Skip to main content

Special Tips For Hillary In Tonight’s Debate By Dr. Wumi Akintide

October 13, 2015

Let me make a confession before you read any further. I am attracted to women that combine brain and beauty like Hillary Clinton. My late wife exemplified that combination better than any other woman in my life, and I still cherish her memories till tomorrow and would forever do till I die.

Let me make a confession before you read any further. I am attracted to women that combine brain and beauty like Hillary Clinton. My late wife exemplified that combination better than any other woman in my life, and I still cherish her memories till tomorrow and would forever do till I die.

Image

I was initially rooting for Hillary in 2008 before “Ololu” Barack Obama came from nowhere to narrowly edge her out. I was so happy when the Obama, recognizing Hillary’s strength and profound qualifications for President, chose to offer her the job of Secretary of State. Hillary was gracious enough to accept the offer.  The two of them collaborated to move the country forward in a symbiosis rare to find in most of their predecessors, with the possible exception of Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger. After 4 years Hillary retired from the job in order to prepare for another shot at the Presidency in 2016.

The job of Secretary of State was exactly the vacuum that Hillary needed to fill in her amazing resume for President. That her rival for the presidency would provide her that chance on a platter of gold exemplified the beauty and the greatness of American Democracy. I don’t care if Joe Biden, another good candidate, throws his hat to the ring; I can tell you that Joe is not going to be able to dislodge Hillary this late in the game. I would have advised Joe Biden to just retire from politics while the ovation is loudest. I strongly believe he reached the peak of his career in his 8 years of serving as Vice President to the first black President. Joe Biden, at 72, can proudly lay claim to partial ownership of the Obama legacy, and leave the rest to his children and grandchildren in Delaware.

In a Freudian slip Republican Kevin McCarthy admitted that the Benghazi Committee was really an attempt to derail Hillary’s 2016 Presidential bid.  If the make-believe scandal is not Benghazi, it is going to be the personal E-mails or the private server or some other scandal in the blood sport that politics has become in America...Republicans are out to get Hillary because they know she is the biggest threat to a Republican President in 2016.

I now come to my tips for Hillary in the debate coming up a few hours from now. I regret not writing this piece sooner, so Hillary could have a chance to read it before stepping up to the podium as the main attraction in the debate tonight.

I am aware that Bernie Sanders is doing very well in the opinion polls coming out of Iowa and New Hampshire, but we must all remember that opinion polls are snippets of the moment. They may not translate into facts when the rubber meets the road. Even in those polls Hillary has always been a close second to Bernie. She could predictably snatch victory from the jaws of defeat when the chips are down.

I am not overly concerned about Hillary narrowly losing one of those two early states to Bernie Saunders. I am predicting, with more than 70 % degree of confidence, that Hillary would go on to win a major victory on Super Tuesday and become the Democratic Party nominee without any iota of doubt.

Before Hillary does that she still has to make a good showing in the debate tonight.  Therefore, I am offering these tips to help her confront that spectacle sooner than later, since there are going to be 5 more debates ahead. Hillary needs to lay a solid foundation, and show a good impression in tonight’s debate. She cannot afford to make the same mistake that Obama made against Mitt Romney in their first debate.   Obama came off as uninterested and tired, to the dismay of many of his supporters.

 If this debate performance were repeated in Nigeria the Yorubas would have concluded that Mitt Romney had placed “Okaraba Baba Edi”on Obama. I hope and pray that Hillary does not allow such a scenario to repeat itself tonight and I am optimistic she would not.

Hillary is at her best when facing a strong challenge, and when she is able to reveal a more human and less scripted persona to the public. Her inability to be more ‘honest’ in public; can be explained by her status as a Clinton. For some reason the Republicans have an obsession or a jinx about the Clintons. They just don’t like them because the Clintons have always beaten them in their game. Republicans are constantly looking for their pound of flesh from the Clintons.

