Recently, Democratic Presidential Nominee Hillary Rodham Clinton hosted a Q & A session on her Facebook page,and vowed to answer questions about her campaign directly from voters. She answered all questions within the hour they were posted (except mine) and referred to all her voters by their first names. The former Secretary of State, who has been running for President pretty much ever since her husband left the Oval Office, has come under scrutiny not only from right-wing conservatives, but also from Bernie Sanders supporters and some Independents. Events in Benghazi, scandals involving the Clinton Foundation, and her decision to delete thousands of emails from her personal server have led to about sixty percent of Americans deeming her untrustworthy. She still, however, leads the polls 39 percentage points ahead of her closest competitor, Donald Trump. I’ll have to come to grips with this President Trump thing sometime but, for now, let’s analyze the main issues the Secretary chose to address on Facebook.
First of all, let’s talk about first time voters.
When Hillary was asked what she would do to encourage more people to vote, she started with the classic “every election has to be about the future” line that we’ve heard a million times. I honestly thought she was going to repeat the mistakes of her CNN interview but, to my surprise, the Secretary was surprisingly to the point. “I believe it's important to vote because I don't want to leave voting to those with whom I disagree — whether it's about LGBT rights, climate change, student debt, or any other important issue,” she said. “If you don't vote, you empower people who do vote who you don't agree with.” I honestly couldn’t agree more and I loved that she listed the issues that, I hope, will be the focus of her presidency.
What to do with all those illegal immigrants?
Clinton took the opportunity not only to explain her support of pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants, but also to take a few shots at the Republicans. She was particularly ruthless against Trump, who slandered Mexican immigrants in his announcement speech by saying “They’re bringing crime; they’re bringing drugs; they’re rapists; and some, I assume, are good people.” However, she took a few jabs at more plausible candidates, saying “Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio actually agree with him [Trump] on denying a pathway to citizenship and consigning hardworking immigrants to second-class status. I will fight for comprehensive immigration reform that includes that pathway to citizenship.” To be fair, pathway to citizenship does make a lot of sense and I approve of any and all criticisms of Donald Trump, so it wasn’t bad.
Clinton’s coziness with Wall Street.
One common complaint people have of the Secretary is that she has too many interests in Wall Street and won’t be effective in increasing accountability in times of corruption and misconduct. Hillary answered with the objectivity that was unfortunately missing from her CNN interview, defending the Dodd — Frank Law and laying out a three-point plan she used as a “preview” for her Wall Street agenda she’d release in the future. She said that no one should be “too big to jail” (ha ha, it’s a pun, get it?) and said she would:
- Appoint and empower tough, independent-minded regulators and give them the resources they need to do their jobs.
- Make sure that good people have real incentives to come forward and report illegal activity by raising the whistle-blower caps so they're actually effective.
- Make sure that when corporations pay fines to the government for wrongdoing, those fines cut into the bonuses of the executives who should have been accountable or should have caught the problem.
Not bad, Madam Secretary, not bad!
Mitch McConnell and the “gender card”.
In response to Mitch McConnell’s comments on Ms. Clinton that “the gender card alone isn’t enough” to win the Presidency, she responded in one of the most poetic and quotable ways imaginable:
There is a gender card being played in this campaign. It’s played every time Republicans vote against giving women equal pay, deny families access to affordable child care or family leave, refuse to let women make decisions about their health or have access to free contraception. These aren’t just women’s issues, they are economic issues that drive growth and affect all Americans.
Need she say more? Mr. McConnell, please apply water to the burned area!She addressed some other issues as well, such as student debts, institutionalized racism and, of course, a few plugs for her campaign website. What does this all mean, though? I won’t lie, I was disappointed when she didn’t answer the questions I posted, as well as a few others, but what I saw from the Q & A was that she chose to answer the “no brainer” questions, avoiding at all cost the answers that will differentiate her from Bernie Sanders, such as her Secretary of State experience, her changing stance on gay marriage and the Iraq war, her support of the death penalty, to name a few. In order to be president, she’ll have to do much more than give CNN-like interviews, keep in familiar territory, and change accents more than Rachel Dolezal changes skin colors. The Bernie gap is closing and, if she’s not careful, she may end up losing much more than just the Democratic nomination. She’ll also lose her credibility, integrity and respect in the eyes of millions of Americans. Hillary supporters should hope for the best and expect the worst, with the latter getting more and more likely with every passing day. Don’t hold your breath, is all I’m saying!
