Obama’s Avatar?

Why in the world did President Obama pick Hillary Clinton for his secretary of state in the first place? What a wan avatar. That’s what we kept thinking about during Monday’s big debate. Mrs. Clinton offered nothing of substance in the way of a forward program on the biggest issue facing the country, the economy. She put up only a lame defense of Obama on the war and the economy. On the issue of trade, she’s siding against his Trans Pacific Partnership.So why has Mr. Obama been seemingly so loyal to his onetime adversary while she in Foggy Bottom and the Clintons’ private foundation was raking in millions from foreign countries? In the debate, Mrs. Clinton spoke movingly about how “hurtful” Mr. Obama found the questioning of his constitutional standing (and we agree the birther libel has always been offensive). But it’s not so clear that Mr. and Mrs. Clinton and her campaign were always so dainty about Mr. Obama.Mr. Trump’s allegation that Mrs. Clinton’s consigliore, Sidney Blumenthal, started the birther lie is unconvincing. Journalists at McClatchy remember Mr. Blumenthal urging them to look into Mr. Obama’s background, but they are cloudy as to whether Mr. Blumenthal did so on the birther question per se. Politico found no evidence that Mr. Blumenthal hawked that libel, either. McClatchy’s editors, though, are unambiguous in recalling that in 2008 Mr. Blumenthal was nudging an investigation into Mr. Obama’s African background.The record is also clear that Mr. Obama’s aides and allies were offended by the Clintons’ condescension in 2008. Yet at some point, Mr. Obama made a decision to put up with the tawdriness of the Clintons. He looked the other way during the campaign of raising foreign cash for the Clinton Library, even while Mrs. Clinton was serving as his state secretary. He went so far as to let her launch a half-baked air-war in Libya, but without the follow-up that her husband did during his air war on Yugoslavia.The main theory about why Mr. Obama put up with Mrs. Clinton is that he wanted to keep her close so she wouldn’t mount a primary campaign in 2012. Whatever his motive, the Democrats are stuck in 2016 with a candidate who is mistrusted by the vast majority of Americans and whose campaign has collapsed to a tie with a man it insists is a clown. On the eve of the debate, UPI published a tracking poll that put The Donald ahead of Mrs. Clinton in respect of electoral votes.It may be that Mrs. Clinton will rebound a bit after the first debate, in which she outperformed Mr. Trump in parts of the free for all. The secretary was more fluent than The Donald and kept her temper and her cough in check. She sought repeatedly to attach to her erstwhile contributor the label of racist. Mr. Trump appeared to suggest at one point that he would abjure the first use of nuclear weapons, but he recovered by adding that he would take nothing off the table.Yet on the top issue — the economy — Mr. Trump trounced the secretary. She tried to blame President George W. Bush for the last eight years, but that yarn has long passed its sell-by date (even Mr. Obama has abandoned it). Mr. Trump pressed his protectionist line when Mrs. Clinton was open to attack with free market principles. He did press his point about the false economy and the Obama bubble. Certainly voters comprehend that he is the jobs and growth candidate.Two more opportunities lie ahead for the contenders — a town hall style debate on October 9 at St. Louis and another one-on-one October 19 at Las Vegas. The vice presidential showdown is set for October 4 at Farmville, Virginia. The state is the Mother of Presidents and gave us the Father of the Constitution. So it’s a good place to get down to the constitutional struggle in our country today. Its preservation, protection, and defense is the only thing to which the winner of this campaign will be bound by oath.

Obama’s Avatar?

Obama’s Avatar?

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