Herman

Cain

Read Herman's bio and previous columns

January 28, 2008

Hillary Clinton Brilliant? New York Times, Cut the Crap!

If someone is going to vote for Hillary Clinton because she is a woman, then so be it. If someone is going to vote for Barack Obama because he is black, then so be it. But for the New York Times to endorse Hillary Clinton because they consider her “brilliant”, and in possession of “powerful intellect,” is a real fairy tale.

Give me a break, please!

It is no surprise that the Times endorsed the most liberal Democrat and the most liberal Republican of the presidential contenders – Hillary Clinton and John McCain. But to try to justify their predisposition toward Hillary with empty assessments of her is worse than the empty political rhetoric she uses to disguise her real lack of intellect, bad ideas and huge lack of experience.

Most recently (since space does not permit a listing of all her bad ideas), she said she would freeze interest rates for five years in order to help ease the mortgage crisis that some people are facing. Even though most of us (80 percent) are handling our mortgage payments just fine, she would totally disrupt and distort the mortgage lending business and bring on all of the unintended consequences, which would include sending an economic correction into an economic recession.

Earth to Hillary! That’s a price control, and they do not work. Just ask Harry Truman, Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter. Secondly, the president does not have the power to freeze interest rates without an act of both houses of Congress, and without overriding the mission of the Federal Reserve System, which Congress empowered to help mitigate inflation, recessions and total economic collapse. But to say you would “freeze interest rates” is brilliant political rhetoric.

Hillary’s idea of “universal health care” is another brilliant political promise, because it panders to the fears and ignorance of 50 percent of the general public. Never mind the fact that socialized medicine in every country that has tried it has led to health care rationing, which puts life and death decisions in the hands of bureaucrats instead of families and doctors.

I suppose that reflects Hillary’s powerful intellect since she wants to follow those failed social experiments.

As for Hillary’s experience, I have yet to see, hear or read one ounce of substantive evidence of her self-proclaimed 35 years of experience. She and her Kool-Aid-drinking followers are counting her years as the wife of the governor and president as “experience.” (Insert scream of one’s choice here for emphasis.)

The leader of the most powerful nation in the world should have led something, somewhere, at some time – even if it were just a Girl Scout troop. Conning the people of New York State to a first and second term as their senator is not leadership experience. As an enlightened caller to my nightly radio show observed recently, some people confused familiarity with experience. Hillary has a lot of name recognition and familiarity after 35 years of being in the media spotlight, but as my grandfather would say, “That ain’t no experience.”

Anyone who would vote for Hillary Clinton or John McCain, or anybody else for that matter, simply because they are endorsed by the New York Times is obviously independent-thinking-challenged.

There is no perfect presidential candidate for all the various constituencies that have been created by decades of political pandering, and the millions of people who are graduates of Sound Bite University.

But Hillary Clinton is at the bottom of the list of presidential contenders, not because she is a woman, or white, or a Democrat or a liberal, but because she is the least compelling as a leader, an intellect, a communicator or a brilliant problem-solver with good ideas.

This is just one man’s opinion, who happens not to own a newspaper.

Click here to talk to our writers and editors about this column and others in our discussion forum.

To e-mail feedback about this column, click here. If you enjoy this writer's work, please contact your local newspapers editors and ask them to carry it.