HILLARY FOR PRESIDENT

[HairOfTheDog]

Here's an alternate take: see if you can follow along.

I don't know to whom you addressed that remark, but give this girl a gold star -- I was able to following along!!!!

Seriously, your take is interesting and makes sense to me Donovan.

I don't think Clinton should embrace it in her campaign message or anything, but I think a lot of voters already consider deception to be something that every politician practices, Clinton being no exception.

And, I think a lot of voters see Clinton as being a politician who gets raked over the coals for it much more vigorously than any other politician; a politician who has survived the political grinder for decades to build the strongest resume of all the candidates in her ambitious quest to earn the President's seat. In that regard, I get your point about how being seen to have superior deception skills could be considered a strength, not a weakness, for Clinton.

But, it's presently a very bad climate for that perception/philosophy to work in her favor when it comes to securing Independent/Undecided/Sander's votes, in reality. Her current foes have done a very good job positioning her as hyper deceptive and untrustworthy in the eyes of the American public (deservedly so or not). And, the American public is pushing back against career big-money donor/special interest backed"establishment" politicians in general, which would certainly include Hillary Clinton specifically.

I think that's why you've got an 'authentic' jackass and a sincere socialist giving the more mainstream establishment contenders a run for their money.

So, to me, adding "the best liar in a pack of liars" to Hillary's unofficial resume really works against her when it comes to making it to the White House in 2016, even if one accepts that it should be considered an asset rather than a liability once the job is secured.

Hillary's gonna have to really fight to chip away at the perception (or reality, in your alternate scenario) that she's an untrustworthy, deceptive, establishment politician in tonight' debate. I think over the last couple of weeks, she's finally been doing that effectively.

Anyway, I disagree with those who think Hillary Clinton is down for the count; I think she's just getting her game on and the recent revelations/allegations about the special Benghazi Committee are working heavily in her favor. But, she needs to be consistent and to keep doing what she's doing now - defending herself openly instead of going into ignore/aloof mode again. The Benghazi and email/server politicking may be chickenshit in her eyes and the eyes of her existing supporters, but their eyes aren't the ones she has to worry about when it comes to securing enough up-for-grabs votes to win the race, in my opinion.