Cackles from the Balcony: Silly Season Already Edition

I woke up to the "news" that Hillary Clinton has declared she's "in" (and "to win," of course), establishing an exploratory committee for a Presidential run. It seems to me she is more likely to find her way to "The Surreal Life" House than a second tenure in the White House after pulling a stunt like this, given the extent to which her high "name recongition" is yoked to a hostility that already approaches levels attaching (with more justice, certainly) to members of the current Killer Clown Administration, a hostility erupting in different keys but with equal vitriol across the whole political spectrum.

Quite apart from this so-called "unelectability" hurdle of generalized hostility and hysteria, it actually matters to me personally that Clinton has no real legislative accomplishments to speak of as yet, that she lacks the decency, sense, or perspective to grasp that she is perfectly positioned and surely competent to achieve such accomplishments for the good of all in her present job already, that she hasn't got much in the way of national security experience for a job that will likely be defined by the impossible demands of cleaning up after the international messes (ongoing and upcoming) arising out of the current Administration's multiple madnesses, that she supported the war in Iraq with more vigor and for much longer than it is easy for anyone with a brain (or a heart) to understand or forgive, and that she seems altogether more concerned with an outmoded and ungainly politics of triangulation than with any kind of larger vision she passionately believes in which could capture the imagination of Americans hungry for a message of commitment and hope.

Actually, I think it is probably unfair of those on the left to accuse Clinton of any such aloof and hyperrational stainless-steel robotic calculation (and those on the Jesus-Freak right who discern in her instead outright satanic energies are clearly just out to lunch) since it is hard to imagine what kind of hardboiled Machiavellian calculation could actually impel anybody into a Presidential run at a time like this given the palpable negatives delineated above.

One suspects that Clinton's "triangulation" is trapped in a tighter circuit -- id, ego, superego. This kind of rampant narcissism and elite entitlement (honestly, what kind of ego monster do you have to be to find your ambitions unslaked by a meteoric rise to the august United States Senate representing the vast numbers and energies of New York State?) might be a perfect fit in the debased era of celebrity presidentiality we're slogging through, to who knows where -- but don't expect me to sign on for the ride as any kind of willing participant.

Clinton has insisted in the usual manner that her campaign will be about contributing something to the national "conversation," (and, as they say, here in America, "money talks" and only "money is speech") and however vacuous these statements it is certainly true that there will be plenty to talk about with Clinton around. It remains to be seen, when all is said and done, whether her presence will uplift "the national conversation" or nudge it so much as an inch toward actual relevance to the concerns of those whose votes she presumably will be soliciting. Probably you can tell that I doubt it.

Come what may, I am not much impressed to find Clinton's hat in the ring, and for now I'm still inclining most toward Edwards in the Primary (mostly because he isn't as tone-deaf on the politics of economic insecurity as most of the others on offer so far). Clinton's announcement seems to me as much a nonevent as Biden's and Obama's (except to the extent that the latter is possibly really angling for Vice President) -- and her campaign as little likely to hurdle past its inborn incapacities as McCain's across the aisle. I have little doubt that the corporate media will sound furiously (and idiotically) on their behalf for months anyway, all the while, signifying, well, you know how it goes.