Discouraged Progressive Democrats will really want to know ...
Will Hillary Clinton fight for Main Street or for Wall Street?
Well if History is to be any guide ...
Hillary Clinton Is as Good at Courting Wall Street as Mitt Romney
by Abby Ohlheiser, The Atlantic; news.yahoo.com -- July 2, 2014
[...]
According to a Wall Street Journal look at Bill and Hillary Clinton's political and foundation fundraising over the last two decades, about 12 percent of the total amount raised by the Clintons over those years has come from the financial sector. To put that in perspective, Obama's 2012 campaign raised 6 percent of its total from the industry, while Mitt Romney took in 13 percent of his total from Wall Street, according to the Journal.
[...]
The Clintons' good relationship with Wall Street is hardly unknown. But if you're not familiar, the Journal has some context:
Business has long hedged its bets in politics, supporting candidates of both parties. Mr. Clinton won industry support during eight years in the White House by helping balance the budget and steering the U.S. to a period of economic growth. For Wall Street, Mr. Clinton enacted several legislative priorities, including the elimination of barriers between commercial and investment banking in 1999.
[...]
Even though it wasn't well recognized at the time, President Bill Clinton championed some key parting-gifts for Wall Street, on his way out the Executive door:
• The repeal of four specific provisions the Banking Act of 1933, which is also called the Glass-Steagall Act.
• The Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act (GLBA), also known as the Financial Services Modernization Act of 1999
Many (progressive) economists have argued that these last minute gifts to Wall Street, directly led to the Financial Collapse the country and the world endured, when their Mortgage-backed Securities, suddenly turned into the toxic markers, that they were.
What the first Clinton president so slyly enabled ... will the second, shrewdly disable?
My money's on No -- Not in a New York minute!
Discouraged Progressive Democrats will really want to know ...
Will Hillary Clinton owe her favors to Goldman -- or to those 'short-changed' Voters who grudgingly voted for her?
Well if Campaign Tactics are to be any guide ...
Elizabeth Warren Is Good and Bad News for the Democrats
by Earl Ofari Hutchinson, Author and political analyst; huffingtonpost.com -- 12/19/2014
[...]
It's true that Warren can energize frustrated liberals and progressives whose numbers are still big and it's much-needed for Democrats to rebound from its November mid-term shellacking. Warren's relentless pound of Wall Street for greed and manipulation, as well as its cozy ties with Clinton, are flashpoints of rage and disgust for many Democratic voters. Polls consistently show that a majority of Americans agree that the financial system is rigged for the rich, and that Wall Street and major corporations play and massage the system with impunity. Warren has firmly staked out her position as the one politician who is willing to confront Wall Street.
Without Warren in the race, there's the real possibility that many Democrats could do exactly what many in the GOP's ultra-conservative base did in 2008, and to an extent in 2012, and that's stay home on Election Day in silent protest against GOP presidential candidates John McCain and Mitt Romney. As it was with them, this would be a disaster for Democrats. Warren, though, is no Obama. She can't match him in charisma, political skill and a mountainous financial campaign kitty that he brought to the political table. Yet, she would still send thousands of doubting Democrats in a crusade to the polls in a Democratic primary joust with Clinton. But what then when she doesn't win the nomination?
Clinton is mindful of the loathing that legions of Democrats have for her Wall Street connection. In the general election, big bankers, financial executives and top corporate donors are expected to be generous bankrollers of her campaign. This was the reason that Clinton at a Democratic gubernatorial campaign rally in Massachusetts in November was effusive in her praise of Warren and in the process took a big shot at Wall Street and the corporations minimizing their role in job creation. Later she walked it back claiming she had "short-handed" her comments. In the run up to the 2016 presidential campaign, she will be continually challenged to tell which Clinton Democrats are to believe; the Wall Street or the populist Clinton. It will take deft political footwork on her part to try to be both and neither at the same time. This will reinforce the notion among Clinton detractors that she will say whatever it takes to try and please two polar opposite political constituencies.
[...]
What Hillary Clinton needs to understand -- is that Democratic Voters are sick and tired of
being burned by Wall Street candidates.
Tired of them getting Billion-dollar gifts from Congress -- without them having to pay their fair share.
Tired of Banksters who can finagle our Mortgages, into heartless Foreclosure Mills -- and not a damn one of them goes to jail.
Tired of the Top 1% living off of OUR Productivity -- while we barely get the scraps of our labors, to survive ...
Is Hillary Clinton Too Cozy With Wall Street?
by Sheelah Kolhatkar, businessweek.com -- November 11, 2013
[...]
Clinton, meanwhile, is more of a centrist. She’s less likely to benefit from growing Democratic anger about income inequality, of the sort that just lifted Bill de Blasio into the New York City mayor’s office. Her opinions about financial reform remain something of a mystery. Much of Clinton’s economic intellectual capital and her fundraising skills are rooted in the banking industry. As Scheiber points out, this likely has those in the Clinton camp more than a little worried.
They ought to be "more than a little worried" -- the ought to be down-right frightened.
Afterall Romney-itis is a branding she will find very difficult to shake, no matter which side of her mouth she chooses to speak from; be it the 'barely making it' sop, or the 'Goldman-Sach darling', either persona will most likely fail to inspire us down-trodden Voters ...
Who are just looking for some Truth.
And for someone actually willing to take back some of the power from Wall Street -- not looking to give them constantly more.
The People are looking for OUR Champion, not Goldman's and Citigroup's ...
But THAT kind of respect has to be earned -- Not finessed.