Tag: hillary clinton

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Politics

Hillary Clinton Beats Bernie Sanders in Nevada

Whatever retooling the Clinton campaign team did after being blown out by Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire, worked… at least in Nevada, as the former Secretary of State was projected the winner of the Democratic Nevada caucus long before the results rolled in.

Clinton prevailed in the third contest of the primary campaign with the backing of women, union workers, minorities and voters who are certain that the former secretary of state will have a better shot of winning in November, according to entrance polls.

Marvin Teske, a 53-year-old security guard at a Reno casino, said he worried that Sanders would have trouble winning in the fall. The Vermont senator largely appeals to white liberals, a relatively narrow swath of the Democratic Party.

“As far as being too far left, I agree with a lot of the stuff he has to say. But the problem I have is that all the stuff he is promising is never going to happen,” Teske said. “I’ve always liked Hillary.”

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Politics

Flint Residents Say Hillary Clinton’s Visit was All About Politics

Some of Flint’s residents have a message for the former Secretary of State and current Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton – don’t use us for your own political gain.

Hillary Clinton visited Flint Michigan on Sunday to bring more attention to the catastrophic water problems caused by Michigan Republican governor, Rick Snyder. Mrs. Clinton would be the first one to say that her visit was not political, but according to some residents, the visit was just another ploy by the Clinton campaign to get votes when Michigan goes to the polls on March 8th.

“I feel blessed to be here but I wish it were for a different reason,” Clinton said, as she took to the stage at the House of Prayer Missionary Baptist Church. “But I am here because for nearly two years mothers and fathers were voicing concerns about the water’s color and its smell, about the rashes that it gave to those that were bathing in it. And for nearly two years Flint was told the water was safe.”

Some however, felt the photo-op moment was just to get votes.

“Don’t jump on a cause just to get votes,” said Flint Lives Matter organiser Calandra Patrick, as Clinton’s jet arrived in town. “It doesn’t matter to me if she makes an appearance or not – it doesn’t matter to me one bit.”

Arnette Rison III, a 47-year-old independent contractor, put Clinton’s visit in starker terms: “If she’s bringing 35,000 hydroelectric filters, I’ll love her for it. But that’s not what she’s about to do.”

At the church, though the topic was serious, the mood was jovial and warm. Clinton stood before a packed audience and spoke emphatically about the moral imperatives of the situation, saying: “The children in Flint are just as precious as the children in any other part of America”.

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Domestic Policies Donald Trump Donald Trump Foreign Policies Healthcare Immigration Reform ISIS Politics

A Political Snow Job

If nothing else, the big blizzard that hit the East Coast is sparing us from some of the oh-so-trite coverage of the presidential election, which actually only gets underway eight days hence.

Governor Christie did make it back to New Jersey for the storm, even though he had originally said that the Lieutenant Governor, Kim Guadagno, could manage the preparations and aftermath well enough. And she probably could, but New Jerseyans elected Christie and we want him to fulfill at least some of his duties before he slinks back here in the spring to either finish out his term or pull a Palin and resign to do his own cable TV insult show. Besides, his brief run up the polls in New Hampshire seems to have stalled and he’s now behind the other so-called moderate or establishment candidates, and far behind Donald Trump in the February 9 primary.

In fact, it’s the other governor, Ohio’s John Kasich, who seems to have caught a bit of a tailwind in the weeks leading up to the first votes. Some of those polls will likely be outliers because they show him with 15 and 20 percent of the vote, but the trend is positive, and that’s what every candidate wants just before the election.  Meanwhile, it’s Marco Rubio who got the De Moines Register‘s coveted (by those who work for newspapers) endorsement, but that only shows that the Register can be just as wrong as the Manchester, NH Union-Leader, who endorsed Christie before the holidays.

And on your left, that’s Bernie Sanders holding an aggregate lead over Hillary Clinton in both Iowa and New Hampshire on the strength of the youth vote, which can be treacherous for any candidate to rely on. These results might hold until February, but in the end I don’t believe that Bernie will be the nominee, and that goes for Trump or Cruz too. There’s a president in both fields, but they don’t have a clear lead in the early states.

Which of course brings us to the next topic which is, what any of these candidates will, or could, do if they are elected. And that’s where things get complicated. When asked about the limits of what they could do as president, only Rand Paul answered questions about executive powers.  Every other candidate–every one–declined to give an answer. Not only is that dangerous, it likely shows quite a bit of ignorance about how our constitutional system works.

