An Unabashedly Liberal Hillary Clinton

[JDPriestly]

74. It's a question of proof of judgment.

How can you trust a person to "deal with climate change, income inequality, universal healthcare, rebuilding our infrastructure, raising the minimum wage, getting the GOP out of women's reproductive decisions, and so much more" if that person showed bad judgment in dealing with a decision as momentous as the invasion of Iraq and a number of other issues on which Hillary showed bad judgment.

As I said above, somewhere out there is a Code Pink video in which women from Code Pink who had visited Iraq talked to Hillary Clinton about what they had seen there and told her that going into Iraq was wrong, a mistake. She left them in what in my opinion was a rude huff. It is that video that made me take a second look at Hillary. She was not good at listening to and dealing with ideas other than those set in her mind.

After watching that video, I did not feel and I do not feel now that Hillary has the ability to process information that displeases her or is inconvenient to her. She gets set in her mind as to right and wrong and is not as flexible in her thinking as she needs to be.

That is a very deep character trait.

Obama is, on the other hand, one who processes new ideas and information with interest and equanimity. It doesn't completely throw him off balance. Hence, under Obama (although I disagree with his choices for economic regulatory leaders and education leaders among other things), we have a new relationship with Cuba and South America, for the moment at least, internet neutrality, a functioning health care insurance system and many other policies like marriage equality, gender equality in the military, etc. that we would not have had under a president who thought less flexibly and rejected challenges to his thinking.

This is a matter of a character and personality defect in Hillary. It is shared by all, and I mean all of the potential Republican candidates.