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Hillary Clinton Tag

Posted by Jay Caruso on April 15, 2015 15 Comments
It's interesting that Hillary Clinton started off her 2016 presidential campaign with a video that showed what appeared to be middle class Americans at a transitional point in their lives. Hillary talked about being a "champion" for them and punctuated her kick-off by going on a road trip to Iowa, stopping at gas stations and eating at Chipotle, like "every day" Americans. While people have been enjoying themselves at Hillary's expense with her road trip and her burrito bowl adventures, the Republican Party is looking to do what Democrats did to Mitt Romney in 2012 and what the GOP did to John Kerry in 2004: Portray Hillary Clinton as an out of touch plutocrat who says all the right things about "the middle class" but cannot possibly relate to their situation. From Politico:
While Hillary Clinton’s residences in New York and Washington may not have car elevators, there’s still a lengthy trail of paid speeches, tone-deaf statements about the family finances and questions about Clinton family foundation fundraising practices that will serve as cornerstones of the anti-Clinton messaging effort. “She’s admitted she hasn’t driven a car for decades; she probably doesn’t ever go into a coffee shop and talk to regular people unless it’s for a staged photo-op,” said American Crossroads CEO Steven Law, alluding to Clinton’s portrayal in her campaign’s launch video on Sunday. “She really has lived the life of a 1-percenter these last several years, and it shows.

Posted by Mike LaChance on April 15, 2015 6 Comments
Uh oh, it looks like a certain someone didn't get the message the first time. Bill de Blasio's effectiveness as the mayor of New York City is open for debate, but his dedication to progressive politics is beyond dispute. The American left adores him, so his reticence to endorse Mrs. Clinton comes as no surprise. Like many people in the Warren Wing of the Democratic Party, he's not quite ready for Hillary. Daniel Halper of the Weekly Standard:
De Blasio Shuns Hillary: 'This Is a Different Country We’re Living in Right Now' New York City mayor Bill de Blasio once again refused to endorse his former boss, Hillary Clinton, in remarks today. "This is a different country we’re living in right now, and I think we need to hear a vision that relates to this tim," de Blasio said. The mayor also suggested that Clinton indeed is a candidate of yesterday. She's "a candidate who has not been in the public eye in this sense for almost eight years, and we're still beginning to hear what she stands for," he said. "It's normal to want to hear more."
Here's the video:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 14, 2015 41 Comments
The Hillary Chipotle story is either one of the most amazing unintended earned-media campaign stories ever, or a contrived set up. Regardless, put points in Team Hillary column. Maggie Haberman at The NY Times broke the story about Hillary's supposedly secret trip to Chipotle on her Scooby trip to Iowa. The story goes like this:
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign is all about “everyday Americans,” she made clear in announcing it on Sunday. On Monday, she showed how unassuming she herself could be. Driving to Iowa for her first campaign swing, Mrs. Clinton’s van — with two aides and Secret Service agents aboard — pulled into a Chipotle restaurant for lunch in Maumee, Ohio, a suburb of Toledo. And no one recognized her. Maybe it was the dark sunglasses. Or maybe she had a certain je ne sais — qui? But nobody took notice of the celebrity in front of the counter. Fellow patrons paid her no more attention than a driver would get from a toll taker. Nor did the restaurant’s staff notice Mrs. Clinton, until this reporter, tipped off that she had dined there, telephoned. The Chipotle manager, Charles Wright, insisted at first that the tip must have been false. But he offered to review his security-camera recordings, and quickly reversed himself. There was Mrs. Clinton, in a bright pink shirt, ordering a chicken burrito bowl — and carrying her own tray. “The thing is, she has these dark sunglasses on,” Mr. Wright said. “She just was another lady.”
Haberman explained in a different column:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 14, 2015 31 Comments
Much in the same way President Obama's campaigns featured a reimagined 'O', Hillary Clinton's bid for the White House includes a reconfigured letter 'H'. The internet though? Less than impressed with the embattled former Secretary's branding effort. Interestingly, it's not just the intrepid photo shoppers who are having a jolly good time at the awkward H's expense. Even The New Yorker was... confused:

Posted by Mike LaChance on April 14, 2015 5 Comments
Wisconsin governor Scott Walker has reacted to Hillary Clinton's unsurprising announcement of her intention to run for president in 2016 by calling her part of the problem. Millaine Wells of We Are Green Bay News:
Gov. Walker reacts to Clinton announcement The field of Presidential hopefuls is growing. Hillary Clinton joined the race over the weekend and an announcement is expected today from Senator Marco Rubio. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is also expected in the field of GOP candidates. But, he has yet to make it official. That is not keeping his name out of the political spotlight. Governor Walker took to Twitter to criticize Hillary Clinton... Governor Scott Walker responded to the Clinton announcement with a flurry of tweets. One says "@HillaryClinton has the same Washington-knows-best mentality people around the country are looking to move beyond". According to Kelley "We hear politicians, new people getting into politics, they want to change it. Especially DC, which is really hard to change even though you have great ideas and great projects it is really hard to change the system".
Watch the video report:

