Hillary Clinton was just live on CNN and MSNBC.

[calimary]

63. Yeah, as I recalled, she discussed some of her ideas.

Pointing out, for example, that in "coal country," because of the global energy dynamics, coal is declining as a viable resource as other energy sources, especially green ones, are on the rise. Therefore, those coal jobs won't be coming back, as she pointed out - and remember how she got booed for that? That single tiny clip that was pulled and replayed ad nauseam, taken completely out of context. Remember that? It was PART of a longer comment such that BECAUSE those jobs won't be coming back, because the market for the product of those jobs is drying up, our emphasis has to be to look at what other kinds of 21st-century energy resources might be brought into that "coal country" labor market. As in, what else can we bring in, for them to do? What other kinds of jobs can we bring in or develop in that very area?

But nobody bothered with that part of her comment. It was so much sexier and controversial and provocative to use just the she-sure-sounds-cold-hearted part.

She's spent years on various kinds of "listening tours" whether it was for state-wide office (Senator from New York) or nationally - either on her husband's campaigns or her own. She's heard from the people themselves what they want and need and care about and worry over. Her instinct, as I've observed since 1992, is - when you identify a problem, and study it, that's when you can figure up SOMETHING to do about it. Of one kind or other. Finding SOME common ground that allows you to work with opponents and bring them in on things.

She did this over and over and over again. As Senator, as First Lady (of Arkansas and then of the US), as presidential candidate, and internationally as Secretary of State. She did the research, and the leg work. She was willing to get down into the weeds to figure out solutions and find answers by mastering the details, and shape policies accordingly. She did it when people were initially hostile to her. She was an outsider TWICE. Once, when she arrived in Little Rock Arkansas as a Yankee girl from Chicago and Yale in Connecticut, to build a life with local boy Bill Clinton. A second time, she was a new resident of New York, after eight years as First Lady in Washington DC, and seemingly everybody in New York called her a carpet-bagger. Um... until they voted for her, not once but twice.

I so badly wanted those brains in the Oval Office. I still do. I wanted those brains to get to work on our problems, big and small.

Such a loss. Even to those who'll never appreciate it.