5 Things I Love About Hillary Clinton

2.) She Stayed With Bill

Bill Clinton’s legacy has been somewhat tarnished recently, and for lots of good reasons.  Now, in general, I don’t believe in attacking a candidate over their spouse (although it’s a bit different when said candidate actively supported said spouse), but I want to specifically talk about Bill’s extramarital affairs.

First of all, I believe that Bill Clinton is probably a sexual predator and not just a serial adulterer.  But I also believe that that in no way reflects on Hillary, and that any mistakes she’s made are forgivable lapses in judgment by a woman married to an asshole.

You can charge that she stayed with Bill solely for political gains, and I won’t even try to convince you that isn’t part of it.  But I believe a bigger part of it is the fact that Hillary comes from a generation when marriages stayed together.  I believe that she truly does love Bill, or did at one point, and the thought of leaving him never even crossed her mind.  Not for political reasons, but for personal (and honorable) reasons.

So while the right can hypocritically attack her for “enabling” Bill (I thought they were all about keeping families together?) and the left can accuse her of using Bill for her own career, I still respect Hillary for the decision she made after Monica Lewinsky.  Maybe it’s my own recent divorce that’s coloring my opinion, but I’m not sorry for it.

1.) I Think She Really Believes in Herself

I don’t mean “believes in herself” in like a cheesy, inspirational-cliche way.  I mean that I give her the benefit of the doubt and think that she really truly does stand up for what she thinks is right, even if she’s wrong sometimes (okay, a lot).

A lot of the criticisms of her from the left have focused on her nature as a “politician.”  She believes in nothing, they say, and changes her stances on issues based on public perception.  Anderson Cooper even asked her at a debate, during one of his brief flirtations with being an actual journalist, “Will you say anything to get elected?”

Look, maybe we’re spoiled by Bernie Sanders, who exuded authenticity and already had the right positions on most issues (but not all, cough cough reparations).  But the fact is, politicians are elected to represent the people, and they should be willing to change their positions if enough people want them to.

In 2008, I preferred Barack Obama, but only by a slim margin.  Hillary Clinton would have been an excellent presidential candidate for the left in any election year except this one.  This just so happens to be the year that we’re all fed up with old-school politicians, and Clinton is an exemplary old-school politician.

So no, I don’t think that she is 100% beholden to her donors, or that every single one of her beliefs is tailored to public perception.  I do believe that in her mind, because of the way politics were when she was coming up, balancing the needs of her donors with the needs of her voters and the needs of all Americans is just a part of the job.

At the end of the day, I don’t care what Hillary thinks about gay marriage.  I care that she upholds that right for all Americans, which she will.  I don’t care if she is personally against a $15 minimum wage; I care that we get it done.

I’m no fool.  I know Clinton is wrong on a lot of these issues, and she has different factions pulling her different ways.  The good news is that she’s not an evil monster, and she can be forced to do the right thing if the side pulling her towards justice pulls the hardest.