Hillary Clintons coal gaffe is a microcosm of her twisted treatment by the media

[ehrnst]

Back in March 2016, at a Democratic town hall in Ohio, Hillary Clinton made what was probably the best-known “gaffe” of her campaign. As part of an answer on energy policy, she said, “We're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” This was immediately taken as a sign of her hostility to the working class and a confirmation of Democrats’ “war on coal.”

She now calls it the comment she regrets most, devoting an entire chapter to it in her new book What Happened. “The point I had wanted to make,” she writes, “was the exact opposite of how it came out.” She “felt absolutely sick about the whole thing.” (Ken Ward Jr. has some good excerpts from the chapter on his blog.)

Clinton was asked what she would do to support working-class voters who typically vote Republican. Here, for the record, is her full answer:

Instead of dividing people the way Donald Trump does, let’s reunite around politics that will bring jobs and opportunities to all these under-served poor communities. So, for example, I’m the only candidate who has a policy about how to bring economic opportunity using clean renewable energy as the key into coal country. Because we’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business, right, Tim? [Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) was in the audience.]

And we’re going to make it clear that we don’t want to forget those people. Those people labored in those mines for generations, losing their health, often losing their lives to turn on our lights and power our factories. Now we’ve got to move away from coal and all the other fossil fuels, but I don’t want to move away from the people who did the best they could to produce energy that we relied on.

If all you knew about Hillary Clinton was these two paragraphs, there might be some legitimate doubt about what she meant in the offending sentence.

https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/9/15/16306158/hillary-clinton-hall-of-mirrors

[janterry]

1. I like Hillary

but this is a universal reporting problem. And, therefore, it's something she could have anticipated. Frankly, her best bet was to sit down and talk to the miners and ask them what they thought. Do they want to be retrained? Do they think coal is coming back?

There must have been a better way to communicate this?

All of us (as democrats) should learn this lesson and go talk to these folks. They KNOW coal isn't coming back and they want help. We just need to ask their opinion, first. And have a dialogue.

[ehrnst]

3. So it's her fault for not anticipating this?

Like everyone said about Obama when his statement, "you didn't build that," got twisted?

[janterry]

5. well, she said it was her mistake

it came out wrong.

I'm not a politician and I have no idea how to communicate nationally. But when I make a mistake, I have to own it and go directly to the folks that I 'did wrong' by.

Anyway, my point isn't to drag her down. She made a mistake. It's how we can communicate better as democrats to folks that should really want to hear our solutions (they are good ones!)

[ehrnst]

21. Ah, thanks for the clarification

[Volaris]

2. I don't think we should back away from that.

I think when asked if that was a gaff her response should have been
'HELL NO. That's EXACTLY where coal should be put and anyone who isn't an abject moron knows it. And if it happens that action will affect you or yours, then you'll be duly compensated by the DEMOCRATIC LED government whether you voted for us or not. TRY get the GOP to help you and good damn luck with that'

These people are terrified of the future. If we're afraid of THEM because of it, we're all screwed. WE know better, so WE'RE the ones that have to stop, for us AND them.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

6. Coal plants are the #1 cause of global warming... why wouldn't we want to put them out of business?

[Madam45for2923]

4. Yep I had someone use that line in response to me here last week or so.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10029574419#post91

0. Hillary Clintons coal gaffe is a microcosm of her twisted treatment by the media

Back in March 2016, at a Democratic town hall in Ohio, Hillary Clinton made what was probably the best-known “gaffe” of her campaign. As part of an answer on energy policy, she said, “We're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” This was immediately taken as a sign of her hostility to the working class and a confirmation of Democrats’ “war on coal.”

She now calls it the comment she regrets most, devoting an entire chapter to it in her new book What Happened. “The point I had wanted to make,” she writes, “was the exact opposite of how it came out.” She “felt absolutely sick about the whole thing.” (Ken Ward Jr. has some good excerpts from the chapter on his blog.)

Clinton was asked what she would do to support working-class voters who typically vote Republican. Here, for the record, is her full answer:

Instead of dividing people the way Donald Trump does, let’s reunite around politics that will bring jobs and opportunities to all these under-served poor communities. So, for example, I’m the only candidate who has a policy about how to bring economic opportunity using clean renewable energy as the key into coal country. Because we’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business, right, Tim? [Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) was in the audience.]

And we’re going to make it clear that we don’t want to forget those people. Those people labored in those mines for generations, losing their health, often losing their lives to turn on our lights and power our factories. Now we’ve got to move away from coal and all the other fossil fuels, but I don’t want to move away from the people who did the best they could to produce energy that we relied on.


