Richard Cohen not impressed with Hillary's gender, age, State Dept. tenure

Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen, who many media people love to hate and has a reputation for over-sharing his uncomfortable feelings, channels his latest thoughts on a potential 2016 run by Hillary Clinton:

Will she say she’s been to where no secretary of state had ever been before — the Cook Islands, for instance? Will she echo the constant refrain from her State Department tenure — that she traveled more than any secretary of state in history, an astounding 956,733 miles, which is 38.42 times around the world and which, you have to concede, is a lot? Iowans may be impressed, but being First Frequent Flier is not enough to get them out on the forbiddingly cold night when the [Iowa] caucuses will be held.

So, Cohen's not impressed with Clinton's tenure as the secretary of state. Even just a few months into John Kerry's run as the current secretary, Cohen's on his side. "[H]er statistics-laden tenure has been somewhat eclipsed by her successor at State. John F. Kerry has already managed to bring Israelis and Palestinians together to resume peace talks," he writes. "If these talks produce an agreement (not likely, but still . . .), then all this talk about miles traveled is going to sound awfully silly."

And then, there's Clinton's age: " [I]f she is to run for president at the age of 68, she must rediscover her youth."

What about the historical possibility of Clinton being the first female president? Cohen: "At the moment, her only one (message) is that she is a woman. Becoming the first female president is a worthy goal ... but it is not a stirring trumpet call."

Cohen is not impressed.

@eScarry