Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton takes a forceful stance on abortion rights like women matter or something!

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

Hillary Clinton

So the contest between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders is getting real, as was apparent in Sunday’s night’s Democratic Presidential debate on NBC (which got a respectable 10 million viewers, by the way), in which the two front-runners argued vociferously over their different approaches to health care, banks, gun control, and foreign policy. The disparity between Clinton and Sanders is generally characterized as one of her pragmatism vs his idealism and there are about a thousand think pieces you can find that analyze it. Here it is, as succinctly stated by Jeet Heer:

Sanders is promoting an “ethics of moral conviction” by calling for a “political revolution” seeking to overthrow the deeply corrupting influence of big money on politics by bringing into the system a counterforce of those previously alienated, including the poor and the young. Clinton embodies the “ethics of responsibility” by arguing that her presidency won’t be about remaking the world but trying to preserve and build on the achievements of previous Democrats, including Obama.

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(Update) SCOTUS: the defining issue in the 2016 election

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Last year I posted SCOTUS: the defining issue in the 2016 election, a quick glance at attorney Rick Hasen’s  longread for TPM, which is well worth your time to read.  It begins:

The future composition of the Supreme Court is the most important civil rights cause of our time. It is more important than racial justice, marriage equality, voting rights, money in politics, abortion rights, gun rights, or managing climate change. It matters more because the ability to move forward in these other civil rights struggles depends first and foremost upon control of the Court. And control for the next generation is about to be up for grabs, likely in the next presidential election, a point many on the right but few on the left seem to have recognized.

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Today Hillary Clinton  has a new op-ed in the Boston Globe emphasizing the importance of the high court in this year’s election:

There’s a lot at stake in this election. Nowhere is this clearer than in the US Supreme Court.

The court’s decisions have a profound impact on American families. In the past two decades alone, it effectively declared George W. Bush president, significantly weakened the Voting Rights Act, and opened the door to a flood of unaccountable money in our politics. It also made same-sex marriage legal nationwide, preserved the Affordable Care Act not once but twice, and ensured equal access to education for women.

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It’s a dry denial

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Crossposted from DemocraticDiva.com

I had to interrupt my holiday blogging hiatus to bring you the “Journalist Year in Review” segment from Channel 8 Horizon.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uwqP2mKrG0&w=640&h=390]Link in case the video doesn’t work

Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts, AZ Capitol Media Service’s Howie Fischer, and KJZZ host Steve Goldstein were asked for their prognostications for 2016, with the winning scores being tallied at the end of next year. The first questions were about the Presidency: who would win their respective party nominations and then the general elections. The three panelists differed on who would win the GOP nod, with Roberts picking Rubio, Fischer Cruz, and Goldstein going with Jeb Bush. All three believe the GOP nominee will prevail narrowly in the electoral college, though Roberts suggested that a third party run by Trump could derail that.

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Bernie Sanders Rally in Tucson

Sanders Covers Wide-Ranging Topics in Tucson #ICYMI (video)

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Bernie Sanders Rally in Tucson
Tucson feels the Bern.

I wasn’t prepared for Bernie Sanders’ 90-minute lallopalooza in Tucson on October 9, 2015.

Besides logistical issues, like not having a spare camera battery and running out of juice, wearing the wrong shoes for 90 minutes of standing, days of hounding the Sanders campaign about a press pass (only to find out that the Star was having the same problem as BfAZ), and the nagging feeling that one hand of the Sanders campaign didn’t know what the other was doing, I wasn’t prepared to like the event.

I have been on the fence about the Bernie Sanders vs Hillary Clinton race for months. I have liked and followed Hillary since she became the first First Lady to be a media punching bag because she had ambitions beyond serving tea and cookies. I can relate to her because we are both from the Midwest, we came of age during the same time period, we are both strong feminists, and we both spent our lives like Ginger Rogers— dancing backwards and in heels up the career ladder toward that ever-present glass ceiling. I like Sanders’ income inequality message and his proposals, but I have two primary questions: 1) How can he accomplish eve a quarter on what he proposes without a 100% progressive Congress (not just a Democratic Party Congress) and 2) Who will finally end decades of struggle for women’s equality— another long-term male politician or the first woman President? (Still waiting for answers on these.)

Bernie in Tucson videos after the jump.

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Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton Crushes Politically Motivated #BenghaziCommittee #8

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Hillary Clinton
One of the best parts of the hearing was all of the candid photos of Secretary Clinton’s many facial expressions.

Republican logicTwitter was ablaze yesterday with negative comments about the 11-hour Benghazi Committee hearing with former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. According to the Maddow Blog, even conservatives Tweeted strings of negative comments about the GOP’s poor performance.

Most left-wing Tweeters hammered the Republican-controlled committee for wasting taxpayer funds on a witch hunt. If seven Benghazi Committees found nothing, why #8? By their own admission, the purpose of the marathon fiasco was to bring down the front-runner in the Presidential race.

The result of the multi-million-dollar Benghazi fiasco? Republicans looked like fools, and Secretary Hillary Clinton looked poised, prepared, and smart— in other words “Presidential”. Today’s social media is flush with stories about how badly the Republicans blew it and how well Clinton did under the pressure of an 11-hour Congressional hearing.

Vox said that the 11-hour hearing was Clinton’s “best campaign ad yet.”

Rachel Maddow said that the left and the right agree that the Benghazi Committee “blew it”.

The Borowitz Report [humor] said that Clinton issued a statement thanking the committee for their invaluable service to her campaign.

Clinton is on the cover of Politico’s Magazine with a headline saying this has been her “best week yet”. More links after the jump.

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