Day 1160 – Could Hillary Have Done a Better Job?

Day 1160 – Could Hillary Have Done a Better Job?

Monday March 23, 2020

223 Days until the election on November 3rd

303 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

Answer 1: YES.

Answer 2: Anyone could have*.

*Except those Republicans in the Senate, The Vice President or any of Trump’s cabinet officials**

** No, I take that back. Any of them could have done a better job.

Let’s examine the case for Answer 1. When I put a link to an article whose headline was “Hillary Could Have Done a Better Job.” I got two immediate responses:

Response 1: “I don’t like Hillary.”

Response 2: “Pure Speculation.”

Each response is telling. To the first I say, “So what?” and “That doesn’t answer the point.”

To the second I say, “Let’s compare.”

Hillary is, as a buddy of mine likes to say, “Whip smart.” She graduated from one of the top colleges in the country at the top of her class. She was so well thought of that she was asked to give a commencement speech. The first time anyone from the student body had been asked to do so.

Donald? He said he went to one of the top colleges in the country, which he did. What do we know about his time there? Nothing really. We’ve heard reports anecdotally that he was a lackadaisical student who never studied. We know he has gone to great lengths, including sending threatening letters to the college not to release his grades. This doesn’t sound like a stellar student. 

We also know that during this time he started to do real estate with his father. We now know that Donald lost a lot of money in real estate. For four consecutive years he lost close to a billion dollars, making him one of the highest losers in each year according to tax records. Of course, he has hidden his tax records as well. Anecdotally, we know that he liked to make deals, mostly bad deals, but once he acquired or bought whatever it was he had little interest in running those businesses.

We know that Hillary and Bill have been pursued by a ravenous right wing media trying to tear them down. This has gone on for four decades. There was an impeachment inquiry centered around it.  Anyone who read the first article about the impeachment could see it was a hit job and had no merit, but it hung around and the trolls had the power of the office of Special Prosecutor to go digging and digging. Finally, they hit pay dirt when after a Republican shutdown of government put a 21 year old intern near Bill and he got six blowjobs. 

But Hillary? Nothing.

I keep coming back to a comment that Hillary made during the opening of her second debate with Trump. She said, “I’ve been called a lot of things, but unprepared is not one of them.”

As Secretary of State she did historic things. She and Obama got the Chinese to negotiate on Iran. This led to the Iran Nuclear Deal. The most historic, best negotiated, best detailed nuclear deal in history. It could have been a treaty, but Republican senators wouldn’t give Obama or Hillary that, so it was a deal, one that could be undone by another president. 

What did Trump do with the Iran Nuclear Deal? He walked out on it. What did he replace it with? Nothing. Remember during the 2016 Republican debates how Ted Cruz and Carly Fiorna and others went on and on about what they would have done on a nuclear deal with Iran? Well, in Donald Trump they got their chance. What happened? As I said – nothing. Now, Iran is back to building a nuclear stockpile; instead of looking at doing it fifteen years from now. 

Climate change – Hillary and Obama participated in the Paris Peace Accords. What did Trump do? He pulled out of it. What did he do instead? He gave big breaks to gas and oil companies. He opened up Federal lands to gas and oil exploration. 

Health Care – Hillary was appointed by President Clinton, her husband, to do something on health care. She came up with a package. Yes, it was complicated, but as everyone said health care is complicated. The Republican Senators turned it down. What did she do then? SNAP (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program) giving help to low income families to get food. Not even the Republicans in the Senate were heartless enough to stop that.

What has Trump done in health care and food assistance? Everything he can to dismantle the safety net for low income families. He has gone to court to try and get the whole Obama Care bill thrown out. He is currently trying to reduce the benefits on SNAP so three million people will no longer be able to get help. As to health care, John Boehner summed it up best, he said in his twenty five years in Congress he never saw a Republican health care bill. The last whiff of one was when Paul Ryan was Speaker. That consisted of a photo op of him sitting down with other Republican law makers showing they were ready to go to work and the Dems weren’t at the table to work with them. Of course, they hadn’t told the Dems about it and after the Klieg lights were shut off they went back to business as usual.

Hillary was pilloried in the right wing press over four people in the State Department being killed in Libya. The Republicans held eleven hearings on this subject (or ws it only nine? I forget.) Like the land deal the facts were well known before the first hearing. The problem was that those same Republicans had voted to cut the security budget the Sate Department had. Hillary sat for eleven hours one day while various Congress people took pot shots at her. Most notable was Jim Jordan, a man who has done nothing in his career of any benefit. He seemed to have watched too many Perry Mason shows and he badgered and attempted to belittle and put words in her mouth. He failed and looked foolish. She remained cool and answered questions. Most of the time the hearing was a place for Republicans to spout off, not ask questions. In fact, I don’t remember them asking any meaningful questions.

Let’s compare Hillary’s overall career to that of Donald’s shall we? While Hillary was doing things to help in government Donald was trying, and failing, to enrich himself. We didn’t know how big a failure he was, and we still don’t, but it was billions, He then became involved with the Russians who via Deutsch Bank funded his schemes. It’s called money laundering. 

While it is speculation as to how well Hillary would have done her background and proven abilities would lead me to believe that we would be in a far better off position than we are under the current people in power.

223 Days until the election on November 3rd

303 Days until the Inauguration on January 20, 2021

PS For some reason the Democrats in the Senate don’t want to give Steve Mnuchin half a billion dollars to do whatever he wants with it. Imagine that? I’d give it to him provided he had to account to Elizabeth Warren.

PPS A tree grows in Mexico City.