-By Warner Todd Huston
If Hillary really doesn’t run for president in 2016, it is so hard for the Washington Post to “imagine the presidential field without a woman contender” that the paper has decided to look at who might replace her. And the paper has arrived at… Janet Napolitano?
But with its touting of the Homeland Security Secretary, the Post insists “there is reason to take her seriously.”
The Post notes that Napolitano was once a “highly regarded and very popular governor in Arizona.” And yet goes on to say she dropped the ball on illegal immigration during her tenure in the Governor’s mansion (2003-2009).
But her role at Homeland has given her a chance to “change that image,” we are told.
“This week, for instance, finds her on a high-profile tour of the southwest border, where she will highlight the stepped-up resources that the Obama administration has been devoting to reducing the flow of illegal entrants to this country,” the Post says.
Even though few Americans pay much attention to the Department of Homeland Security, the Post thinks Napolitano can rise above that limitation.
“Napolitano is a sharp and savvy politician, and her decision to remain in the Obama administration for a second term is a telling one. Immigration overhaul may well be an opportunity to put herself at the forefront of an issue–and a constituency–that represent the future of the Democratic party. Particularly if Clinton doesn’t run, it’s a decent bet that she will be on the debate stage in 2016.”
One of Napolitano’s notable gaffes was twice having to apologize for saying conservative Americans and our returning veterans were potential terrorists.
She also once gave a speech in which she refused to call terrorists what they are and instead coined the term “man-caused disasters” for the evils they wreck.
The last successful presidential candidate that made a serious, sustained run for the White House as a sitting Cabinet member was Herbert Hoover in 1928.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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