On Hillary Clinton

There was no way in the world I was going to vote for Hillary Clinton.  Not if she was the only candidate in the race.  Not if she personally came to the polling booth and held a gun to my head (given her track record, I would have assumed her to be no more adept at firing a weapon than she was at operating a subway turnstile).

No. Flipping. Way.

It had nothing to do with anything James Comey said in the waning days of the campaign, and it had nothing to do with the damning - and true - content of the emails that the Russians allegedly hacked.  The decision was made before she announced her candidacy (because we've all known she would, since the day she left the White House as First "Lady"), and it was based on the following.

First, I'm tired of the same scions of the Washington power elite holding sway over our government, and over we the people.  In my estimation, JFK was a good President.  A Democrat with cojones when it comes to foreign policy (in other words, an extinct species).  His brother Bobby would have been President had he not been assassinated, and he probably would have been a good one, too.

Then there was Teddy, who tried to get elected President, but the albatross that was Chappaquiddick hung around his neck.  Probably a good thing for America, because Teddy was no John or Bobby.  He inherited the Kennedy philandering gene, but he wasn't the sharpest crayon in the Kennedy box.  For the last 64 years, Washington has had at least one member of the Kennedy clan in public office.  Enough, already.

Then came Poppy Bush, whose son George W. would overshadow his father's one-term presidency with two terms of his own.  And Jeb ran in the most recent election.  (Neil might have, too, if not for his own albatross, the Silverado Savings and Loan debacle.)

Then Bill Clinton.  As noted above, it was clear from the day they left the White House that Hillary would run for President.  That was the pact they made for her standing by her man through the Monica Lewinsky affair (among others).  But more on that later.

And now we have speculation that Michelle Obama will run in 2020.  Why is it that just a small cadre of powerful political families find their way to the White House?  How about a return to the notion of public service as a stint, and not a career?  We seem to be handing down the Oval Office the way New York City cabbies used to hand down their taxi medallions, before the Uber disruption.  (Maybe the Trump disruption will break this pattern.)

Second, Hillary is and has always been a political chameleon, willing to do or say anything to get elected.  She cared only about that - her being elected President - and nothing more.  After leaving the White House, she went carpet-bagging to New York - a place she'd never called home - because there was an open Senate seat in a district that was as blue as Frank Sinatra's eyes.

During her Presidential campaigns, whether it was affecting a southern accent when stumping down South, or conjuring up alligator tears at a coffee klatch attending by a group of women, to make herself appear as though she had a softer, feminine side, she play-acted at whatever role she thought might garner votes.  In the most recent election, she started out by saying that she wasn't going to be President Obama's third term; she was going to be her own woman.  Then, when she realized she needed Obama's supporters to beat Bernie, she did an about-face and made her candidacy all about being his third term.

Which is yet another reason I'd have never voted for her.

Then there's the utter disrespect she showed for the office and institution of the Presidency as she and her husband were leaving the White House,  It was reported at that time that she encouraged staffers to remove the "W" keys from computer keyboards, and one staffer supposedly defecated in a potted plant, with her knowledge.  She also stole china and silverware from Air Force One when she and Bill were dropped off at Andrews Air Force Base (where he staged his now-infamous speech that was intended to upstage the incoming President's inaugural address - so much for the peaceful transition of power).

Then there's her track record.  She was an active First Lady, trying - and failing - to bring about health care reform.  (That HillaryCare could fail more miserably than Obamacare - Democrats controlled both houses of Congress when her plan was shelved - should tell us something.)  Upon winning election to the gimme Senate seat she moved to New York to pursue, her record of missed votes was - well, nearly a record.  She missed almost 10% of votes during her time in the Senate, vs. the average of 2%.  During her failed primary run against Obama in the 2008 election, she missed, on average, nearly 60% of votes.

Moreover, only five bills she sponsored were enacted: two bills to rename Postal Services facilities after military personnel, a bill to establish the former home of Kate Mullany as a National Historic Site (Ms. Mullany started the all-woman Collar Laundry Union in Troy, NY), a bill to rename a portion of state highway near Buffalo after the late journalist Tim Russert, and the Pediatric Research Equity Act, the lone piece of meaningful legislation that she successfully sponsored.

Woo-hoo.  You go, girl.  (Though I was a big admirer of Tim Russert - objective journalism died with him.  His book, "Big Russ and Me," is a great read.)

Then there was the failed presidential bid, after which Obama named her Secretary of State, presumably to keep her from trying to run against him in the 2012 primary.  Highlights of her tenure in that role?  The failed "Russian Reset" and Benghazi.

Next, there are the scandals that have plagued her throughout her life: Whitewater.  Her role in trying to suppress Bill's many sexual conquests, both in Little Rock and in Washington.  The Clinton Foundation.  The private e-mail server, and transmission of numerous classified documents using it.  (Some on the left chalk all this up to Fox News, laughably; "If Fox News says all this stuff about you long enough, people are bound to believe it.  Riiiight.  Where there's smoke, there's fire.  And none of these scandals were invented - there's evidence to clearly prove them out.)

Also, there's her extreme partisanship.  From the vandalism of the White House in response to Al Gore losing to George W. Bush, to her labeling Trump supporters as "deplorable," she has nothing but the most extreme disregard for anyone who isn't a registered Democrat.  And there's the extreme liberal positions of her early days as an attorney.

Finally, though, comes what was my greatest fear should she have been elected: having to listen to that horrible screeching voice for four or eight years, as she shouted her way through every speech.  (I don't want to invoke Godwin's Law here, but I can only think of one other leader in the last 100 years who shouted speeches like that.)

So I had plenty of reasons not to vote for Hillary, and nary a one to vote for her.

In fact, of the people I know who planned to vote for her, I only know of three reasons I ever heard stated:

1. She's a Democrat, and I only vote for Democrats.
2. She's not Donald Trump.
3. She's a woman, and America is ready for its first woman President.

The first point doesn't resonate with me, as I detest partisanship and straight party-line voting.  And on the second, there were other alternatives to her and Trump, as my own vote bore out.

As to the third point: yes, I believe America is more than ready for its first female President.  And, as I've stated before, I'd have voted for Carly Fiorina in a heartbeat.

But we as a nation have experience with electing someone as the first President from a particular demographic, just for the sake of electing the first President from that demographic.

And that didn't work out so well.