November 17th, 2016
By Peter Rosenstein.
I believe we must always keep an open line of communication with those we don’t agree with and the person on your side of this election I would enjoy having a cup of coffee with is you.
As a supporter of Hillary Clinton the election didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to. This isn’t the first campaign where my hopes were dashed. But the fight for the things I believe in and care about goes on.
Ivanka it would be great to have the opportunity to share with you how I lived my life. It is my conviction you would understand where those like myself are coming from and as senior adviser to your father that could be important and helpful as you help mold the administration.
My history is like many others who grew up in New York City as first generation Americans. My father immigrated from Germany and my mother from Austria to escape the Nazis. My dad’s parents were killed in Auschwitz. He joined the U.S. Army going back to Europe to fight.
Their experiences and teaching influenced how I live my life. Early on I got involved in Democratic politics. First supporting local New York politicians and then JFK. Demonstrating against the Vietnam War and graduating City College of New York during those turbulent times led to becoming a teacher in Harlem. From there, a career in government. First working for Rep. Bella S. Abzug, then coordinator of Local Government for Mayor Abe Beame. Then moving to Washington as executive director of the White House Conference on Handicapped Individuals/Implementation Unit in the Carter Administration. Then 35 years as CEO of national non-profits in the education and healthcare areas. Along the way fighting for civil rights, women’s rights, disability rights and, after I came out, for LGBT rights.
Ivanka, listening closely to your speech at the Republican National Convention it sounded like you would be a sympathetic ear.
You are obviously an intelligent and successful woman. You would likely have been successful even if you hadn’t been born a Trump. Of course your success came quicker because of having a wealthy family and access to capital and connections. But life has proven to me many people with those connections can still relate to the rest of us.
My interest in meeting you is the chance to share some thoughts that could shed light on issues as you advise your dad.
The fact is your father and I are contemporaries. We both grew up at the same time in New York City. Due to the circumstance of our births our lives took incredibly different paths. We were impacted in dramatically different ways by what was happening in the world as we grew up.
From what I have read about your life your mom brought you up to understand a world a little different from that of your dad. Today you have adopted the religion I was born into and are bringing up three children. Money doesn’t exempt you from the issues involved in balancing work and family or the vagaries of daily life and making the myriad decisions to deal with the world around us.
Those who share my views will continue to fight hard for the world we believe in. As a gay man I will never go back into the closet. My mom and Bella educated me on how important it is to guarantee full equality to women. My parents’ lives and a meeting with Martin Luther King, Jr. when I was in high school helped forge my views on civil rights. My life, friends, and travel have shown me living in a diverse society makes us all better. My gut feeling is you wouldn’t disagree with that.
Demonstrations are important, as long as they stay non-violent. They are a way for people to speak out, release their frustrations and anger at the life that often hasn’t been fair to them, their families and friends. Our constitutional right to demonstrate and speak out is part of what makes America great.
I really believe having an opportunity to share some of my thoughts with you in a respectful conversation could be valuable. Ivanka, I hope you might consider giving me the opportunity to do so.
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September 27th, 2016
By Peter Rosenstein.
If you can manage to ignore all the negative nonsense and partisan attacks and have followed Hillary’s career knowing what she has accomplished over her nearly fifty years of dedicated public service you too may hear what I do when Hillary Clinton speaks. I am only sorry not everyone can cut through the noise to hear this. I hope it will come through loud and clear between now and November 8th.
As voting begins in what many have called the most crucial election of our time I ask you to do something that some may find difficult. But for the future of the United States and the world it is important you try to look past all the partisan attacks and negativity which has emerged in this election and focus instead on each candidate’s vision for the future. The issues and policies we have each delineated to make our vision a reality.
I have spent nearly fifty years in public service. It has given me the opportunity to make real some of my vision for a better life for my daughter Chelsea and my grandchildren; it’s the same vision I have for a better future for you, your children and grandchildren as well.
Over the past year you saw campaigns often filled with negativity and nastiness. You listened as one candidate insulted, scapegoated and stigmatized individuals and whole groups of people. It’s not the campaign you or I wanted.
From day one I wanted my campaign to focus on the future; a future we can build together for generations to come. I want to talk with you about the future of America, the greatest country on earth, and how together we can make your dreams for yourself and your family a reality. My vision isn’t simply a slogan; my vision includes a long term plan on how we can ensure equality and provide real opportunity for all.
My vision has always been a positive one that builds on what the founders of our nation, those who wrote our Constitution, believed and knew our nation could become. Some of them realized it would be incumbent on each new generation to strive to make ours a ‘’more perfect union’. We have met some of their expectations, even if too slowly, over 240 years. It hasn’t always been easy and we even fought a civil war to continue to move toward that goal. I know if we talk to each other, listen to each other, and try to understand each other, we will continue to make progress.
President Obama has worked hard over the past eight years and deserves immense credit for saving us from another depression. He has led our country with intelligence, courage and grace. His hard work has given us the tools and the ability to move beyond where we are today, where everyone is still not benefiting from our progress, to a place where everyone will participate equally and reap the benefits of our growing economy and our democracy.
Americans are resilient. We come from different life circumstances and backgrounds, those born here and immigrants alike; and those circumstances are what mold our different views of the world. There are times when the future we envision for ourselves and our families may be different from what our neighbors see for themselves. We must understand and deal with that; while at the same time realize more binds us together than separates us. As human beings and Americans, we care deeply about our friends, loved ones and families. We all want to live in a world with less strife and hatred and more love. We all want the chance to succeed and live our lives up to our God-given potential. No matter our differences these are things we have in common.
What we often see differently is how to achieve our goals. Some may see government as a partner, others see it as a hindrance. Some believe one of government’s obligations is to help those who can’t help themselves while others see that as purely the role of the church and/or community.
My vision for a brighter future encompasses both those views. As a lifelong Methodist I know what it means for my church to work in the community; to bring food to the hungry, and help house the homeless. My church, just as yours, tries to lift up its members and remind them god is good and god has a role for all of us even in the darkest of times.
I also believe government has a singular role in keeping our nation safe and secure. It has a role when natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane Sandy strike and overwhelm what any church or community can do on their own. When hunger and homelessness have reached proportions where our churches and communities just don’t have the resources to help lift up those in need government must be there for them.
My vision for America like yours has been molded by my experiences. I was fortunate to be brought up in a middle-class home with parents who instilled in me the tenets of the church and the need to work hard to achieve what I wanted. We never went hungry and we always had a roof over our heads. My vision is one where every child in America has that. I was both lucky to be brought up in a good home and worked hard in school; went to college and then law school and found a job working for the Children’s Defense Fund doing what I cared about, helping people to achieve a better life in a more just world. In law school I met the man I would later marry who worked as hard to succeed as I did. His early years were different from mine. He was brought up by a single mother who sometimes struggled to provide for him and his brother. But he is a man who god graced with intelligence, a drive and a love of people, which helped him to succeed.
Together we built a life for ourselves and our daughter which we can now share with our grandchildren. You all know about that life as it has been lived in the public arena for nearly 50 years. You know its highs and its lows. That life enabled me to come into contact with the poorest of the poor and the richest of the rich. On the same day I could be in a school with children who were from poor or sometimes broken homes where food was not always on the table; then that same evening sit at a glittering ‘state dinner’ with men and women in thousand dollar tuxedos and gowns drinking from crystal goblets. Those experiences reinforced my strong conviction we must somehow overcome the inequality in the world; fairness and decency demand that of us.
My experiences have included meeting with, playing with and listening too children from Appalachia to Afghanistan. I met with women supporting their families working more than one job to do so; met with women escaping from abusive relationships. I met men struggling to make a living also working three jobs. Men who would do anything they could when it came to trying to support their families. Many just one paycheck away from homelessness. My vision for America is no family should have to live that way; that hard work will be rewarded with a decent wage which will enable you to support your family and live healthy and fulfilling lives.
I have seen these two unequal worlds, rich and poor, and have been honored to have had the opportunity to do something to move forward my vision over the years. Whether improving education for all children in Arkansas; helping more children to be adopted and find loving homes; or ensuring all children have adequate healthcare. Working in the Senate to guarantee healthcare for our national guard. Still, while making some progress, you and I both know there is so much more to do.
Like nearly all women of my generation I have felt discrimination, both overt and covert. Women today are still discriminated against in many ways not the least of which is receiving only 79 cents for each dollar a man makes in the same job. My vision includes correcting that wrong. I know while we have passed many laws to guarantee equality for African Americans those laws, even the amendments to our Constitution, have not rid us of the systemic racism that still exists in our nation. We are all called on to do something about that and do it now so more people don’t suffer. I have met ‘dreamers’, young people who simply want a chance to become American citizens and partake fully in their communities. I have met many of their families under constant threat of being torn apart and know we are all called upon to do something about that. I was honored to be able to speak out for women’s rights in Beijing in 1995, and for LGBT rights in Geneva in 2011. But you and I know there is so much more to do. Changing laws is only half the battle; changing the culture to acceptance is often the harder fight and our challenge is working together to do that.
Over my nearly fifty years in the public spotlight and again in this campaign I have met many really good people. Those same people don’t always realize until they take the time to really think about it how sexism, racism, homophobia and xenophobia impact even their neighbors in their own church or community.
My vision for America’s future doesn’t begin with tearing our country down but rather building on its greatness. If my vision is to come to fruition we must all stand and work together. It doesn’t mean we will always agree; it means we will never shut one another out; we will never stop talking to each other; trying to work together to sort out and solve our problems. It is what families do and our country is just a bigger family.
English poet John Donne wrote ‘No man is an Island‘ and I wrote a book whose title was based on an old African proverb ‘It takes a village to raise a child’. I still believe with all my heart both those things are true.
When I chose the slogan ‘Stronger Together’ for my campaign it was based on that belief. It is the rare person who goes through life with no contact with and no reliance on anyone else. We all need human contact and we all need love. We all get that in different ways and from different people but the fact remains we need love and sometimes even help beyond what our immediate families can give us.
We all want to lead secure lives. Whether it is the security we want to give our children as they are growing up; security our jobs will be here tomorrow; security of a roof over our head and food on the table. The security we get from a loving spouse in a loving relationship; from our church family; from our neighbors; from our friends; and take it from me I know what that is about and how fragile it can all be. We all struggle for those things for ourselves and our loved ones every day.
