Christopher Hitchens

Hillary Clinton

One political figure that drew the interest of Christopher Hitchens in many articles and political debates was Hillary Clinton. Though he never spoke directly about her swift change from a Republican to Democrat in the 1960s, Hitchens did note that:

"What does matter is that she has since altered her position and attempted, with her husband’s help, to make people forget that she ever held it."

While this quote was referring to her initial support for the Iraq War, it's an apt observation when compared to a swap that occurred earlier in her life.

During her time as the First Lady of the United States to Bill Clinton, and in her role as a U.S. Senator, Hitchens found himself disagreeing with Hillary Clinton on a regular basis. Though he's not alive for her second campaign for President of the United States, his earlier views relate even now to her current stances.

Hitchens stated in an article written for Slate in November 2008 that:

"In matters of foreign policy, it has been proved time and again, the Clintons are devoted to no interest other than their own. A president absolutely has to know of his chief foreign-policy executive that he or she has no other agenda than the one he has set."

He later mentioned;

"in spite of her own complete want of any foreign-policy qualifications."

It's clear that Hitchens believed Clinton to be lacking in experience with Foreign Affairs. In fact, when Hillary Clinton was rumored to be up for the position of Secretary of State, Hitchens announced his complete disapproval of this move.

During an appearance on Hardball, Hitchens said:

"This is the woman who played the race card on Obama... This is the woman whose foreign policy experience consists of making a fool of herself and fabricating a story about Bosnia."

He strongly believed that her being named to such a position was a "ludicrous embarrassment". Hitchens would likely continue to put voice to many of these criticisms today.

In both presidential campaigns by Hillary Clinton, she has not shied away from the fact that she is a woman running for president. Hitchens had issues with this in 2008 during her first campaign. He stated that:

"One might come up with other and kinder distinctions (I shall not be doing so) but the plain fact about the senator from New York is surely that she is a known quantity who has already been in the White House purely as the result of a relationship with a man, and not at all a quixotic outsider who represents the aspirations of an 'out' group, let alone a whole sex or gender."

In the book "No One Left to Lie To", some of Hitchens writings focused on Hillary. One particular quote speaks about her character, where he stated:

"She is entirely un-self-critical and quite devoid of reflective capacity, and has never found that any of her numerous misfortunes or embarrassments are her own fault, because the fault invariably lies with others."

Hitchens was always critical of Clinton's views on healthcare, believing her to be more interested in the insurance companies than the individual. He once said,

"Well, the main 'experience' involved the comprehensive fouling-up of the nation's health-care arrangements, so as to make them considerably worse than they had been before and to create an opening for the worst-of-all-worlds option of the so-called HMO, combining as it did the maximum of capitalist gouging with the maximum of socialistic bureaucracy. This abysmal outcome, forgiven for no reason that I can perceive, was the individual responsibility of the woman who now seems to think it entitles her to the presidency."

Despite Hitchens numerous critisms of Hillary Clinton, many people, including Sam Harris believe that Hitchens would favor Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in the current election for president. In June 2016, Sam Harris tweeted:

   
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