Posted by Amy Miller on April 13, 2015 9 Comments
I'm firmly on Team Hillary Parody 2016. Meaning, I'm definitely a fan of the insultingly hilarious "Candidate Hillary" skits that Saturday Night Live is churning out. This weekend, SNL's Kate McKinnon donned the pantsuit once more to riff on Hillary's Big Presidential Announcement©, and it was pretty great. Watch: Any day I get a bonus reprise of Darrell Hammond as Bill Clinton is a great day, and I'm not ashamed to admit that. But let's not see these skits for anything other than what they are---skits. Why? Because they're not really a sincere attack on Clinton.

Posted by Mike LaChance on April 12, 2015 15 Comments
Carly Fiorina, who is expected to run for president as a Republican in 2016, has taken on the role of taking it to Hillary, particularly on issues related to women. Fiorina is positioned to undermine Hillary's supposed record of accomplishment in a way that male candidates can't because Hillary's operatives are quick to cry sexism. In a swift and frank reaction to Hillary Clinton's presidential announcement, Fiorina pulled no punches, repeating a there we've heard many women say: We want a woman in The White House, but Hillary is not that woman.
"Hillary Clinton's a highly intelligent woman, hardworking, she's dedicated her life to public service but unfortunately she does not have a track record of accomplishment or transparency."
Watch her entire statement on Facebook.

What's my reaction to Hillary Clinton's announcement?

Posted by Carly Fiorina on Sunday, April 12, 2015
Fiorina's career path has been opposite to Hillary's in many ways. James Freeman of the Wall Street Journal:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 12, 2015 38 Comments
Hillary Clinton's campaign has been the subject of intensive packaging, down to image consultants trying to figure out how to present Hillary. It now has been revealed. Meet Hillary 2016. I mean, meet John Podesta, long time Clinton operative, confidant and head of the left-wing Center for American Progress, who made the announcement for Hillary:
Hillary Rodham Clinton will seek the presidency for a second time, one of her top advisers said Sunday, ending two years of speculation and coy denials and immediately establishing herself as the likely 2016 Democratic nominee. The announcement came in emails from John Podesta, Mrs. Clinton’s campaign chairman, to donors and others. “I wanted to make sure you heard it first from me – it’s official: Hillary’s running for president,” the email reads. It goes on to say that Mrs. Clinton will soon meet with voters in Iowa and will host a formal kickoff event some time next month.
This all makes sense.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 12, 2015 23 Comments
Hillary is supposed to announce her presidential run at 3 p.m. Eastern today. In the run up, the notorious Clinton smear machine already is lashing out at critics. NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, a progressive, made a reasonable statement that he wanted to hear more about her vision before he formally endorsed her: The response for Democratic operative Hillary Rosen (who famously disparaged Ann Romney), was a not too thinly veiled threat. Meanwhile, Hillary critics are being smeared as sexist by Democratic operatives at Think Progress and Media Matters:

Posted by Mike LaChance on April 11, 2015 3 Comments
Former Rhode Island governor Lincoln Chafee announced he was forming a presidential exploratory committee last week, and he's wasting no time going after Hillary Clinton. In an appearance on MSNBC's Morning Joe Friday, he suggested that Hillary's vote for the war in Iraq makes her a poor choice for president. Watch: Chafee solves one problem for Democrats by providing Hillary with another challenger but reinforces the idea that the Democratic bench is made up of faces from the past.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on April 11, 2015 22 Comments
Hillary Clinton has a number of hills to climb and unflattering revelations about her character to overcome, but one of the most problematic things that she faces is that no one can seem to name even one accomplishment from her time at State or even from her time in the Senate.  And by "no one" I don't mean republicans, libertarians, or anyone lurking in the darkened corners of the vast right-wing conspiracy, I mean attendees of the Democratic National Convention: The folks at Morning Joe can't think of anything, either:

