Each week, we explore Hillary Clinton's universe, gleaning insights from rumor-mongers, pundits, pollsters, political writers and more. Yes, the election is still a bazillion years away, but when it comes to the story of the potential first female president ever (!!), it's never too early to start the conversation.
Will Hillary Save the Stock Market?
If Hillary does move into the Oval Office, there will be a slew of expectations surrounding her presidency, from fixing health care to—as a UC Berkeley student put it this week—helping the cause of women everywhere. As if that wasn't enough of a burden, people are also hoping she can fix the entire stock market (no pressure, though!) Apparently, since the stock market thrived when Bill Clinton was in office, the same thing could happen when Hillary's in there, too. Because, you know, they share the same last name and stuff. Also, when the stock market did well last time, there was a divided government (another brilliantly erroneous correlation!) and in 2016, this could maybe perhaps happen again. Which means the stock market could maybe perhaps hypothetically do well again, too!
Is this wild conjecture? Obviously. Will people nonetheless read it and assume Hillary can and should save the entire stock market? Also, yes.
New to Team Hillary: A New York Senator, a Former Foe and...Pharrell
Hillary's fan base continues to grow in very surprising ways. A couple days ago, Kirsten Gillibrand, Hillary's successor in the New York state Senate, said rather cryptically that she will "make sure" Hillary runs in 2016. Meanwhile, its been announced that powerful former Clinton adversary David Brock has launched a Super PAC to support Hills, because he basically realized he was just being a mega-lame hater before. Finally and most importantly, Pharrell has stated that he thinks Hillary will definitely win because of, um, something having to do with blood and unity. We're not clear on the details, but as we all know, no one argues with Pharrell!
Awesome Op-Ed Tells Voters to Stop Being Lame
A lot of op-eds about Hillary are shameless and/or silly, but we're digging this new commentary out of The Chicago Tribune that questions uninformed, disengaged voters. Recent polling revealed a strange polarization—many see Hillary's gender as an asset, but a lot of people aren't interested in learning anything more about her. Essentially, many Dems refuse to believe anything bad about Hillary, while many Republicans refuse to believe anything good—and that's that, information be damned.
This kind of bull-headed party-line thinking hurts Hillary, both parties and a healthy democracy. Therefore, we side entirely with the chastising final words of this editorial: "Step up your game, electorate!"
The Lowdown
This was actually a pretty good week for Hillary, with most of the headlines focusing on her high-profile supporters and expectations that she'll fix the world's problems—problematic down the road, but flattering for now. Meanwhile, her numbers remain strong; poll findings in the battleground state of Virginia, for example, show her trumping all potential GOP opponents.
If she runs and wins, is it really too much to expect that she saves women, the stock market and all of humanity? All together now: no pressure, though!
Image of Hillary solemnly pondering all the expectations people already have of her (*just a guess): Wikimedia Commons
