MEANWHILE, IN CANADA...

Things have been rough lately for Hillary Rodham Clinton, as you may have noticed.

There was Monica Lewinsky's bitter but accurate complaint that Hillary's reaction to her husband's adultery was to "blame the woman".  Then there was an article in Politico Magazine for May/June, 2014 in which journalists Glenn Thrush and Maggie Haberman knowledgeably claimed that Hillary hates the press and fears the attacks that will come if she runs for president.  Then Thrush followed up on that for Politico with a description of Hillary's '08 campaign, which he covered for Newsday.  According to him, the campaign's culture was one of finger-pointing anger and deep suspicion directed against reporters and outsiders, while Hillary creatively relieved this self-induced stress with activities like throwing an aide's cell phone down a flight of stairs.

Ah, but then came a bright moment!  Veteran political operative Robert Shrum wrote a column in which he declared that Hillary will be "unchallenged" for the Democratic nomination and will be our next president.

But no sooner was Shrum's prognostication offered up than a speech by Joe Biden was reported in which he stated that the American middle class's woes began not under George W. Bush but earlier under Bill Clinton. It couldn't be more obvious that Hillary is being challenged.  And Biden is good at projecting that I'm-really-a-populist-at-heart thing, while what Hillary projects is more like I'm-well-connected-and-you-better-watch-your-back-if-you-get-in-my-way.

A Hillary nomination, were it possible, would make the '16 campaign be about Boko Haram, Benghazi, Hillarycare, Whitewater, women who bake cookies, Vince Foster, and of course the charming Monica.
All that's necessary to avoid this is to choose a new face as a candidate.

And lo! the Anti-Hillary has appeared.  Unfortunately, he has appeared not in the United States but in Canada.

The Liberals - Canada's equivalent of the Democrats - were hurting not long ago.  In the last national election they came in third - something unprecedented - behind the governing Conservatives and the lefty New Democrats.  And third place is where the Liberals remained in the polls, till they did something smart.

They chose as their new leader Justin Trudeau, the 41-year-old teacher son of their greatest prime minister, Pierre Elliott Trudeau.  And immediately they shot to first place in the polls, and they've stayed there.  That was over a year ago.

Trudeau has a young family and was at first unwilling to head the party.  But he finally agreed to.  And he's one of the most attractive people I've seen in politics anywhere.  He isn't intellectual and witty and arrogant like his father but rather warm, good-natured, and unflappable.  You get the feeling that he isn't mean but can be as tough as he has to be.  The last time Canada saw charisma like his was in his old man. The last time we saw it here was when JFK walked among us.

To watch a brief, cynical, and funny but revealing treatment of Trudeau's impact, go to YouTube and type in "Justin Trudeau Song".  You can see for yourself how he comes across.

Trudeau immediately put through party reforms, involving the Liberal electorate in formulating the platform and allowing it rather than insiders to choose the candidates; he let non-Liberals register as "friends" of the party and also participate in this.  It has gone over well and produced some enthusiasm.

The Conservatives had succeeded in preemptively taking down Trudeau's two predecessors as Liberal leader, using attack ads. They tried to do the same to him.  They did things like show pictures of him being a good sport and performing a partial striptease for charity, then declared that he's in over his head.  And the ads backfired horribly!  Polls show that seeing them has made voters more likely to vote Liberal.

Underestimating Trudeau isn't safe.  Another thing he did for charity was to have a boxing match with a young Conservative senator named Patrick Brazeau.  Brazeau is big and a real bruiser.  Trudeau is muscular but lean and doesn't have Brazeau's body mass.  Brazeau boasted about what he was going to do to the pretty-boy.  Trudeau's wife was worried, but he took her to the gym and had her watch while he sparred with men of Brazeau's type, which he had been doing for years.  And when the two politicians fought, Trudeau surprised many by winning.

Like Hillary Clinton, Justin Trudeau is seen to possess inevitability.  But his doesn't come from political schemers and journalists.  It's just there.

I find it hard to believe that in a country of 300 million people we can't find a leader with qualities comparable to his. We seem for some reason to be sunk in defeatism.  All I can say is, we'd best get out of it and start expecting more of ourselves.