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national news, political news

HRC is going to run for president

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Anyone who thought that Hillary Rodham Clinton was going to decide against running for president next year — and IĀ believed that was a possibility — well, you’d better put thoseĀ notions into the trash bin.

It looks as though Clinton is in. Email controversy and all. Criticism from the right and from the far left, too.

She’s in.

http://www.politico.com/story/2015/03/hillary-clinton-atlantic-city-speech-116236.html?hp=c2_3

Clinton gave what everyone in the know says is the last speech she’ll give for money. She spoke to the American Camp Association and collected her usual handsome speaking fee.

After that, it’s done. No more money for speaking. We’re going to hear from the former secretary of state about why she wants to run for president and why she’s the best candidate out there.

Honestly, her political stamina is utterly amazing.

She has been battered almost beyond recognition from the day her husband, Bill, took the oath of office on Jan. 20, 1993. It never let up during President Clinton’s two terms. He got impeached but was acquitted of “high crimes and misdemeanors” by the Senate. When the president left office in January 2001, Hillary took office as a senator from New York, serving with the very people who sought to get her husband kicked out of office; I “predicted” back then she wouldn’t do it … silly me.

Her 2008 presidential campaign was another exercise in political battering. The man who defeated her then named her secretary of state — and she’s been dogged even more by harsh criticism.

Now she’s going for the Big One.

An announcement is expected soon, perhaps within the next month.

This ride will be a rough one.

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Not 'truly well off,' Mme. Secretary?

Hillary Rodham Clinton’s book tour has hit another pot hole on the road to her probable 2016 presidential candidacy.

The former U.S. senator, first lady and secretary state now says she and her family aren’t like the “truly well off.” She means that even though she has lots of money now, she somehow doesn’t qualify as rich the way, well, the really rich people would define the term.

http://onpolitics.usatoday.com/2014/06/22/hillary-clinton-says-shes-not-truly-well-off/

Here’s where Clinton might get into trouble.

Suppose she announces her campaign for president and starts hitting the trail. She runs into her political base of voters, which traditionally comprises working-class, lower- to middle-income, possibly union-affiliated and ethnic minority voters. How is she going to explain to them that she’s not “truly well off”?

For that matter, how is she going to explain that to other Americans of means who believe they’ve done well for themselves and consider their lot in life to be one of relative privilege?

First she said she and her husband, President Clinton, were “dead broke” when they left the White House in January 2001. All they did after that was buy a significant home in New York, where Hillary Clinton was elected to represent in the U.S. Senate. How does a “dead broke” couple secure the financing to make such a purchase?

Poor choice of words there, Mme. Secretary.

Now she’s saying she’s not “well off” the way the mega-rich are?

The Independent newspaper reported: “A CNN analysis found that Bill Clinton earned more than $106 million in speaking fees since the end of his presidency in 2001 through January 2013. Since leaving the State Department early last year, Hillary Rodham Clinton earned as much as $200,000 per event through speaking engagements before trade groups and businesses.”

By my definition of the term “well off,” the Bill and Hillary Clinton fit the bill.

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Perry continues his job-poaching mission

Gov. Rick Perry’s effort to stimulate the Texas economy at the expense of some of the other 50 states in the Union still has me scratching my head.

His latest target is Maryland — which, not coincidentally, is governed by a Democrat, Martin O’Malley. Perry has taken out ads on broadcast media there touting Texas as a place to relocate businesses while also criticizing Maryland as a state that is unfriendly to business.

The Pride of Paint Creek has visited other states, such as California and New York — which also are governed by Democrats — in the hope of luring companies away from those states and toward Texas. He’s used the same tactics in those states as well, telling Californians and New Yorkers, in effect, that they live and work in states that foster horrible business environments.

He had sought to make a foray recently into Missouri, where Gov. Jay Nixon runs things. Did I mention that Nixon also is a Democrat? Gov. Nixon was a bit more forceful in telling Perry to stay away, lambasting the Texas governor for trying to pilfer jobs from the Show Me State. Nixon told Perry that his strategy isn’t very neighborly and he takes great offense at Perry’s effort to bolster his state’s fortunes at others’ expense.

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/09/13/brief-texas-political-news-sept-13-2013/

I’ve long thought that Perry was taking a bit of public-relations gamble with this strategy. I do salute the governor for having Texas’s interests at heart, which is one reason why he’s been so electable here. I cannot fault him for wanting to tout the Texas economy.

I remain troubled, though, by his continued politicization of this economic development strategy. Maybe all those other states need to change their regulatory structure, as Perry suggests. Perhaps they can reduce their tax rates or restructure their incentives to retain business and commerce. Isn’t that their call?

And isn’t enough for the Texas governor merely to say that our state is a great place to do business — citing all those positives of which we all should be proud — without resorting to the denigration of those other places?

I find it a bit curious as well that Perry is so fond of touting states’ individualism, referring often to the Constitution’s 10th Amendment when lambasting what he calls a federal government overreach into state matters. Well, doesn’t that individualism also apply to the way states are governed within their own borders?

Therefore, Rick Perry’s job-poaching strategy is an exercise in hypocrisy.