What Would Hillary Do?

Interesting numbers today from Gallup, which has Hillary Clinton running strong in a hypothetical 2012 primary challenge to President Barack Obama.

The 52 percent-37 percent margin is interesting to me because … I’ve wondered what I would do if Clinton were to mount a nomination challenge.

The obstacles faced by Obama and his team have no doubt been great, but that said, I’m not sure that Obama has grown into the leader that he needs to be giving the challenges being faced by the country.

He sold voters in 2008 on vision, but the key criticism I would offer two years later is that his presidency has largely lacked vision, at the expense of political expediency, at which he has proven, from looking at the results, to be less than adept at.

Case in point: health-care reform, where Obama threw in the towel on single-payer early in the game to try to reach across the aisle to bring Republicans into the fold on reform, only to land a single Republican vote (in the House) for the reform that eventually was passed and signed into law.

Failures to enact substantive policy change on issues including immigration reform, labor relations and energy have left us with not much at all to show for the past two years.

And even in the one area where the Obama team could claim victory, on the economy, where victories on the stimulus and income-tax withholding have had a clear impact on our economic activity, we’re still left with the impression that defeat was snatched from the jaws due to the utter lack of anything in terms of a Mission: Accomplished messaging that could have turned public opinion in a different direction. (And perhaps at the same time also have added fuel to the recovery fire.)

My mind started wondering on this topic back in the summer. What Would Hillary Do? Maybe it’s the grass being greener, but my mind’s eye tells me that Clinton wouldn’t let the GOP walk all over her and her legislative initiatives.

Obama still has time to get his presidency back on track, much as the other Clinton, Bill, was able to do after Democrats blew the 1994 elections, and Bill regrouped, stared down Newt Gingrich in the 1995 government shutdown, and rolled to victory in 1996 and left office in 2001 with a 65 percent approval rating.