partisan blog we understand that Hilary is so much more than the media gives her credit for. We know that she has spent her career in public service advancing agendas and policies that help the vulnerable in our society. We understand that her role as First Lady was remarkable in that she was a competent partner to the President and that her talents contributed to the success of his administration. We know that as Senator she continued to advocate for not just Democrats but all of her constituents from New York and that as Secretary of State she was the ears and mouthpiece of the President to leaders around the world, advancing our standing, healing broken trusts and protecting our interests. In short, she is an incredibly competent woman who has the background, temperament and leadership skills to be the next President of the United States.
So I hope that she finds a way to put an end to the email questioning. And that every single day she reminds voters why we should vote for her and not her opponent. I hope she rarely utters his name other than to dismiss him as a serious candidate for public office. I hope that we, as her supporters, can proudly speak about why we support her without having to defend her against right-wing smears that have unfortunately been allowed to take root.
And more than anything, I hope that on January 20, 2017, we see Hillary Rodham Clinton take the oath to become the 45th President of the United States of America.