Hillary’s 4 aces in the hole

Hillary’s 4 aces in the hole

By Brent Budowsky
June 10, 2015
The Hill

Hillary Clinton is playing presidential poker, and she’s holding four aces that will give her a tremendous advantage in a general election against any Republican nominated to run against her in November 2016.

This accounts for the Hillary hysteria that grips the mob scene of Republicans seeking the GOP nomination and their frenzied allies throughout conservative media.

In poker the phrase “ace in the hole” refers to a winning card that is turned face down until the winner turns it face up and the losers realize they are done for. Clinton now has four aces in the hole for 2016, which most commentators miss because of their limited focus on news cycle mania.

Ace No.1: the prospect that Clinton would be the first female president and could do more to champion better pay and greater financial security for women than any presidential candidate or president in the history of American politics.

In a presidential debate in October 2016, the former secretary of State can look across the stage and say, reminiscent of Ronald Reagan’s words in 1980, that the women of America, who will make up a majority of voters in the election, will be better off financially in four years if the first woman president is elected over her Republican opponent.

Ace No. 2: the GOP’s “pope problem,” juxtaposed against Clinton’s support for issues championed by Pope Francis and a majority of voters. This includes reducing income inequality, creating more economic opportunity to lift the economic boats of all Americans, supporting pay equity legislation for women and increasing wages for all workers, establishing fair and just immigration laws, and dealing with the mortal and undeniable threat to the earth from climate change and environment degradation.

The Republicans’ “pope problem” will be made clear when Francis addresses a joint session of Congress in September. He will almost certainly offer teachings in his internationally broadcast remarks that bring smiles to the faces of Clinton and the Democrats he addresses in Congress, while by contrast the expressions of Republicans will tell the story to voters.

GOP politicians and conservative commentators are already feeling the heat from their “pope problem,” while Democrats look forward to Clinton honoring Francis in presidential debates in the fall of 2016.

With most of the issues described here bringing between 60 and 70 percent support to the views of Clinton and Francis, do Republicans really want to repeat the charge leveled in a Fox News website opinion piece that the pope is the Barack Obama of the Catholic Church?

Ace No. 3: that by Election Day 2016, Clinton will be campaigning as the only credible and trusted champion of change who vows to name Supreme Court justices who will reverse widely despised court decisions that corrupt our democracy by allowing special interests with unlimited money to buy our elections and dominate our government.

A recent New York Times/CBS poll reveals that voters overwhelmingly reject the current system of campaign finance and the corruptions that result from the overpowering influence of special interest money.

In that poll, 46 percent of respondents want to “completely rebuild” the current system, while 39 percent favor “fundamental changes,” meaning 85 percent of voters support Clinton as the candidate of change with reform plans that define her campaign and will shape her presidency.

Who stands against this vow by Clinton to win her rendezvous with destiny and cleanse Washington of corruptions caused by Supreme Court decisions? Republican candidates for president stand against her. Republicans in Congress, which is disapproved by nearly three-quarters of Americans according to RealClearPolitics, oppose her.

Ace No. 4: the magic of Bill Clinton and the vast experience of Hillary Clinton, which I discussed at length in a recent column and which no Republican can match.

Hillary Clinton can certainly lose with her four aces, but if you believe any of those Republican candidates are holding a royal flush, let’s play some poker.

Share this post