First of all, should a Democrat be elected, and that’s the scenario I see, the Republicans will control the House of Representatives, and the Senate will either have a small Democratic or Republican majority, but likely not the 60 vote threshold the parties need to stop a filibuster. That will mean that any of the far left policies that Sanders or Clinton advocate will not see the light of day. Public option health care? Nope. Free public college tuition? Nope. Carbon tax? Nope. Immigration reform with a legal status option? Probably nope. Any Democrat will have to compromise and try, incrementally, to move the system to the left.

But wouldn’t a Sanders win be the result of a massive electoral shift to the left? Yes, absolutely. Which is why he won’t be elected. Such a shift is at least two cycles away.

On the Republican side, if Trump or Cruz wins the election, that would mean that the electorate will have moved decisively to the right, which it hasn’t. So they won’t.

A more moderate GOP candidate would have a friendly House and possibly a small Senate majority. This is a recipe for some serious legislation, but the Democrats would likely filibuster the worst ideas away. It would also mean more tax cuts for the wealthy and a rollback, via the same executive orders the Republicans decry from Obama, of the EPA rules that govern everything from automobile standards to coal plant closings to public land management, fewer limits on Wall Street banks (Hillary might do some of this too), and more limits on women’s health care. Of course, the most ominous event would be the rollback of the ACA, which is a very real possibility.

In such a polarized environment, and I don’t see a decisive shift either way in November, much of what the candidates are saying will not come to pass. Throwing 11 million people out of the country would signal the United States as throwing out its historical legacy and I discount it out-of-hand. The same is true of having the Mexicans building a wall on our border. And none of the far right’s agenda concerning marriage equality, banning and criminalizing abortion and bombing ISIS targets will become law. The Sanders agenda, even if some of it is carried by Hillary, is also unlikely.

My faith in the judgement of the American people leads me to believe that the nominees will not be any of the far right or far left varieties. If it looks like one of them might come out of Iowa and New Hampshire with momentum, I can see a backlash by more moderate voters in the later voting states. It won’t mean that the polls now are wrong, but it will mean that they will shift in what is usually a fluid political environment. The money will flow to the establishment candidates for good and for ill, and by the time this is over the country will have experienced a messy, rocky, changeable, infuriating, frustrating, unsatisfying, but ultimately liberating process.

In short, democracy.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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Barack Obama BLM democrats Domestic Policies Martin Luther King Jr Politics Racial profiling Racism

The Urgency of King’s Message: Forty Eight Years and Counting

I think I’ve found a new, potent source of energy; Martin Luther King, Jr. spinning in his grave over the state of race relations in the country and on the presidential election trail. All we need to do is tap into it and we can power our devices for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, it won’t do much for our national soul.

In the 48 years since his untimely and tragic death, King’s legacy has been begged, borrowed and stolen by those who believe they knew his intentions and by those who wanted them buried along with him. From the start, politicians – mostly on the right, including President Reagan and Senator Jesse Helms – opposed even making King’s birthday a national holiday. Arizona had to be threatened with the ultimate penalty of no Super Bowls, before they would accept the day. It’s also become a favorite day for the NBA to schedule afternoon games, but that seems to be the upper limit on MLK Day commercialization, and that’s a good thing. Those of us who are old enough might remember that January was traditionally the month when retailers would run sales on textiles that they labeled “White Sales.”

Can you imagine?

Over the past few years we’ve witnessed terrible incidents where African-American men, women and children were unjustly killed by the police, unnecessarily fined to the brink of bankruptcy by corrupt public officials, and stopped by the police for reasons that white Americans don’t experience. And what is considered good news for African-Americans, that their rates of narcotics deaths is lower, is tragically caused by racism, as this article recounts:

There is a reason that blacks appear to have been spared the worst of the narcotic epidemic, said Dr. Andrew Kolodny, a drug abuse expert. Studies have found that doctors are much more reluctant to prescribe painkillers to minority patients, worrying that they might sell them or become addicted.
“The answer is that racial stereotypes are protecting these patients from the addiction epidemic,” said Dr. Kolodny, a senior scientist at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University and chief medical officer for Phoenix House Foundation, a national drug and alcohol treatment company.