If all you knew about Hillary Clinton was these two paragraphs, there might be some legitimate doubt about what she meant in the offending sentence.


https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/9/15/16306158/hillary-clinton-hall-of-mirrors

[Eliot Rosewater]

8. Anyone who would have that quote at their fingertips to criticize Hillary

is someone I dont want to interact with here or anywhere.

Putting them out of business is the most important thing one could do as to coal, and the jobs they would have received as a result would be better in every way.

[ehrnst]

13. There are people who require "hope" and something to "rally around" even if it's a false hope.

See also "MEDICARE FOR ALL!!!"

[m-lekktor]

15. you are wrong to imply "medicare for all" is a false hope.

Sad to see that view pushed on a "progressive" site but i think we all know why that is happening.

[ehrnst]

17. No, I'm not wrong.

What is wrong is confusing "Medicare for All" with "Universal Health Coverage" which is what is being done now, when it's only one of many ways to get to Universal Health Care coverage.

I think it's far more progressive to advocate for Universal Health Care coverage to be implemented in the most realistic and quick way possible, according to those who are experts in the field, over that which is proposed by those running for higher office.

Which is not M4A.

That has become dogma, as your post indicates. That sort of thinking is at fault behind the GOP dogma that closing Planned Parenthood will stop abortions and save money. It seems simple, but reality indicates otherwise. It does give voters something to rally behind, especially if you get people demonizing PP as corrupt.

Families USA is a progressive org, and this is a very good overview of the situation:

https://www.vox.com/the-big-idea/2017/9/8/16271888/health-care-single-payer-aca-democratic-agenda

[LonePirate]

7. We need a war on coal for the sake of the planet. Her only mistake here was not going far enough.

[ehrnst]

18. But we've seen how people want to be told and will believe that there's an easy fix to any problem.

Right here on DU...

[nolabear]

9. It's the same as "you didn't build that."

It was clear to anybody who listened that Obama was talking not about the businesses but the infrastructure that provided support for them. But the press let that be misquoted again and again and again...

[StevieM]

10. The media has kept up with their false reporting since the book came out. They make it sound

like she was admitting to having said what she was accused of and that it was exactly like what it sounded. They haven't been reporting that she was trying clarify what she meant.

[aikoaiko]

11. To the coal miners, the context doesn't matter at all.

From the point of view of the coal miner, it personalized. We (Hillary and Tim) are going to take your job, make life hard for you and your family, and, at best, make you learn a new job where you'll be entry level, but we won't forget you.

When it's your kids' college tuition, your household bills, your mortgage, and your car payment, bringing "economic opportunity using clean renewable energy as the key into coal country" doesn't really cut it.

To be fair, this was a very difficult rhetorical road to go down. Not many people could pull it off.

[ehrnst]

14. Looking back, maybe she should have just said, "Reversing the TPP will bring your jobs back."

Because apparently if being honest with people "doesn't give them something to rally around" and you just say it's possible anyway, and accuse anyone else who disagrees with you of being corrupt, then you are called a visionary....

[aikoaiko]

19. There's that and then there is just not saying that line.

Those two paragraphs work pretty well without that line.

Addressing energy jobs in WV is really very difficult rhetorical work.

[ehrnst]

20. Yes, when she does speak from the heart, and the head, she's castigated.

When she measures her words, she's "fake" and "lying."

Obama could not brush off that issue. If he had been as prepared as HRC always was, he might have said something like this:

"Under the current system, no one is guaranteed their doctor, if they have coverage through their employer. Your employer may decide to change policies to one where your doctor isn't in network, or your doctor may choose to leave the network you are in. Your employer will still have that capacity to determine whether or not you keep your plan."

But that doesn't instill the "hope" in those that wanted it to be true about the ACA.

Misrepresenting something is where Politicians stray to get support.

[ismnotwasm]

12. Every fucking thing she said or says is ripped apart

Turned into memes, made in "proof Hillary lies" videos, taken out of context, twisted to mean the exact opposite of her intent--the attempts and continuing attempts to verbally frame her are unprecedented.

It was done by people who you'd think would know better, it was done by allies, by enemies, it was done callously, for specific results, it was done by opportunists, by the obtuse, it was done from so many directions that honest and productive criticism was actually hard to come by. It was sexist bullshit. It was bullshit then, and its bullshit now, and if my political gage is anything to go by, the winds have changed just a tad--so that it's going to be a bit more difficult to vomit out any kind of nonsense about Hillary Clinton without a whole lot of pushback from very, very pissed off people.

[oasis]

16. 100% that.