Then there is the security of our nation. How do we protect our borders and protect ourselves and our neighbors from those who wish us harm. That is what I think about every day as I ask for your vote. How can I as President give you an iron clad guarantee our nation will never again be harmed? I can’t, no one can. The role and job of the President and Commander-in-Chief includes staying awake at night worrying and working on this every minute of every day so that you and your children are able to sleep at night without that fear and worry.
The role of President is to help parents make their children feel safe even after they have seen the news and seen children here at home and around the world hurt in senseless violence. Whether that violence is caused by a foreign enemy or someone here at home shooting innocent children and teachers, we need to work together to figure out how we end it.
Some would say the way to do that is to circle the wagons and build walls. But let us look at the history of our own country. The pioneers did that when they first started exploring the West. They circled their wagons and built forts with high walls and yet that didn’t really ensure their safety or take into consideration the rights of those who they at one time considered their enemies. In the end after too many had died it was bargaining and signing peace treaties; and eventually learning to know and trust one another and accept our differences that made us safer and allowed us to build our great nation.
Today the threats are more sophisticated. We know what happened when we dropped the atom bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We see those threats today and while my opponent believes it’s better if everyone has the ability to annihilate each other; I believe it would be better if we eliminate nuclear weapons from the world and no one has that ability; especially when there are leaders like Kim Jong-un in North Korea who is unstable and could start World War III simply because he feels someone has offended him.
I truly believe we are ‘stronger together’ and working together we can make a positive difference in all our lives. We can achieve a more peaceful world by joining with our allies and building coalitions to defeat ISIS. Here at home we can defeat enemies such as joblessness, hunger and homelessness. We can fight drug addiction; strive to end racism, sexism, xenophobia and homophobia. But we must face all these enemies together and not let anyone use them as a wedge to drive us apart.
I have made mistakes in my life, who hasn’t. Using a private email server when I was Secretary of State was a mistake and I hope you accept my heartfelt apology and a promise I have learned from that and will lead a more transparent government. Some of you felt my not sharing my diagnosis of pneumonia was wrong. I only ask you to think about how you handle illness. How you so often go to work when you are sick and must deal with your children whether you are sick or not. You have to power through knowing you have no time to stay at home or stay in bed. That is how I felt about my pneumonia. I may have been wrong but then like you I am just human.
The reality is there are two people with the chance to be your next President. Mr. Trump will continue to speak for himself and share whatever vision he may have with you. From what he has said so far we know it to be a much darker one than mine.
Our future and that of the world, because we are the strongest nation with the strongest economy, will be decided by the decision you make in this election.
At home if you share my vision and support my plans we will be working toward free and debt free college; lowering interest rates on student loans; equal pay for equal work; a living wage; developing effective plans to fight the scourge of addition; and ensuring healthcare for all. We will be rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure; improving education options including pre-K for all; and continuing to build an economy that will provide high paying jobs. Then there is my vision for who I will nominate to be on the Supreme Court. They will be highly qualified individuals representing the diversity of our society. They will be committed to overturning ‘Citizens United‘ ridding us of the outrageous amounts of money now polluting our politics. My nominees will also be committed to protecting ‘Roe v. Wade’ and ‘marriage equality’.
Internationally my vision includes continuing to work effectively with our allies on security and trade; working even harder to fight climate change; working to strengthen our alliances including supporting NATO and the UN; and building and strengthening the coalitions necessary to finally defeat ISIS.
This election is so crucial to all our futures I ask you to think long and hard before possibly casting what some have called a ‘protest vote‘. Unfortunately we have seen this before and no one wants the end result of that vote to be electing the person you know without a doubt is definitely the wrong person to lead our nation.
Some have asked if it is hubris for me to think I can really make a difference as President for people here at home and around the world. One of the major differences between my opponent and me is I know I can’t do it alone. My vision for America will come to fruition if we all work together. It is a vision that includes everyone and if you give me the honor of electing me the nation’s 45th President I promise your views will have a place at the table in my administration. My belief in my ability to make a difference comes from believing people of good will working together can make all our lives better and our world safer today and for future generations. We are truly ‘stronger together‘.
XXX
So this is what I hear in my heart every time Hillary speaks. It doesn’t always come out the same way because as Hillary has said, like us she is human. But then the New York Times managed to cut through the negativity and partisan attacks in their endorsement and said, “In any normal election year, we’d compare the two presidential candidates side by side on the issues. But this is not a normal election year. A comparison like that would be an empty exercise in a race where one candidate — our choice, Hillary Clinton — has a record of service and a raft of pragmatic ideas, and the other, Donald Trump, discloses nothing concrete about himself or his plans while promising the moon and offering the stars on layaway. Through war and recession, Americans born since 9/11 have had to grow up fast, and they deserve a grown-up president. A lifetime’s commitment to solving problems in the real world qualifies Hillary Clinton for this job, and the country should put her to work”
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August 8th, 2016
By Peter Rosenstein.
A Democrat, who is an strong supporter of Hillary Rodham Clinton, writing this column may seem counter-productive but I believe in a strong two-party system. One in which both Party’s discuss ideas rationally allowing voters to make decisions based on real information and facts, including scientific evidence. That kind of a race would help people decide in which direction they want the country to go.
At this time it appears reality is bearing down on Republicans who still believe in the Party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower and even Ronald Reagan. They are quickly understanding they are between a “rock and a hard place“ with not much time to decide whether to save their Party, even with big losses, for another day or see it go down in flames with Donald Trump.
With each succeeding day Trump demonstrates he is not only a racist, misogynist sexist bully but rather is totally deranged. He is no longer a candidate one can call “plausibly different,” but rather one who is incoherent and proving himself simply an out-of-control ego-maniac with no real interest in actually running the country or ability to be President.
Since announcing his campaign on June 16th with a tirade against Mexicans he has consistently made outrageous statements the press willingly glossed over and attributed to his being a ‘new kind‘ of candidate. Those individuals who he insulted like John McCain appeared to accept those insults meekly, moved on, and evenendorsed him for President. Light-weight candidates like Marco Rubio tried to trade insults with Trump and came off looking ridiculous. Not one of the other sixteen Republican candidates who announced for President figured out how to appeal to the Trump voters who didn’t make up the majority of the Republican primary voters but with so many in the race were able to determine the winner.
Trump did get more primary voters than any other Republican candidate in history. What people don’t focus on is his top three primary opponents together got more votes than he did. Trump got 13,300,472 votes leaving him with the task of finding 47 to 49 million more voters if he is to have any chance of winning the Presidency. Barack Obama won in a low turnout election in 2012 with 62,615,406 votes.
The question for responsible Republicans is deciding even if he can get those votes whether they actually want that to happen. With his threat to weaken NATO, his close personal business relations with the Russians and praise of Putin and other dictators Republican leaders must decide if they will stick with the man who appears to be a dangerous and deranged ego-maniac or dump him in favor of the future of the country and the world. Not an easy choice for those who have dedicated their life to the Republican Party.
If they are honest with themselves they will accept this is a dilemma of their own making. What has become the Tea Party began in secret in the spring of 1993 with the entry of the Koch brothers. It sprang into the public realm in 2009 with the Tea Party movement’s first major action, “a nationwide series of rallies on April 15, 2009, that drew more than 250,000 people. The movement kept gaining strength and its members came to congressional town hall meetings in every state and made their focus attacking any reforms to the our healthcare system.” This group of Republicans has spawned Donald Trump who is even a leap-too-far for the Kochbrothers who have said they cannot support him.
If Republicans of stature like Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI), Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and others want any credibility after this election is over they must do more than constantly apologize for and even criticize Trump. They must not only separate themselves from the constant vicious attacks he makes like the recent one against the gold star family of Army Captain Humayun Khan; or previous ones such as the attack against Indiana born federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel; rather they must actually rescind their endorsements of him. Anything less shows them as spineless hypocrites, clearly not the lasting image they want for themselves or their Party.
We have just three months until Americans elect their next President on November 8th. Current polling shows Hillary Clinton winning big. Three months for responsible Republicans to decide whether they will have a viable Party to take into the future after this election.
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July 6th, 2016
By Peter Rosenstein.
Here was a 74 year old man, with a disheveled look and not many actual successes to his credit, who excited a younger generation with his Anti-Wall Street, single payer healthcare, and free college message. They treated him like a rock star with thousands coming to his rallies chanting Bernie! Bernie! Thirteen millioncame to the polls and pulled the lever or connected the arrows to vote for him. They saw him as their vehicle to send a message to the establishment in Washington they wanted change.
It was a great campaign destined to come up short but that shouldn’t take away from its power. Bernie himself managed to do that by his actions and statements since the primaries ended. He alone is diminishing the chances to accomplish what all those millions of people who donated their $27 to him sought to do. Success and accomplishment in politics are an art. One part is the ability to get elected, something Sanders has been able to do for the past thirty-three years, and for a short time it even looked as if he would come close this year. But the art and finesse needed to get something done after the campaign apparently still escape him.
He had the chance to be a hero and a mensch at the same time. He should have taken a cue from how Hillary handled her loss to Obama in 2008 when she came away looking like a star, and a star with power. Instead he frittered away his chances, rather whining his way close to irrelevance.
He said he will vote for Hillary and work his hardest to defeat Donald Trump. Then went on to parse his support by explaining the difference between saying he will vote for her and endorsing her, which hasn’t happened yet. Then he had a conversation with Vice President Biden apparently telling him he will endorse Hillary and Biden repeated the conversation on national television. Sanders should know telling Joe Biden is like telling the world. One of Biden’s greatest charms is his lack of a filter in what he says. On Saturday in Aspen an affable Biden gave rave reviews to Newt Gingrich as a VP candidate for Trump; then backtracked to make it clear he still wouldn’t endorse Trump.
Bernie’s most ardent supporters, the ‘Bernie of Bust’ crowd, saw their leader give up the clout they worked to give him. Real progressives among Sanders’ voters, even those in the ‘Bernie or Bust’ contingent, will end up voting for Clinton because they understand electing Trump would end the chance of getting anything they claim they want accomplished.
The end to Bernie’s campaign is likely the best example of turning a win into a loss I have ever seen. Some are calling it an extreme case of ‘white privilege‘ and sexism.
