Salon.com > Hillary Rodham Clinton http://www.salon.com Fri, 04 Jan 2013 10:00:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Hillary Clinton to return to work next week http://www.salon.com/2013/01/03/hillary_clinton_to_return_to_work_next_week/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/03/hillary_clinton_to_return_to_work_next_week/#comments Thu, 03 Jan 2013 19:44:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13161056 WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department says Secretary of State Hillary Clinton plans to return to work next week after being treated for a blood clot in her head.

Spokeswoman Victoria Nuland says Clinton is resting at home but is speaking with senior staff and is, quote, "sounding terrific, upbeat and raring to go."

She says Clinton looks forward to returning to her Washington office next week, although a date hasn't been set. Doctors have advised her to avoid international travel for now.

Clinton was discharged Wednesday from a New York hospital, three days after doctors diagnosed a blood clot during a follow-up exam stemming from a concussion she suffered in December. Doctors are treating the clot with blood thinners and say they expect she will fully recover.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/03/hillary_clinton_to_return_to_work_next_week/feed/ 2 Clinton leaves hospital after treatment for clot http://www.salon.com/2013/01/02/report_hillary_clinton_leaves_the_hospital/ http://www.salon.com/2013/01/02/report_hillary_clinton_leaves_the_hospital/#comments Wed, 02 Jan 2013 21:34:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13159971

WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was released from a New York hospital on Wednesday, three days after doctors discovered a blood clot in her head.

Clinton's medical team advised her Wednesday evening that she was making good progress on all fronts and said they are confident she will fully recover, said Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines. Doctors had been treating Clinton with blood thinners to dissolve a clot in a vein that runs through the space between the brain and the skull behind the right ear.

"She's eager to get back to the office," Reines said in a statement, adding that the secretary and her family are grateful for the excellent care she received at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

Reines said details of when Clinton will return to work will be clarified in the coming days.

Clinton had been in the hospital since Sunday, when doctors discovered the clot on an MRI test during a follow-up exam stemming from a concussion she suffered earlier in December. While at home battling a stomach virus, Clinton had fainted, fallen and struck her head, a spokesman said.

"Grateful my Mom discharged from the hospital and is heading home," the secretary's daughter, Chelsea, wrote on Twitter. "Even more grateful her medical team (is) confident she'll make a full recovery."

Earlier Wednesday, the State Department said Clinton had been speaking by telephone with staff in Washington and reviewing paperwork while in the hospital.

"She's been quite active on the phone with all of us," said State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

Before being released from the hospital, Clinton was photographed Wednesday getting into a black van with her husband, Bill, Chelsea and a security contingent to be taken elsewhere on the sprawling hospital campus. The last time Clinton had been seen publicly was on Dec. 7.

Clinton's physicians had said Monday that there was no neurological damage but that they planned to keep her in the hospital while they established the proper dose for the blood thinners. They said Clinton, 65, had been in good spirits and was engaging with doctors, family and aides.

Sidelined by her illness for most of December, Clinton was absent on Dec. 21 when President Barack Obama nominated Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., to succeed her when she steps down at the start of Obama's second term, as had long been planned. The illness also forced to cancel scheduled testimony before Congress about a scathing report into the attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, although she could still testify in the future.

"She has said that she is open" to going before Congress, Nuland said Wednesday, while Clinton was still hospitalized. "We are working with them now on their schedule, because there's also a question of when they are going to be in."

Clinton had expected to return to work this week and had already started to resume regular phone contact with her foreign counterparts. On Saturday, the day before the clot was discovered, Clinton had a half-hour conversation with Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N. envoy to Syria, in which the two discussed the state of affairs in that country, her spokeswoman said.

Also on Saturday, Clinton spoke by telephone with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, discussing recent developments in Syria, Afghanistan and the Palestinian territories.

The illness has also raised questions about Clinton's political future and how her health might influence her decision about whether to run for president in 2016, as prominent Democrats have been urging her to consider.

Clinton suffered from a blood clot in 1998, midway through her husband's second term as president, although that clot was located in her knee.

