I have a tremendous sense of ambivalence this morning at the "official" news of Hillary Clinton's nomination last night.
On the one hand, it is a very good thing to see a woman get the nomination of one of the major parties. This is long overdue.
On the other hand, did it have to be such a flawed woman? Even setting aside the fact Hillary would not have gotten where she is without her husband's career, did she have to be a woman in the pocket of Goldman Sachs? Did she have to be a criminal who used her political power to skirt the law? (pun intended)
This is a Pyrrhic victory for women.
Aside from that, the big news was Bill Clinton's speech last night. But what was more interesting was what Bill didn't talk about: The Monica Lewinsky affair and Hillary's Iraq War vote.
The Lewinsky affair is, on the surface, more Bill's fault than Hillary's fault, so mentioning it would be crass, especially for Bill. Still, could Bill and Hillary's relationship have caused the Lewinsky affair to happen? For example, if they have an "open relationship", the affair could have been meaningless within the context of their marriage. Regardless, nothing in the Lewinsky affair makes Hillary a bad person. At least nothing we know.
As for Hillary's Iraq War vote, that is a different matter, since it affected the American people. In hindsight, we know the Iraq War was a bad idea. But how many of us stood against it at the time? I was for it myself, and I was wrong. I will not hold Hillary accountable for her mistake at the time, unless she refuses to admit it.
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