Lauren Rankin writes “If Bernie Sanders is such a progressive revolutionary, why does he insist on undermining an eminently qualified female presidential candidate who can beat a fascistic demagogue?” She goes on to write “Moving the Democratic platform to the left is a laudable goal, but it isn’t one that he alone has led. There have been many movements, including the movement to end the Hyde Amendment, the “Fight for 15,” and the #BlackLivesMatter movement, that have pushed the Democratic Party to the left. But Bernie Sanders is presenting it as if he himself is the leader of this progressive revolution, as if he and his candidacy have been doing all of the work. This is privileged ignorance at best, and sinister appropriation at worst. Sanders has constructed himself as the progressive revolutionary savior that we have all been waiting for, a privileged and entitled point of view if there ever was one. He is unwilling to stop mansplaining to the country that he’s right because either he believes so deeply that he is right and we are wrong or does he sense that this is the one time that he will ever be this relevant to American politics and his male ego is unwilling to let this go?” I go with the last explanation.
Hillary Clinton is probably the most prepared person to ever run for President. She is brilliant and hardworking. She has worked for The Children’s Defense Fund and a Congressional Committee. Been recognized as one of the top 100 lawyers in the country; was First Lady of Arkansas; First Lady of the United States; two-term Senator from New York; and Secretary of State.
For twenty-five years Republicans have attacked her and spent over a billion dollars of their and the governments money trying to prove Hillary is evil and dishonest without ever proving anything. Yet the attacks have left their mark and a majority today wrongly see her as dishonest and untrustworthy. Still Clinton leads Trump by more than two-to-one when people are asked who is more prepared to be President. Nate Silver gives Hillary an eighty percent chance of becoming the 45th and first woman President of the United States.
So whatever becomes of Bernie Sanders my prediction is Hillary Clinton will be sworn in as President on January 20, 2017 and people’s views of her will once again become positive as they always do when she is in office and not running for office. She will continue to be seen by Americans as the most admired woman in the world as has been the case for the past twenty years.
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April 28th, 2016
By Peter Rosenstein.
Bernie, the time has come to face reality; your chance of becoming president is over. You and your supporters should take solace that you ran a great campaign and came much closer to winning than you or anyone else ever thought possible.
You touched a nerve in the Democratic Party and used that to great advantage. You brought the issue of income inequality to the fore and calling for breaking up big banks, free college and a single-payer healthcare system found a receptive audience. But as of April 26, with your losses in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, and Connecticut your Don Quixote like quest for the nomination has become the ‘impossible dream.’
Now is the time to begin uniting the Democratic Party and reaching out to independents who share your understanding that Republicans Donald Trump or Ted Cruz would be a disaster for the nation. They would end any chance to move your progressive ideas forward. Worse they would take us back to the 18th century running on a platform to suspend voting rights; take away a woman’s right to control her own body and healthcare; deport millions of immigrants; and take away the hard fought-for rights of the LGBT community. They even think income inequality is a good thing as it serves their purposes.
With her wins on Tuesday, Hillary is the presumptive Democratic nominee. She has 3.2 million more votes than you and a lead in pledged delegates of about 325. Instead of superdelegates moving towards you, we will see more coming out in support of Hillary.
Bernie you need to stop the attacks and help your supporters understand buying into 25 years of Republican attacks on Hillary is counterproductive to what they want to accomplish. You know Hillary actually has a very progressive record with a myriad of successes benefiting the people you want to help. From children’s health care, to education reform, to speaking out around the world on women’s rights and LGBT rights; Hillary has fought the good fight and in doing so moved the nation and the world forward.
The woman who you and some of your supporters call establishment was once labeled a radical feminist. She was excoriated by the right and many in her own Party and her husband’s administration for going to Beijing and speaking out for women. Hillary is a feminist. She was the big breadwinner in her family, a respected attorney, an activist for progressive causes including education and civil and human rights, and a great mom. She was vilified when in response to questioning about her work and independence she once said “I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas.”
It was Hillary who went undercover in the south for the Children’s Defense Fund to investigate segregation in schools; and with Bill managed the George McGovern campaign in Texas in 1972. It was Hillary who was appointed to and then elected Chair of the Legal Services Corporation; and it was Hillary who fought for universal healthcare in the early 90s and took the slings and arrows that came from attacking the big insurance companies and big pharma.
Anyone in politics understands the period of grief that comes when you realize the dream of winning has ended. You worked hard 24/7 and you can only do that if you believe you will win. Thousands of young people cheered you at huge rallies, yelling “Bernie! Bernie!” making it nearly impossible to consider you would lose. I remember working on campaigns where that happened. For Bella S. Abzug (D-NY) who eventually lost a close senate primary to Pat Moynihan (D-NY) and for Hillary in 2008 who kept winning primaries and piling up actual votes even when it was clear she wasn’t going to be the candidate. Thousands cheered her wherever she went and it was a close race. You need to take a lead from how both these women handled it when it was clear they couldn’t win. Though they didn’t agree with all the positions of their opponents they understood for the good of the country they needed to support and campaign for the winner and they did.
I know you will do the same. Your statements all indicate that. You said more than once you will support Hillary if she is the candidate and you will do all you can to make sure Donald Trump or Ted Cruz aren’t President. Your campaign manager has said you will stay a Democrat for life. That shows you do understand to accomplish any of what you have campaigned so hard for Democrats need to keep the White House and take back the Congress.
Of course you will try to negotiate some platform issues and what role you will have at the convention and in the campaign. Those negotiations will be more successful if done in private. You will get more and look like a winner.
Bernie you have a big role to play in uniting the Party because you have been successful. It doesn’t necessarily mean ending your campaign immediately as when you do that is your decision. It does mean changing your rhetoric and tone to ensure after the convention in Philadelphia Democrats will move forward united and go on to win big in November.
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April 4th, 2016
By Peter Rosenstein.
The Sanders campaign attacked Hillary Clinton for raising the funds needed to change the Congress, state houses and state legislatures; all necessary if the “revolution“ Sanders talks about is to happen. Sanders responds this way to a question from Rachel Maddow. “Rival Hillary Clinton has been fundraising for her campaign as well as the Democratic Party. Will the Sanders campaign begin this type of fundraising as well, Maddow asked. “We’ll see,” Sanders said. “Right now, our focus is on winning the nomination.” It seems Sanders one-note candidacy continues and his campaign can’t walk and chew gum at the same time.
Hillary Clinton knows how to get things done in government. She understands what it would mean if Democrats controlled the Congress, both House and Senate, and why it is important to stop Republicans at the state level from gerrymandering congressional districts in their favor. Because of this she set up the Hillary Victory Fund, a fundraising mechanism to help the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and State Democratic Parties win elections at all levels. Thirty-two state parties have joined this initiative. Bernie Sanders has also set up such a fund. The difference is Hillary is raising millions of dollars for it and Sanders has raised about $1,000. Hillary is taking her valuable time and that of her campaign staff to set up fundraisers for this effort and it’s not stopping her from fighting for the nomination. Fact is if Sanders cared to help anyone but himself he could simply send out an email to his supporters, many of whom already maxed out on primary money to him, asking them to donate to his fund for the DNC and state parties.
One of the targets of Sanders attack was George Clooney who is married to Amal Alamuddin Clooney, lawyer activist and author. They have agreed to be hosts at two dinners, one in San Francisco and one at their home in Los Angeles for the Hillary Victory Fund. At both dinners the starting ask is $33,400 per person and the SF dinner has a top ask of $353,400. Sanders immediately attacked Clinton for asking Clooney to host these dinners. He tried to link Clooney to his Wall Street tirades and to link anyone who would attend such a dinner to Wall Street. The problem is George Clooney made his money from acting and his wife is a world respected activist for progressive people and causes. He says he actually likes Clooney and one would assume he did so when he realized this is just the type of activist he should want to support and get support from. Clooney “played an important part in anti-war activism and humanitarian work. Since 2008, Clooney has served as one of the United Nations Messengers of Peace. He has been advocating for Darfur, as well as organized the Hope for Haiti telethon to raise funds for victims. Clooney was arrested in 2012 during a protest outside the Sudanese embassy in Washington D.C where he was protesting the war in Darfur.”
Clinton and Clooney are asking other activists with money to join them and spend it on the “revolution” Sanders keeps talking about. Except for $2,700 which is the limit Hillary can receive from any one person for the primary this money doesn’t benefit her primary campaign and most of the people attending have already donated that limit to her. So all this money goes to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) which is allowed to raise $33,400 from a single person and each of the thirty-two Democratic State Parties that can accept up to $10,000 into their federal accounts. This money strengthens the State Parties so they can focus on raising their own funds for local candidates as well. The irony of attacking Hillary for raising this money for Democrats is should by any chance Bernie Sanders be the Democratic nominee it would benefit him.
This is the “revolution“ Bernie Sanders is calling for but unwilling to help fund. It is also the reason so many superdelegates are supporting Clinton. They know if she is the Democratic nominee she will help them win and elect more democrats. It is the Party’s chance to get closer to having the votes needed to confirm a Supreme Court justice who will vote to overturn Citizens United, protect the rights of women, African Americans, the LGBT community, immigrants and ensure every American is guaranteed their right to vote. The hypocrisy of Sanders criticizing this effort is mind-boggling,
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March 16th, 2016
By Peter Rosenstein.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
The second super-Tuesday primaries have come and gone. Five wins for Hillary including Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Illinois and Missouri have increased her pledged delegate lead to over 300. Realistically that signals the end of Bernie Sanders chance at the nomination. The lead is even bigger than it looks as explained by Philip Bump in the Washington Post. Add to that her tremendous lead in superdelegates and Bernie Sanders has close to zero chance of being the Democratic nominee. Voters have shown they understand the man who says he only ran as a Democrat for the media attention and because it was affordable wouldn’t make a good standard bearer for the Party.
Whether or not he ends his Don Quixote like quest for the nomination will be something for him to decide. If he continues to campaign, which is likely, he will hopefully focus on issues and stop attacking Hillary and doing the work of Republicans.
Democrats, including those who have been supporting Hillary, should thank Senator Sanders for his campaign on the issues. He has crystalized in many minds why we need to deal with the issue of economic inequality and by doing so has made Hillary a stronger candidate. Hillary has always been strong but one can clearly see she has gotten better and better in the both the debates and town halls she participates in. She has a clear vision for the nation’s future and a comprehensive set of policies and position statements outlining the kind of a President she will be. A great one!
While Republicans will continue to bring up issues like Benghazi she has effectively answered their lies on this and shown she and President Obama acted correctly. Her grief over the death of those four great Americans will lead her to work to do everything possible so it never happens again.
