Hillary joins the presidency race: \\\'I am no shrinking violet\\\'

I don't know about you, but I had enough of Hillary Rodham Clinton - the Yankee feminist, a doting grandma to Charlotte and again a presidential candidate for 2016. For over two decades she has been frolicking in and around Washington DC, with her vow to change America, just like she did at her Wellesley college commencement speech, in 1969. In her speech, she had urged her fellow graduates to find 'new ways of seeing and shaping things' as they venture into the real world.
In a very recent article published in Reuters.com, Professor Bill Schneider of George Mason University wrote: 'Hillary Clinton's video launching her campaign for the Democratic nomination was a montage of the new America. That's the coalition Barack Obama brought to power in 2008: African-Americans, working women, gays and lesbians, single mothers, Jewish voters, young people, educated professionals and the 'un-Churched' (the nearly one in five Americans who have no religious affiliations.)'
Wearing her signature pant-suit, a much gentler and softer Hillary emerged in a video that was taped in Monticello, Iowa. Now she has a new Botox face, and an ear to ear grin. It appeared to me that she had a recent face-lift as well. The video showed a little less than the usual uptight Hillary - thanks to her PR people. No matter what new look she is putting on, like a leopard, Hillary cannot change her spots.
In 2008, when she had sought her party's nomination she said, 'one thing you know about me is that I am no shrinking violet.' Her latest video showed a subdued Hillary trying hard to connect with the voters with a much easier attitude and a gentle message delivered to the American public from an auto shop. Are we sold on her new persona? No, not at all! It is another skilfully woven PR ploy, to fool the voters that she represents the working class America.
However, from watching Hillary in Washington for more than 20 years, it is safe to say that she represents ideas most Americans don't care for. Hillary, in the past twenty years had spoken often about her tough mid-western upbringing, with a very strict father who had rigid sets of rules. It is ironic that she had talked about core family values non-stop, while she had failed miserably to keep her own family together, with a philanderer husband. I find it to be in bad taste to rehash Bill Clinton's many rendezvous with other women. It is a matter of public record now.
Today's column is about Hillary Clinton.
Hillary has been a subject of ongoing discussion across America since 1991, when Bill Clinton, then the governor of Arkansas, had announced his candidacy for presidency. After the onset of rumours that Bill had relationships with other women than Hillary, they jointly appeared on the popular news show 60 Minutes to talk about their lives. During the interview, Hillary wearing a headband like a school girl, sat beside Bill like a good Southern wife - supporting her man one hundred per cent.
Hillary had claimed that like most marriages, theirs has been through ups and downs as well. She came across as someone who chose to ignore such buzzes to save Bill's career. Many sympathised with her position until she uttered those infamous words that had cost her dearly over the years. She said, 'You know, I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and have teas, but what I decided to do was fulfil my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life.'
Her comments outraged many men and women with traditional ideas who very deeply cared about their families. Those women who chose to stay home, and raise their children took it as a direct insult to their motherhood. They had felt that she was being sarcastic of their stay-at-home status. After all these years, that remark still follows Hillary like a shadow. American stay-at-home moms who chose to stay with their children, and the homemakers who picked family life over a career, never forgave her for that offensive and insensitive comment.
The cookie reference became like an albatross around Hillary's neck and she never could be free of it, no matter how many song and dances she did around it. Once something is spoken, it is very hard to erase it from people's mind.
As the Arkansas governor's wife, she had continued with her law career, and she had kept her baggy clothes that had a guy look. If it was Hillary's choice to dress like men - same way if other women had decided to stay home to raise their kids, then it was their prerogative. It was not Hillary's job to judge those mothers. Most women are not in a position to have their children raised by nannies in a governor's mansion, the way Hillary had her daughter brought up.
In today's America, a lot of the educated women prefer to teach everything they know to their children, rather than trusting others to do that job. A mother's job cannot be done very well by a hired help, or by the daycare aides. A child is best raised in a family environment.
Besides, what is wrong in baking cookies for your own family?
Though ironical, but it may be noteworthy to mention here that with this kind of mentality, Hillary claimed that being a mother to her daughter Chelsea was the most important job that she ever had. She had even been named as a recipient of the 'Arkansas Mother of the Year' award in 1984, while she was the governor's wife.
Most conservative men and women dislike Hillary, and so do a lot of the feminists. Every election year when she plays an active role, the unending debate lingers on - whether she is driven by her college year's radical ideology, or she really is a thoughtful pragmatist.
The Republicans are already on a negative twist and since her April 14 announcement, calling her a 'candidate of the past'.  
It is generally believed that the new America that was shaped under Obama, wants a president, male or female, who can get things done for them. They want someone to finish what Obama couldn't. Hillary being a woman has nothing to do with her lack of popularity. People believe she is disconnected from the problems of everyday suffering men and women in America.
From the very beginning, from her Wellesley college days, Hillary stood as a stark contrast from most American girls. Dressed in baggy men's pullover sweaters and big plastic framed eye glasses, she attracted attention. She would be considered a Hippy from the 60s, had she not have the brain, and that somehow made people overlook her unusual fashion sense. At Wellesley, she became known as a radical.
Hillary had political ambition from the get-go. While in Law School at Yale, she snagged Bill Clinton because she saw his promise. Together, they made it to be Arkansas's governor and the first lady. As the governor's wife, she went through Bill's many liaisons with other women that became public when Bill ran for US presidency.
