Hillary Clinton: Harry Truman in drag?

Photo: Justin Sullivan, Getty Images

Jonathan Chait:

...Truman was a figure of crushing ordinariness, a quality that, over time, came to assume something close to greatness. Clinton gives off a similar sensibility (despite her extraordinary life experience). If you withdraw the presumption of calculation that is attached to her every action, one can see her character aging well through history: a woman who broke into male-dominated fields; a policymaker who is one of the few nerds who are still not cool. It is impossible to predict how Clinton will handle foreign policy, but it is not fanciful to hope that her experience (unusually deep for a president) will enable her to imaginatively face the confounding challenge of radical Islam.

And even if Republicans stymie her domestic initiatives, she might put her imprint on new policies that inspire successors. Clinton has proposed a modernization of the welfare state to include early education and child care. Though Truman’s proposal for universal health insurance failed, the power of his vision remained, and over time its association with Truman added to its grandiosity. And when Obama signed the Affordable Care Act in 2010, that evening, he and his aides celebrated its passage on the Truman Balcony.

Rob's comment:

As Chait points out, like President Truman, Hillary is despised by the radical left and the radical right, a good recommendation in itself. Truman had Henry Wallace on his left and Strom Thurmond on his right. Clinton has Breitbart on her right and Counterpunch on her left.

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Jonathan Chait riffs on Trump's threat to make Bill's infidelity an issue:

Bill CLINTON's infidelities? That's really rich. Is he seriously going to go there?

Had an affair with wife #3 while married to wife #2. Had an affair with wife #2 while married to wife #1. Bragged that he had bedded "all the great women of the world," many of the them married (wrote this in one of his books).

Told Howard Stern his "Vietnam" was NOT contracting any STDs (audio available). His affair with Maples was on the front page of every New York paper for years. Sent his children to boarding schools to get them away from the publicity. Didn't end the affair, just sent them away. Donnie Jr. said dad treated mom so badly the children didn't speak to him for a year (video available).

Set up Maples in one of his hotels in Atlantic City after letting Ivana run the Plaza in NY so he could screw around with Maples every time he went there to run the casinos. Had Maples and Ivana at the same ski resort where they saw each other...

In an interview with Barbara Walters commented on the expected size of daughter #2's breasts (she was an infant at the time) (video available)...

Oh, since we're talking about spouses (Hillary is running for president, NOT Bill), your wife's naked pictures are all over the Internet, she made porno movies and was a sex worker for others before she became a sex worker for you.

And Rudy Giuliani? See Booty Call Rudy: When Giuliani Attacks The Clintons, Remember His Scandals.