She has a comprehensive program to deal with Wall Street supported by progressives including economist Paul Krugman. She has earned the support of labor and women’s organizations; of the Equality Caucus, Latino Caucus and Congressional Black Caucus in Congress. The Hillary for America campaign has used their time to build a network of supporters across the nation who will help to unite the Democratic Party and stand with her in the general election.
Her campaign led by Robby Mook and John Podesta put together an amazing young, diverse and effective operation. Men, women, gay, straight, transgender, Latino, African American, White, Asian, people with disabilities, and others from every ethnic group. Hillary has shown everyone she learns from her mistakes and no one, even someone as brilliant as Hillary, can live life without making some. She clearly learned from her loss in 2008 what she had to do to win in 2016.
In 2008 Hillary continued to campaign straight through June winning primaries and amassing votes which she so eloquently said were “18 million cracks in the glass ceiling“. But she could never catch Barack Obama in delegates. Today Bernie Sanders is in a similar position even further behind in delegates. If he continues in the race and wins some primaries he will not be able to catch her in delegates needed for the nomination. Some Sanders supporters whine about superdelegates. Their candidate knew the rules when he decided to run in the Democratic primary and hopefully he shares that knowledge with his supporters. Hillary may not need them but when in 2008 Barack Obama needed superdelegates to secure the nomination Hillary Clinton didn’t whine. She stood tall, thanked all 18 million who voted for her, accepted her loss and turned around and helped Barack Obama to become President. That is who Hillary Clinton is.
When it comes to the political ‘revolution’ Bernie Sanders keeps talking about it appears it isn’t going quite how he envisioned. The ‘revolution‘ is for Hillary. She now has 2,700,000 more actual votes than Sanders and 1,600,000 more than Donald Trump. It is a revolution which includes registered Democrats, African Americans, women, Latinos, the LGBT community, and people with disabilities who are casting their ballots for her.
It is a revolution in support of the most brilliant, passionate, and prepared person running for President. The person whose election will make a statement to the world about what is best in America when on January 20, 2017 the United States swears in its 45th and first woman President.
Follow Peter D. Rosenstein on Twitter: www.twitter.com/pdrosenstein
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February 17th, 2016
Sanders got tremendous benefits by running as a Democrat including access to the media as competition to Clinton, a spot on the ballot, and the ability to reach voters through the DNC voter list. The same voter list his now-fired staffer was caught stealing Clinton information from. Had Sanders run as an Independent, which he apparently never considered, he would have needed millions of dollars just to do those things and would likely never have gotten a campaign off the ground.
As the campaign progresses it is becoming clear he doesn’t have any interest in meeting what his responsibility would be as the Democratic nominee. In a presidential election year a big part of the nominees job is to help elect candidates down ticket; U.S. Senate, House of Representatives, Governors and state legislators. He would need to help them raise money and build a platform on which they can run. Appears he is so taken with his own rhetoric of ‘revolution’ he hasn’t thought about those down ticket candidates winning giving it even a chance in hell of happening. As of today Hillary Clinton has raised twenty-seven million dollars to be distributed to state parties to assist their candidates and Sanders has raised one thousand dollars. The FEC is now questioning his campaign finances.
Sanders is making it clear he doesn’t understand as Democratic nominee he would be running for a third Democratic term. Whether it fits his agenda or not, as the Democratic nominee he would be running on Barack Obama’s record so tearing it down as he is doing only hurts the Party and him. Politico reported in response to a question on whether he will be better on race relations than Obama Sanders said, “Absolutely” and in an interview with MSNBC Sanders criticized President Barack Obama’s leadership saying, “There’s a huge gap right now between Congress and the American people. … What presidential leadership is about [is] closing that gap.” It is laughable Sanders thinks he has a better record of leadership, or accomplishment, than the President.
Sanders takes a line right out of the Republican playbook attacking Obama’s record on bringing down unemployment insisting, “Real unemployment in this country is not 4.9 percent, it is 10 percent.” This done on the day Obama is touting how far we have come under his administration where we have seen an increase of fourteen million jobs since his economic policies took effect compared with the end of the Bush Administration when we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. Republicans immediately pounced on Sanders saying “Of course, Sanders can criticize Obama for the high unemployment rate all he wants, but it’s not like socialism has ever, at any time in history, led to an explosion in jobs. So he might want to tread lightly there.”
Sanders advocates’ tax increases for all. Even Democrats with long memories can’t remember a President McGovern or a President Mondale. They rememberMondale suggesting a tax increase for everyone. In 1972 McGovern won only Massachusetts and DC and in 1984 Mondale won only Minnesota and DC. Remembering those losses vividly The Hill reported House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi made it clear, “We’re not running on any platform of raising taxes”.
Democrats, Democratic office holders and candidates across the nation must understand what Sanders at the top of the ticket would mean. We can’t repeat the debacles of McGovern and Mondale. Whether or not they like any of Sanders policies the final consideration must be whether we can win an election with him as nominee. The answer is an emphatic NO. With the death of Scalia and potentially three Supreme Court nominations in the balance; Democrats must face reality which is we can’t allow those nominations to be made by any of the clown car of candidates running for the Republican nomination. Hillary can win in November. She has been vetted and faced everything Republicans can throw at her. She is raising millions of dollars to help down ticket candidates and local parties. Her progressive policies will help people and actually have a chance to be implemented.
In the Milwaukee debate Hillary made the best case for her own candidacy. “We agree that we’ve got to get unaccountable money out of politics. We agree that Wall Street should never be allowed to wreck Main Street again. But here’s the point I want to make tonight. I am not a single- issue candidate, and I do not believe we live in a single-issue country. I think that a lot of what we have to overcome to break down the barriers that are holding people back, whether it’s poison in the water of the children of Flint, or whether it’s the poor miners who are being left out and left behind in coal country, or whether it is any other American today who feels somehow put down and oppressed by racism, by sexism, by discrimination against the LGBT community, against the kind of efforts that need to be made to root out all of these barriers, that’s what I want to take on. And here in Wisconsin, I want to reiterate: We’ve got to stand up for unions and working people who have done it before… the American middle class, and who are being attacked by ideologues, by demagogues. Yes, does Wall Street and big financial interests, along with drug companies, insurance companies, big oil, all of it, have too much influence? You’re right.
But if we were to stop that tomorrow, we would still have the indifference, the negligence that we saw in Flint. We would still have racism holding people back. We would still have sexism preventing women from getting equal pay. We would still have LGBT people who get married on Saturday and get fired on Monday. And we would still have governors like Scott Walker and others trying to rip out the heart of the middle class by making it impossible to organize and stand up for better wages and working conditions. So I’m going to keep talking about tearing down all the barriers that stand in the way of Americans fulfilling their potential, because I don’t think our country can live up to its potential unless we give a chance to every single American to live up to theirs.”
Democrats must stand on the principles Hillary states so clearly and understand she is the nominee who can actually lead us to victory in November.
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February 12th, 2016
By Peter Rosenstein.
It’s time Democratic primary voters around the nation get real and look at the ‘BS’ Bernie Sanders is trying to feed them. In reality he is simply an old white politician, a self-described socialist, and sounds more like a ‘carnival barker’ shouting and waving his hands in the air with a long history of accomplishing very little. He brings to mind the words of Shakespeare, “Full of sound and fury signifying nothing.” He is not a Democrat and has never been one and if he becomes the Democratic nominee at the head of the ticket Democrats on the ballot below him from school board to U.S. Senate will be running for the hills.
From the time he ran as an Independent against a progressive former Vermont Governor, Democrat Madeleine Kunin in 1986, to his recent rants against the Democratic establishment he hasn’t changed. He apparently still believes women, the LGBT community, dreamers and African Americans are part of the establishment only out to derail him.
Bernie Sanders has been a politician all his life. He never had another real job. He cut a deal with the National Rifle Association (NRA) to win his Congressional seat and in return voted against the Brady bill and background checks five times and against allowing people to sue gun manufacturers. He voted for the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act that resulted in the judicial system putting thousands of young Black men in jail and he voted for the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF) resolution. “The authorization granted the President the authority to use all “necessary and appropriate force” against those whom he determined “planned, authorized, committed or aided” the September 11th attacks, or who harbored said persons or groups.” That resolution is still in effect and being used to send our troops over there today.
Sanders has never accomplished much but getting himself elected in the least diverse state in the Union. His real accomplishments amount to close to ZERO. Today he shouts at rallies about a ‘revolution’ he wants to lead. When I listen to him I always think of Don Quixote and hear the song ‘To Dream the Impossible Dream‘ in my head and realize this man is not living in the real world.
This doesn’t mean I don’t believe in dreaming. Rather we need to live in the real world to make our dreams come true. While we dream we need to work to find ways to make our progressive dreams come true today and not wait for a revolution that won’t come.
When Barack Obama was elected he quickly found out simply saying ‘Hope and Change‘ wasn’t enough to get things done. But the difference between Barack Obama and Bernie Sanders is people within his own Party actually liked and supported Barack Obama. They were willing to work with him to move us forward in many areas including; healthcare, LGBT rights, women’s pay equity and a host of others.
If Hillary Clinton is President she will have the kind of support Obama has from Democrats both in office and those running. While it won’t be easy she will be able to make progress on lowering student debt, changing our judicial system so Black Lives Matter is more than a slogan, gaining full civil and human rights for the LGBT community and achieving equal pay for equal work for women. After twenty-five years in Congress we already know Sanders can’t get things done. He has never been able to really work with the President and not one of his Senate colleagues, and only two of his House colleagues have endorsed him. They know both his record and his inability to work with people which is why they have endorsed Hillary Clinton.
They all know despite the BS Sanders is trying to sell he has never been a leader in any movement whether it is women’s rights, civil rights, LGBT rights or immigration rights. They know shouting and waving your arms about and selling what was once called ‘snake oil‘ isn’t the way forward. It sounds good and plays to the crowd, but in our system of government it doesn’t work to move the progressive agenda forward.
So to Democrats who have fought hard to make our Party the one of the future; to Independents who believe in making progress on a progressive agenda; take another look at both Sanders and Clinton before you cast your ballot. Snake Oil can be alluring and seem like a quick fix, but real medicine which may be harder to swallow and take a little longer to work is always the better choice.
The changes we want to make in our system will only happen if we reject the ‘carnival barker’ and vote for the person with a history of doing the hard work to get things done and that is Hillary Rodham Clinton.
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August 31st, 2015
By Peter Rosenstein.