On the campaign trail, the Republicans continue to express their outrage that minorities are not working because white tax money is easily available to them in the form of public assistance and unemployment benefits. Their fealty to Donald Trump’s immigration scheme will doom them with a majority of Hispanic voters and they can’t win the White House with only White Votes. Their opposition to a fair minimum wage, infrastructure projects, labor collective bargaining rights and public schools really doesn’t allow for any middle class group to support them, much less those who have traditionally been marginalized in American society.

On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders is making his move in Iowa and New Hampshire and is now trying to appeal more to African-Americans, a group that Hillary Clinton has always done well with. Both of them have had problems with Black Lives Matter and their relative success could come down to the minority vote in southern states and northern cities. The Democrats cannot take the African-American vote for granted because the party has controlled many cities over the years, yet the schools have not improved, housing has not become more affordable, the minimum wage hasn’t helped and many jobs have fled the country.

Barack Obama’s election will have a lasting effect on this country, even as he is the victim of both overt and subtle racism on the part of many of his opponents. That he has served this country with distinction, morality, forthrightness and a stubborn streak that has forced his opposition to argue against fair treatment of all people, makes him a worthy representative of King’s legacy.

And this is why we need to have a holiday for Martin Luther King. It’s here to remind us that we will never live up to the true meaning of our founding documents as long as we treat people differently under the law, in the workplace and schools, and, most importantly, in our heads and hearts. I would urge you to add to your resolutions to lose weight and make more money, one that includes an action, an attitude change, or a commitment to act in King’s spirit and honor his words.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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Iowa Politics

Bernie Sanders Increases lead in Iowa and New Hampshire

It is Sunday and another secret Democratic debate will begin hours from now. But if having these secret debates at all weird hours of the night was a tactic by the DNC to favor the better known Hillary Clinton while keeping the lesser known Bernie Sanders away from the masses, then this has been a colossal failure on the DNC.

A Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday showed Sanders with a five-percentage-point lead over Clinton, 49% to 44%.

The latest poll suggests a stark difference from a month ago where Clinton held an 11 percentage point lead over Sanders. Quinnipiac’s survey found that voters in Iowa, where caucuses are held on Feb. 1, see Sanders as more honest and more empathetic than Cliton who, however, is seen by voters as more electable than Sanders in a general election and stronger on foreign policy.

“Iowa may well become Sen. Bernie Sanders’ ‘Field of Dreams,’ Peter A. Brown, the assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, said in a statement. “After three months of Secretary Hillary Clinton holding an average 10-point lead among Iowa Democrats, the playing field has changed.”

If Sanders beats Clinton in Iowa, it would be a surprise given her deep support among Iowa’s Democratic establishment. It would also likely draw comparisons to Clinton’s 2008 presidential run. In the caucuses that year, then-senator Barack Obama beat Clinton and former Sen. John Edwards, largely due to the support of first-time caucus-goers.

A win for Sanders in Iowa would give him a boost headed into New Hampshire’s Feb. 9 primary. Sanders, who represents the neighboring state of Vermont, continues to hold a slight lead in the polls there.

A Monmouth University poll released Tuesday found Sanders leading Clinton in New Hampshire, 53% to 39%. 

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Chelsea Clinton Politics

Democratic Strategist – Clinton Camp “got to be freaking out” Over Bernie Surge

The former First Daughter went on the attack against her mom’s Democratic opponent, Sen Bernie Sanders, saying that Bernie’s healthcare proposal would “dismantle” Obamacare. The attack is a sure sign that things are not okay in the Clinton camp, according to some Democratic strategists.

Making her first solo appearance on the stump, Chelsea Clinton late Tuesday ripped Sanders over his proposals on healthcare and college affordability, arguing the White House hopeful wants to “dismantle” ObamaCare and Medicare.

Democrats have almost universally panned the attack, believing it to be ineffective and a misuse of her talents.

They note that Chelsea Clinton has mostly been used to highlight Hillary Clinton’s softer side as a mother and grandmother and say she seemed uncomfortable shedding her first daughter persona for the role of attack dog.

“The thing that tells you as much as anything about [the Clinton campaign’s] current state of mind is Chelsea going on the attack. It tells you everything you need to know,” said one Democratic strategist. “That this [challenge from Sanders] is real and they’ve got to be freaking out.”

The attack caught many Democrats, including Sanders and his supporters, by surprise.

Following Tuesday night’s State of the Union address, CNN played the clip of Chelsea Clinton’s criticism directly to Sanders. The Vermont senator held back a wry smile as he offered a measured rebuke of Chelsea, who is nearly 40 years his junior.