Posted by Amy Miller on April 10, 2015 8 Comments
Presidential election cycles are exciting times. Normally, we like to focus on the "important issues" facing our candidates---the sorts of things that can really make or break a candidacy like policy, polling numbers, or debate prowess (or lack thereof.) Too often we get wrapped up in the things that actually matter and forget to enjoy the human circus that parades before us for years before the polls finally open, bringing an end to our long national nightmare. Sometimes the best stories are the ones that come about as candidates try---sometimes insultingly, sometimes hilariously---to fit in with voters in different parts of the country. Back in 2007, Hillary Clinton made a campaign stop in Selma, Alabama, and faked what would become the southern accent heard 'round the world:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 09, 2015 11 Comments
A report released today by the International Business Times suggests the Clinton Foundation was indeed a thoroughfare for trading influence and political favors. Unless of course the timing was purely coincidental, IBT's report indicates the Clinton Foundation accepted money from a Colombian oil company while Clinton was serving as Secretary of State. After procuring the donation, Secretary Clinton then decided to support a Colombian trade agreement, though she'd vocally opposed it during the 2008 election cycle. The IBT report found:
For union organizers in Colombia, the dangers of their trade were intensifying. When workers at the country’s largest independent oil company staged a strike in 2011, the Colombian military rounded them up at gunpoint and threatened violence if they failed to disband, according to human rights organizations. Similar intimidation tactics against the workers, say labor leaders, amounted to an everyday feature of life. ...Yet as union leaders and human rights activists conveyed these harrowing reports of violence to then-Secretary of State Clinton in late 2011, urging her to pressure the Colombian government to protect labor organizers, she responded first with silence, these organizers say. The State Department publicly praised Colombia’s progress on human rights, thereby permitting hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid to flow to the same Colombian military that labor activists say helped intimidate workers. At the same time that Clinton's State Department was lauding Colombia’s human rights record, her family was forging a financial relationship with Pacific Rubiales, the sprawling Canadian petroleum company at the center of Colombia’s labor strife. The Clintons were also developing commercial ties with the oil giant’s founder, Canadian financier Frank Giustra, who now occupies a seat on the board of the Clinton Foundation, the family’s global philanthropic empire.

Posted by Mike LaChance on April 07, 2015 10 Comments
General Michael Flynn, the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, appeared on Megyn Kelly's program last night. When asked what the odds are that China, Russia or another country hacked into Hillary Clinton's private email system, he responded "very high." Watch the segment below. The further down this rabbit hole we go, the worse it looks.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 06, 2015 27 Comments
When discussing Hillary Clinton's email and server scandal, I dismissed arguments that the scandal in and of itself would sink Hillary's impending campaign. There are far too many powerful people invested in Hillary for President to let mere paranoid and obsessive control coupled with destruction of evidence stop Hillary. In fact, to Hillary's core supporters, paranoid and obsessive control coupled with destruction of evidence is a feature, not a bug. Rather, I argued that the damage from Emailgate (or is it Servergate or Deletegate?) was in shaping Hillary's image for voters who never knew the Hillary older voters know:
While it’s way too early to assess the overall damage to Hillary Incorporated from the email, now document destruction, scandal, is does appear to be hurting Team Billary in ways that are hard to change: Public perception of a politician. While Billary is dreadfully tiresome and transparently faux in its lack of transparency, to much of the electorate Billary is simply a nice old lady with a grandchild. Well, she does have a grandchild, but that’s about where the nice ends. And that unhappy end product of a secretive, controlling, fear-mongering, basically incompetent presidential candidate is coming into public view and that view may be hard to change.
And there seems to be dramatic movement in that direction, as Hillary's favorability numbers have been dropping steadily.

Posted by Jay Caruso on April 02, 2015 17 Comments
The 2016 election is a little over 18 months away which can be a lifetime in the world of politics. It is assumed by most people Hillary Clinton will be the Democratic nominee. Martin O'Malley may have something to say about that but as it stands at this point, Hillary is the runaway choice to secure the nomination. As for her potential opponents, the GOP field is still being fleshed out with only Ted Cruz making it official. Two other GOP Senators,  Marco Rubio and Rand Paul are expected to announce their candidacies within the next two weeks. Even though it is early, Hillary cannot be too pleased about some recent polling data that shows her numbers falling:
Hillary Clinton's lead over her would-be GOP foes has slipped in three critical swing states as the growing controversy over her email use has dominated coverage of the likely Democratic presidential candidate. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush scrapes past Clinton with a three-point lead, still within the margin of error, in a hypothetical head-to-head matchup in Florida, according to a Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday. Clinton had a one-point edge in the Florida dead heat Quinnipiac reported in early February. The last two months have also erased Clinton's previously double-digit lead over every other potential GOP contender for the presidency in Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Posted by Jay Caruso on April 01, 2015 8 Comments
Martin O'Malley has made it pretty clear that he expects to challenge Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination for President in 2016. While most of the media is frothing over the Indiana/RFRA issue, O'Malley is quietly going around, giving interviews and meeting with people (and likely donors). O'Malley represents a challenge from the left for Hillary that doesn't come with the polarization that accompanies Senator Elizabeth Warren. The Hillary email scandal is not going away as more information drips out every day that contradicts the claims she made in that now famous press conference at the UN. On Tuesday O'Malley was asked about the email scandal and essentially said if she has nothing to hide than she shouldn't have an issue talking about it: https://youtu.be/E89s8ElHry0?t=1m59s
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