Hillary Clinton

[Janett_Reno]

Hillary Clinton

http://www.thenation.com/docprint.mh...1126&s=chesler

The stakes could not be higher. The treacherous reign of Bush-Cheney has seriously weakened our democracy. To the "war on terror" we have been asked to sacrifice fundamental human rights and civil liberties. Meanwhile, a newly conservative Supreme Court majority ruthlessly guts longstanding state obligations to protect equal rights and expand opportunity. Abroad, the good will America briefly enjoyed after 9/11 has been squandered by Bush's cowboy diplomacy.

Democrats must win in 2008. We must take back the White House with a candidate who adheres to core progressive principles but is also able to build coalitions and sustain majorities across ideological and partisan divides--first to win and then to govern successfully.

Hillary Clinton is that candidate. She is intelligent, energetic and disciplined. She has shown herself to be warm and likable. She has turned an interminable campaign into an asset through effective campaigning and six stellar debate performances. She stumbled momentarily in the seventh round under withering personal attack by six angry men. Next time out, she will definitely need those flashy boxing gloves her AFSCME endorsers provided afterward.

But she will prevail, just as she did in her Senate races, the second of which she won with an astonishing 67 percent of the vote, taking thirty-seven of the forty-one "red" counties in New York that George W. Bush carried two years earlier. Indeed, she may be the most electable of the Democrats--and not because she "stands for nothing," as the chattering classes often allege. Rather, Clinton wonkishly acknowledges the complexity of issues and modestly admits to not having all the answers. She has learned to respect people with whom she disagrees and to succeed within a system that requires compromise. She works hard and exudes competence and integrity. Ordinary voters, and especially independent women whose swing votes will determine the outcome of this election, find this a relief. They are tired of overweening ego and bluster in politics. These women, along with disenchanted Republicans and many others who have never voted before but are registering in large numbers this time, will provide the margin of her victory.

But what of Clinton's core convictions? A common canard, often repeated in these pages, is that she's not a true progressive. But actions speak louder than words. Her voting record measures up well on scorecards compiled by the major-labor unions, the ACLU, Americans for Democratic Action, Planned Parenthood and other progressive organizations.

Indeed, Clinton has been an outspoken advocate for raising the minimum wage. Though a longtime supporter of free trade, she endorses policies that enforce stronger labor and environmental standards abroad, and she voted against the Central American Free Trade Agreement. Her green energy agenda, partially financed by taking away tax breaks for oil companies, will create thousands of jobs. With nearly half the labor force now women, she is leading efforts to achieve pay equity. Influential as First Lady in passing the Family and Medical Leave Act, she now proposes paid leave and greater workplace flexibility. She supports universal preschool education. Pushing tax fairness, she announced early on that she would crack down on loopholes for Wall Street fund managers.

Universal healthcare is, of course, her signature issue. Her plan ends Bush-era tax breaks to the very rich in order to expand Congress's own healthcare plan to cover the country's nearly 50 million uninsured, while leaving in place private options for those content with what they already have. Her proposal builds in important regulations on private insurers--capping administrative costs and prohibiting cherry-picking on the basis of pre-existing conditions, genetic testing or other forms of discrimination. As First Lady, she lobbied intensely for S-CHIP, which provides health coverage to children in poor working families. As a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, she fashioned a bipartisan consensus to expand health coverage to uninsured veterans and their families.

Understandably sensitive to concerns about security, Clinton argues nonetheless that we can be safe and free. She led Democrats in the fight to restore habeas corpus rights to Guantánamo detainees held under the Military Commissions Act of 2006. Cajoling votes on both sides of the aisle, she came within several votes of beating back last year's legislation, winning praise from the Center for Constitutional Rights.

Clinton deserves special praise for her impassioned opposition to Supreme Court nominees John Roberts and Samuel Alito and to Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey. She's inventively exposed the Bush Administration's assault on scientific integrity in evaluating stem cells, abstinence-only sex education, emergency contraception and abortion. By placing a hold on confirmation of the President's FDA appointee, she was able to gain over-the-counter access for the morning-after pill.

