Hillary Clinton = Richard Nixon?

[Michael Z]

Lots of people draw the comparison between Obama and JFK due to his youthfulness and optimistic rhetoric; some are even inclined to compare him to Reagan, not because of his policial views, but due to his oratory skills and ability to draw in people from other parts of the political spectrum ("Reagan Democrats" versus "Obama Republicans").

However, what about Hillary Clinton? As far as ex-Presidents go, I hate to say that the more I look at her, the more she strikes me as another Richard Nixon. She shares his brooding, Machiavellian tendencies, this tendency not merely to do anything to get into power and keep it, but also in the ways Nixon went out to completely destroy his opponents. This sheer, vindictive hatred for anyone who dares to go up against him - I see the same when I look at Hillary and the way her campaign is mercilessly gunning for Obama, doing anything it takes to undermine his candidacy, be it lying, alluding to race, smearing him. Anything for her to win the nomination. No doubt she'll do the same to McCain or Huckabee or whoever happens to win the Republican vote.

Character flaws aside, there is also the historical analogy between Vietnam and Iraq and Nixon 68 and Clinton 08, and I suspect that once Clinton is in power she would adopt a policy similar to Nixon's "Peace with honor"-strategy by slowly withdrawing troops, as opposed to doing so in an immediate stroke; but that's neither here nor there.

I'll leave any question whether a Hillary Clinton administration would be as maligned and scandal-ridden as Nixon's up for debate.

So there you have it, a race between JFK mkII and Nixon mkII. A fair conclusion?