We have been witnessing the most biased reporting of any election I have ever seen. This isn’t only about FOX news spouting lies and bringing racists on to attack President Obama. This is about the media apparently doing all it can to bring down Hillary Clinton by skewing every report, including blatant headlines containing lies inThe New York Times.
In the past few day’s two new national polls, one from Suffolk University the other from Quinnipiac came out. Any candidate seeing numbers like Hillary has in those polls would be opening champagne and their opponents would be figuring out what they are doing wrong. After months of a non-stop barrage of negative attacks by Republicans and the press, Clinton still leads the Democratic primary contest by huge numbers and beats every Republican candidate in general election match-ups. She is also leading the Democratic contest in every primary state except for one poll in New Hampshire, which has her a few percentage points behind Sanders. She is 56 percentahead of the field in South Carolina. Now, according to VOX, the various media are reporting these great numbers for Clinton with their own headlines. Bloomberg says, “Biden More Competitive Than Clinton Against Leading Republicans: Poll”; Politicoreports, “Poll: Biden outperforms Hillary in general election; Trump leads GOP field”; and Time says, “Voters open to Joe Biden presidential bid in new poll.”
Then Thursday evening I heard Lester Holt on NBC Nightly News talking about the Quinnipiac poll saying, “New poll shows Biden is running a wave of popularity over Hillary Clinton.” One has to wonder either what drugs he is on or whose biases he is channeling. Both these polls show Hillary’s lead in the Democratic Primary is staying strong. Biden actually comes in third behind Sanders. That is nearly 30 percent behind Clinton. How one can determine that he is riding a wave of popularity is incredible. He actually only has about a 10 percent higher favorable rating than Hillary in one poll and that is after she has been attacked for months, and Biden has yet to enter the fray where he will surely get beaten up quickly.
In fact, according to Daily Kos, “at the beginning of March, Clinton led the GOP field by an average of 50.3 to 42.6, or 7.7 percentage points. Now, in late August, she leads 48.7 to 41.2, or 7.5 percent. Clinton’s “collapse,” in other words, is 0.2 percent! No serious analyst would consider that anything more than a rounding error. (And we’re not cherry-picking the start date, either: The picture is the same if you dial it back to Jan. 1.)”
When it comes to whether Biden will have a smooth ride, Donald Trump has already brought up the plagiarism issue which forced him out of his first presidential campaign, and that will only be the beginning. People need to remember Biden left the 2008 race after getting only 1 percent in the Iowa caucuses.
So it appears the press is doing what they always do to politicians: build them up so they can tear them down later. That seems to be how to sell newspapers and get TV viewers, and it is a sad commentary on both politics and today’s media.
We really need to look at another way to run and report campaigns, but until that happens we should collectively ask the media to stop spouting nonsense. Clinton and Sanders are actually talking about issues and Clinton is putting out nearly daily policy papers. The most recent was her plan to help rural America. Heaven forbid we give voters something real to talk about, something that will actually impact their lives. Instead the media focus is entirely on rumors of Biden running and no one even bothers to mention what platform they think he can run on.
Like nearly all Democrats, I like Joe Biden. I agree with what Hillary said as reported on CNN: “I just want the vice president to decide to do what’s right for him and his family.” Biden is a really nice guy, but there is much in his long legislative record that will be attacked and if the press gets him to run, they will then use that to tear him down. Hillary’s votes are more progressive than Biden’s, and Sanders’ take on issues is more to the left of Hillary. So will a very progressive leaning Democratic Party suddenly go with the more conservative candidate of the three main candidates? One really has to ask: what is the media thinking?
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August 6th, 2015
Hillary Clinton understands different times require different solutions. She has lived her life by a set of principles and convictions formed as a young woman who learned from her mother when life presents you with challenges you must work hard to overcome them to thrive. The convictions and principles she learned at an early age have guided her since she burst on the national scene with a speech at her Wellesley graduation. Hillary is a passionate fighter for children, civil rights, women’s rights, education, national healthcare, advancing science, and so many other issues allowing people to live safer, better, happier and more productive lives.
She is a brilliant woman who understands nothing in the world remains the same; new scientific discoveries requiring new ways of thinking are made every day; countries change and leaders depart and new ones emerge; and forces of nature change, demanding we adjust how we look at the world. As a leader who wants to continue to fight for her convictions and make headway in that fight, Hillary sees the world as it is today and doesn’t stay tied to how it was yesterday.
Recently some people have been vicious in their criticism of Hillary questioning not necessarily her positions on income inequality, restructuring our judicial system; racism and how it stops people from moving ahead; climate change, human rights and a host of other issues on which she is outlining specific policy initiatives; but rather question her honesty and commitment when speaking out on these issues.
Those of us who are activists and came of age around the same time as Hillary were surprised by the attacks. Since the early 1960s we have been involved in the civil rights movement; marched to end the Viet Nam war getting teargassed in DC; and stood up and fought for women’s rights and LGBT rights. My own path led from teaching school in Harlem to working for one of the most progressive people to ever serve in United States Congress, Bella S. Abzug (D-NY). Today we fight to combat climate change and work to secure a path to citizenship for the eleven million immigrants here who want nothing more than a better life for themselves and their children. The surprise at the vicious attacks on Hillary is because she is the only candidate running for President who has been a leader in nearly all these areas. Others may speak out, and may have worked hard on them, but not in a leadership role.
Following my mother’s footsteps I became an activist hearing the name Hillary Rodham Clinton first from her. Then heard it over and over again related to her work with the Children’s Defense Fund and when she was named head of the Legal Services Corporation. We heard about Hillary when the National Law Journal twice listed her as one of the hundred most influential lawyers in America and when as First Lady of Arkansas she led a task force reforming Arkansas’s education system. There was worldwide acclaim for her historic speech on women’s rights to the 4th World Conference on Women in Beijing. Hillary as an activist First Lady of the United States spoke out for children and families and was recognized for her major role in advocating for a number of major pieces of legislation including the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Adoption and Safe Families Act, and the Foster Care Independence Act. Then as Secretary of State in 2011 Hillary Clinton’s Human Rights Day speech was a historic moment for the LGBT rights movement.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, whether you agree with all she has accomplished or not, has made a difference. The Gallup poll shows Hillary has been most admired woman in the world 19 times. Forbes magazine ranked her as one of most powerful people in the world nine times and she has been named eight times to Time magazine’s most influential 100 people on the planet. Those fighting for human rights, equal education opportunities for all, universal healthcare, children and families, and a better safer world are not surprised by this.
Hillary continues to fight for the principles of fairness and decency she grew up with. She understands progress is usually not made in giant leaps but rather incrementally. She has pledged as President she will get up every morning and work hard, as she always has, to move our nation and everyone in it forward. She will use the brilliant mind god graced her with to make progress on the convictions and principles her mother instilled in her. Her campaign is about asking each of us to join her in making this a better world for ourselves and future generations.
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June 29th, 2015
By Peter Rosenstein.
Today we can pop the cork on the champagne, but make sure you don’t drink it all. The Supreme Court gave us a total win for marriage-equality in Obergefell vs. Hodges, but we must remember it is only one of the many fights still to be won.
Today, we must honor the many people who have fought long and hard for this day, and the celebrations will last long into the wee hours of the morning. The Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision has said that our marriages are legal and protected by the constitution. We could send bottle of champagne to justices Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan, Ginsburg and maybe even two to Kennedy. As one of the founders of theCampaign for All D.C. Families and its first President, the group that coordinated the fight for marriage equality in the District of Columbia, I am grateful this day has finally arrived. Since we won the right to marry in D.C., many of my friends have taken advantage of that right and now live in wedded bliss, or so they tell me. Seriously, many now have children and are living out a version of the American dream.
For me, the fight for marriage equality was never personal in the sense of still being blissfully single with no desire to marry. But it was a fight that needed to be fought because of the meaning it has for so many today, and for future generations. A young man or young woman growing up today will know that being gay or lesbian won’t stop them from looking forward to the same loving relationship, with marriage and family, that all their straight friends could always have. They will have role models to look up to, and know that a life shared with the person they love, sanctioned by law, is possible.
The book should now be written about all the people who made this possible. Thus far, we have only recognized a few of them, and there are so many who worked tirelessly behind the scenes and didn’t see their names in headlines. They need to be thanked, and their stories need to be told, from the first fights in Hawaii, to victory in Massachusetts to the court decision today.
But our fight for civil and human rights for the LGBT community goes on. Marriage equality is only one rung in the ladder to victory. Bigger battles are yet to be fought and won. We cannot accept that you can marry today, and in 37 states, lose your job or be denied a place to live tomorrow. And even when we win those fights, there will still be the work to change the hearts and minds of those who still believe we are different and not deserving of love and decency.
In 1974, Bella S. Abzug (D-NY) introduced a comprehensive civil rights bill in the Congress for the LGBT community which went nowhere. Unfortunately, the new bill being considered for introduction today may have the same reception. What we have learned from the history of the civil rights movement and the women’s movement is that even changing the law is only step one in the battle for acceptance. That was brought home to us again in the act of hate and terrorism perpetrated in a Charleston church two weeks ago. We keep wanting to believe that things will change with a new generation, but the perpetrator of that heinous crime was a young man of 21.
We do know people aren’t born with hate in their hearts. Hate, racism, sexism and homophobia are traits that are taught. They are passed on from one generation to new generations from ignorant and often scared people. People who want to blame their own insecurities and shortcomings on someone else. Changing that dynamic will take a long time, but we can never give up that fight.
The LGBT community has made legal gains with a speed that was unimaginable just ten years ago. We will continue to make those gains if we are steadfast in our efforts, and are joined by our allies who are so important to us. We have seen in Indiana the strength of the business community when they step up to support us.
So let us take the time to pop a few corks today in celebration of a big victory. Then tomorrow, we will begin the next fight, and we need to be ready to take that on together.
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April 7th, 2015
By Peter Rosenstein.
Following is a version of what I would like to hear Hillary Rodham Clinton say as she announces her Presidential campaign. A campaign that will lead this brilliant accomplished woman to being sworn in as the nation’s 45th President.
“Today I announce my candidacy for President of the United States of America; a candidacy in which I hope the American people will see themselves and join me as together we build a brighter future for ourselves and our children. I will meet with you in your homes and where you work, and through technology online in many forms, and listen to your ideas, your hopes and dreams and share with you my vision for America. An America in which everyone has an equal opportunity for a quality education, a good paying job and can once again have their hard work rewarded. A future where every parent can again know their children can aspire to an even better life.