“As much as I admire Chelsea, she didn’t read the plan,” he said.

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Politics

Hillary Clinton is Feeling The Bern

With Bernie Sanders increasing his lead over Clinton in New Hampshire and overtaking her in Iowa, Hillary Clinton is frantically  doing the media talk show blitz at an alarming rate. Her goal? To tell everyone that all is well. No need to worry, she got this!

In other words it’s safe to say that Hillary Clinton is Feeling The Bern

Clinton played notoriously hard-to-get during the first phase of her campaign — so much so that it was considered breaking news when she agreed to a sit-down interview with CNN.

But over the past 10 days, she has appeared no fewer than nine times on five major networks — CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC and MSNBC, including live three morning-show appearances Wednesday. The former secretary of state has averaged one interview a day since Friday, Jan. 8, when she called into MSNBC’s “Hardball.” Three days earlier, she also appeared in an extensive sit-down interview with “Hardball” host Chris Matthews. And the appearances don’t seem to be slowing down: She’ll appear on NBC’s “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon” and sit down with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow on Thursday, all at the same time her campaign looks to get a boost amid sagging poll numbers.

Before the crack of dawn on Wednesday, Clinton rose to assure George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s “Good Morning America” in person that she was not concerned—that, despite Bernie Sanders’ blazing poll numbers, despite the fact that he overtook her in Iowa and opened up a comfortable double-digit lead in New Hampshire, despite the fact Sanders hours earlier had disputed her daughter Chelsea’s assertion that he wanted to scrap Obamacare entirely, despite the fact that the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary are mere weeks away, the Clinton campaign is not sweating the challenge. And then she appeared on NBC’s “Today” with Savannah Guthrie, again rejecting the notion that her campaign is suddenly feeling pressure from Sanders. An hour later, Clinton fielded similar questions from the co-hosts of “CBS This Morning.”

Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/hillary-clinton-bernie-sanders-2016-217711#ixzz3xEClrDCT

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Iowa Politics

Poll – Bernie Sanders Now Leads in Iowa AND New Hampshire

Bernie Sanders just keep chipping and chipping and chipping away at what seemed to be an almost insurmountable lead for Hillary Clinton in Iowa, and if this new Quinnipiac poll is to be believed, Hillary Clinton should worry.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders wins the support of 49 percent of likely Democratic Caucus participants, with 44 percent for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and 4 percent for former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released today.

This compares to the results of a December 15 survey by the independent Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pe-ack) University showing Clinton at 51 percent, with 40 percent for Sanders.

Today, 3 percent are undecided and only 20 percent of those who name a candidate say they might change their mind.

There is a yawning gender gap as men back Sanders 61 – 30 percent, with 6 percent for O’Malley, while women back Clinton 55 – 39 percent, with 3 percent for O’Malley.

Sanders also has a big lead on favorability as likely Democratic Caucus participants give him an 87 – 3 percent favorability rating, compared to Clinton’s 74 – 21 percent score.

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Politics

VP Joe Biden Praises Bernie Sanders on Fighting for the Middle Class

The Vice President was interviewed on Monday and said that Bernie Sanders has fought against income inequality for years. The Vice President also said that the income inequality fight is “relatively new” for Hillary Clinton, as she has used her time to focus on “other things.”

“Bernie is speaking to a yearning that is deep and real and he has credibility on it,” Biden said. “And that is the absolute enormous concentration of wealth in a small group of people with the new class now being able to be shown being left out.”

He said Clinton, who is campaigning in Iowa on Tuesday, had not focused on income inequality as long.

“It’s relatively new for Hillary to talk about that,” Biden said. “Hillary’s focus has been other things up to now and that’s been Bernie’s. No one questions Bernie’s authenticity on those issues.”

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Donald Trump Politics terrorist video

CNN Host Blames Hillary Clinton for Trump’s Terrorist Recruiting Video

Donald Trump’s image and words are being used in a terror recruitment video, and of course, like expected, it’s all Hillary’s fault. She caused Donald Trump to say the things he said and she caused Donald Trump to do the things he did.

Remember when Donald Trump proposed banning all Muslims from coming to the United States, well a terror group has used Trump’s words in a video, telling possible converts to either leave America, or stay back and fight. Asked about the new video, a guest on CNN put the blame squarely on the shoulder of Hillary Clinton.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD (HOST): Let me begin with you, Ben, on that and how this video by Al-Shabaab may in any way influence what is or is not said on the campaign trail.

