TIMEの流れを絶やすな -6-

Hard Choices (2014/06/10) Hillary Rodham Clinton 商品詳細を見る

TIMEで何が話題に取り上げられたのか毎週チェックするだけでも、米国の動きに敏感になることができます。今週は何と言っても今日発売のヒラリーの回顧録についてですね。さっそくこの本をアマゾンで買ってみました。まだ目次を見ただけですが、４年間の国務長官時代を振り返っているのは確かですが、最後の章にThe Future We Wantとあり、気候変動からエネルギー、人権など大事なトピックを挙げています。やはり、TIMEの以下の書き出しのように純粋な回顧録というよりも大統領選を見据えたアピールと見てしまうのは仕方がないことかもしれません。

このヒラリーの記事は定期購読のロックが掛かっていませんので、誰でも読むことができます。

The Myth of Inevitability
Joe Klein June 5, 2014

Nothing is certain for Hillary Clinton in 2016

We have reached, believe it or not, the first crucial moment in the 2016 presidential campaign. Hillary Clinton has written a book. It will be launched, with Vesuvian hoopla, on June 10. Her schedule will be incredible for the weeks thereafter–an hour interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, for starters; Good Morning America the next morning; a town meeting with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour. There will be joint appearances with Bill and Chelsea. And attention, Costco shoppers! Hillary Clinton will be signing copies of Hard Choices at Costco’s Arlington, Va., store on Saturday, June 14.

We are sure to be smothered by Hillary (or Hillary!, as an old campaign button had it) well past the summer solstice. There will be reviews and nonstop attempts to tease policy and controversy from the substance of the book, which concerns her time as Secretary of State. Her account of the Benghazi controversy has already been leaked. In it, she says she was “ultimately responsible” for the insufficient security at the consulate there, even though it was well below her pay grade. Happily, she fights back against the bizarre Republican campaign to find a scandal amid the tragedy. This is called getting out in front of the story, a common political strategy. Hard Choices is, like almost everything else Clinton, a campaign. How it is promoted and received will say a lot about the campaign to come, if it is to come.

ヒラリーの今後の難しさは支持率低迷に苦しむオバマ大統領と民主党からの新顔登場のようです。

Obama may be her greatest challenge in 2016 as well. It’s been reported that she has scrubbed Hard Choices for any negative references to the President. But any candidate following a two-term President has to figure out a “kinder, gentler” way to distinguish herself from her predecessor. People always want a change, a fact Al Gore and John McCain found out the hard way. It will be trickier if Obama remains unpopular. Inevitability is reality’s first casualty. If Obama makes a big mistake overseas or the economy flops, Clinton’s first job will be to say what she’d do differently, without offending the Democratic base who’ll remain loyal to the President no matter what.

Even if Obama successfully navigates his last two years in office, Clinton is likely to face more than one energy candidate in 2016. Former Montana governor Brian Schweitzer, profiled by Michael Scherer on page 36, is as entertaining as a presidential candidate should be allowed to be, and substantive too. Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren has a new book out–aha! (perhaps)–and is wowing the Democratic left at their partisan powwows. And former Virginia Senator Jim Webb–who also has a new book out, aha!–has not ruled out a presidential campaign. All three would challenge Clinton from the populist left, a force that is growing noisier within the party, if not more populous. The moderate governors, like New York’s Andrew Cuomo and Maryland’s Martin O’Malley, probably won’t run if Clinton does.

この記事を書いたJoe Kleinは、メディアを嫌っているヒラリーを取り上げた以下のPoliticoの記事を挙げながら、ヒラリーがメディアに対してしなければいけないことを語って締めていました。

What Is Hillary Clinton Afraid Of?
By GLENN THRUSH and MAGGIE HABERMAN
May/June 2014
When asked why Clinton hasn’t done more to reach out to reporters over the years, one Clinton campaign veteran began to spin several theories. She was too busy, she was too prone to speaking her mind and the like—then abruptly cut to the chase:
“Look, she hates you. Period. That’s never going to change.”

確かに、本音で語っていない印象をどうしても受けてしまいがちですから、飾らないヒラリーを見たい気もします。
She brought bagels to the back of the bus. But bringing bagels to the back of the bus is an embarrassingly transparent ploy. Bringing candor to the back of the bus might be a little more successful. I’ve seen her candor more than once, but always off the record. That will have to change. If Hillary Clinton hopes to succeed, she’s going to have to drop the veil–spontaneously, quite possibly in a crucial moment, like a debate–and trust the public to accept who she really is. Absent that, there is no such thing as inevitability

TimeのサイトにはABCのインタビューの感想記事が上がっていました。随分と手厳しいものになっています。

Hillary on ABC: Big on Smiles, Small on Substance
Zeke J Miller @ZekeJMiller 12:27 AM ET

With a smile, Hillary Clinton deflected tough questions on Monday on the eve of the release of her book Hard Choices.

Interviewed by ABC News anchor Diane Sawyer in Clinton’s Washington home, the former Secretary of State and potential 2016 presidential candidate offered little insight into her political thinking with relatively safe answers.