Oh, what the hell

~ susie ~ 1 Comment

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Let me come right out and say it. You see that 8-point gap between Democratic women and Democratic men in Clinton support? Those are the same Democratic men who were so sure Barack Obama would be the perfect progressive president. So excuse me if I question your judgment:

Gender. Even before Clinton’s announcement, there was a gender gap – among Democrats – in views of Clinton. Fully 61% of white Democratic women say there is a good chance they would vote for Clinton, compared with 43% of white Democratic men. To be sure, white Democratic men haven’t ruled out voting for Clinton – only about one-in-ten white Democrats, men and women, say there is no chance they would vote for her. But at this stage, more white Democratic women strongly support her.

The possible history-making aspect of Clinton’s candidacy also registers more strongly with Democratic women than with men. In a recent Pew Research Center survey, 69% of Democratic women, but just 46% of Democratic men, said they hope the U.S. elects a female president in their lifetime. Republican women and men – perhaps already contemplating a possible Clinton campaign – were far less likely than Democrats to say they were hoping for a woman president. Most Republican men (80%) and women (76%) said it did not matter to them if a female president is elected in their lifetime.

I don’t know Hillary Clinton, but I know people who do know her, and have known her for a long time. All of them say she’s much more liberal than Bill. So cool your jets, and wait to see what she’s going to do before you have a fit.

Statement suicide

~ susie

capitol shooting

Far too many people in despair these days. I understand his frustration, if not his tactics:

Washington (CNN)A shooting that prompted the lockdown of the U.S. Capitol for several hours Saturday was a suicide and does not have an apparent connection to terrorism, Capitol Police Chief Kim Dine said in a news conference.

An unidentified male walked through a public area on the west front of the Capitol early Saturday afternoon and shot himself, Dine told reporters. Witnesses told CNN dozens of shocked onlookers watched, including some young children.

The unidentified shooter had a backpack and a rolling suitcase that authorities treated as treated suspicious packages, prompting the lockdown as they were investigated, Capitol police said.

The male carried a sign with a message about “social justice,” authorities said. A witness, Robert Bishop, told CNN it also said something about taxing the “1%.”

Oh dear

~ susie

Nashville: NRA National Convention

What are they going to do? Florida Republicans have a problem:

“Just as he looked like a front-runner to replace Sen. Marco Rubio, Florida CFO Jeff Atwater announced Saturday he would not run for the seat,” Politico reports.

“The Rubio and Atwater decisions are setting off the very type of nightmare scenarios Republican Party leaders were hoping to avoid in Florida, a state the GOP essentially needs to win to carry that White House but that trends Democratic in presidential election years.”

Clinton talking to progressive economists

~ susie

Joseph Stiglitz

I don’t know why any of you would be surprised by this. Clearly, she has nothing to lose and everything to gain by running a populist campaign (which is what she did the second half in 2008) and she’s smart enough to know that people are hurting:

In the run up to her presidential campaign launch, expected Sunday, Hillary Clinton has been working to put together an economic agenda that incorporates progressive ideas on economic inequality.

Clinton’s team has been making a concerted effort to reach out to progressives economists and activists, and last week joined a meeting on inequality organized by economist Joseph Stiglitz and the Roosevelt Institute, a progressive think tank, msnbc has learned.

The Washington, D.C., meeting included officials from the labor unions SEIU and AFL-CIO, congressional staffers, representatives from advocacy groups like Color of Change, American Women, and the Black Civic Engagement Fund, and others, including former Clinton pollster Stan Greenberg.

The aim was “creating an agenda to combat inequality that goes further than anything we’ve seen so far and rewrites the rules of how our economy and markets are structured,” Roosevelt Institute spokesperson Marcus Mrowka told msnbc.

After the meeting, Stiglitz held a private dinner with three Clinton aides at the restaurant Poste. Clinton was represented by speechwriter Dan Schwerin and Anne O’Leary, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress who also works on a Clinton Foundation-related initiative. Roosevelt President and CEO Felicia Wong was also in attendance.

Dan Geldon, an adviser to Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, whom some liberals are pushing to run against Clinton, attended the larger meeting, but did not attend the dinner.

Stiglitz is influential among progressives, who view him as one of the Democratic Party’s counterweights to the influence of former Bill Clinton Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. Clinton herself has earned criticism from some on the left for ties to Wall Street and fears she would follow in Rubin’s footsteps.