___

Associated Press writer Matthew Lee contributed to this report.

Editor's Note: Salon's earlier version of this post incorrectly attributed an ABC News report to the Associated Press. 

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2013/01/02/report_hillary_clinton_leaves_the_hospital/feed/ 3 Has Syria crossed the chemical weapon “red line”? http://www.salon.com/2012/12/06/has_syria_crossed_the_chemical_weapon_red_line/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/06/has_syria_crossed_the_chemical_weapon_red_line/#comments Thu, 06 Dec 2012 19:55:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13117228 U.S. officials reported that Syria's government is preparing nerve gas bombs and would use chemical weapons against its own people. According to an NBC report, "The [Syrian] military has loaded the precursor chemicals for sarin, a deadly nerve gas, into aerial bombs that could be dropped onto the Syrian people from dozens of fighter-bombers, the officials said."

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta followed up the reports Thursday, noting "we are very concerned that as the opposition advances particularly on Damascus that the regime might very well consider the use of chemical weapons."

Chemical weapons have for the U.S. been an expressed "red line" in regards to Syria. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated previously that should Assad deploy chemical weapons against his people, "suffice to say we are certainly planning to take action.”

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/06/has_syria_crossed_the_chemical_weapon_red_line/feed/ 6 Poll: Hillary Clinton has high support for 2016 http://www.salon.com/2012/12/05/poll_hillary_clinton_has_high_support_for_2016/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/05/poll_hillary_clinton_has_high_support_for_2016/#comments Wed, 05 Dec 2012 15:39:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13115789 Hillary Clinton would be a strong contender in the 2016 presidential race should she decide to run, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll.

The poll finds that 57 percent say they'd support Clinton if she decides to run in four years, with only 37 percent saying they'd oppose her.

Clinton, who also has a 68 percent approval rating, enjoys higher support among women, with 66 percent supporting a 2016 bid, compared with 49 percent of men who said they'd support it.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/05/poll_hillary_clinton_has_high_support_for_2016/feed/ 4 Obama readies Cabinet shakeup http://www.salon.com/2012/12/03/obama_readies_cabinet_shakeup/ http://www.salon.com/2012/12/03/obama_readies_cabinet_shakeup/#comments Mon, 03 Dec 2012 18:31:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=13113613 President Barack Obama is poised to announce a series of Cabinet and other appointments that will amount to a major makeover for his second term.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/12/03/obama_readies_cabinet_shakeup/feed/ 4 Obama meets China, Japan leaders amid sea tensions http://www.salon.com/2012/11/20/obama_meets_china_japan_leaders_amid_sea_tensions/ http://www.salon.com/2012/11/20/obama_meets_china_japan_leaders_amid_sea_tensions/#comments Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:45:00 +0000 http://http://www.salon.com/2012/11/20/obama_meets_china_japan_leaders_amid_sea_tensions/ PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AP) — President Barack Obama closed his Asian tour in diplomatic talks with leaders of Japan and China, their economic message overshadowed by security tensions over disputed waters and territories. The crisis between Israel and Hamas militants intervened, too, as Obama rushed his top diplomat straight from Cambodia to the Mideast.

Obama was wrapping up four days in Southeast Asia on Tuesday and starting the long journey home, where fiscal deadlines and decisions await.

On the margins of the East Asia Summit here, Obama met with two Asian leaders, outgoing Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who is likely to be replaced. The president is devoting attention to the region to broaden U.S. influence in a part of the world long dominated by China.

But talk of trade was overshadowed by discussions over how to prevent violence over South China Sea territories. Southeast Asian leaders meeting here in the Cambodian capital decided to ask China to start formal talks "as soon as possible" on crafting a binding agreement on how to resolve such disputes.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/11/20/obama_meets_china_japan_leaders_amid_sea_tensions/feed/ 0 Clinton calls for action at start of NYC meeting http://www.salon.com/2012/09/23/clinton_calls_for_action_at_start_of_nyc_meeting/ http://www.salon.com/2012/09/23/clinton_calls_for_action_at_start_of_nyc_meeting/#comments Sun, 23 Sep 2012 12:40:00 +0000 http://http://www.salon.com/2012/09/24/clinton_calls_for_action_at_start_of_nyc_meeting/ NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Bill Clinton on Sunday challenged Wal-Mart to open a store in Libya and help create jobs in the world's most troubled areas.

