Hillary as President

Looking at the polls right now, the odds-on favorite to be our next president is Hillary Clinton.

I don’t want that to happen, so Igor and Robert, please don’t accuse me of being a sell-out. But she is leading in the polls for the Democrats, and the Democrats are leading in the polls over the Republicans by a large margin. They are also killing Republicans in the money chase.

So if that is the case, and despite my wishes it looks that it may be, how does Hillary start acting in the Senate? Does she represent the legislative branch or does she start looking at all those nice things that President Bush and Vice President Cheney have been doing to give more power to the executive? 

Does she look at the issue of executive privilege from the Senate’s perspective? Or does she start worrying that being overzealous in protecting congressional prerogatives may start haunting her when Republicans retake the Congress in the third year of her presidency?

This has bigger implications than just executive privilege.

If she becomes president, does she really pull all the troops out of Iraq, knowing what a disaster that would be for nation? How does that change her rhetoric on the campaign trail?

How far left will she be willing to go in the primaries, knowing that each promise she makes to the loony left will haunt her when she becomes president?

President Bush has centralized power in the executive branch, asserting executive powers not used since the Nixon administration. He has left the presidency, as an institution, in better shape — despite his low poll ratings — than when he took office in 2001.

Will Hillary appreciate the work President Bush has done to restore the power of the president, or will she continue to side with the legislative branch in its efforts to gain the upper hand?