Former US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is once again seeking the Democratic nomination to compete in the race for US President in 2016. As was the case eight years ago, with the election of Barack Obama, the world may once again be privy to a historical race. If Clinton is successful, she will be the first female president of the United States.
This is the second time Clinton is competing for the Democratic nomination. Eight years ago, the Democratic Party chose Barack Obama instead, gambling that he would go down in history as the first African American president of the US. The gamble paid off, of course. That is not to say that either gender or race supersedes the real issues or deep-seated party affiliations in the US, but the election of an African American president gave an extra energy to Obama’s campaign. The night of his election in 2008 was highly emotional, with African American activists feeling vindicated for hundreds of years of racism in the United States; voices exclaimed, with warranted euphoria, “My president is black!”
Obama may ironically have been a victim of that very spirit that led to his victory. Within six months, his approval ratings had dropped, and have remained low despite his reelection in 2012. In 2009, less than a year after his election, the United States faced an economic crisis that was the result, in part, of inherent and deep-seated flaws in the banking system. It was nothing that Obama was responsible for, and certainly nothing that he could fix in a matter of months — and yet he was blamed for the inevitable deep recession that followed. Other recriminations followed. Of course, as a Democratic (in the US, this means liberal) candidate, he already had enemies among Republican supporters. Their publicity campaigns against him were particularly vitriolic and personal. It was probably even more painful for the president, however, that so many former supporters expressed disappointment in him. Personally, I think at least part of the disappointment was a sort of hangover effect — it was hard to come down from the euphoria that initially accompanied his election. I think that Hillary Clinton is a strong candidate, but I fear she might be stepping into the same trap of inflated and ultimately unrealized expectation that has plagued Obama. It would be good if she could be judged merely on her own merits, not as the historic first female president. After all, having a female head of state is hardly revolutionary, when one takes even a quick cursory glance around the globe — the twentieth century saw multiple strong female leaders.
Personally, what I found exciting about Obama’s election was his familial link to Kenya. American presidents have been notoriously insular in the past, displaying little empathy for matters occurring outside the United States. Obama broke that pattern, and I hope that Clinton, if elected, will continue the trend.
