by Dick Morris
Has the Democratic presidential primary of 2012 started already? Is Hillary Clinton beginning to position herself for a challenge to her boss? Yesterday, Hillary fired what may have been the first shot:
She said:
“I think that our rising debt level poses a national security threat, and it poses a national security threat in two ways: It undermines our capacity to act in our own interests, and it does constrain us where constraint may be undesirable. And it also sends a message of weakness, internationally.”
The contrast with her husband’s presidency is implicit: He balanced the budget and reduced the debt to the point where Wall Street fretted that there would be no more federal debt instruments to buy, leaving them without a safe place to park their money.
Hillary does nothing — nothing — without forethought. She plans every word, particularly when the words are critical of her president. By framing the “debt level” as a “national security threat,” she gives herself jurisdiction over budget policy and makes her comments about it appropriate for a secretary of state. And by criticizing the debt level that her president has amassed, she sets up the basis for a fiscal/economic critique of his presidency.
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