They thought they had an upper hand when they helped Obama to beat a Hillary in 2008.  However, they were very unhappy when the same Obama offered Hillary the greatest weapon to beat and humiliate the Republicans in 2016. If you examine her experience; 12 years as First Lady in Arkansas, 8 years as First Lady of the US, 6 years as the junior Senator from New York, and 4 years Secretary of State it becomes clear that no other Republican candidate could match her credentials. 

I cannot wait to hear the eloquent Bill Clinton be the keynote speaker at the Democratic Convention and to expertly frame the issues in the election for the whole world to hear. I cannot wait to see Chelsea introduce herself to national politics for the first time as the putative CEO of the greatest philanthropy the world has known. I am talking of the Clinton Global Initiative. Hate them or love them the Clintons of Westchester, New York have become a dynasty in American politics through the permissive will of God Almighty. Republicans are like the crab hunter who will die on the water edge waiting to see the crab take a nap. It is not going to happen!

There are a few things that Hillary must not leave out today in talking about herself. If the opportunity arises she must find some way to ask what transgressions she and her husband committed, to cause the ire of the Republicans for the past 30 years. The Republicans would surely have been happier if Hillary used the excuse of the Monica Lewinsky scandal to divorce her husband in 1996. They did everything to push her to do that but the woman would not budge. If she had agreed with the Republicans that would have ended her husband’s political career and her own. She would never have been a participant in tonight’s debate talk less of being President. 

Hillary stuck to her man because she loved him and out of consideration for their only child. She defended Bill in the public even though she gave him a black eye behind closed doors. She made the President of the United States sleep on the couch. That is the kind of woman America needs to be their first female President.

Hillary must demonstrate tonight the same authority and independence she showed when delivering a speech in China as the First Lady. She reminded the whole world “Human Rights are Women Rights and that Women Rights are Human Rights”.  

It was her finest moment as a politician. She should display her wide knowledge on a range of policy issues.  She will need to display this knowledge in a way that draws a distinction between her and Barack Obama, without appearing to criticize the President.  Nobody should expect the Hillary Administration to be the carbon copy of Obama’s. Hillary is going to improve on the record of Obama because politics is about the future.

Hillary has to find a way to keep her front-runner status without appearing abrasive or condescending. It will be a difficult task, but I believe Hillary has the brainpower and the temperament to do it. She will need to anticipate what her opponents will say, and be ready to parry any attack without antagonizing them unduly. Hillary will require the supporters of her Democratic opponents, once the Primary is over.

The whole world now knows that the Benghazi Committee was a Kangaroo Court and an Inquisition designed to distract, provoke, irritate and blackmail Hillary. The Republicans did not and would not hold George W. Bush responsible for 9/11. Therefore, it is completely disingenuous of them to hold Benghazi against Hillary.   This is especially galling given that she did everything possible as Secretary of State to protect the lives of the American Ambassador and the 4 Americans who died in harm’s way.

With regards to the E-mails and the private server, she should show sufficient contrition, and not trivialize the fact that she made a mistake. If I were in her shoes I would explain that I believed my husband’s security clearance would cover my emails.

I would also admit that I chose to protect my own personal e-mails, as I feared the leverage such emails could provide to my political enemies. Many Americans would find this reasoning relatable, and would leave the issue alone.   

To try and be too legalistic and lawyerly about the issue is not the way to go.  Many Americans will believe she is hiding something if she adopts a lawyerly stance.

Instead, let Hillary talk about how her parents raised her to be a Republican, and yet she evolved as a Democrat from her University days at Wellesley College and Yale.  Let Hillary talk about the role her marriage to Bill Clinton has played in her life.

That is the kind of story many more Americans need to know.  It is the kind of story that would seal her populist credentials as a human being, and not as the robot or caricature the Republicans want to make her. Let her talk about her life’s work for children and women in general.  Let her talk about how she has remained a champion for the full emancipation of women around the world. Let her use some of the wisdom she wrote of in her first book, It takes a Village to Raise a Child.  Let her talk about the difficult decisions she made during time as Secretary of State in her second book, Hard Choices.  

Hillary will do fine if she finds a way to incorporate some of these tips in the opening or closing statements in tonight’s debate.

I rest my case.