The US primary election
THE US presidential election isn’t until November, but it is reached in stages, through state caucuses, that gradually weed out the long list of candidates. On the Republican side, business mogul Donald Trump was expected to be the front runner, but in the first state caucus in Iowa, he came in second to Senator Ted Cruz of Texas.
Asked about how he would handle foreign policy if he became president, Trump was his usual belligerent self. “We are going to knock the hell out of ISIS (the Islamic State),” he said. And he accused Ted Cruz of “voter fraud.” Trump supporters, according to one mischievous pollster, are ten times more likely to expect sex on the first date than other people.
On the Democratic side, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders and former First Lady, Senator, and Secretary of State Hil- lary Clinton were virtually tied.
During their first debate, Clinton and Sanders traded insults and argued about who was really a “progressive,” Clinton blamed Sanders for making her paid speeches an issue in the campaign and reminded Sanders that “progressive” was once used as an alternative to “liberal.”
Clinton calls herself a “pragmatic progressive.” “I am a progressive who gets things done,” she said. As First Lady, senator, and secretary of state Clinton has fought for universal healthcare and the rights of children. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, said of his wife’s lifetime service over the past 40 years: Everything she has touched, she has made better.”
“I know what it’s like to be knocked down,” Mrs. Clinton said recently, “and how you dust yourself off and get back up and keep fighting for what you believe in.” It’s an idealism which has been tempered over time by experience.
As TIME Magazine, which put Mrs. Clinton on the cover of its February 15th issue, noted, Mrs. Clinton knows what it’s like to lose, and to negotiate small victories. Her gamble is that the toughness and stability which she offers will become even more attractive to voters as her campaign for president progresses.