Together we have come through a difficult time in America. We have suffered economic hardship but America is once again moving forward and our economy is ready to soar. But you and I know this economy is still not benefiting everyone. There is a huge inequality in pay and while the rich grow richer the poor and middle class continue to struggle. Our challenge is to turn our economy into one which benefits all of us. Together we can do that. We will find the right balance between Wall Street and Main Street which doesn’t exist today. We must ease the debt burden for our students saddled with massive college loans; raise the minimum wage; strengthen and fix the Affordable Care Act; create jobs through rebuilding our infrastructure; ease regulations on small businesses which provide so many of our jobs; and ensure a more equitable tax code.
As most of you know I grew up in a Republican home with a strong father who loved me but who I once referred to as ‘diversity challenged’ because of some of his social views. My mother, an amazing woman, suffered many hardships in her life and maybe because of them taught me to be an independent woman. She said if I worked hard anything was possible. So I did and attended Wellesley College and Yale law school and enrolled at the Yale Child Study Center, where I took courses on children and medicine and completed one post-graduate year of study. During college I spent my summers working first in D.C. on then U.S. Senator Walter Mondale’s sub-committee on migrant workers and the following summer in the western states campaigning for George McGovern. I was fascinated with politics and the workings of government because if done right it could help make life better for people.
I met the man who would be my husband in law school. You may have heard of him, Bill Clinton. He convinced me to follow him home to Arkansas and in 1975 asked me to marry him. Through all the years of our marriage which has played out on the public stage we have been each other’s best friend and this year are celebrating our 40th wedding anniversary. This past year our daughter Chelsea and her husband Marc made us proud grandparents. And like you so much of what I do is because I want to make this world a little better and a little safer for our children and grandchildren. I want the opportunities I had and was able to give Chelsea for every child. That is not always the case across America today. There are still many impediments to achieving their full potential for women, African Americans, the LGBT community and immigrants ready to work hard, pay their fair share in taxes and learn our language; those who want to participate fully in the economy.
Obviously my election would make history. It would say to every young girl and boy that in America we do have an equal opportunity to succeed. But remember there are already 22 women Presidents and Prime Ministers leading nations from Germany to Malta. So I won’t ask for your vote just because I am a woman; rather over the next months as I campaign for the Democratic nomination and hopefully in the general election; you will hear from me why I believe my life has prepared me to be your President and how my experiences have shaped my vision for America’s future, our future.
America must continue to provide leadership in the world which is increasingly more complex and dangerous. We have the greatest military in the history of the world yet we cannot be the sole protector of the world. We must keep our military strong as a deterrent to war but we must be guided by what I have called ‘smart power’. A president has many levers of power to wield in providing leadership and using the military is just one. We must use our economic strength and an agile diplomacy leaving the military only as a last resort. I will never send our brave young men and women into harm’s way if there is another way to keep ourselves and our world safe and free. My foreign policy will include standing up for human rights; advancing the rights and role of women and girls; and creating the space for a flourishing civil society and the conditions for broad-based economic development across the globe.
Over the years working with the Children’s Defense Fund, as Chair of the Legal Services Corporation, a private practice attorney, Chelsea’s mom, and a partner in life with Bill; my life’s experiences have molded and changed me as yours have you. They taught me life is often a series of compromises. They also taught me if I kept my moral compass and kept faith with my principles I could still work successfully with others who might think differently. My parents and my church taught me while I might view the world a little differently from the person sitting in the pew beside me, god loved us both.
As the Senator from New York for six years and Secretary of State for four, my understanding of the value of negotiation and compromise grew stronger and taught me wisely it was a way to move my vision forward. There are things on which I won’t compromise but can still respect and work with those who disagree with me. I believe passionately in a woman’s right to choice and to control her own body and healthcare; that gay, lesbian and transgender individuals are entitled to the same human and civil rights we all have including a loving relationship and the right to civil marriage. We are a nation of immigrants and we must provide a path to citizenship for those who are here now and want to help make our country all it can be. I also understand while we have laws securing equal rights for women and African Americans our responsibility doesn’t end there. We must continue the work of changing the culture to ensure all our laws are upheld equally. We must see an end to the unequal application of justice and to the continued pay disparity between women and men in the same jobs. We must stop penalizing women in the work-force when they have children and ensure both parents have time to care for their children because those children are our future. We must pay heed to the research showing us if we read, sing, and talk to our children from birth to age five they will have an exponentially greater chance to succeed in school and in life.
While government cannot be responsible to care for us from cradle to grave, in addition to government’s role for providing for the health and safety of America we can care for our neighbors when the church or community cannot, or will not. There must be a safety net and a hand up when needed.
We must guarantee the future of Social Security and Medicare for seniors. We must promote and fund early childhood education including Head Start and promote government/private partnerships to reduce homelessness and create job training programs for those looking for a first job or changing jobs because of new technology. We need a robust research program including basic science that will make our lives and the world a safer, better place; and we need to use the results of that research and science to guide us as we develop policies and programs to clean up our environment and stop our contribution to climate change.
So I see this campaign as a discussion with voters over the future of America and hope we can make this election different. Let’s not base it only on 60 second TV commercials. Instead let us call on the media to help us make a change. We are fortunate in America to have a free press whose role is to share what is happening in our government and around the world so you can make informed decisions. So let’s ask the press to be vigilant in exploring my views and statements on policy and those of the other candidates. Compare them and share them fully so you the voter can make informed decisions. Ask me and all candidates the tough questions on why we believe our policies will make for a better future for America and why we believe our experience and understanding of the world makes us the right person to be President. Challenge me, but maybe not so much on the color of my pants suits or my new hairstyle.
In many ways this election is about the heart and soul of America. We can once again be the land of opportunity for all; once again welcome those ‘huddled masses yearning to breathe free’ to our shores; once again become the America where John F. Kennedy could say, “Let us not ask what America can do for us but rather what we can do for America.”
We can do all this if we stand and work together. We can accomplish miracles when we recognize we stand on the shoulders of those who have come before us; Abraham Lincoln, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., John F. and Robert Kennedy, Sojourner Truth, Cesar Chavez, Susan B. Anthony and so many others. We must build on their accomplishments to guarantee a brighter future for all. America is truly a beautiful land from ‘sea to shining sea’ and that will never be truer than when it becomes a land of equal opportunity for all. So today I ask you to join me on this journey and hope it will lead you to place your trust in me to lead this great nation of ours into a better and brighter future.”
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March 21st, 2015
By Peter Rosenstein.
(Photo by Daniel X. O’Neil; courtesy Wikimedia Commons)
Since October 1978, when I moved to Washington, D.C., the Washington Post has been delivered to my door each morning. For nearly all those years, my day has begun on a positive note as I read the paper while sipping my first cup of coffee.
In recent years, that enjoyment has changed. There seems to be much less depth and value in the paper, which I now finish before the coffee. One major change is that the Post is much less a reliably liberal-leaning newspaper. You can never be sure what position the editorial board will take on any issue or even what issues they will deem important. That has been a problem with the paper for a number of years.
In 2010, I wrote, “The past couple of years, editorials on local issues and candidates are more like sledgehammers than reasoned opinions. They read like the personal biases of the writers and treat readers as if they don’t have the ability to think on their own. Even pictures and headlines, which I am told are not controlled by the editorial board, often appear to be used to browbeat readers. The Post still has many excellent reporters but even they at times have admitted to being a little embarrassed by their editors. I lost count of the number of editorials the Post has written in favor of school vouchers. Never with a new idea but simply the sledgehammer approach; guess the thought process of the editorial board is if they say it often enough these idiots reading the paper will finally get it.”
So this change in editorial policy isn’t new and the Post still has some great reporters. But the last two weeks are indicative of a major change in focus for a paper once reflective of the views of what were their major readership — the very liberal communities of the District of Columbia and the Maryland and Virginia suburbs. There have been three editorials — March 4, 9, and 10 — slamming Hillary Clinton for what most now agree is only a “scandal” because it has Clinton’s name attached to it. Other politicians and high-level government officials have done what she did without all the brouhaha.
During this same period of time there have been no editorials denouncing in strong terms what 47 Republican senators did when writing directly to the leadership in Iran undercutting the president’s foreign policy initiatives. The closest was an editorial on March 10 titled, “Republicans fumble their chance to focus attention on the Iran deal.” There were two editorials during this same period attacking the president. The first appeared on March 3 taking him to task for a lack of response to Netanyahu and a second on March 12 attacking his foreign policy in Iran. These editorials could be confused with those in the Wall Street Journal, the nation’s best reliably conservative newspaper.
With regard to the Hillary Clinton email issue, at the same time the editorials appeared there were multiple stories and columnists in the paper, on one day there were four, that joined in the Clinton bashing. Apparently the Post couldn’t find one columnist taking the position we now know to be true, which is what Clinton did was legal and has not caused harm to the United States in any way.
Multiple polls done by Gallup, NBC/WSJ and others have shown the public hasn’t changed its views about Clinton because of the email issue and, in fact, her standing among Democrats is higher than ever. While early polling isn’t always indicative of final results, Clinton now beats every possible Republican candidate and her positive vs. negative rating is better than any Democrat or potential Republican candidate. You wouldn’t know that reading the Washington Post.
If she could read her beloved newspaper in the last few years, Katherine Graham would be turning over in her grave. Based on the current editorial policy it’s not inconceivable that we’ll see the Washington Post morph into the New York Post. If you believe that isn’t possible just ask some older New Yorkers who remember fondly when that was a great newspaper under publisher Dorothy Schiff before it eventually landed in the hands of Rupert Murdoch. We can only hope that new owner Jeff Bezos doesn’t intend to turn the Post into an “Amazon” with an editorial policy of “let’s have something for everyone.
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March 7th, 2015
By Peter Rosenstein.
Once again a story about Hillary Clinton gets front-page coverage even when the reporter uses innuendo and unsubstantiated “facts” to suggest wrongdoing. That is what we saw in the New York Times this week in a report by Michael Schmidt with regard to Hillary’s use of a private email account when she was Secretary of State. The New York Times story was questioned by many as reported by Igor Bobic in theHuffington Post. David Brock of Media Matters sent a letter to the New York Timesasking they print a “prominent correction” for their sloppy reporting. Instead the New York Times appears to be doubling down in an effort to protect their reporter.