"If the new president of Libya asked you to open a store in Tripoli, would you consider it?" Clinton asked Wal-Mart CEO Mike Duke at the opening session of the Clinton Global Initiative.

The annual forum brings together leaders in politics, business and philanthropy for three days of brainstorming about the most pressing global problems.

Duke was on a Clinton-mediated panel with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Queen Rania of Jordan and World Bank President Jim Yong Kim.

The Wal-Mart executive — jokingly calling the corporate giant a "small company from Arkansas," Clinton's home state — said the company already operates in high-risk areas including parts of sub-Saharan Africa. But Wal-Mart has no presence in Tripoli, the Libyan capital Clinton named as a possible location.

Newly elected Libyan President Mohammed el-Megarif is listed among about 1,000 forum participants, as is Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, a leader of the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/09/23/clinton_calls_for_action_at_start_of_nyc_meeting/feed/ 0 Plans for giant Antarctic marine sanctuary falter http://www.salon.com/2012/09/14/plans_for_giant_antarctic_marine_sanctuary_falter/ http://www.salon.com/2012/09/14/plans_for_giant_antarctic_marine_sanctuary_falter/#comments Fri, 14 Sep 2012 06:30:00 +0000 http://http://www.salon.com/2012/09/14/plans_for_giant_antarctic_marine_sanctuary_falter/ WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Antarctica's Ross Sea is often described as the most isolated and pristine ocean on Earth, a place where seals and penguins still rule the waves and humans are about as far away as they could be. But even there it has proven difficult, and maybe impossible, for nations to agree on how strongly to protect the environment.

The United States and New Zealand have spent two years trying to agree on an Alaska-sized marine sanctuary where fishing would be banned and scientists could study climate change. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton took a strong interest in the outcome, regularly prodding diplomats, and New Zealand recently sent a delegation to Washington to hash out a tentative deal.

That compromise, over a region that accounts for less than 2 percent of New Zealand's fishing industry, turned into a flop this month when senior New Zealand politicians rejected it behind closed doors.

The U.S. and New Zealand have now sent competing plans to the 25 countries that meet annually each October to decide the fate of Antarctica's waters. Their inability to agree greatly increases the chances that nothing will get done.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/09/14/plans_for_giant_antarctic_marine_sanctuary_falter/feed/ 3 Get ready for Vice President Hillary! http://www.salon.com/2012/08/20/get_ready_for_vice_president_hillary/ http://www.salon.com/2012/08/20/get_ready_for_vice_president_hillary/#comments Mon, 20 Aug 2012 11:45:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12985643 really wants to be president, he must replace Paul Ryan with Hillary Clinton on his ticket ASAP]]> I'm hearing a lot of speculation in politics circles these days that there's a running mate switch in the works. It's unusual but not unprecedented, and while it seems like a wild idea at first, the more I think about it, the more sense it makes. Just based on the many very substantial things I've heard from really connected people, I think there's a very good chance that Mitt Romney will dump Paul Ryan from the Republican ticket and replace him with Hillary Clinton.

I'm obviously not the first one to suggest it. In fact, these days, it seems like everyone -- Republicans and Democrats -- thinks it'd be a good idea. It's something people have been saying to me everywhere from cocktail parties to airports ever since Romney chose Ryan.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/08/20/get_ready_for_vice_president_hillary/feed/ 54 Hillary Clinton does not have time for your games http://www.salon.com/2012/08/16/hillary_clinton_does_not_have_time_for_your_games/ http://www.salon.com/2012/08/16/hillary_clinton_does_not_have_time_for_your_games/#comments Thu, 16 Aug 2012 19:43:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12984239 "Would you ever ask a man that question?" Hillary Clinton gave that reply two years ago, when an interviewer in Kyrgyzstan innocently asked the secretary of state, "Which designers do you prefer?" But when the Boston Review posted the exchange on its site Wednesday, it became a viral sensation -- and just the newest example of how much kicking butt and taking names Ms. Clinton is doing lately.