BEN FERGUSON: Yeah, I don’t think it will influence the election in any capacity. I mean if anything, they got their idea from Hillary Clinton when she mentioned putting Donald Trump in a video.

[…]

ISIS, Al-Shabaab and other terrorists like this, they understand social media. They understand how to get media attention. As soon as that was said, I’m sure they said, “that’s a great idea. Let’s throw Donald Trump in there. We’ll get even more publicity because of this, we’ll get to bring Hillary Clinton into this.” And it worked well for them.

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Featured Politics

Republican Congresswoman Shut Down by Hillary Clinton – Video

A Republican congresswoman decided to attend a Hillary Clinton event and continuously interrupted the Democratic Presidential candidate with important about her stance on domestic and foreign policies.

Yea right. I said a “Republican congressman,” so if you really thought important policy questions were on her mind at the Clinton event, then I have a bridge to sell you.

The congresswoman, Rep. Katherin Prudhomme O’Brien, showed up and wanted to know about Bill Clinton’s sex life, a topic so important to her that she constantly bombarded the presidential candidate with questions to the point where Mrs Clinton called her “rude” and informed her that such disruptive outbursts will not be tolerated.

Video

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Donald Trump Donald Trump News Politics

It’s 2016: Do You Know Where Your Candidates Are?

Is there really a president in this bunch? And I’m not just talking about the Republicans either.

While none of the GOP candidates thrill me at all for various reasons, I find myself also looking critically at the Democrats and asking if this really is the best we can do. Of course, Americans generally ask this question every four years when looking for a candidate they’re passionate about, like Ronald Reagan or Barack Obama. Neither of those guys will be on the ballot this year.

Instead, we have a group of Republicans who are falling over each other to appeal to a shrinking pool of older white voters who somehow want the country to revert back to 1953, when men were men, women were supposed to be in the home and minorities were supposed to be in the back of the bus or in the fields picking our fruits and vegetables. Those days are not coming back for a very good reason. The problem is that the GOP candidates don’t see it. Donald Trump is the commander in chief of this cabal, but his greatest support will turn out to be a Potemkin village full of people who say they love their candidate but do not come out and vote in numbers enough to elect him. Which is a good thing.

The other Republican candidates are just as flawed, and getting flawedier as time goes on. Trump has set the tone on immigration and religious intolerance, and the rest of the field has gone along with him, except for Jeb Bush. But he doesn’t seem to matter these days, because the last person the party wants to see at the head of the ticket is another Bush. Not that Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Chris Christie or John Kasich are doing any better.

Most of them deny any human hand in the changing climate and support various, intrusive policies for women who just want to get honest, impartial medical advice from their doctors. They’ve also come up with foreign policies that riff on bombings and sending American soldiers overseas without considering that other countries can do this work with limited US reserves. ISIS is a deadly threat, but sustained pressure from the sane Muslim world will go a long way towards turning the tables on them. We need to support that.

What strikes me particularly about the Republican candidates is that the two with arguably the best records in their previous jobs are Governors Bush and Kasich, and they seem to be having trouble breaking through the irresponsible and dangerous rantings of those above them in the polls. Aside from those two, none of the other candidates has done anything notable, and that includes Christie, who asked the New Jersey Supreme Court to declare his one great accomplishment – public worker pension and benefit reform – as unconstitutional. And it did.

And if the spotlight ever turns on Christie because of a win in New Hampshire, his abysmal handling of the New Jersey economy will not endear him to economic conservatives. Similarly, Cruz, Rubio, Paul, Carson and Fiorina do not have a signature accomplishment to run on. And perhaps that doesn’t matter: Mitt Romney did have an accomplishment in health care, but he ran faster than Usain Bolt away from it. Go figure.

As for the Democrats, Hillary is still faced with the drip drip of government e-mails being purged from her home server and she is less than stellar on the campaign trail. Bernie Sanders has the heart and passion, but his time was 1972, not 2016. The country is not ready to turn around and elect someone with his views, and if he’s nominated (which he won’t be) the Democrats will lose.

Don’t get me wrong here; I believe that Hillary Clinton will be elected president in November and that she will do a fine job in the White House. It’s just that the campaign’s tone has focused on what makes us weak and though they try, none of the candidates is an uplifting presence who is telling us what they see as the future of this country. Perhaps that will come in the summer. But in the meantime, it’s going to be a long winter.

For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives or Twitter @rigrundfest

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