Hillary Clinton can afford to be vague on issues with no strong rival
With a public record spanning more than two decades, there is little left to learn about Hillary Rodham Clinton except where she stands on a host of key issues.
As she gears up for a likely presidential run in 2016, the former secretary of state has been deliberately vague, analysts say, in her positions on National Security Agency snooping, the violence in Ferguson, Missouri, central aspects of the Obama administrations foreign policy and other issues.
With no obvious, viable threat to her partys nomination, Mrs. Clinton is able to straddle the fence on any number of controversial topics with little consequence, analysts say.
Last month, Mrs. Clinton offered seemingly strong comments on the unrest in Ferguson, where a white police officer fatally shot 18-year-old Michael Brown, who was black.
In a San Francisco speech late last month, she said the racial tensions in Ferguson and elsewhere, coupled with distrust between citizens and police, are real problems that must be confronted.
Behind the dramatic, terrible pictures on television are deep challenges that will be with them and with us long after the cameras move on, she said. This is what happens when the bonds of trust and respect that hold any community together fray. Nobody wants to see our streets look like a war zone, not in America. We are better than that.
But Mrs. Clinton also measured her words carefully and went out of her way to compliment police officers in Ferguson, who have borne the brunt of the blame for Browns death and the chaos that ensued.
We saw our countrys true character in the community leaders who came out to protest peacefully and worked to restrain violence; the young people who insisted on having their voices heard; and in the many decent and respectful law enforcement officers who showed what quality law enforcement looks like, she said.
Although Mrs. Clintons words about Ferguson highlight the benefits of having such a vast lead in the Democratic presidential primary process, she was in a similar position at this same point in the 2008 election cycle. Throughout 2006, she was the presumptive nominee with an overwhelming poll lead and no viable challengers, and was carefully staking out non-alienating positions.
However, she was in fact defeated and may have to learn (and not learn) from the man who beat her: Barack Obama.
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Hillary Clinton can afford to be vague on issues with no strong rival