For 20 years now, Clinton has been one of the most divisive figures in American politics – reviled and adored, mocked and idolized. That hasn’t changed. But what has changed is the woman herself. Because now Clinton, much like the Honey Badger, just doesn't give a crap.

That terse exchange over her wardrobe caught fire this week because it exemplifies everything that endears Clinton to her supporters – and everything that exasperates so many of us about the current state of womanhood. You can be the secretary of state, even a former presidential contender, and it still comes down to how you look. And what's fabulous about Hillary is that Hillary isn't having it.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/08/16/hillary_clinton_does_not_have_time_for_your_games/feed/ 57 The politicization of the Secret Service scandal http://www.salon.com/2012/04/24/the_politicization_of_the_secret_service_scandal/ http://www.salon.com/2012/04/24/the_politicization_of_the_secret_service_scandal/#comments Tue, 24 Apr 2012 17:08:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12908714 It's hard to work up much outrage about the Secret Service prostitution scandal, in which 11 members of the president's elite protective service and various military personnel were found to have picked up escorts in Colombia, where they were doing advance work for the president's visit. I guess it is probably not a good idea for the people in charge of protecting the president to leave themselves vulnerable to sexual blackmail, but on the other hand we do not live in a John Le Carré novel or "24" episode, and I don't think the threat of a honey-trap assassination conspiracy plot is very credible. If members of the Secret Service want to get drunk and hire escorts after work, that is their business. (As Melissa Gira Grant says, the only actual scandal here -- and the reason this became an international incident -- is that all these guys tried to bilk one of the women out of the money she was owed.)

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/04/24/the_politicization_of_the_secret_service_scandal/feed/ 23 The silly 2016 speculation game http://www.salon.com/2012/03/26/the_silly_2016_speculation_game/ http://www.salon.com/2012/03/26/the_silly_2016_speculation_game/#comments Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:45:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12729401 Being that it's still March 2012 and we have no way of knowing who will actually be president by the end of January 2013 (besides "not Ron Paul," obviously), it would seem to be a bit premature to speculate as to how the 2016 presidential race will shake out. And yet political reporters, finally bored perhaps with the inevitable Republican nomination of Mitt Romney, are already spewing forth predictions. Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post has even created a "Sweet 2016" bracket. 

The most important lesson of terrible premature presidential-campaign speculation is that nearly everyone who engages in it will be terribly, hilariously wrong. It doesn't matter if you're a complete buffoon, like Dick Morris, author of the 2007 classic "Condi vs. Hillary: The Next Great Presidential Race," or someone fairly serious and "savvy," like New York Times politics reporter Matt Bai, who posited current nobody Mark Warner as the future of the party in a 2006 Times magazine cover story now best (if barely) remembered for its altered and unflattering photo of the subject.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/03/26/the_silly_2016_speculation_game/feed/ 43 Bill Keller writes newest, dumbest Biden-Clinton 2012 swap piece http://www.salon.com/2012/01/09/bill_keller_writes_newest_dumbest_biden_clinton_2012_swap_piece/ http://www.salon.com/2012/01/09/bill_keller_writes_newest_dumbest_biden_clinton_2012_swap_piece/#comments Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:59:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12001311 Bill Keller, a bad opinion columnist, has written a bad opinion column. It is about how Barack Obama will replace Vice President Joe Biden on the 2012 ticket with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, a thing that will not actually happen.

