Who, among the Presidential candidates, is qualified to be the next President? That became the big question this week when it popped up in the Democratic race, but it is far more relevant to the Republican race where people are backing candidates like Ted Cruz that they normally wouldn’t let, collect their garbage, just because they want to stop Donald Trump.
The fact is; Hillary Clinton is the most qualified candidate despite what Bernie Sanders is trying to sell. In fact, Hillary may be the most qualified candidate since her husband left office. George Bush had almost no qualifications except the power and influence of his family. Bush was slow witted and proud of it, a man who gloried in the fact that he couldn’t or wouldn’t read. Obama was a first term senator with little background in running anything and no background in foreign policy. It’s a miracle that he accomplished as much as he has, especially when one considers the outrageous opposition he had from an ignorant and lazy congress that opposed everything he did simply because it was a black man proposing it.
Cruz only qualification seems to be that he is the most hated man in Washington. His limited vision of what this country stands for is all but completely unacceptable to intelligent, unbiased voters. Yes, he has appealed to super hard-line right wingers and those people who will vote for anyone just to stop Trump, but he does not have the qualifications to run the country. His only qualifications are those of a militia member or the next Grand Dragon of the KKK.
Trump has been something of a successful businessman as long as he stuck to the construction business, which his father financed and started him in, but everything else he has touched except for his TV show has been a disaster. . Trump airlines, Trump University, Trump casinos, along with ventures into the wine business, the clothing business and various other enterprises have all failed miserably, often ending in bankruptcy screwing his investors and partners. This is not the resume of a qualified candidate nor does it show him as capable of running a very complicated country. Trump’s personality appeals to angry mobs and the same type of loser that flocked to Hitler rallies in the 1930’s but it is so ego driven that it fails him in any kind of disagreement, turning him into a vitriolic, angry old man who attacks at the least provocation. As far as policymaking goes, he talks a good game but is without any plan on how to turn his fantasies into reality. He would be a disaster.
Kasich, at least, has some experience in running a government. As Governor of Ohio he has done the JV job of what a President has to do with the country. He even thinks he has foreign policy experience because he was on a couple of committees. This puts him ahead of Trump and Cruz but still a ways off from where he could be. He is surely far ahead of either of his Republican opponents in the qualification war, but leaves a lot to be desired when he is compared to the Democratic candidates.
Kasich has far and away the best personality of the GOP candidates. He understands how to speak reasonably, sound intelligent and he doesn’t lie about everything that is being discussed. He is by far, the most presidential of the trio. Unfortunately he has drunk the Right Wing Cool-Aide. He will pursue the same programs that Republicans have been pushing down the country’s throat since Reagan discovered Trickle Down Economics and a host of other, help the rich and screw the poor, programs. They don’t work, have never worked and will never work, so that makes him a bad bet for a successful presidency.
On the Left the two candidates are both more preferable than any of the Right wingers but one is more preferable than the other. Bernie Sanders has a long history as a senator and has been on the right side of many fights in congress. He can point to voting against the Iraq war as one of his best moves. His current platform seems like it makes sense in that he wants to control the banks and Wall Street, which any sane person understands were the causes of the last crash. He wants to fight the corporations, forcing them to pay a stable wage, plus all their taxes and he wants to keep them from moving jobs overseas. All this sounds great, the question is; can he get any of it done? So far, unfortunately, he hasn’t shown us how.
Telling us that the country needs a revolution is not the same thing as telling us how he will get all his ideas into legislation, or how he will move that legislation through an often-hostile congress.
Bernie’s a good guy with some great ideas for the country and so far no obvious path to getting them done. He loves to say that he will create this revolution of the people. However, in this country, revolutions are pretty weak. People want to elect a guy to office and then let that person do the work they are paying him or her to do. Bernie works hard but it looks like he may have bitten off more than he can chew.
Then there’s Hillary! Just taken on background and involvements with various aspects of government, Hillary has the best qualifications of anyone since her husband left office. She has been involved in various causes, including women’s health, poverty and children’s education since she was first lady of Arkansas. She has been first Lady of the nation, a US Senator and Secretary of State. Almost everyone you speak to, both Right or Left, brings up either her emails or Benghazi, leading to questions about her veracity. Of course, as soon as you question it, you have to consider if there has ever, outside of Jimmy Carter, been a president you believed entirely. This column has already dealt with both the emails and Benghazi ad-nausea. All that’s left to be said about either is that they are a product of Right Wing political mud slinging and a catfight between the State Department and the FBI.
Yes, Hillary can be crusty and infuriating, yes she can sometimes look, to liberals, like someone who isn’t invested enough in the most left wing aspects of Democratic thought, but what she has actually done for everyday people, far outpaces what any of the other candidates have achieved.
Right now the biggest argument against her seems to involve her taking vast amounts of money from Wall Street millionaires for telling them how it is. Well, if you are going to overcharge anyone, shouldn’t it be those who have more than they need? I never saw any problem with Hillary taking home a big paycheck from Wall Street types as long as she did the hospital work for nothing or at least very cheap.
So sure, the most qualified candidate this year is definitely Hillary Clinton. Now it’s up to the voters to recognize that, and help themselves help the country.
After Bernie’s victory in Wisconsin, Mrs. Clinton devised a strategy of trying to “disqualify” Senator Sanders, and it was she who first used the words “not qualified” with regard to him. It is unfortunate that their formerly more-elevated discourse has taken this turn, but let’s remember how it began, then put it behind us and hope the candidates do too. Your title says it all.