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Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey Correspondent
There can be no doubt that Hillary Rodham Clinton is the natural choice of today’s Democratic Party in the United States of America as front-runner for the 2016 Presidential election given her heavyweight political pedigree over many decades. The question is, will she be up to it? Gender is not an issue. The Obama presidential campaigns showed that in the USA today, just as is the case in many societies, someone’s race, colour, creed, gender or sexuality should not and does not bear any part in processes judging a person’s capacity or competence to do a job.

So let us judge Hillary Clinton not as the ex-First Lady, not as a woman, but as the woman who has put her name forward, in public, for the Presidential election in 2016.

Here, let us remember one thing: the people electing her, or not, are the citizens of the USA, not foreigners, yet the very dimension of the USA overseas, with its history of intrusion into the domestic affairs of sovereign nations, its bases in 130-plus countries and the power of the lobbies which control Washington’s policies at home and abroad, means that the Presidential election does have an impact on the lives of non-US citizens of the world.

The second point is that the citizens of the US will not vote for Hillary Clinton on her foreign policy.

Only one third of US citizens have a passport and not all of these have travelled abroad.

Nevertheless, it is precisely the foreign policy pursued by Washington that directly affects the lives of those of us who are non-US citizens because whoever is elected in the USA will have an impact at home and abroad.

Internally, Hillary Rodham Clinton can be described today as a fighter within the system, originally an outsider (not being born into the political elite from the East Coast) who managed, through her own merit, to become an insider, and a political heavyweight, heavier even than an eventual push from Bush.

There are those who say that President Bill Clinton is the confirmation of the saying that behind every great man. Some referred to him as President Billary (underlining her influence in White House policies).

Certainly without Hillary Rodham, there would have been no Bill Clinton in Arkansas, where the Clinton dynasty was formed, and probably not in Washington either.

Hillary Clinton’s early years are marked by anti-establishment, and increasingly left-wing causes and social issues: anti-Vietnam War, civil rights, public health, women’s and children’s rights and from an early age identified herself with a focus on the family.

As First Lady, Hillary Clinton showed the emotional intelligence required by the job to take a step back, at least in public and gained kudos for her handling of private issues which would have wrecked many conventional marriages.

She was also a model early example not only at home but also around the world in favour of women’s engagement in policies and empowerment of women in society.

If her bid for the presidency in 2008 was overshadowed by the mixture of Obama’s oratorical brilliance and the wow factor, it also came after she had gained more practical experience of the mechanisms in Washington, as Senator for New York from 2000.

And from here on, we have the confirmation of what Ortega y Gasset wrote, namely Yo soy yo y mi circunstancia (“I am myself and that which surrounds me”).

Although Hillary Clinton voted against banning same-sex marriages, and although she opposed the Iraq War troop surge, she had also voted in favour of the attack against Iraq in 2003.

As Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton swung from a socially and politically progressive politician to, as far as it is apparent, a prisoner of the clique of lobbies which closed ranks around President Obama, neutered him and either placed Clinton into a straitjacket, or else she willingly slipped into one.

Needless to say, the US continued its policy of supporting and using terrorist groups to topple governments in sovereign states, and the campaign in Libya, destroying the State of the Jamahiriya under Muammar Gaddafi, was the most blatant example of criminal activity in recent history.

The Libyan leader’s work in creating the African Union was forgotten, his tele-medicine and e-learning programmes were disregarded, his tremendous record in women’s rights, for which he was to receive a prize from the UNO, was swept under the carpet as Takfiri groups released from the gates of Hell were unleashed against what had been until Clinton the country with the highest Human Development Index in Africa.

What Gaddafi built, Hillary Clinton destroyed to protect the lobbies pulling her strings.

Hillary Clinton’s foreign policy is worse than that of George W. Bush because with him and his clique of neocon elitists, you knew what to expect.

But when someone sings the siren’s song, comes across as lovey-dovey and sweet, then stabs the international community in the back, one perceives something very ugly waiting to lunge behind the eyes. – Pravda.ru.