Everywhere the Clintons go, controversy and scandal follow them. It has become a hallmark for them, and it seems the Clintons are immune to controversies. When Bill Clinton took office in 1992/3 as the President, it was alleged that the Clintons were in a Whitewater land-development deal while he was the governor of Arkansas. It was believed that the couple extended their business partners special favours. The charge against Hillary was that her law firm had been given the state business because she was the governor's wife.
Soon after that, the unlawful 1993 Travel office controversy began. The Clinton White House fired WH travel office director Billy Dale and other staffers under false pretences. It was alleged the Clintons wanted to give the business to their friends from Arkansas.
Hillary Clinton's book titled 'It takes a village: And other lessons children teach us' named after a popular African proverb, had raised a lot of questions about Hillary's authenticity as a writer, and a social thinker who advocated change in America. In that book she wrote, 'We need to understand that there is no formula for how women should lead their lives, that is why we must respect the choices that each woman makes for herself and her family. Every woman deserves the chance to realise her God-given potential.' This statement alone stands as a glaring contrast to her cookie-baking comment.
Bill Clinton had made a mockery of their marriage while in the White House, and yet she preferred to stay with him. The common belief in America is: Hillary had her eye on the presidential seat since a long time, therefore, she did not file for divorce. Hillary knew that America is still very conservative and will not vote for a divorced woman as its president.
Hence, she had shoved aside her marital problems, and tried to pass herself off as the new messiah of family values. We all saw how fiercely she had campaigned against Barack Obama to get the Democratic Party's nomination in 2008. During her fight against Barrack Obama, she had said everything people wanted to hear to secure her votes, but people saw through her. Americans simply did not believe in her enough to vote for her.
In 2008, Hillary got caught when she was using an episode as an example of 'her foreign policy bona fides.' She fibbed that essentially she went to a combat zone while visiting Bosnia. As the First Lady, she and her group came under sniper attack as they got off the pane. When challenged, team Hillary had said that she 'misspoke' of the event. Later Clinton stated, 'It proves I'm human, which you know for some people, is a revelation.'
On camera Hillary flashes big smiles, but off camera she is not a very sweet person. During her last presidential bid, she was very rude to a young boy when he had asked her a few questions in a rally.
As an Obama appointee, Hillary was not a very effective Secretary of State either. After the Benghazi attack in Libya, US ambassador to UN, Susan Rice told several news agencies that Ben Ghazi attack on the US diplomats was a 'spontaneous reaction' to an anti-Muslim video. This single incident made people lose confidence in Hillary's effectiveness to carry out American foreign policy interests. After the Obama first term, she had to resign.
Post resignation Hillary Rodham Clinton wrote a book titled Hard Choices where she tries to explain her position. In the chapter called 'Benghazi under Attack' Clinton wrote, 'Obama gave the order to do whatever necessary to support our people in Libya. When Americans are under fire…our military does everything humanly possible to save American lives - and would do more if they could. That anyone has ever suggested otherwise is something I will never understand.'
Since then for the last two plus years Hillary has been out of public life, but not gone. Hillary most certainly wasn't on a bus tour to talk to the voters, nor was she listening to the poor farmers in Iowa. Behind the scenes she has been making strategies to announce her candidacy by enlisting big name celebrity figures like multiple Oscar winner movie star Meryl Streep to campaign for her. Meryl and Hillary have a lot in common. They both are from the 60s radical generation. Hillary went to Wellesley, and Meryl went to Vassar College. After college Hillary went to Yale Law School, and Meryl went to the Yale Drama School.
A few months ago, Meryl gave a pre-campaign speech endorsing her support for Hillary if she chooses to run for president. She had sung Hillary's praises in depicting her as a great humanitarian. She told the audience that many do not know how much good work Hillary had done since she left the White House in 2000.
How come we never heard about it? She has been working behind the scenes alright, but it was to carefully orchestrate her bid for the 2016 election.
What does real America care about Hollywood's super star Meryl Streep? How can she convince an unemployed voter in Alabama, to vote for Hillary? What do Hillary, Meryl and a mother who is on Welfare have in common? Why would that mother care about Hillary's rhetoric? Clinton simply cannot relate to a single mother who depends on a government's Welfare cheque every month, to feed her five children or other poor struggling Americans.    
A hardcore Midwesterner now turned into a star figure, Hillary simply doesn't have what it takes to connect with the working class voters.
On world stage, Hillary has the status of a celebrity - the former governor's wife, former First Lady, a US senator from her adopted state New York, and Obama's Secretary of State during his first term. Hillary is very used to shaking hands with the royals, heads of states, wining and dining with the Rock stars and top Hollywood movie superstars.  
Now with the next presidential election noise buzzing, another year of seeing Hillary on television campaigning to defeat the Republican nominee, is something I am not looking forward to. What is she going to say now after eight years that I would be interested in listening? What does she have going for her this time around that was absent before? The million dollar question everyone is asking: If Hillary Clinton gets her party's nomination, does she have it in her to build consensus to bring the voters to her side?
Now with her announcement, all eyes are raised and noses crinkled. Such physical signals only translate to one thing: we are simply tired of tough-talking Hillary Clinton. She has been around politics for the longest time, and yet hasn't won many hearts in gaining huge public support. Her Democratic Party most probably will end up giving her the nomination to be the first female president of the United States of America.
However, Hillary simply is not a polished charmer to win common people's confidence in her abilities to get things done for them.
A shrinking violet Hillary Clinton might not be - but will she be able to last like the long-lasting Black-eyed Susan who is very competitive and can push other plants out of the garden?
Zeenat Khan is a columnist and a fiction writer.