The former New York Times editor has lately been celebrating his return to writing by fearlessly tackling hacky column ideas already exhausted by everyone who was writing bad opinion columns during Keller's tenure as a person with an actually important job. Having offered his own takes on classics like "The Huffington Post isn't as good as a real newspaper" and "Twitter is dumb," Keller today tries the old "running mate switcharoo" scenario.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/01/09/bill_keller_writes_newest_dumbest_biden_clinton_2012_swap_piece/feed/ 24 Fake Democratic pollsters have stupid idea http://www.salon.com/2011/11/21/fake_democratic_pollsters_have_stupid_idea/ http://www.salon.com/2011/11/21/fake_democratic_pollsters_have_stupid_idea/#comments Mon, 21 Nov 2011 17:13:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10244877 I think it's best to understand the Wall Street Journal editorial board's decision to publish any given column by con artist pollsters Doug Schoen and Pat Caddell as basically an expression of contempt for people who read the Wall Street Journal editorial page.

Caddell and Schoen, two loser "Democratic" "pollsters," regularly publish very lame link-bait columns about how if Democrats want to succeed electorally, they must immediately cease being Democrats, and become, instead, Republicans. This week's variation on that theme: Barack Obama should step aside (already heard that one last year around this time) and allow himself to be replaced by Hillary Clinton, for the good of the party and the nation.

Even though Mrs. Clinton has expressed no interest in running, and we have no information to suggest that she is running any sort of stealth campaign, it is clear that she commands majority support throughout the country.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/11/21/fake_democratic_pollsters_have_stupid_idea/feed/ 100 Does Hillary Clinton get too much credit? http://www.salon.com/2011/11/01/does_hillary_clinton_get_too_much_credit/ http://www.salon.com/2011/11/01/does_hillary_clinton_get_too_much_credit/#comments Tue, 01 Nov 2011 22:32:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10160509 I'm on record as a great admirer of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, going back to her days as New York senator and certainly through her 2008 presidential campaign. But this week's set of stories depicting the U.S. Libya intervention as "Hillary's War" (The Washington Post) and an example of Clinton's "smart power" doctrine (Time Magazine's cover) go a little bit too far for me. They feel like someone's effort to upstage or diminish President Obama. For the record, I don't think the effort is Clinton's. It may just reflect the mainstream media's inability to give Obama his due.

Clearly Clinton's competence is an asset to the president, and her power and credibility reflects well on his ability to work with a former rival. And the Time piece, in particular, makes clear, while praising Clinton, that ultimately Obama makes most of his decisions with a small team of confidantes, and she is not among them. He's the commander in chief.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/11/01/does_hillary_clinton_get_too_much_credit/feed/ 53 Hillary’s legacy rests on fixing tainted pipeline approval process http://www.salon.com/2011/10/19/hillarys_legacy_rests_on_fixing_tainted_pipeline_approval_process/ http://www.salon.com/2011/10/19/hillarys_legacy_rests_on_fixing_tainted_pipeline_approval_process/#comments Wed, 19 Oct 2011 15:05:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10127458 Hillary Clinton is one of those people who never really got a fair shake — she had to endure her husband’s philandering and the right-wing’s endless hatred, down to the scurrilous suggestion that she had something to do with the death of her friend Vince Foster. So it’s been a pleasure to watch her accomplished second act — pretty much everyone has had to admit that she’s been a creditable secretary of state; she spent yesterday in Tripoli where rebels-turned-rulers fired guns in her honor. Last year, a Gallup poll found she was the most admired woman in the United States.

That’s why it’s particularly painful to see her nearing the end of her career as our top diplomat with a scandal looming. It’s not too late for her to nip it in the bud, and if she doesn’t President Obama can still put a stop to it, as well. But right now, it threatens to tarnish her legacy.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/10/19/hillarys_legacy_rests_on_fixing_tainted_pipeline_approval_process/feed/ 24 Hillary: An emphatic “No” on 2016 http://www.salon.com/2011/10/17/hillary_an_emphatic_no_on_2016/ http://www.salon.com/2011/10/17/hillary_an_emphatic_no_on_2016/#comments Mon, 17 Oct 2011 12:59:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10122308 In an interview that aired on this morning's "Today" show, Hillary Clinton displayed the same charm and command that have made her one of America's best-loved stateswomen. It's also easy to see why the secretary of state is the most popular figure in the Obama administration, and why many are clamoring for more. Still, Clinton shrugged off the idea, yet again, that she will run for president in 2016. Asked by NBC's Savannah Guthrie, she said:

No. No. You know, Savannah, I'm very privileged to have had the opportunities to serve my country. I'm really old-fashioned. I've made my contribution. I've done the best I can. But now I want to try some other things. I want to get back to writing, maybe some teaching, working on women and girls around the world.

