Hillary: The Scary Candidate

In this time of America's growth as a nation, America needs a president who has good moral character. America needs a president who isn't worried about pleasing every citizen but focuses on what is best for the nation as a whole. America needs a president who is honest about where they stand on issues and who won't change with the opinionated tide of the people. What America does not need is a politician, and in Tuesday night's Democratic party debate Hillary Clinton confirmed what many people feared: Hillary is the most frightening politician.

The debate, reported by Marc Santora in the New York Times, took an unfortunate turn for Hillary when the democratic candidates were asked to state their views on granting illegal immigrants licenses (November 1, 2007). As Santora reports, Hillary "at first seemed to defend it, then suggested she was against it, until finally, pressed for a direct answer, she accused the moderator, Tim Russert, of playing 'gotcha.'" Her opponents, Barack Obama and John Edwards, however, did not seem to find the question difficult to answer and were quick with displaying their support of the issue. So why was it so hard for Hillary to say where her loyalty lay? As Santora explains, Hillary is trying to appease two opposing sides: the democrats and the union workers. Giving Hillary the benefit of the doubt, it must only be on this issue that her loyalty is so divided, right? Many of her opponents seem to think otherwise.

Obama stated after the debate that Hillary "left us wondering where she stood on every single hard question from Iran to Social Security to drivers’ licenses for undocumented workers.”

Edwards claimed Hillary said “two different things in the course of about two minutes.”

Rudolph W Giuliani, her possible Republican opponent, commented that “I know there are some politicians like Hillary. , They say different things to different people. They use different accents in different parts of the country. I’m used to that about her now. I had never seen it happen all in one place, in one minute.”

Granted, her opponents are not the most likely to be praising her debate performance, but when given the chance to clarify her stance, Santora reports, "the wording of the statement was murkier than what many of her opponents have said in either supporting or opposing Mr. Spitzer’s initiatives."

To make things worse, Hillary resorted to mocking Obama's political theme of "the politics of hope."

Hillary is obviously trying to climb out of the hole she has deeply dug herself into, and at the current moment for the Democrats, the presidential nomination is anyone's ticket, so why focus on Hillary's blunders and terrible political tactics? Why not focus on the good qualities of each candidate? Unfortunately, it is the bad characteristics that citizens of America need to recognize in the possible future presidents. Each candidate has a number of good qualities, but it is the bad qualities that will make the biggest difference. As of now, it is Hillary's bad qualities which would make her the worst candidate for President. She could not take a stand on a very controversial, which could greatly hurt America if she was ever put into office. America is in a time of change, and if she has a president who cannot decide which way to go, her growth will be stunted. Also, when backed into a corner, Hillary lashes out rather than taking responsibility. As seen in past presidents who acted in a similar way (one ironically being her husband), it doesn't end well for the president nor for the nation.

There is still a long way to go before the election, but right now things aren't looking good for Hillary's character. Proving recently that she is truly a politician, she will probably find a way to snap back into the public's favor, but as a nation it would be to America's benefit if she did not. Personally, I don't find it a coincidence that this debate occurred a day before Halloween. For all of our sake, I hope Hillary's actions were just a way to scare us because of the holiday rather than her actions being a good future prediction of how she will handle controversial issue that America has to face.