Hillary Clinton is officially running for president.
John Podesta, the chairman of her presumptive campaign, sent an email message to Democratic backers Sunday saying "it's official: Hillary's running for president." "She is hitting the road to Iowa to start talking directly with voters. There will be a formal kickoff event next month, and we look forward to seeing you there," he wrote. On Saturday, President Barack Obama praised his 2008 Democratic rival, saying she would be "an excellent president" with " some strong messages to deliver." "She was a formidable candidate in 2008, she was a great supporter of mine in the general election, she was an outstanding secretary of state, she is my friend," Obama said. "I think she would be an excellent president." I couldn't be happier about this. I'm on the Hillary Clinton bandwagon, and I will do my part to see she gets nominated and elected. I know that some of my cohorts on the left want someone else to run against Clinton in the Democratic primary -- Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders. They think such a candidacy would push Clinton farther to the left, even though they will admit that neither Warren nor Sanders is likely to win in the primaries).I disagree. And I think it would be a serious mistake to try to push Clinton further to the left right now. Like it or not, the largest segment of American voters is not on the left or right -- they are moderates, and they want a president who is a moderate. Hillary Clinton is a liberal, but is generally viewed as a fairly moderate liberal by most people. This view is helped by the extremist political, economic, and religious views being professed by all of the Republican hopefuls.
Trying to push Hillary Clinton to the left right now would only give the Independent moderates (who will decide the election) the impression that their choice is between two extremists -- one on the left and the other on the right. Many of them would just stay home, and that would be a disaster because it would give some far-right Republican a real chance to be president.
In my opinion, Democrats need to get behind the candidacy of Hillary Clinton. And instead of trying to promote a primary fight, we need to get to work to make sure she has a lot of new Democrats in Congress when she takes office (so she doesn't have to go thru the same thing President Obama has had to endure).
Ask yourself -- would you rather have Hillary Clinton as your next president or one of the fools pictured below (the GOP field)? That is the choice we have -- and for me it's an easy one.
NOTE -- The caricatures of Hillary Clinton and the GOP candidate hopefuls were done by DonkeyHotey.)
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And a few picture of our next president.