I have made my contribution. I'm very grateful I've had a chance to serve, but now I think it's time for others to step up.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/10/17/hillary_an_emphatic_no_on_2016/feed/ 7 The rumor that won’t die http://www.salon.com/2011/10/12/the_rumor_that_wont_die/ http://www.salon.com/2011/10/12/the_rumor_that_wont_die/#comments Wed, 12 Oct 2011 23:34:00 +0000 http://politics.origin.railrode.net/?p=10109729 The Chicago Sun-Times's Laura Washington revived a perennial non-story this week, in a column speculating that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton might replace Vice President Joe Biden. It's a numbers game: Washington thinks Clinton could energize her old feminist base and shore up President Obama's standing with women next year.

But it's just not going to happen. Clinton says she doesn't want it, Biden says it's impossible, and it would damage more than help the president by making him look desperate.

The rumor hangs on little more than Bob Woodward's claim that it was "on the table" last fall, because the president had lost support among "the women, Latinos, retirees that she did so well with during the [2008] primaries." But Clinton's 2008 popularity with Latinos, to take one group, wouldn't translate into electoral enthusiasm; she can't pass the Dream Act by herself, any more than President Obama can. Changing vice presidents doesn't change the Congressional mess that impedes the president's agenda.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/10/12/the_rumor_that_wont_die/feed/ 60 The one reason President Hillary might be more effective than President Obama http://www.salon.com/2011/08/18/dickinson_hillary_obama/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/18/dickinson_hillary_obama/#comments Thu, 18 Aug 2011 19:39:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/politics//war_room/2011/08/18/dickinson_hillary_obama The New York Times Magazine is jumping into the Hillary for President debate with a new piece by Rebecca Traister. Citing a Daily Beast article by Leslie Bennetts, which in turns draws heavily on my initial "Run, Hillary, Run" post in Salon, Traister -- a Clinton supporter in 2008 -- tries to tamp down the growing buyer’s remorse she detects among Obama supporters. She writes:

"Rather than reveling in these flights of reverse political fancy, I find myself wanting the revisionist Hillary fantasists -- Clintonites and reformed Obamamaniacs alike -- to just shut up already."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/18/dickinson_hillary_obama/feed/ 104 Mistakes of the 2008 Democratic primary http://www.salon.com/2011/08/10/mistakes_of_2008_primary/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/10/mistakes_of_2008_primary/#comments Wed, 10 Aug 2011 11:45:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joan_walsh//politics/2011/08/10/mistakes_of_2008_primary Every time I try to get out of this discussion about whether liberals made the wrong choice in the 2008 Democratic primary, someone pulls me back in. The Nation's Ari Melber, a writer I like a lot, asked me my thoughts via Twitter Monday night. Even more intriguing, a Salon reader who criticized me regularly but always respectfully for my Obama skepticism in 2008 posted on Facebook that I had been right back then. OK, I live for being told I was right -- but I have no way to know whether Hillary Clinton would have been a tougher Democratic president than Barack Obama.

I've already written about why I think liberals pondering "buyers' remorse" over Obama is useless and divisive. My discussion with Melber and my Facebook friend made me realize something else. One of my primary complaints about Obama supporters in 2008 was the way so many blamed the Clintons for the GOP crusade against them, as though Republicans would have played fair if only the unethical Clintons hadn't given them Whitewater, Travelgate and most notably, sex scandals. That was unfair to the Clintons, and it was also naive. It hugely underestimated the ferocity of modern-day GOP attack politics. Now I find myself wondering if progressives are over-focused on Obama's perceived shortcomings when it comes to dealing with Republicans, because we likewise don't want to deal with the amoral political savagery of the enemy he faces.

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