Thomas Mallon, Republican & novelist, says Hillary will be depressed if she wins

Thomas Mallon matters – he’s a novelist who writes American historical fiction. Very well regarded historical fiction.

And Mr Mallon really and truly dislikes Hillary Clinton. Mr Mallon, a disgruntled Republican disgusted by the party’s choice of nominee in Donald Trump, believes Mrs Clinton will win on November 8.

But she will be depressed after, he predicts, in his piece of pol-fict for The New Yorker. (Click here to read the piece):

“Clinton will be as depressed as Nixon was the night of his landslide victory over McGovern, in 1972. Just listen to some of the White House tapes made that evening. In the course of phone conversations with Henry Kissinger and Hubert Humphrey, he sounds more in need of consolation than congratulation. Hillary, too, becomes more herself in defeat than in victory. After winning, her fraud complex, the curse of the compulsive achiever, will kick in, and she will be bitter over the perception that she owes her victory to the mutant candidacy of Trump. Having been denied the chance to run against a mainstream senator or governor, she will worry that defeating the Donald puts another Roger Maris-like asterisk next to her name, like the one next to First Lady—not the most desirable way for the first female President to have begun her ascent to the office.”

I salute Mr Mallon’s storytelling abilities and his imagination. But however old I get I just can’t be cynical enough to believe that someone (other than Donald Trump, that is) can run for president of the United States without seriously wanting, aching, to do the job.

I don’t believe Mrs Clinton will be depressed if she wins. First, she’ll be too busy to feel down. Second, a new job places special responsibilities on the person who has it. Particularly, and this is important, if it will forever be in the history books. Even Mr Mallon acknowledged in the New Yorker podcast on his pol-fict, a Hillary win would erase Bill Clinton from the history books. “In 200 years, the only Clinton children will know will be Hillary”.