Hillary Clinton is most qualified candidate to serve as next president

Posted 23 February 2016 at 12:00 am

Editor:

“Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.” Experience is a great teacher. A better alternative has not been found.

Making mistakes comes with making the attempt. Those who never try fail only because they fail to try.

Someone who has been a governor’s spouse, First Lady of the United States for eight years, a United States Senator and Secretary of State has learned from a variety of relevant experiences. Working with others is in her comfort zone.

The people Hillary Clinton served with as a hard-working United States Senator approved her nomination as Secretary of State by a vote of 96-2. The man she fought for the democratic nomination for President in 2008 nominated her.

Her husband’s transgressions are not hers. She is often faulted for standing with him. I firmly believe she would be faulted had she not stood with him. Regardless of what she does, it is interpreted as “political.” To understand such things, it is important to remember that Bill Clinton committed the unpardonable sin of winning the Presidential election in 1992. She is guilty by association.

The fact that Hillary Clinton is treated “differently” is inescapable.

Consider that what might be called a “system failure” cost the lives of 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001. Another “system failure” cost the lives of 5,000 Americans, and counting, in 2003. The foreign policy inexperience of George W. Bush certainly contributed mightily to these deaths.

Call it what you will, a failure to adhere to the advice of every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff cost the lives of 264 United States Marines in 1983. A decided lack of familiarity with the Middle East certainly contributed to that avoidable tragedy. As I recall, there were virtually no official questions asked about these events, much less millions being spent on Congressional inquiries and hearings.

Rationalize the double standard as you will, a Secretary of State has been investigated and pummeled unmercifully for what arguably may have been nothing more than a system failure that cost the lives of 4 Americans while she was Secretary of State. Republicans in a position to know have admitted her treatmentthen and earlierwas meant to destroy her chances of ever becoming President.

I do not support Hillary Clinton because she is a woman. I support her because she is, more than any other person running, the candidate most ready to be President on Day 1. Unlike nearly all of her potential opponents in November, it won’t be necessary for her to be brought “up to speed” on foreign affairs in particular.

Even in a year when all the conventional wisdom is being questioned, there is still no substitute for experience.

Sincerely yours,

Gary Kent
Albion