OPINION:
Hillary Rodham Clinton has struck out at least three times and hit numerous foul balls. Her first “strikeout” was announcing that if there were a call on her red phone at 3 a.m., you could trust her to be there and make the right decision — but whenever there was an emergency, she missed the pitch. She was hiding during Benghazi and hasn’t caught the perpetrators or told the truth about its origins.
After Benghazi she said, “What difference … does it make?” Of course it was typical Hillary double-speak. It was one of her mistakes and strikeout No. 2. What she was actually saying is that it makes a big difference if she can’t blame Benghazi on a video and steer the American public away from the fact that al Qaeda is still a major force that we have done nothing to weaken. We have in fact allowed it to grow.
Now the former secretary of state is up to strikeout No. 3, announcing that we must free the 276 Nigerian girls taken prisoner. This is the same Mrs. Clinton who refused to label Boko Haram a terrorist group. These kidnappings are a result of her striking out when she should have hit the ball out of the park and named the terrorists what they are, terrorists.
Under President Obama, then-Secretary of State Clinton failed to stand up in Syria, showed herself and us as weak against Russian President Vladimir Putin and didn’t discourage the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt or Libya. Some track record — a series of balls she hit foul out of the baselines. She ended up last, next-to-last, and next-to-next-to-last in the league of foreign-policy success.
Abubakar Shekau is not worried about her. She’s never done anything threatening. Like Mr. Obama, she is hiding under her bed with her red phone.
Imagine Mrs. Clinton as president. She is Mr. Obama’s weak shadow. She is the woman who admired simple-minded, spiteful Saul Alinsky when she was a college student. She is a multimillionaire socialist and a Democrat who is afraid of foreign policy because she is afraid of making real life-and-death decisions.
First lady Michelle Obama, Mrs. Clinton’s Democratic sister, recently tweeted “BringBackOurGirls.” Now that’s a stern warning that should really bring them back. Maybe she and Mrs. Clinton should have a Tupperware party and discuss how we can seduce foreign dictators. Mr. Obama can show up as a guest chef and read recipes for failure from a teleprompter.
Democrats prefer seduction to force. They prefer conversation to confrontation. They don’t win. They strike out.
Three strikes, and Mrs. Clinton’s out. She shouldn’t be sneaking up to the plate again to take a swing at our presidency. She should be recognized for what she is: a Little Leaguer.
DAVID LAWRENCE
New York
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