In the midst of the eruption of near-daily scandals involving the Obama administration, let us not forget that until just a few months ago, Hillary Clinton was the most significant persona within that administration besides the president himself.  Let us not also forget that notwithstanding the scandal-grenades going off all around us, Mrs. Clinton diligently plans her run for the presidency, even while several of those scandals are obviously and entirely her responsibility, exposing the State Department during her tenure as an utter sewer of corruption, cronyism, and fatal incompetence. 

For as long as Hillary Clinton has been on the national scene, she has left a path of destruction and wreckage in her wake that is both impressive and terrible to behold.  She is a testament to the extent of damage that can be done by one person determined to conquer everything before her in the quest for unlimited power and self-gratification.  The only prize left to her in American politics is the presidency, which she has always felt is hers by right.  Indeed, she would have attained it were it not for the upstart community organizer, a fellow admirer of Saul Alinsky, who spoke in volumes but said nothing. 

While such determination comes at a staggering cost, we should remind ourselves that the bill is never paid by Mrs. Clinton or her equally arrogant husband.  It is paid by the country.  Before we ask yet again for the check, perhaps we should remind ourselves of exactly who this woman is who will soon attempt to seduce the country, and her history as the object of an absurd and undeserved degree of national affection.

Before accompanying her husband to the White House as our first co-president, Mrs. Clinton was working hard on becoming the person we now know her to be.  As with her husband, the goal has always been the attainment of power masquerading as public service.  Setting an example for the Obamas to emulate, the Clintons put self-absorption and personal victory before all else.  The Clintons have always served themselves, and nothing else.

Do you recall the slime that was Whitewater, in which the Clintons dissembled and lied while their former business partners went to jail?  Do you remember Mrs. Clinton earning $100,000 in profit in 1979 on a $1,000 investment over the course of only 9 months in volatile cattle futures, about which she knew nothing, thanks to help from a highly placed Tyson Foods connection?  Tyson profited handsomely in Arkansas, with state loans and appointments.  We are to believe that Clinton studied the Wall Street Journal to achieve a feat against which the odds were one in 250 million.  Do you recall the Rose Law Firm billing records that magically appeared in Mrs. Clinton's White House office, years after they had been subpoenaed?  Or the death of Vince Foster under rather extraordinary and inexplicable circumstances, and the lies and cover-up that followed?  Do you recall that while testifying before congressional investigators as first lady, she answered "I don't know" or "I don't remember" 250 times?

Do you recall Travelgate, in which the Clintons destroyed reputations and careers to reward campaign donors?  What about the endless parade of women, long known to Mrs. Clinton and laughably passed off by her as "ministering" to a troubled young woman in the matter of Miss Lewinsky?  Nevertheless, when the truth came out, she was entirely happy to exploit the illusion of victimhood for her own martyrdom in the cause of political advancement.

Wherever Mrs. Clinton goes, destruction follows.  Of course, like the current president, nothing is ever her fault.  She knows nothing.  She is the innocent victim of all around her, endlessly bemoaning her fate as the victim of a vast right-wing conspiracy that somehow has directed the events of her life even before there was a vast right-wing conspiracy.

Make no mistake: the Clintons, and Hillary Clinton in particular, hold the American public in utter contempt, but especially so their own supporters.  How else to explain the countless frauds, crimes, and lies they perpetrate upon their devotees, whose own intellectual honesty is devalued to nothing by their loyalty?  And how else besides intellectual dishonesty to rationalize somehow being a Hillary Clinton supporter?

As if Benghazi was not enough, and it should have been even with the little that has come to light thus far, news broke this week about the culture of pure corruption, decay, immorality, criminality, and scandal that has been our Department of State under Mrs. Clinton.  We were regaled with liberal celebrations of the mythical "Greatest Secretary of State" ever, while those paying attention could not identify a single advancement in the image or policies of the United States during her tenure.  Certainly the blame for that does not fall entirely upon her, given whose policies she was advocating, but she still opted to be the person who advanced those destructive policies, putting our country at risk and lowering its standing throughout the world.  This reality was recently driven home by the revelation that the Clintons and President Obama struck a deal under which she accepted the post of secretary of state in exchange for Obama's support in 2016. 

Regardless of the means, we are now being provided a window into what actually occurred under Mrs. Clinton's stewardship.  No doubt we will once again be treated to a river of alibis.  Like the president, we will be asked by Mrs. Clinton's public relations mercenaries to believe that the structure over which she presided was entirely foreign to her, and that despite her zeal to take credit for any exercise of power as head of that structure, any wrongdoing by those carrying out her organizational mission statement is somehow not attachable to her.  Like the president, her good name has been hijacked by those actively doing wrong under her very nose.  Also like the president, rampant wrongdoing and criminality occurring in her very presence met with no censure whatsoever, which is becoming increasingly difficult to reconcile with the real world in which the rest of us live.  Either she entirely failed morally as a leader because she knew what was happening and ignored it (or worse, actively participated in it), or she entirely failed in terms of competence for not even being that pathetic.

For those paying attention, we are being treated to a preview of coming attractions.  Indeed, every day under President Obama is a preview of the presidency of Hillary Clinton, if we are so reckless as to accept her self-serving proposal of figurative marriage.  Unlike Mr. Obama, however, about whom we knew nothing before his rise, the Hillary Clinton preview of coming attractions has been running on a near-continuous loop for the better part of 30 years.

As the State Department scandal deepens, and as more people potentially refuse to take the fall for the advancement of an utterly corrupt politician, perhaps our knowledge of Mrs. Clinton will deepen -- as if we really needed to know more to understand who and what she is.  We should be grateful as a nation for the gift of foresight.  May it finally enlighten those who so far have proved poor excuses for sensible American citizens.