More Great Mysteries of Life

[Content Note: Misogyny.]

In Politico today, David Nather searches for Hillary Clinton's Big Idea:

Here’s one thing you won’t find in Hillary Clinton's book: a clear reason to run for president again.

The "Hard Choices" book tour has had all the trappings of a warm-up for 2016, and even though Clinton insists she hasn't decided yet, she keeps dropping hints that she has ideas for the future of the country. "You've got to ask people who want to run for anything, but particularly president, what's your vision? What is your vision for our country, and do you think you can lead us there?" Clinton said at a CNN "town hall" forum.

But if Clinton has a big idea for 2016, the book — all 596 pages of it — is not the place to look for it. ...But any campaign has to have a big idea it's wrapped around, and that means Clinton still has to spell one out — assuming she has one in mind.

We've heard this routine before, back when Clinton was Secretary of State and was changed with lacking a unifying vision. Which was a charge that only someone without the capacity or will to connect these dots could make: Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot. Dot...

(That was only through 2011.)

Of course, Nather acknowledges her work on behalf of women, and then summarily dismisses it out of hand:

Policy experts in the Clinton orbit say that's not the right way to read the former first lady's latest tome — it's mostly a foreign policy memoir, and any hints of other themes, like the advancement of women and climate change, are there to wrap up the issues she has already worked on throughout her career.

I love the idea that climate change and women's advancement aren't big ideas. And ideas that any sensible wannabe president will wrap up before she heads to the Oval Office.

Again, you don't have to like Hillary Clinton to be concerned that the media is disappearing women's equality as a serious issue worthy of a US president.