Happy Mother's Day

For my mother, today was spent getting picked up at her assisted living home, taken to lunch at the restaurant of her choosing, and relaxing at the thought that her home was getting fixed up so that this week, it can finally be put on the market.    

For my wife, Mother’s Day was largely spent reflecting on her good fortune that this summer, both of our daughters will be home.   One of her daughters has been in school in Israel, the other in Minnesota, and there will be no greater (belated) mother’s day present than having them back under our roof for a while.

But perhaps the greatest Mother’s Day present was given to Hillary Clinton … and the benefactor was Jeb Bush.  First, it is leaked that he told a Jewish audience that his primary advisor on the Middle East and Israeli matters will be his brother, W.   Then, he announces that if he had been President back in 2003, he too would have invaded Iraq.  And yet somehow, he expects the American public to believe him when he says that “I love my father and my brother … but I am my own man – and my views are shaped by my own thinking and own experiences.”

It’s Hillary’s world, and we’re all just living in it.   She can screw up all she wants with respect to evading the State Department e-mail server or avoiding the appearance of impropriety with respect to her State Department activities involving entities that donated money to the Clinton Foundation.  But all those screw ups don’t matter.  Because the bottom line is that the GOP does not seem poised to pit her against an experienced, moderate statesman who is viewed by the public as a forward-looking thinker.   This may be one of those few instances in “sports” when the prevent defense actually works, and Hillary can do little of anything for the next year-and-a-half but smile, take positions that are non-controversial with Dems and Independents, and essentially say – “hey, at least I’m experienced, smart and sane, which is more than you can say about THAT guy.”

So yes, it was indeed a happy Mother’s Day for at least three mothers.  Hopefully, it has been a happy Mother’s Day for the mothers in your life as well.   All the best from the Empathic Rationalist.