Hillary Clinton is running for President.
New York Senator Hillary Clinton has just made an announcement. And it hasn’t been the cutesy route of Barack Obama and Tom Vilsack, who announce they will announce an announcement of announcing something to be later announced. No, Senator Clinton has gotten right to the point:
I’m in. And I’m in to win.
Today I am announcing that I will form an exploratory committee to run for president.
And I want you to join me not just for the campaign but for a conversation about the future of our country — about the bold but practical changes we need to overcome six years of Bush administration failures.
I am going to take this conversation directly to the people of America, and I’m starting by inviting all of you to join me in a series of web chats over the next few days.
The stakes will be high when America chooses a new president in 2008.
As a senator, I will spend two years doing everything in my power to limit the damage George W. Bush can do. But only a new president will be able to undo Bush’s mistakes and restore our hope and optimism.
Only a new president can renew the promise of America — the idea that if you work hard you can count on the health care, education, and retirement security that you need to raise your family. These are the basic values of America that are under attack from this administration every day.
And only a new president can regain America’s position as a respected leader in the world.
I believe that change is coming November 4, 2008. And I am forming my exploratory committee because I believe that together we can bring the leadership that this country needs. I’m going to start this campaign with a national conversation about how we can work to get our country back on track.
This is a big election with some very big questions. How do we bring the war in Iraq to the right end? How can we make sure every American has access to adequate health care? How will we ensure our children inherit a clean environment and energy independence? How can we reduce the deficits that threaten Social Security and Medicare?
No matter where you live, no matter what your political views, I want you to be a part of this important conversation right at the start. So to begin, I’m going to spend the next several days answering your questions in a series of live video web discussions. Starting Monday, January 22, at 7 p.m. EST for three nights in a row, I’ll sit down to answer your questions about how we can work together for a better future. And you can participate live at my website. Sign up to join the conversation here.
Well, that got my attention. This is a good start to a campaign — live web discussion with live participation from people across the country. I’m interested to see how Clinton does in this format, with the demands of back-and-forth conversation with questions of the raw sort that citizens tend to ask. This is right at my kids’ bedtime, darn it, but I’m going to do my best to rig a way to be there to listen in as best I can.
What do you think about a long anticipated and now actual Clinton campaign for the White House? Are you a Clinton supporter, a Clinton detractor, or on the fence? It’s time to start talking.
Well, what does she stand for? Besides herself, I mean. Can anyone name something, off the top of your head, that she stands for?
If she’s going to have a successful campaign, she ought to try to answer this question. So far, she hasn’t made it clear. For some, just being a Democrat, and being powerful enough to get institutional support, will be enough. Not for me.
She needs to prove herself to me.
Off the top of my head, as far as national politics, the first thing she did as first lady was try to get affordable health care for all Americans. The powerful AMA blocked her and the dialogue was dropped. But a lot of smaller health care initiatives got in the back door through welfare reform and federal backing of KidCare programs linked to self-sufficiency and state departments of human services. And now the nation’s healthcare situation has changed, with big box companies telling their employees how to apply for medicaid, leaving compaies with healthcare plans at a disadvantage. A national health care plan would be a leveler for business.
I know for jClifford previous support for the war is a litmus test, but after 9/11 how namy politicans opposed the war and survived politically? There’s a point where you have to represent the people you were elected to represent, and the public expected action, not rhetoric.
That’s when she and a bipartisan group marched into the office of the mayor of New York and handed over the nation’s social security bank account to be used for 9/11 relief.
Fact: A clear majority of the people that Hillary Clinton was elected to represent, and I’m one of them, opposed the vote to start the war.
We begged her not to help Bush with a vote for the war. She ignored us.
fuck you all! this is bullshit. i am a marine, and i have been to iraq twice, and i dont get why you bastards have to just say the negative side in iraq. how about sayin the good stuff, the stuff that is worth dying for? the stuff like; when you see kids go to school for the first time in their life, or a family recieving their first medical care, or a child crying at my feet thanking me and my country for what we have done? how about that? you should try researching that. and about the torturing; when you see someone decapitate your fellow comrades just for wearing a cross around their neck, you would want to torture them a lot more than you think. sure, ill admit that the war is not goin the way it was intended to, but did vietnam go good? no. did desert storm go good? far from it. did somalia go good? not at all. did world war II go good? nope. but you know what? almost all of the wars we fought, we were proud of, and helped more than damaged, and thats the goal in iraq, and you need to stop criticising us for doing what needs to be done. if you were living in iraq, under severe conditions, not knowing weather you were gonna survive the day or not, you would be happier than ever to see us americans tryin to help. so all i can say is SHUT THE FUCK UP ALREADY! AND FUCK YOU FOR OFFENDING ME, AND EVERYONE ELSE WHO HAS PUT THEIR LIFE ON THE LINE FOR THIS COUNTRY!
You know, brad, re-read what Odd Claude said. Is not wanting to start a war that led to the conditions you describe “bullshit”?
Stuff in Iraq – like kids NOT going to school because of the war. Like doctors fleeing the country as refugees and hospitals being shut down and bombed. Like children shot by U.S. soldiers. Like 19 American soldiers killed yesterday, and many more Iraqis than that.
Yeah, it’s a war of flowers and hummingbirds, sure.
Thanks for telling us to “shut the fuck up”. Apparently, you don’t have the illusion that you’re fighting for freedom any more. No, Brad. You’re fighting against freedom. Have a war, destroy a country, and if American citizens don’t like it, they can shut the fuck up, right?
“Comment by brad — 1/21/2007 @ 12:41 am”
Nice comments brad….I bet you’ll feel more like a Marine now:
“An Iraqi witness, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the helicopter was felled by ground fire. “I’m not sure if it was a rocket or other projectile,” said the man, a farmer. “After the helicopter was fired upon, it was obvious that it was losing control. Then it crashed with an explosion and the smoke started.” The farmer said he and others dared not approach the wreckage to look for survivors, fearing that U.S. forces arriving on the scene might fire at them.”
Fear is something isn’t it?
I’m sure, brad, that there is “good stuff” going on in Iraq. I am sure that there are people in Iraq trying to do “good stuff.” I don’t think anybody disputes that. I think people dispute that this war has been a good idea.
Good ALWAYS happens EVERYWHERE.
It’s human nature.
Look at WW1′s football (“soccer”) match between opposing sides in the snow.
War is where 2 sets of people get together to kill each other in support for things they don’t necessarily support.
Wonder how many potential friends are killed by each soldier…
War’s such a load of bollocks.
By the way; how did you recognise the ones who did the decapitating when they were tortured?