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Posts Tagged ‘Hillary Clinton’
May 29th, 2010 at 11:28 am
Bubba Backs Blanche

Fresh off revelations over his involvement in Sestak-gate, former president Bill Clinton pounded the podium yesterday in support of a fellow member of the Democratic Party’s endangered species: moderates.  Senator Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) is facing a tough run-off against the sitting Lt. Governor who is allied with a vast leftwing conspiracy to make an example out of the on again, off again liberal.

And Bill Clinton doesn’t like it.

Playing on both local pride and a wariness of outside influence, he suggested voters would be mere pawns for an agenda of party purification if they opposed Lincoln.

“If you want to be used that way, have at it,’ he said to about 200 Democrats at Philander Smith College, speaking without notes for 20 minutes

With a detailed recitation of Lincoln’s work on behalf of Arkansas down to the jobs she saved at a manufacturer in Ft. Smith, Clinton exhorted voters to not direct their discontent at her.

Good luck with that.  Of all the endangered political species this election cycle, none seems as likely for a population reduction than “moderate” Democrats.  Liberals, like conservatives, like politicians who take a consistent ideological stand for issues.  Too often being a “moderate” is just code for policymaking as situational ethics.  If Clinton fails to push Lincoln over the 50% mark, he’ll be on the hook for letting down yet another female senator seeking federal office (his wife Hillary being the other).  With Obama 0-for-3 in hotly contested races, that means Democrats running for reelection in 2010 will have to look to someone other than the two most recent Democratic presidents to gin up enough support to get a win on Election Day.

Is Jimmy Carter available?

H/T: Politico

May 14th, 2010 at 9:30 am
Hillary Clinton Won’t Abandon Afghan Women
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On May 13, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pledged that the U.S. would not abandon women’s rights and women’s opportunities if there is Afghan reconciliation with the Taliban to end the war.  “We will not abandon you, we will stand with you always,” she said.

Hey lady, why don’t you say that standing in your Oscar de la Renta pantsuit in the middle of Kandahar?  No?  We didn’t think so.

April 29th, 2010 at 12:05 pm
Checking in on Hillary Clinton

Ever wonder how losing presidential campaigns pay off their bills, and keep staff afloat?  Well, Kenneth P. Vogel and Laura Rozen at Politico provide a detailed summary of how the myriad of organizations connected to Hillary Clinton’s political career are paying down her debts.

It can take years for big campaign committees — particularly presidential ones — to wind down operations, settle outstanding bills and deal with sometimes costly legal issues, all of which requires committees to keep cash in the bank. Clinton’s campaign finished the presidential race in bad shape, carrying an embarrassing $7.6 million in debt that could have hampered any future political maneuverings.

But a report filed this month with the FEC shows that at the end of March, Clinton’s presidential campaign had paid back all but $771,000 of that debt (which is still owed to her presidential campaign pollster Mark Penn), and had an impressive $624,000 in the bank, thanks mostly to hefty rental fees paid by No Limits and other groups to rent Clinton’s e-mail list since she became the nation’s top diplomat last year.

No doubt Clinton’s name recognition and multi-decade career in the national spotlight give her loyalists access to financial resources that few other politicians could tap.  Too bad the donors eliminating Clinton’s debt aren’t matching those contributions with extra donations to the Treasury Department to help soften the impact of her boss’s spending spree.

December 7th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
Obama: The Admonisher-in-Chief

Remember when then presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said that while Obama’s likening himself to Martin Luther King, Jr., was nice, it was really President Lyndon Johnson who changed civil rights from a rhetorical dream into legislative reality?  As usual, Clinton was criticized for speaking truth in public.  But her observation – and comparison – still rings true today.

Flash forward to President Obama’s remarks to Senate Democrats on Sunday.  While his midday sermon was long on admonishments to find common ground, it didn’t give any direction on how on to find it.  The lack of setting down definitions or benchmarks for success, or even support for moderates needing a safe harbor during tough re-election campaigns, indicates that Obama has no clue how to line up 60 votes in his own caucus.  LBJ never seemed to have that problem.  Hillary Clinton’s recognition of this indicates she may have learned more from her failures as First Lady health czar than Obama has over a lifetime of risk aversion.

