Hillary the Great

[nairiporter]

A lot of ink has been spilled about Obama's new appointments in his new cabinet. But what about Hillary Clinton? She may have left her position as the Secretary of State, but Americans do not seem to be done with her yet. She is more liked than ever before, and many are logically seeing in her a strong presidential candidate for 2016.

It is true that politics is neither an exact science, nor does it have anything to do with science at all. Whichever politician has tried to disprove this, hasn't gone too well through the test of history. But still let's look at the numbers. A record number of countries visited (112), and over a million and a half kilometers of traveling - which equals 38 round the world trips. Hillary sure knows a thing or two about the lands that lie beyond America. And she has shown that, when she is not making up stories about dodging bullets, she can actually do quite well in the diplomacy job.

This is the recap from her work as Secretary of State. True, the numbers say too little about her political career, which has gone through many bumps and ditches as one might imagine. And still, all that thorny history cannot explain her impact, and more specifically what causes her high approval. The only thing we know for sure is that since a couple of weeks or so ago, she will only be flying on private expenses. Her post as a Secretary of State has been relinquished. She has herself admitted that she will be missing many aspects of the job. But meanwhile she will be able to catch up with the endless sleepless nights that she has piled on her record for the last 20 years. Which is a remarkable number in itself by the way: initially as a First Lady between 1993-2001, then as a New York state senator in 2009, and then as Secretary of State until earlier this year.

112 visited countries. This means that she knows the world quite well, and more importantly, the world knows her. Literally everyone has heard about this lady, and most people do have some opinion about her. During all those years she has been the constant presence everywhere. And that is why, after all, the world now knows her as "Hillary", not "Mrs Clinton". The name has become her trademark.

The woman who most people initially considered ambitious, ascetic and calculating, in the recent years has shown that she can actually be a pleasant and nice person one could spend hours chatting with. One who could afford to behave naturally during official visits - to dance, drink beer and wear funny glasses. Maybe she hasn't lost her proverbial stubbornness, but the perceptions about her have changed quite a bit over time.

Forget about Sarah Palin or Nancy Pelosi - Hillary is by far the most popular woman in US politics. A WP poll showed that 67% of the Americans hold a favourable opinion about her, which is a record number by itself. Her approval ratings are 91% among the Democrats, 65% among independents and a remarkable 37% among Republicans. Some time ago, the pollsters even registered that 44% of the members of the ultra-conservative Tea Party movement believed the country would be better off if Hillary was president - granted, there could be some other, more complex reasons for that, which have little to do with Hillary herself and more to do with Obama.

All of this may be due to the looks of her balance sheet after her long political career. It may not be exactly stellar, but it is definitely positive overall. This is rather due to her lasting, constant and consistent presence in the political life of her country, her distinct personality which calls respect and sympathy. It is no surprise that many Americans are seeing her as the obvious presidential candidate of the Democrats for the 2016 election. But will she run? That is still hard to tell at this point. So far she hasn't completely ruled out such a possibility, although she apparently wants to spend some time off. It would be a vacation well deserved. And after that - who knows. Now that America has had its first black president, could it be time for the first female one as well?