On Memorial Day, it is altogether fitting and proper to consider who ought to be the next commander in chief of America’s soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.
I cannot be the only pundit who believes former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s reckless disregard for American national security is disqualifying. This was made manifest in one particular episode of almost unimaginable fecklessness: her selfish, and at best marginally legal, choice to maintain a non-secure server in her home from which she sent non-secure emails to and fro around the world.
Former Deputy Director of the CIA Michael Morell cannot be the only intelligence professional who believes all of that Internet traffic to and from Chez Clinton was compromised, monitored by foe and friend alike.
It can’t be just the members of the House Select Committee on Benghazi who are stunned at what the smallest slice of the smallest part of the not completely erased Hillary email trove has already uncovered.
To repeat: Clinton ought to be disqualified from being commander in chief. How could anyone so reckless be trusted to care for and protect the lives and families of America’s men and women in uniform?
That’s a hard thing to write, but it is true. She cannot be trusted. She has proven that. Whatever commitments she makes — look at her commitments to President Obama regarding the Clinton Foundation — she breaks when they become inconvenient. Not even burdensome. Simply inconvenient.
But disqualified does not mean beatable. To beat her requires either a Democrat with guts or a Republican nominee with both brains and guts. We will see about the latter, but what about the former?
No, not Elizabeth Warren. She is a paper mache punching bag, unelectable outside of Massachusetts and the far Left’s dreams.
Not Bernie Sanders. Not Jim Webb. Maybe Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota if she had the guts to challenge the Clinton familia.
But the likeliest — and perhaps the only — category from which a challenger with a “D” behind his or her name could emerge is a self-funder. Here I’m thinking of a Tom Steyer, the hedge fund manager and radical environmentalist, or a similarly deep-pocketed, high-ego individual who sees in his or her billions the only chance to challenge and indeed overwhelm the Clinton machine.
It could be done. Enough Democrats must know, even if they cannot speak it, that the country is weary to death of the “Clinton rules,” the “Clinton privilege,” the “Clinton entitlement.”
It could be done. Will it? Certainly the men and women we honor this weekend deserve better than the self-dealing, self-regarding neo-royalty of House Clinton.
Money is the problem, and it would take a lot of it. But once invested in Iowa, New Hampshire and beyond, the return would be instant. If there were a plausible alternative to Clinton, one who could tell Democratic office-holders and special interest groups alike that they were not chained to an anvil, many would rally to a new face with enough green to stay the course.
If Tom Steyer and his leftist allies really believe in what they say they believe in, they will step forward. Here is a true test of their avowed, deep concern for the planet. Let’s see if anyone passes it.
Hugh Hewitt is a nationally syndicated talk radio host, law professor at Chapman University’s Fowler School of Law, and author, most recently of The Happiest Life. He posts daily at HughHewitt.com and is on Twitter @hughhewitt.
