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Hillary Clinton, tell us your vision
This is an excerpt from Eugene Robinson's column in todays Washington Post. He's asking Hillary what she would do as Prez. Great column. Great question.
Judging by her weekend appearance in Iowa, it looks as if Hillary Clinton is indeed running for president. Now she has to answer one simple question: Why?
snip
The last time she barnstormed through Iowa, it did not go well. The 2008 caucuses were supposed to ratify her status as the Democratic front-runner and show her challengers the futility of their puny efforts. Instead, she finished third, behind Barack Obama and John Edwards. The Clinton machine lost the air of inevitability that had been its greatest asset — and turned out to lack a compelling message that could compete with Obama’s promise of hope and change.
Now Clinton begins another campaign — perhaps — in which she is seen as the inevitable winner. She has said she will make a firm decision “probably after the first of the year.” But if she has reached the point of dropping broad hints, she needs to begin telling the nation how and why she proposes to lead.
The election of the first woman as president would be a great milestone, but a glance at the headlines — economic and social dislocation at home, terrorism and war abroad — suggests that voters will not likely be in the mood for symbolic gestures. To win the nomination, let alone the general election, Clinton will have to lay out her vision of the way forward.
snip
“Today, you know so well, American families are working harder than ever, but maintaining a middle-class life feels like pushing a boulder uphill every single day,” she said, adding that “we can build a growing economy of shared prosperity.”
If this indicates she is beginning to formulate a populist appeal, she will find that territory already staked out by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — a non-candidate who nevertheless had sign-carrying supporters in the Iowa crowd. Warren’s blistering critique of structural economic inequality is popular with liberal Democrats, some of whom see Clinton as too cozy with Wall Street.
When Warren is asked about her intentions, her standard formulation is “I am not running for president,” using the present tense — which doesn’t definitively rule anything out. It seems likely, in any event, that someone will challenge Clinton from the left.
Centrist pragmatism as a campaign theme? In U.S. politics today, the middle is a dangerous place to be.
snip
The last time she barnstormed through Iowa, it did not go well. The 2008 caucuses were supposed to ratify her status as the Democratic front-runner and show her challengers the futility of their puny efforts. Instead, she finished third, behind Barack Obama and John Edwards. The Clinton machine lost the air of inevitability that had been its greatest asset — and turned out to lack a compelling message that could compete with Obama’s promise of hope and change.
Now Clinton begins another campaign — perhaps — in which she is seen as the inevitable winner. She has said she will make a firm decision “probably after the first of the year.” But if she has reached the point of dropping broad hints, she needs to begin telling the nation how and why she proposes to lead.
The election of the first woman as president would be a great milestone, but a glance at the headlines — economic and social dislocation at home, terrorism and war abroad — suggests that voters will not likely be in the mood for symbolic gestures. To win the nomination, let alone the general election, Clinton will have to lay out her vision of the way forward.
snip
“Today, you know so well, American families are working harder than ever, but maintaining a middle-class life feels like pushing a boulder uphill every single day,” she said, adding that “we can build a growing economy of shared prosperity.”
If this indicates she is beginning to formulate a populist appeal, she will find that territory already staked out by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) — a non-candidate who nevertheless had sign-carrying supporters in the Iowa crowd. Warren’s blistering critique of structural economic inequality is popular with liberal Democrats, some of whom see Clinton as too cozy with Wall Street.
When Warren is asked about her intentions, her standard formulation is “I am not running for president,” using the present tense — which doesn’t definitively rule anything out. It seems likely, in any event, that someone will challenge Clinton from the left.
Centrist pragmatism as a campaign theme? In U.S. politics today, the middle is a dangerous place to be.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eugene-robinson-hillary-clinton-needs-to-tell-americans-her-vision/2014/09/15/b1f39ee4-3d09-11e4-b0ea-8141703bbf6f_story.html?hpid=z3
And on a personal note, if Hillary is our nominee, I'll vote for her. Any Republican in the White House would doom us to many, many more years of hell.
21 replies
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Hillary will receive obscene amounts of money from Corporate America. The people do not have any money to give her.
Corporate America does not throw their money away.
I want to hear what she has to say about the Chained CPI eg.
Is she disputing the lie that SS had ANYTHING to do with the Deficit, or has she made any statement about that most important issue?
Mmm, 'we will address the needs of the people'. That's just me telling you what I intend to do. Don't ask me how thought. 
Oh, boy, am I stoked!
What? No Bilderburg group?
