Hillary Clinton in Verse

Yes, it’s official. I’m endorsing Hillary Rodham Clinton’s effort to become the first woman to be elected President of the United States.

This shouldn’t be surprising, for those few of you who are familiar with my politics. I did volunteer campaign work for Hillary when she moved to New York and ran for the U.S. Senate seat formerly held by Daniel Patrick Moynihan. I backed her in the 2008 presidential primaries until June of that year, when it became clear that Senator Barack Obama had secured enough delegates to win the nomination (and by the way, I think he’s been a terrific and inspiring President). And, though I flirted with the appeal of Senator Sanders’ idealism, in the end I remained loyal to Hillary throughout the 2016 race. I think her faults have been exaggerated and overblown, and I think Bernie’s hasn’t persuasively demonstrated that he could actually enact the many reforms and programs he’s promised on the campaign trail. And in the area of foreign policy – despite her past mistakes (and she’s admitted the vote to authorize a possible war in Iraq was a mistake) – I trust her instincts better than his. I know, some people may think she’s too hawkish, but I think the depth of her foreign policy experience will temper her supposed hawkish instincts. 

It’s difficult to see any Democratic president being successful if Republicans retain control of Congress. Even if Democrats pick up control of the Senate, it would likely be by a slim margin and subject to Republican filibustering. The House, thanks to gerrymandering, remains a long shot to flip to Democratic control at this time. Which candidate do I think can work most effectively with an opposition legislature? Hillary wins again. 

But the most important factor for me is the ability.

Well then, since this blog is supposed to have literary aspirations, I Googled “Hillary Clinton’s Favorite Poet,” just to see what I might find. Turns out, she’s expressed a fondness for T.S. Eliot’s “Four Quartets.” And Maya Angelou wrote a poetic endorsement of her 2008 campaign. But for the most part, Hillary has been more of a prose candidate than a poetry candidate, at least on the surface. Hopefully we’ll see a little more waxing poetic during the general election campaign. Oh, and there’s this article.