This is nothing new where Hillary Clinton is concerned. Crazy accusations about her have been written in the mainstream media for years. These reports include everything from suggesting she asked the FBI for files to target political opponents to accusations she murdered Vince Foster and were chronicled in a Mother Jonescolumn by David Corn. One must ask why when Clinton is close to announcing for the Presidency with the best chance a woman has ever had to win would we be surprised stories with partial facts and innuendo appear in an effort to derail her prospective campaign.
James Carville spoke at the Ready for Hillary Finance Committee meeting in New York last November saying he anticipated the media, the right-wing conspiracy Hillary has always talked about, and the very left-wing of the Democratic Party would all try to derail a Clinton campaign. He added it wouldn’t work but we are seeing what he anticipated come to fruition.
This time the American public appears to be way ahead of these groups of self-important insiders and members of the press who talk to each other as they travel the corridor between Washington, D.C. and New York. All indications are the voters won’t be swayed by innuendo and new half-baked stories about Hillary. There is little change in the way the majority of voters see her. They recognize a supremely competent woman who has spent a lifetime working for them.
Somehow all the sturm and drang created by each new “accusation and bombshell” her opponents dream up, and the press jumps to report, ends the same; Hillary is never shown to have done anything wrong. She comes out of these made for TV crisis looking like what she is; a brilliant woman and good politician who gets things done.
Reporters like Michael Schmidt will continue to get front page stories when they say anything nasty about Hillary. It is sad this happens in the New York Times which by many accounts is still the best newspaper in the nation. In this case, it seems the reporter was taken in by staff of a Republican Congressional committee still trying to prove Hillary Clinton did something wrong with regard to Benghazi. It appears they decided now is the time to release information on Hillary’s use of a private email address when she was Secretary of State which according to a Politico story by Lauren French Committee Chair Trey Gowdy (R-SC) admitted “the committee has known since last summer that Clinton, the front-runner for the Democratic Party’s 2016 nomination, used personal email addresses while serving as secretary.” It’s clear he waited for what Republicans thought was a good time, as Hillary indicated she was about to announce her candidacy, to push this information to a reporter.
As this story unfolds and Hillary calls for the State Department to release all her emails to the public Kasie Hunt on MSNBC reports “Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush owns the server that runs jeb@jeb.org, the personal email account he used as governor to conduct official, political and personal business. Asked who controls the server that operates that email address, Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell responded: “He owns it.” We will see all kinds of reports on people doing exactly what Hillary has done and like her totally legally. But without Hillary’s name in the headline it doesn’t end up on page one and the reporter doesn’t get to preen on television when talking about it.
So if Hillary does announce her candidacy for President we must be prepared to see these stories throughout the campaign. Reporters seem to think writing about Hillary is comparable to the sign my mother had on her refrigerator, “Anything I like is either illegal, immoral or fattening.” Her detractors will be gleeful and her supporters will move forward knowing it’s time to elect the person best prepared to be the next President of the United States; and know what makes it even better is that person is a woman.
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December 18th, 2014
As we approach 2015 Hillary Rodham Clinton’s thought process on declaring a run for president appears to include the words “what’s the rush?” It is an approach apparently frustrating many in the Republican Party and the media who both can’t wait to attack if and when she does announce. But to those of us who support her it just makes sense to allow her all the time she needs.
As someone who supports Hillary I will continue to work to build the Ready for Hillary PAC and urge my friends to sign on and make a small contribution to continue to build the movement. This will give Hillary the final nudge needed so she knows that when she is ready to declare her candidacy, which I believe she will do, she will have the support she needs to win.
The reality for Hillary Rodham Clinton is there is no rush to announce and the benefits of not jumping in too early are many. We know whether she is an announced candidate or not, the attacks are ongoing. Every serious Republican candidate and even many who could be considered “jokes” are falling all over themselves to find a way to stop her. The front page of the Sunday New York Times had a column “G.O.P Hopefuls Honing Attacks Against Clinton.” New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who many consider a buffoon, made the mistake of quoting Barack Obama’s 2008 debate line, “You’re likable enough, Hillary.” He seems to forget that helped lead to Hillary’s win in the New Hampshire primary. Now maybe he is worried about a recentQuinnipiac poll showing Hillary beating him by 11 percent in New Jersey with a majority of those in the state saying he shouldn’t even run.
Then there is Rick Perry, the Texas governor who some have said was “the answer to those who thought George W. Bush too cerebral.” He is attacking Hillary’s recent book sales and suggesting she has a hard time attracting an audience and filling a room. Tell that to the thousands across the nation who stood on long lines at her book signings and to get in to hear her speak. If that is what he sees as a real attack we could be lucky to see him be the Republican candidate. Then there is Ted Cruz (R-TX), the latest incarnation of Joe McCarthy, mocking the “wealthy” Mrs. Clinton as being out of touch with working-class voters. He seems to forget she actually beat Barack Obama in primaries with overwhelming working-class voters in Texas, Ohio and West Virginia. Guess he is just trying to find something to say after reading the polls that have her beating him by huge majorities across the nation.
The reality is that Hillary will be the target of vicious attacks from all sides. She will be called too conservative by the liberals and too liberal by the conservatives and those attacks will come from her own party. The right-wing conspiracy that Hillary once spoke of will be out in force and she will face a press corps that likes to take people who are popular and tear them down. The press will go to great lengths reporting on every attack against her and even making up some of their own.
What Hillary has going for her is that none of this is new. What frustrates many is that she has faced this over her entire career and today she is stronger than ever.
By not declaring her candidacy just yet, Hillary allows herself the time to stay out of some of the parochial fights and not have to immediately declare positions on every issue. People know where Hillary stands on the crucial issues because of her lifetime in public service. She has a well delineated record.
As we move into 2015 and have a Republican-controlled Congress, with a host of Republican senators just waiting to jump into the Republican fight for the nomination, Hillary gets the benefit of waiting to see how they each handle the issues. She can watch how they build their campaigns before she announces. From the point of view of supporters like me that just seems to be smart politics.
Hillary Rodham Clinton, when and if she announces, will go into the Democratic primaries with the largest headwind of any candidate in history. She will have an army of people Ready for Hillary just waiting to jump on her bandwagon and help her fight for the nomination and then win the presidency. Those of us who believe it is time for a woman of Hillary’s intelligence and experience to be president of these great United States have waited a long time and a few more months won’t matter to us. Hillary, take all the time you need but know when you are ready so are we.
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November 7th, 2014
As recriminations continue over whose fault it is that Democrats lost the Senate one potential positive is Hillary Rodham Clinton will be able to run full-out against the ultra-conservative Congress.
When as many believe she will announce her candidacy for President in the beginning of 2015 she will be helped by the likes of senator Ted Cruz (R-TX), the current incarnation of the late Senator Joseph McCarthy (D-WI), who was quoted in the Washington Post saying “The first order of business should be a series of hearings on President Obama, looking at the abuse of power, the executive abuse, the regulatory abuse, the lawlessness that sadly has pervaded this administration.”
The Post went on to write “When Cruz was asked if he would back Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky for Republican leader, Cruz would not pledge his support — an indication that there are limits to how much of a partner he’s willing to be.”
When Hillary Clinton lays out her vision for America it will be in sharp contrast to what Republican members of Congress believe. Her vision will include full and equal participation by women in every part of American society; and an immigration policy that lays out a path for citizenship for those already here and allows their children to be educated. Her vision will include rebuilding America’s infrastructure and providing decent high paying jobs for all Americans.
It will include ensuring a strong and robust foreign policy that uses all the tools available to a President, from diplomacy and economic sanctions to understanding that having the best military in the world is a deterrent but that a President must be willing to use it as a last resort if all else fails. Her vision for America includes ensuring that every child has the chance to grow up and reach their full potential and that everyone including women, minorities and LGBT Americans have their full civil and human rights.
That vision will be in sharp contrast to Republicans of all stripes in both houses of Congress who will be offering hearings and recriminations instead of the action voters want. They will be offering ‘personhood’ amendments and trying to take away healthcare from millions of Americans who now have it through the Affordable Care Act.
Americans will hear Hillary’s vision and then see that their representatives in Washington aren’t able to work together and are failing to solve issues such as immigration, raising the minimum wage, ensuring affordable healthcare for all Americans, and guaranteeing that our veterans, the brave men and women who fought for our nation, are taken care of. Voters will see a Congress continuing to try to give tax breaks to the rich instead of working to ensure that Medicare and Social Security are viable far into the future for them and their children. They will contrast Hillary’s vision for the nation with what Congress is doing, or not doing, and come to the conclusion that the new Republican majority isn’t focused on the things that will make their lives better and the bloom will be off the rose very quickly.
Many are confident that rational people understand while there was a Republican wave there still aren’t enough Tea Party votes to override a Presidential veto and no ultra-conservative legislation will become law. Republicans will end up getting the blame for continuing the stalemate in Washington and 2016 when Republicans will have to defend 24 seats in the Senate and Democrats only 10 will have a different outcome.
So ready-or-not the 2016 Presidential campaign officially began on November 5, 2014. In less than three months the year-long speculation about whether or not Hillary will run will come to an end.
If Hillary announces she begins with an advantage far surpassing anything people thought she had in 2008 when she first ran. Today there is no other candidate like Barack Obama waiting in the wings. Those trying to turn Elizabeth Warren into that candidate are stymied because she is a very smart woman and realizes she isn’t ready and can’t win. She has an important message which we must heed and is a good Senator with the potential to become a great one.
The Ready for Hillary PAC which is continuing to raise money to expand the package they will turn over to Hillary’s campaign provides the kind of head start that no candidate has ever had. They have nearly 3 million current email addresses of supporters across the nation, thousands in every state, and a list of 100,000 active donors, with new donors and emails being added daily. There has never been anything like it in the history of politics and Hillary can thank Adam Parkhomenko and Allida Black who founded the organization for the incredible advantage she will have when she jumps into the race.
There are millions of people Ready for Hillary who believe she will shortly say she is ready to answer their call and begin the journey that will result in her being inaugurated the nation’s 45th and first woman President of the United States on January 20, 2017.
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October 5th, 2014
By Peter Rosenstein.
‘When trouble comes up anywhere in the world they don’t call Beijing, they don’t call Moscow, they call us,’ President Obama told ’60 Minutes.’ (Washington Blade file photo by Lee Whitman)
The president is doing the right thing in moving against ISIS, the terrorist organization calling themselves the Islamic State. On the other hand, Congress thus far has refused to debate or vote on what we should be doing and instead went home to campaign to keep their jobs believing that by not doing anything, challengers couldn’t use their words against them in the campaign. It is a perfect “Profile in Cowardice” and especially glaring when we heard the British Parliament actually debate the issue to determine their involvement in the coalition that the president has put together. Their politicians at least stood up and took a position.
