Barack Obama did Hillary Clinton a huge favor

Hillary Clinton has started to re-enter the public spotlight, very possibly beginning a new stage of her career that may lead to the presidential election of 2016.

In recent appearances, Clinton seems energized and spirited. She has already begun to talk about issues like women’s rights and voting rights, causes that have animated her for decades. Gone is the constrained demeanor that turned off many potential supporters in previous years. The real Hillary Clinton seems to be emerging.

Republicans are instantly attacking as might be expected. Former House speaker and presidential candidate Newt Gingrich, an arch nemesis of the Clintons in the 1990s, warned that she was promoting “left-wing ideas” that would lead to her defeat.

Those kinds of attacks won’t have the same weight as they did eight years ago. The former first lady, senator, and secretary of state is in excellent position to run the kind of campaign that is true to her history, in large part because of the impact that President Obama has had in the past six years.

Democrats are more confident about throwing their support behind a candidate who stands proudly for the key tenets of the liberal tradition: a belief that government can help solve social problems in the United States.

Unlike her husband, who felt in the early 1990s that he had to emphasize his centrist, new Democratic credentials, President Obama has opened the doors for a Democrat to build their campaigns on the tradition of the New Deal and Great Society, rather than running away from that legacy.

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