Great

As Hillary Clinton stumbles toward the presidency and what will surely be a historic celebration of "the first woman president," I can only be reminded of the hysteria that surrounded Barack Obama's 2008 campaign as "the first African American president."At that time  identity politics took over much of the populace and an inexperienced, second tier political activist, Barack Obama, was imbued with the talents of a great man. He would make hope and change come alive, wound foster the end of partisan politics, would provide low cost healthcare to all, would charm foreign leaders (including many hard men) into accepting his vision of the world, would resurrect a gravely injured economy, would bring peace to the Middle East, would ... well, you get the picture. He accomplished none of those things, but, protected by an adoring media, kept telling us of his great accomplishments as failure after failure piled up.

Now comes Hillary Clinton—"the most experienced person to ever run for president."  There's an old saying about experience, and I'll adapt it to Hillary. You can have almost 30 years of experience, or you can have one year of experience repeated 30 times. It's the latter that describes Hillary.

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump is doing everything possible to usher in the Clinton era, unwilling and/or unable to address her many, many flaws, and too stupid to react effectively to her hypocritical attacks. It's actually amusing to listen to Clinton call Trump a liar—a level of chutzpa that is breathtaking. It's even more amusing to listen to Hillary suggest that Trump is corrupt or a poor businessman, when she and her husband have gained a 9-digit net worth, not by hard work or investment in any conventional sense, but by selling government influence to the highest bidder through a shame "charity." But none of that matters, does it?

Hillary, like Obama in 2008, will be imbued with "greatness" by a fawning media and zombie-like supporters. She'll claim to reign in the big banks and corporations, who by the way, are her largest contributors. She claim to save the planet by increasing the legislative power of the EPA, crushing many small businesses in the process. She'll claim to "tax the rich" and that will pay for her profligate spending, even though higher taxes will cripple an already moribund economy and continue the decline of the middle class. She'll claim to somehow be able to handle Russia, China, Iran, the NoKos, and every middle eastern country, even though she failed miserably to accomplish this as Secretary of State.

Richard Fernandez comments

The last eight years have been one unending liberal search for the Great Man of history, the belief that "history can be largely explained by the impact of 'great men', or heroes ... who, due to either their personal charisma, intelligence, wisdom, or political skill utilized their power in a way that had a decisive historical impact."

Liberals thought they had it in Obama 2008. They think they have it in the historic First Woman, Hillary in 2016. They may even think they have it in Kerry. Steve Clemons of the Atlantic asked America's top diplomat in the context of his diplomatic record: what exactly is the "John Kerry secret sauce?" And Kerry patiently explained that it was coming to an agreement with rival negotiators. "You have to figure out whether you can find in the adversaries a meeting of the minds on any of the interests and/or values."

The 'giving away the store' approach was echoed by another Great Man, Barack Obama at [Israel's Shimon] Peres' own funeral: he asserted that "the Zionist idea would be best protected when Palestinians, too, had a state of their own". You need chutzpah to think that way. But only a Titan can boldly make secret concessions to Iran without wondering whether he was doing the right thing just as only a man sure of his place in the pantheon can declare that the near-unanimous override of his veto of a bill allowing Americans to sue Saudi Arabia for supporting the 9/11 attacker was a "mistake".

What may seems obviously wrong to you or I might be blindingly obvious to great men. When administration officials confided to journalists that they could not understand why Obama would not stand up to Putin the only answer was that he had reasons lesser minds could not fathom. How do the great men know the truth? Well they just do. Moreover, the great can recognize each other so they can trade notes. Recently Hillary declared her favorite foreign leader was Angela Merkel.

The power elites—exemplified by Obama and Clinton—view themselves as smarter and more insightful that everyone else. They have a unique narcissistic quality that not only allows them to believe their own bullshit, but also encourages true believers to do the same.

Hillary thinks Germany's Angela Merkel warrants praise. Okay. Does she even realize that Merkel (possibly with the best of intentions, but nonetheless with the hubris that only a power elite can bring to the table) made decisions about unvetted Muslim immigration that have resulted in a slow motion Islamist invasion of Europe—an invasion that will, over time, change the culture of the European continent—and not in a good way? Does Clinton even care? I think not.

It is highly probable that Hillary Clinton will be president. The GOP is to blame for offering up an ineffective, shallow narcissist of their own. Hillary lucked out, and as a consequence, the entrenched dishonesty and corruption of the current administration will be amplified by a Clinton administration.

If you insist on talking about greatness, that's just "great."