There are Republican candidates for the Senate in New Hampshire and New Mexico, and it is anticipated more will join them, running ads attacking the president and trying to tie incumbent senators to him, accusing him of not doing anything or not doing the right thing in the war on ISIS. Yet these same candidates don’t have the guts to say what they would do.
We recently heard from former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that they pushed the president to arm Syrian moderates two years ago in the effort to overthrow Assad. The president decided against doing this and again defended that decision in a “60 Minutes” interview last Sunday. There is no way to know whether he was right or wrong and if it would have made a difference in the growth and strength of ISIS.
But now the president is acting and is right to do so. As the only super power left in the world we cannot stand by and watch this or other heinous terrorist groups murder and pillage their way through Iraq and Syria, threatening the rest of the world. We cannot stand by when Americans are beheaded and our homeland is threatened. Even if it is a little late in some people’s estimation, the president is building a coalition, now numbering 60 nations, to join the United States in fighting this war. When asked on “60 Minutes” why America must always be in the lead, he gave what I believe to be an honest and correct answer. The president said, “That is always the case. America leads. We are the indispensable nation. We have the capacity no one else has. Our military is the best in the history of the world. And when trouble comes up anywhere in the world they don’t call Beijing, they don’t call Moscow, they call us.”
The president made his case movingly at the United Nations last week as he sought to grow the coalition fighting ISIS. He said, “Fellow delegates, we come together as United Nations with a choice to make. We can renew the international system that has enabled so much progress, or allow ourselves to be pulled back by an undertow of instability. We can reaffirm our collective responsibility to confront global problems, or be swamped by more and more outbreaks of instability. For America, the choice is clear. We choose hope over fear.”
This could not have been easy for the president, who just six short years ago accepted a Nobel Peace Prize. As Karen DeYoung wrote in the Washington Post: “After keeping his promise to avoid American involvement in extended wars for nearly six years, President Obama on Monday began a military engagement that he acknowledged is likely to far outlive his time in office.”
While eschewing putting boots on the ground, he is sending military advisers and trainers and our brave airmen and women to fly dangerous bombing missions over Iraq and Syria. He has admitted America is once again in a war, even if this war is different from the ones George Bush and Dick Cheney began, which many believe are the cause of some of the problems the world faces today.
In ways it would be easier as some would like to do and bury our heads in the sand and “let the people in those countries deal with these issues themselves.” But we face the reality that the desire for this type of isolationism will never again be possible. We live in a world so interconnected that never again will we be able to pretend things will be alright as long as we don’t get involved.
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July 8th, 2014
Two, three or more major stories about Hillary and Bill Clinton are in the papers and on TV daily. The Hillary stories range from glowing to glowering. The NY Times has had a reporter assigned to the Hillary beat for more than a year. In a recentWashington Post column Fareed Zakaria writes about Hillary’s hardest choice, “Clinton’s great challenge will be to decide whether she represents change or continuity.” In a NY Times story she is compared to John McCain and the reporter does a “Chicken little the sky is falling” piece on her poll numbers. The Washington Post running out of new things to say about Hillary has taken to writing stories about Bill’s quest to be First Gentleman. The Nation says the media are suffering from Hillary Fatigue, yet they are still writing about her and dreaming up new things to say.
The interesting thing isn’t the stories but the fact that media outlets are so obsessed with the Clintons clearly believing the public is too. Reporters writing pure speculation and general nonsense get it on the front page. Maybe the public is obsessed with them but it must be hoped if Hillary runs the stories will migrate to a discussion of issues and less of the “How much Hillary is paid for a speech” or whether “Bill is involved in strategy.”
The poll number stories aren’t new. From the day she became first lady of Arkansas to being appointed secretary of state, her poll numbers have swung wildly. When she is out of day-to- day politics her numbers are up and when the opposition is skewering her the numbers go down. So what? Zakaria is totally wrong about what her hardest choice will be. Hillary doesn’t have to make a conscious decision about representing change or continuity. Rather she can talk about her vision for a better America and what she sees is going right with what she believes she can change for the future.
In her book Hard Choices, Clinton laid out foreign policy areas in which she is in lock-step with the president and some such as her recommendation to arm the Syrian opposition Obama chose not to follow. There is every reason to believe that Clinton will be nuanced in a campaign. It isn’t simply a case of “with-em-or-agin-em,” which is what reporters would like to see. Voters are smarter than that.
Hillary and Bill Clinton have been in the public eye since Hillary Rodham was the first student commencement speaker at Wellesley College in 1969 and when Bill ran for Congress in Arkansas in 1974. There isn’t much new the press can find that we already don’t know. Their marriage, with its ups and downs, has lasted longer than all those of their critics.
Hillary has always fought for universal health care and will benefit because many of the issues surrounding the Affordable Care Act will have been settled by the time she may announce. Then the recent Supreme Court decision on the Hobby Lobby case to which Hillary voiced strong disagreement allows her to point out the continuing war on women by five old Catholic men and the Republican Party candidates who support them.
Hillary will point out that a Democratic president, Barack Obama, saved the nation pulling it out of a deep recession. But she has shown an understanding that there is a long way to go before everyone is participating in the recovery. Bill will remind people of the state of the nation when he was president. We weren’t at war and there were budget surpluses. But Hillary can share her vision for change and she has acknowledged and shown an understanding that we are living in a different world than existed 20 years ago.
Stories like the one in the Washington Post about Bill having made over $100 million since leaving office has people like me thinking “that ain’t bad for a good ole southern boy from Hope, Arkansas.” For years no one has paid that much attention to the huge sums of money made by all the ex-presidents and other politicians or celebrities who make millions from their speeches. But Hillary suddenly out-performs and gets paid more than all of them and it’s now a major story. Wow, a woman with views worth more and commanding more money than men.
Voters often elect wealthy people. John F. Kennedy and Franklin Roosevelt with inherited wealth; and Ronald Reagan and both Bushes, who were millionaires when elected. Mitt Romney didn’t lose because he was rich but rather because people felt he couldn’t connect with those who weren’t. Hillary Clinton doesn’t have that problem. People know where she stands on issues and they know where she comes from and that neither she nor Bill was born with a silver spoon in their mouth. People have always respected her incredible work ethic from her earliest days at the Children’s Defense Fund and her work for universal health care; equal pay for equal work for women; a great education for all children; and a world that will be more at peace tomorrow than it is today.
After 45 years in the public eye Hillary can still be the candidate of the future, which would finally include more women in power. She will break that final glass ceiling if she runs. Hillary is a grandmother building a better world for her grandchild, something no longer the sole province of grandfathers.
What Republicans fear is that voters will recognize how a brilliant and feeling woman in the White House will make a difference for them, their children, and their families. Hillary understands how that resonates here and around the world.
Winning the White House for a Democrat will be made easier when more women vote. Hillary can make that happen and her skirt-tail effect would impact elections up and down the spectrum. Some question whether she can create the excitement that will cause that to happen. The media’s obsession with her and Bill show she can. When the campaign actually begins, we can only hope the media will focus on the issues that matter to people because that is what is important to the future of America.
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May 12th, 2014
What title could Hillary Clinton add to her resume that would make her even more appealing to voters than those she already has on her resume? That question was answered recently when Chelsea announced that she and husband Marc Mezvinsky were expecting. In the eyes of much of the world, grandmothers can do no wrong.
Hillary will soon have one more person to consider when deciding whether to run for president. There will be one more generation in the Clinton family to benefit from the good she can accomplish in the world by running and breaking that last “glass ceiling” and taking the oath of office on Jan. 20, 2017. I have no doubt that Americans will stand with her and finally make the statement that women are truly equal. A statement they weren’t ready to make in the 1970s when the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the Constitution failed to pass.
Last weekend there was a column in the Washington Post by Dan Balz, “Clinton, Warren, and a tale of two book titles.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) chose the titleA Fighting Chance and Hillary’s forthcoming book is titled Hard Choices. Each in their own way says something about America and where we should be headed. Balz says, “Warren’s deeply personal book speaks directly to the widespread feelings of so many Americans — across Party lines — that the deck is stacked against them.” I think that is a sentiment Hillary Clinton shares.
Warren is a gutsy academic who, until 1994, was a Republican who then turned independent and finally Democratic when she realized it was the party that best represented her views even if it wasn’t perfect. Clinton became a Democrat much earlier and has toiled in the vineyards to move the party forward all her adult life. She has shared her thoughts in the book It Takes a Village and Other Lessons Children Teach Us and wrote of her work in the book Living History. Her new book will be about her time at the State Department and how she sees the world today.
Balz wrote about what someone told him about Clinton’s philosophy and then quoted the lines Hillary herself spoke in her keynote to the United Methodist Women Assembly in Louisville last Saturday. They are words attributed to John Wesley, “Do all the good you can. In all the ways you can. In all the places you can. At all the times you can. To all the people you can. As long as ever you can.”
When I hear Hillary say those words, I am more convinced than ever that she believes she can still do more good and will continue to do it for as long as she can.
Hillary will not give up the fight to see that women receive equal pay for equal work. I pity the person that suggests that when elected president she should take a salary cut from $400,000 to $280,000 because she is a woman. That is about the percentage less that many women make for the same jobs men do.
I recently saw the one-woman play Golda’s Balcony, a tour de force with Tovah Feldshuh, in Theater J at the Jewish Community Center. It is the story of Golda Meir’s role in fighting to bring into existence the State of Israel from when she emigrated from Milwaukee to Palestine in 1921. She lived through three wars in which Israel’s neighbors tried to wipe them off the map and was Prime Minister during the 1973 Yom Kippur war.
It is the story of her humanity, her family, children and grandchildren, and the difficulty she had in balancing both along with her devotion and responsibility to the State of Israel and the Jewish people. It is the story of having her finger on the nuclear button, a capability that we now know Israel has since the French helped them build the Dimona nuclear reactor in 1964.
A discussion I had with friends about Hillary after seeing the play revolved around what it would mean to have her with responsibility for both domestic and foreign policy and she being the one with her finger on the nuclear button. We compared her to everyone else who has been mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2016 in this complicated and dangerous world in which we live. We all came to the conclusion that we would sleep better if she is the person in the White House.
This column was first published in the Washington Blade.
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