Maybe It’s Time for Kirsten Gillibrand to Leapfrog Hillary Clinton
LatestAs we, the sycophantic public, dangle precariously between presidential election cycles, only one question keeps us attuned to the distant rumblings of potential candidates as they posture, pivot, and promenade their way to a spot in the presidential primary spotlight of 2016: could Kirsten Gillibrand leapfrog Hillary Clinton and become our nation’s first female commander-in-chief?
That’s the question underpinning Maggie Haberman’s thorough article on Politico, a site that feeds on political soothsaying the way mynochs feed on the Millennium Falcon’s power cables. We’re not far enough removed from the last presidential election cycle to make serious candidate speculation decorous, but we’re right in the temporal sweet-spot for intriguing scenarios. Everyone knows that Hillary Clinton will run, win, and lead America back to a golden age of arcade games and guiltless Big Gulps, so it’d be boring to talk about her imminent candidacy. Far more interesting to suggest a not-so-wild wild card, a Democrat, sure, and a woman, someone who seems like a fresher, more vigorous version of the center-left (but mostly center) Hillary Clinton. Some like Kirsten Gillibrand.
Gillibrand, a Blue Dog Democrat who pivoted to the left with her recent support of gay marriage and gun control, won Clinton’s New York Senate seat in 2009. She also has blonde hair, a law degree from UCLA, an undergrad degree from Dartmouth, and a knack for helping female political candidates win wider support through her PAC, Off the Sidelines. Her efforts to promote female candidates raised her profile during the 2012 presidential election, and an impressive dressing-down of U.S. military generals for their handling of sexual assault cases proved that she was tough. All of these things make it easy for observers to draw comparisons between Gillibrand and Clinton, but Gillibrand stands out from the former Secretary of State in one very important way — she’s only 46-years-old.