I Want the Job

　　Last week we looked at a John Deering cartoon reflecting the turmoil among US Democrats as they struggle to understand the reasons for their resounding defeat on November 3. This time it is David Horsey who weighs in, with a cartoon bemoaning the presidential ambitions of New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, the former first lady.

　　Even before Hillary was elected to the Senate in 2000 she was strongly rumored to want the presidency for herself. She was probably the most politically active first lady since the 1940s. Back then Franklin Roosevelt's wife Eleanor was a beloved (and detested) figure in his administration: opinionated, energetic and always on the go, clearly with her husband's blessing. But Hillary Rodham was no match for Eleanor Roosevelt in popularity. True, she had numerous admirers among Democrats who regarded her as more thoughtful -- and certainly more cautious -- than her undisciplined husband. But she also acquired a large group of detractors who loathed her so intensely that she had to begin avoiding the limelight for fear of damaging her husband's presidency.

　　She has proven to be a popular senator. New York tends to vote Democratic, so you will perhaps assume that garnering this popularity was a cinch. Actually, though, she began with a number of handicaps, chief among them not being herself a New Yorker: Hillary grew up in Chicago, went to school at Wellesley College in Massachusetts, studied law at Yale University in Connecticut, and built her legal career in Arkansas. She had to show that she was not just using New York as a stepping stone to the White House. She seems to have pulled this off by tending assiduously to the needs of New York State and New York City in some undeniably rocky years.

　　But if Senator Clinton is as desirous of the presidency as many claim, John Kerry's defeat is not without its consolations.①David Horsey is not among the comforted, however. We see his Democratic donkey pondering Hillary's background and ideological profile: an anti-war activist during the Vietnam years, a feminist in an increasingly conservative society, a northeasterner at a time when the northeast is out of step with the rest of the country, and a left-winger in a right-wing age. She looks, in other words, more like a female Kerry than someone with her husband's political magic. Little wonder the poor donkey is in despair! (WD White 美)