Ever since Bill and Hillary Clinton proclaimed their “2 for 1” presidential plan in 1992, indignant political pundits – who have nothing to do with “a vast right-wing conspiracy” – have been trying, to no avail, to incite public outrage against their imperial ambitions. In fact, even I have written despairing lamentations on the prospect of Hillary’s seemingly inexorable coronation.
Meanwhile, down in Argentina, another husband and wife team, Néstor and Cristina Fernández Kirchner, have established such endearing political bona fides that smitten political pundits have been heralding their 2 for 1 presidential prospects ever since Néstor was elected in 2003.
However, even though approval amongst Argentineans for the presidency of Cristina’s husband rivals the nostalgia Americans have for the presidency of Hillary’s, the record of Cristina’s distinguished political career is so independent of her husband’ success that no one can accuse her of riding his coattails into the Casa Rosada (i.e., the Pink House, Argentina’s presidential palace).
By contrast, Hillary is the personification of the feminine mystique. After all, no professed liberated woman has lived, so publicly, the life of a “Tammy-Wynette-stand-by-your-man” woman more than she has. And, try as she might to deny it, the only thing that explains her stepford-wife self-degradation is her craven ambition to ride Bill’s coattails into the White House…again
Furthermore, here’s Cristina – during an interview with CNN earlier this year – declaring her liberation in words that Hillary would surely bite her tongue trying to say:
I was much more well known than he was before, because he was a provincial governor and I was a national senator with a very strong, very high public profile….It prompted some to say in 2003, ‘Why isn’t she the candidate?’
(Incidentally, Néstor is generally credited with rescuing Argentina from the vice grip of the IMF, whose bad advice led the country to a textbook economic train wreck in 2002. Moreover, he has clearly set Argentina on a path of sustained economic growth – annually at over 8 per cent – that has been the envy of most countries in the Americas.)
Therefore, I relish the prospect of Cristina becoming the first wife in the Western Hemisphere to succeed her husband as the elected president of her country when national elections are held in Argentina on October 28.
However, the fact that Cristina’s election would make her the second elected female head of state in the Americas, after Michelle Bachelet of Chile, only heightens my glee over her one-upmanship of Hillary. Because even if Hillary were elected next year, she would still be considered only third-rate in the pantheon of historic women in regional politics – no matter the hype!
Hey, thank God for small favors…right?
On a personal note, I don’t mind disclosing that, like Bachelet, Cristina espouses political reconciliation, poverty alleviation and a panoply of welfare programs, all of which appeal to my sensibilities. Therefore, I hope these women together can wrest the mantle of democratic socialism from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has turned out to be nothing more than a tin-pot dictator masquerading as a latter-day Robin Hood.
Finally, if you think I too am a little too smitten with the Kirchners, then the following answer Cristina gave when a reporter from TIME asked why her husband declined to run for reelection, even though victory was virtually guaranteed, should be edifying:
He has always said that he wasn’t pursuing reelection — but no one believed him, perhaps because no one believed someone in his place would ever really mean it. I think my husband wants to be an example in that sense.
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R Strachan says
Anthony, Hillary Clinton is a passing political myth riding on the residue of Bill Clinton’s “legacy”. Even if elected she will do nothing more than make Bill the first president in the history of America elected to a third term.