Some progressives cannot forgive her Iraq War vote, no matter how forcefully she now condemns the futility of the American effort and calls for a responsible withdrawal of our troops. Today we need to concentrate on how to exit Iraq and engage the UN in restoring order to the country. We need to address the Herculean task of returning professionalism and integrity to our own battered diplomatic and intelligence agencies and to our military. Clinton has the experience and stature to lead in the diplomatic talks she endorses with states like Iran and North Korea. She will restore our once-proud leadership in global efforts to alleviate poverty, promote health and sustain the environment. Recent clamor over a nonbinding resolution on Iran--which most Democrats supported and Barack Obama did not even vote on--should be understood as little more than disingenuous political theater.

And one more thing. I am supporting Hillary Clinton because I think she is the best candidate for this job, but I shamelessly want her to win because she is a woman. Obama tells me to get over my baby boomer fixations, but I look at the Supreme Court today, and I say not yet. I came of age in the 1960s and have spent a lifetime advancing women's rights and opportunities. Nothing will give me more confidence that those efforts are secure than to have Hillary Clinton choose my next Justice.

[Underdog]

Clinton gets her money from the same people/corporations that Bush does.... I bet she gives them the same results too...

[FishForLunch]

If the Nation magazine endorses her she must be a flaming liberal. How long do you think it will be before she moves from the center to the left once she is elected president

[Janett_Reno]

You will see someone that will do much better with foreign policy. The world does not like cowboy style politics, do it my way(W, Chains and Ramsfield) or we might just invade you. We have to get allies back, friends back. We must stop run away spending as this adm has thrown so much money away and made us slaves to China. Bring jobs to the USA. Get us off Harken, Haliburton oil. Do not let big oil control us but let the people control big oil. Get W, Chains, Rudy out who has stripped the clean air act, for more polluted lakes, oceans, water ways and pump more toxins in the air. To someone that had put restrictions on them.

His name was Bill Clinton and big oil did not like it. They said my way or no way and Bill stood up against them. Hillary will do the same and Rudy is the same as the weasel we have in. A sell out and anything for money. How much? That is a sell out.

Healthcare, people uninsured, illegals that this adm cares nothing about. Put people back to work in the USA. I want my tax dollars going to the people of the usa and not to China. If Republicans or neocons want to be commis, let them move to China.

Let's get back to faith and values. You know, alot like how christians live and act. Not like a Larry Craig, Tom Foley, David Vitter or other Republicans want to live or for that matter even Ted Haggard who preaches for the Republicans, you know christian values that believes in homo sex in the street while married and street drugs. I am talking real faith and values and not a hypocrite Republican. Someone that will help the troops. Someone that will fund or vets. Not someone that puts our troops and vets in a swiftboat and sends them down the river with no paddle, like this adm does and is doing.

Want to talk about morals? It sure isn't in the neocon party. The sooner the better is what i say when Hillary is elected. Give us our freedoms back, our faith and values, our morals. Help is on the way and it isn't shoot em up big oil and cowboy style either.

[dude1394]

Funny about the "world" isn't it. France---Pro US prez, Germany -- Pro US prez.., Britain -- Pro-US Prez, Canada--Pro US Prez....

Libya- no wmds, N.Korea-no wmds, Saddamm- DEAD...

Be careful how quick you are trying to speak for the "world".

[dude1394]

This one's rich today. Michael Kinsley is trying to parlay Clintons' time as first lady into experience enough for the presidency.

Hillary Clinton declared the other day -- apropos of whom, she didn't say, or need to -- "We can't afford on-the-job training for our next president." Barack Obama immediately retorted, "My understanding is that she wasn't Treasury secretary in the Clinton administration. I don't know exactly what experience she's claiming." As wit, that round goes to Obama. Clinton was elected to the Senate in 2000, her first experience of public office. Obama was an Illinois state senator for seven years before being elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004. In terms of experience in elective office, this seems to be a wash.

I guess Laura Bush should run next. Funny...

[kg_veteran]

It's annoying to me when liberals refer to the "reign" of Bush-Cheney. We don't have a monarchy. I saw the same sort of headline this morning from the AP regarding the end of the "rein (sic) of Howard" in Australia.

[dude1394]

Me too KG...as soon as I read that I know I've found someone who's opinon is not to be taken seriously. So I don't and won't.

[FishForLunch]

Get used to the word reign, if Hillary becomes the President. She will rule like a queen.

[kg_veteran]