This is a trend.  Since at least his time in law school, Obama has studiously avoided even the appearance of a paper trail.  He’s also managed to spend a decade as an elected legislator without authoring a single consequential piece of legislation.  Simply put, the man doesn’t know how to horse trade, cajole, and get a bill on his desk for signature.  One wonders how much less effective he’d be without a majority in both chambers.

October 13th, 2009 at 2:02 pm
Clinton and Gates to the Rescue?
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The New York Times carries a very interesting piece this morning on the influence that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates have had on the Obama Administration’s foreign policy. In a nutshell, they’ve kept it from total insanity.

According to the Times’ Mark Landler and Thom Shanker, the dynamic duo were responsible for preventing the public release of further prisoner abuse photos, as well as for shepherding the decision to pursue a counterinsurgency strategy in Afghanistan. While the two are woefully behind the curve on Iran (as I noted of Gates here), they still represent the toughest line in the administration.

What’s troubling about all this, however, is the piece’s (unsourced) prognostication of where Clinton and Gates will end up on the current debate over Afghanistan:

Now, as President Obama leads yet another debate on whether to deploy tens of thousands of additional troops there, the secretary of state and the secretary of defense will once again constitute a critical voting bloc, the likely leaders of an argument for a middle ground between a huge influx of soldiers and a narrow focus aimed at killing terrorists from Al Qaeda, according to several administration officials.”

“That swing vote would put them at odds with the bare-bones approach still being pushed by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., as well as the most aggressive military buildup recommended by the American commander in Afghanistan, Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal.”

On this one, Clinton and Gates are taking a dangerous turn. Playing for a tie in Afghanistan is the worst of all possible worlds. While the so-called “Biden Plan” mistakenly applies a counterterrorism strategy to a counterinsurgency problem, at least it doesn’t escalate without the resources necessary for victory. Clinton and Gates are looking for a middle way … but in Afghanistan the options are go big or go home.

September 25th, 2009 at 10:21 am
Wacky World Leaders and the Mainstream Media that Back Them. Oh Goodness, Let’s Go for $5000 on This One, Alex
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Yesterday, we remarked briefly and pointedly on the paranoid delusional loon who is the (appropriately) deposed former President of Honduras, one Manuel Zelaya.   By President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (not to mention the Organization of American States), the tiny country has been threatened with economic ruin if it does not return the guy to power.

But what of the mainstream media that also supported Zelaya’s return.  Well, at least the Washington Post read that Mr. Zelaya now claims to have been “bombarded with radiation and toxic gases by ‘Israeli mercenaries.'”

So what does good old WaPo write now?  “Such behavior ought to deter any responsible member of the Organization of American States – starting with Brazil – from supporting anything other than a token return by Mr. Zelaya to office.  The Obama administration has backed such a restoration (as have we)…”

We’re much too busy to go back and parse words, but we just can’t seem to remember the emphasis on “token” by any of the aforementioned in the past.

Based on some pretty solid understanding of the Honduras Constitution and the circumstances of Zelaya’s removal by people who actually know something about the country, we think he was removed from office legally and by the book.  And now we also know, from his own mouth, that he’s certifiable.

Would a “token” return to office be in a straight jacket with Nurse Ratchet on duty?

September 24th, 2009 at 10:01 am
Wacky World Leaders for $20, Alex
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Breaking News from the Miami Herald:  “It’s been 89 days since Manuel Zelaya was booted from power.  He’s sleeping on chairs, and he claims his throat is sore from toxic gases and ‘Israeli mercenaries’ are torturing him with high-frequency radiation.”

This, dear readers, is the guy that President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demand be returned to power as President of Honduras.

September 15th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
U.S. Condemned For Use Of Hillary Clinton Against Pakistan
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