Preview of a Hillary Presidency?

I hope not.

Whilst idling away my life and not contributing here regularly, I've been thinking about Hillary. Now, as anyone left who still regularly checks in with this spot is aware, I have never been a big fan of Bill or of She Who Must be Nominated. That said, over the last couple of months she has caused me to soften my attitude towards her. However, the recent shuffling of her campaign hasn't helped me shed the nagging notion that she remains something of a mirror image of what we've been looking at for the last seven years. It is a theme I've babbled about before.

Think of the history of the Despicable Cretin's Administration and what comes to mind? Well, many things, I admit. But high up on any list is mediocrity at best, incompetency at worst, in nearly every agency and key administrative post. Bush's fear of anyone who doesn't "owe" him, who hasn't proved their loyalty to him, his use of appointments to reward loyalists and friends, has given us a goivernment that prizes ideological consistency, personal loyalty to the Despicable Cretin, over talent, insight, and ablility.

Show me a failure, large or small, from Katrina to the books selected for sale at the National Parks, and I'll show you a friend of George.

Hillary, too, has a penchant for keeping her friends close around her, and rewarding their loyalty with key positions. While it is important that the campaign leadership have a close working relationship with the candidate, the candidate who allows friendship, loyalty, and a desire to reward, blind her to merit, talent and performance, runs a risk of failure.

And, the Hillary has seen its share. They were organizationally unprepared for the caucus states, they failed to budget to the point that, despite enjoying an historic war chest, their funds were so depleted that the candidate had to loan the campaign five million bucks to survive January. Not to mention that the campaign message changes faster than the specials at the diner that Hillary visited the other day when the campaign had no backup plan in case the February weather in Wisconsin interfered with their plans one day.

The campaign has been unable to solve Obama; has let Bill Clinton marginalize himself because they had no clear strategy for using him -- suddenly pressing him into service only after the Iowa loss. They seeming had no strategy in place after February 5th, when (as they have been telling everyone for over a year) they expected to have this thing wrapped up. As a result, they've backed themselves into a Guiliani-like corner by making Ohio, Texas and Pennsylvania must-win-bigs.

The vaunted (and over-rated) Clinton political machine has had a seat in the center ring as the "neophyte" Obama organizations has run its rings about her.

One hopes that Hillary, if she is the eventual nominee (and it still looks like hers to lose from this little corner), takes a lesson from the failures of the campaign and concentrates on quality, experience, demonstrated talent, when it comes time to fill all those appointed slots in 2009.