- Her passion. I think it's important to have a President who is passionate about the direction of our country. The more passionate they are the harder they will work and the more carefully they will think about every decision and action they take. There is a big difference between Presidents on the passion meter. Hillary has been working and fighting to be involved in public issues and causes for all her life, and she is clearly a fighter who is very passionate about her principles.
- Her detail oriented nature and experience. In every debate Hillary shows that she is knowledgeable and involved in the multitude of specific policies and issues where government can help make Americans' lives better and expand opportunity. Her long involvement in public service and passion to understand the issues has given her a good grasp of the policy nuances and levers of Washington that she would have to pull to get policies enacted. She would not be playing catch-up here and I think it's critical to have a President who knows how to get things done legislatively- something sorely lacking over the past several years. We can make the most out of a Democratic Presidency by passing legislation carefully vetted by a detail-oriented, issues-knowledgeable President.
- Her accomplishments. She worked extensively in the area of children's rights in Arkansas and co-founded Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. She worked with her husband, Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch to move a part of her Health Care plan to passage as SCHIP.
While Kennedy is widely viewed as the driving force behind the program, by all accounts the former first lady's pressure was crucial.
"She wasn't a legislator, she didn't write the law, and she wasn't the president, so she didn't make the decisions," says Nick Littlefield, then a senior health adviser to Kennedy. "But we relied on her, worked with her and she was pivotal in encouraging the White House to do it."
She held out for an additional $8 billion in funding and got it. This program directly affects 6.5 million children today. On the Senate Armed services committee she worked with Lindsey Graham to expand health insurance coverage for our national guardsmen and reservists.
- Her willingness to reach out to the other side. Unlike Bush, Hillary knows that in order to get things done in Washington, sometimes you have to reach out and work with the other side, even they are otherwise completely against you.
In addition to Hatch and Graham, she has worked with
Trent Lott on improving FEMA,
Tom Delay on foster children,
Newt Gingrich on a health care initiative, with
Bill Frist as a partner on legislation concerning computerized medical records, with
John Sununu on S.U.V. taillights, with
Senator Mike DeWine on asthma.
Yet she has a 95 percent liberal voting record. She knows how to stand the courage of your convictions will finding common ground- and respect, with even the most conservative Republicans. She's done it.
- She can win. When she was running for Senate in New York, they said she was "electrifying and polarizing". They said she was a carpetbagger and couldn't win. Yet she campaigned in every county and won over the conservative parts of the state, and won a landslide reelection victory even as it became clear she was probably going to run for President.
Voters will be impressed with her commitment to the middle class, her grasp of the issues, and her passion for change. That is the narrative. Polls show she expands the map by being competitive in states like West Virginia and Missouri and Arkansas. She has strong support among important swing demographics like Hispanics and women. Most importantly she is well vetted and the Republicans have swung everything they have at her and the American people still like her when they see her in person.
- She is a leader. She led the way to propose a plan that was the closest this country has ever gotten to universal health care and today her plan is still the only one that mandates universal coverage. On this huge issue she has distinguished herself on a national level for many years consistently and is by now well known on it.
- If you like both of them, this is her last chance. It's hard to see Hillary running again if she loses. Obama, frankly, has a long career ahead of him and could run again many times. Hillary's time is now, this is our last chance to have someone with her energy, knowledge and passion fight for us.
- You wouldn't want to have a beer with her. It's time we stopped choosing leaders based on whether we think we would have a beer with them and starting choosing leaders because of the skills and qualities that they bring to the table.
- We need an FDR, not a JFK. The decision we make on Tuesday and the next few weeks will have a lasting impact- if our candidate wins, then it will permanently imprint our history for the next decade or more. We need more than just an eloquent candidate who inspires- we need a President who can also best enact the policies we need in government, manage the workings of government effectively, and respond to the challenges and crises that the President must face with resolve and success. In the end, what inspires the most is results.
- Hillary's strongest reason for running is to change the direction of this country- substantively. People say she is a lightning rod on the right, and that's bad. Well I got into politics precisely because I was against the right and what they were doing to this country. There is no triangulating your way out of it- progressive and conservative values in America are diametrically opposite. The right is a lightning rod with me, and I would be a lighting rod with them. So be it.
We need more than just the civic virtues of hope and faith in government, involvement and change. The history of the past 28 years is crying for a substantive alternative- an alternative based on the values of compassion and nurturing, of caring for the weakest and most vulnerable in our society, in caring for the "invisible", and of government as an servant of the community, as a part of the community, not just a cold entity outside of it that protects property rights. Hillary's life and her message show that this is the kind of change she wants to bring, this is the kind of America she hopes to move toward.