POSTED RESPONSE TO A COLUMN BY ALI ETERAZ IN THE GUARDIAN
Hillary Clinton reminds me a great deal of Richard Nixon.
He was also bright, hardworking, and he was obsessed with being in high office.
He was also awkward, prone to exaggerations and lies, and not particularly pleasant to hear. He shared with Hillary a way of speaking that is genuinely annoying to those who love the language.
Stories in his speeches, especially when he was in tight spots, like the toe-scrunching one about his wife's cloth coat (Chequers), remind me very much of Hillary's excruciatingly bad tales, like the one about the Pennsylvania cottage with no conveniences or her dad teaching her hunting.
Nixon started his early political career by calling his opponents names - famously the decent woman he first defeated for Congress, suggesting she was soft on communism. Hillary has said shameful things about Obama, often picking on trivial points just to have something nasty to say.
There was the same tiresome predictability about Nixon and his views that we see with Hillary. There would be no surprises from Hillary because we already know her, and she is not interesting.
Nixon, of course, with Watergate, proved capable of almost anything to hold to power. I would expect the same with Hillary. Look at the immense practice she has had lying and covering for her sleazy husband. Indeed, look at her decades-long tolerance of him.
