If one believes the surveys being carried out in the United States of America, come November this year the US will have the Democratic challenger Hillary Clinton as the new President of the United States.  Hillary Clinton did not grow up dreaming that someday she'd be President of the United States, but it seems to me that Hillary Clinton has now adjusted her expectations for this reality, whether voters support or oppose her.

Clinton is a very smart woman, but also quite reckless. She and her husband Bill like to play too close to the edge and sometimes go over. They parse words to parry attacks. They possess a sort of preternatural political ability, but also a political paranoia. With the Clintons, you have to accept the swirl of madness with the political mastery.  They have flirt constantly with self-destruction, but in the end the Clintons are the ultimate survivors.

The Republican contender for president, Donald Trump, is throwing all kinds of things at her, outlandish things. He brings charges against her, calls her corrupt and tells her that she's been around a long time and it's about time she calls it a day.  But Hillary Clinton keeps going forward, leaving these charges to fall by the wayside, dodging them with her impressive ability. She's a sort of Wonder Woman in which the evasion of calamity creates an expanding sense of invincibility.

If Clinton made mistakes (she was investigated by the F.B.I. over the email scandal and the Benghazi inquiries when she was a Secretary of State), how about Donald Trump? The Republican presidential hopeful had a 'university' that wrung thousands of dollars out of credulous students with get-rich-quick promises, and which was linked to an extremely shady seminar programme that plagiarized course materials from an old real estate manual. It is now subject to lawsuits, some of which are being heard by a distinguished judge from Indiana who Trump slammed as a biased “Mexican”, triggering outbursts from various quarters.

Nevertheless, when one compares Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump, her shortcomings start to shrink. Clinton's survival instinct will very likely weather whatever Trump and the Republicans throw at her during the last few weeks before the Election for President. I strongly believe that in the end, the Clinton magic will remain intact.

 

Jos Edmond Zarb

Birkirkara