Hillary makes history with Democrats' vote

Washington

TWENTY-FOUR hours before the results of the Democratic presidential primary in California were announced on late Tuesday night, the Associated Press (AP) made it official: after securing enough delegates to win the Democratic presidential nomination, former secretary of state Hillary Clinton became the first woman to lead a major political party in the race for the White House.

Even if the former senator and First Lady would not be elected as the next US president in November, there is no doubt that Hillary, as she is known at home and abroad, has made history this week.

While women have already been elected as mayors, governors, and senators in the US and have been occupying top positions in corporate America and in academia, and have been elected as heads of states elsewhere, this would be the first time in American history that a woman (and one who describes herself as a feminist) would have a better than a 50-50 chance to lead the most powerful nation in the world.

Barack Obama, the first African-American presidential candidate of a major party, succeeded in mobilising large majorities of black voters in two races to the White House. But it's not clear whether Mrs Clinton's gender would have a major impact on the choices made by women this year.

It's true that polls indicate that in a race with Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential candidate, Hillary would win the majority of women voters. But that may reflect long-term electoral trends showing that women prefer Democratic candidates to Republican contenders.

In fact, the same long-term trends suggest that white women tend to vote for Republican candidates. That is probably the reason why the Donald would win their votes. There are no signs that many of them are thinking of switching to the female presidential candidate this year.

And when it came to the Democratic primary race, Hillary's rival, Senator Bernie Sanders from Vermont, has been beating Hillary among young women. They don't seem to be impressed by the I-am-a-Woman/Hear-me-Roar battle cry of the ageing feminist and are taking for granted today's gender quality. Perhaps for them, a woman president isn't really a big deal.

But the Democrats and Mrs Clinton would try to make it a big deal in what isn't going to be a normal election year in which her Republican adversary has made numerous comments that were considered offensive to women and who has been depicted by the media as a misogynist.

In a way, Hillary is hoping that the evolving political narrative would depict the Donald as representing the dark past of America, who supposedly wants to return the country back to a time when discrimination against racial and ethnic minorities as well as against women was prevalent. At the same time, she would be seen as the symbol of a progressive future, when women, blacks, Hispanics and Asian Americans would be able to protect their rights and advance their interests. This kind of narrative could help Mrs Clinton strengthen her electoral support among these and other groups, such as young voters and urban educated professionals.

That kind of election strategy makes a lot of sense. If anything, by continuing to offend Muslims, Latinos, blacks ("Look at my African-American over there", the Donald pointed out to a black man during a rally last week), and women, Mr Trump seems to be doing his best to sustain the political narrative in which he plays the role of a bigot.

But that may not be enough to provide Mrs Clinton with the clear electoral edge she needs in November. In a way, the Donald's campaign against the politically correct (PC) culture is helping him to gain support among many politically and socially alienated white men who, as former presidential candidate and consumer advocate Ralph Nader put it, "like to stand on a corner and whistle to a pretty lady", but who now feel "that they can't do that anymore".

The Democrats are concerned and the Republicans are hopeful that Mr Trump's anti-PC message could make a big difference this year, especially in crucial purple (wavering) states, such as Ohio, Florida Michigan, Wisconsin, and in Democratic-leaning Pennsylvania.

Hence what sounds like racist, xenophobic and misogynist to Hillary and her supporters may sound like music to the ears of Mr Trump's fans who support him no matter what he does and says. "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters," Mr Trump said at a campaign rally early this year.

It's also not clear whether Mrs Clinton would succeed in convincing Senator Sander's supporters to switch their allegiance to her in November. Indeed, polls suggest that many of Bernie's fans loathe Hillary and may even consider voting for the Donald.

Moreover, the presumptive Democratic presidential candidate faces a major dilemma as she and her aides plan her strategy for the general election campaign: how to respond to the Donald as he continues to insult his fellow Republicans - "Low-energy Jeb" and "Lying Ted" - thereby enhancing his popularity among voters while hurting theirs.

Mr Trump is trying to use these same methods of targeting his adversary's character and keeping the tone of the campaign as nasty as possible against his Democratic opponent. He has been bashing Ms Clinton as "crooked Hillary", and pointing out the many scandals the Clintons have been tied to, most recently to allegations of conflicts of interests in managing the Clinton Foundation, and suggesting that she should spend the next four years in jail and not in the White House. He is even recalling an old conspiracy theory that suggests that Mrs Clinton and her husband were behind the suicide of Vincent Forster, a former close White House aide.

And as part of his take-no-prisoners strategy, Mr Trump also raises questions about Hillary's credentials as a feminist, accusing her of being an "enabler" to her husband at a time when president Bill Clinton was reported to be having affairs with other women and was accused by some of them of rape. If Mrs Clinton decides to respond in kind to these attacks, she could be in danger of joining her bully opponent in a nasty street fight and drowning in the sewage of a nasty campaign against a political thug who could probably play the game better than her. To quote German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche: "Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster."

But if Hillary doesn't stand up to the Donald, she could end up playing into the hands of her enemies who depict her as weak and lifeless. Who would you want to see fighting ISIS, Putin or the Chinese? Tough-guy Donald or wimpy Hillary?

Mrs Clinton and her campaign strategists may have come close to finding the right strategy in responding to Mr Trump's attacks when during a major address in San Diego, she referred to her opponent as simply "Donald" (as in Donald Duck) and called him a "fraud" who was trying to "scam" the American voters like he did to the students at "Trump University".

"Donald Trump's ideas aren't just different, they're dangerously incoherent. They're not even really ideas, just a series of bizarre rants, personal feuds and outright lies," she said. "He is not just unprepared. He is temperamentally unfit to hold an office that requires knowledge, stability and immense responsibility."

Flanked by US flags, Mrs Clinton said a Trump presidency could lead to catastrophe. "He should not have the nuclear codes because it's very easy to imagine Donald Trump leading us into a war just because someone got under his very thin skin. We cannot let him roll the dice with America."

Imagine Donald Trump sitting in the Situation Room, making life-or-death decisions on behalf of the United States, she said. "Imagine him deciding whether to send your spouses or children into battle. Imagine if he had not just his Twitter account at his disposal when he's angry, but America's entire arsenal," she added in her address that was described by some in the media as the "evisceration of Mr Trump".

"Do we want him making those calls - someone thin-skinned and quick to anger who lashes out at the smallest criticism?" she asked rhetorically. "Do we want his finger anywhere near the button?"

Hillary suggested half jokingly during the address that she was imagining the Donald composing some tweets about her as she was speaking. And guess what? A few seconds after she finished her speech, Mr Trump tweeted: "Bad performance by Crooked Hillary Clinton! Reading poorly from the teleprompter! She doesn't even look presidential!" The first scene in what is expected to be the most brutal presidential campaign in American history.

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