George Rebane
From one of their own kind we now have the definitive record of candidate and former SecState Hillary Rodham Clinton’s accomplishments. Her record has been a longstanding and recently growing concern across the nation as it becomes more clear by the day that she will be anointed as the Democrats' nominee for the country’s next fearless leader.
In today’s Union is published a timely apology by Michele Spencer, a local Democrat worthie. Ms Spencer paints an impassioned picture of Hillary and her manifest accomplishments. I have never seen such an embarrassing list of under- and or non-performance for a national public figure, save perhaps the one for our current occupant in the White House.
Hillary is introduced and also characterized as “a principled, pragmatic, practical problem solver rather than an ideologue.” But what becomes clear in the sequel, as reflected in her record and public persona, is that she is anything but principled, pragmatic, or solver of problems, especially of the practical kind. All that the Spencer piece makes clear is that Hillary is first and foremost an ideologue who has run with crowds sporting trendy ideologies while accomplishing nothing to which the world can attach her name.
I retract that – her name indeed is visibly and indelibly attached to the embarrassing ‘Reset with Russia’ button which brought a chuckle from Lavrov when he made clear to all that the US State Department had no one who could properly translate a simple phrase into Russian. Oh yes, we can also throw in the tragic Benghazi fiasco which she now personally owns.
Ms Spencer’s piece – ‘What has Hillary Clinton accomplished?’ – is so priceless that I have done you the service of reproducing it below in its entirety.
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Hillary Clinton is a brilliant, hardworking, dedicated public servant who has helped untold millions of people and who has earned and deserves our respect and gratitude.
Her 40-year-long record of leadership in the public eye speaks for itself. Unlike many, she is a principled, pragmatic, practical problem solver rather than an ideologue.
She knows how to get things done.
Among many other things, Hillary has managed throughout her life to break gender stereotypes and fight for women’s and children’s rights in her activist roles as a lawyer, working, for example, with the Marian Wright Edelman’s Children’s Defense Fund, and while 1st Lady of Arkansas, she fought for the women and families of that state.
Hillary was the first female head of the politically embattled Legal Services Corporation [which provided free legal services to poor clients] under President Carter; and when her husband Bill was President of the United States, she promoted the idea of national health care and was instrumental in the passage of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Her gender, her experience as a woman, has made Hillary Clinton particularly sensitive to the two top issues of this Presidential campaign: gender and income inequality… She is hands down the most qualified candidate running.
At the same time she was promoting a new global women’s rights movement, and in 1995, she was the head of the American delegation at the United Nation’s Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China.
Her message, in part, “Women’s rights are human rights.”
While serving as United States Senator representing post 9/11 New York, she obtained $21 billion in government aid to help New York rebuild while, and as its more liberal representative, voted, for example, against the Central American Free Trade Agreement and Bush’s energy bill which included $14.5 billion in tax breaks for the energy industry.
As United States Secretary of State under the Obama administration, Hillary was focused on how to keep the country safe and prosperous.
She remained consistent on women’s issues by: a.) Leading the push for UN Security Council Resolution 1888, which requires the UN to take steps to protect women and children from wartime sexual violence, and b.) Placing women’s economic participation on the agenda at the 21 nation Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.
Under her management there was a 50 percent increase in imports to China and aggressive work on climate issues.
Hillary was instrumental in fashioning and obtaining international support for sanctions against Iran that brought them to the negotiating table and an agreement to stop their development of nuclear weapons.
She supports the agreement even in the face of opposition by supporters of the State of Israel, who have long supported her in the past.
As candidate for President in 2015, Hillary Clinton is calling for getting the money out of politics “once and for all, even if it takes a constitutional amendment.”
She has pledged to appoint Supreme Court justices who will overturn ‘Citizen’s United’.
Hillary’s platform is pro-childcare, health care, paid family-leave and full military health benefits. She is pro choice. She is opposed to the Keystone pipeline due to its inherent risk to the environment.
Her gender, her experience as a woman, has made Hillary Clinton particularly sensitive to the two top issues of this Presidential campaign: gender and income inequality.
Her experience on the world stage has given her an informed global perspective.
She is hands down the most qualified candidate running.
(Michele Spencer is an active member of Nevada County Democrats. She has submitted this on her own behalf rather than on behalf of that organization. She lives in Grass Valley.)
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