that have been rattling around my mind for the past several days, beginning with attending the opening of her Northern Virginia office this past Wednesday evening, and including watching Thursday’s debate, reading this column by Dana Milbank about the unremitting sexism in covering her candidacy, and reflecting back over her public career, which goes back many years, beginning with her powerful statement at her graduation from Wellesley College in 1969, which first brought her to wider public notice, a speech she was chosen to give by her classmates, but where she left her prepared remarks and responded to the remarks by the official speaker, Sen. Edward Brooke.
To save time, I will acknowledge several things up front. First, I am supporting her for the Democratic nomination. Second, I was scathing in remarks about her 4 years ago for what I perceived as her failure to disavow the foul remarks of one of her public surrogates. If you choose to use either or both of those facts as a reason to ignore what I have to say, that’s fine, but since both have been readily litigated they really should not be part of whatever discussion may occur on this thread. Focus on what this posting actually says.
So let me begin.
The Northern Virginia office for Clinton is just off Telegraph Road in Fairfax County, near Fort Belvoir, and about 1.4 miles South of the school where I now teach. The opening was scheduled for 7 PM, but by the time I arrived at 6:30 there were already several dozen people present. By the time I left shortly after 8:30, we had seen several hundred people crowded in. I recognized many people as committed long-term Democratic activists from Arlington and Falls Church, as well as Fairfax. Some have already been working very hard in preparation for Virginia’s March 1 primary, and there are other places from which people set out for canvassing and/or where they do organized phone-banking.
There were several speakers during the event. One was a woman whose name I did not clearly get, but who had known Hillary Clinton for 42 years, and who pointed out that Mrs. Clinton was doing micro-financing in Arkansas in the 1970s, well before Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize (here I remember the piece William Greider did when her husband was running for President where Greider was shocked that Bill made reference to Grameen Bank). The woman cited multiple examples where Mrs. Clinton had a history of listening carefully to others and then taking up their causes. Hearing that, I remember that she began her campaign for the Senate in 2000 by going on a listening tour across NY State.
The principal speaker was Senator Tim Kaine. I happened to be standing by the door when he arrived. I have known him somewhat since before he was elected governor in 2005, and we have from time to time had conversations when we have encountered one another since. I was honored that he embraced me and thanked me for supporting this effort. Important to know: in the last open cycle Kaine was the first Governor outside of Illinois to endorse Obama — thus he is not a long-time Clinton insider, and he is not someone who goes the establishment route.
In his remarks Kaine noted that he has already been a surrogate for Clinton in Iowa and in New Hampshire (and in the latter they put him in the North Eastern part of the state). He is also going to NV and SC for her. I note that he is fluent in Spanish, having served as a Catholic missionary running a school in Honduras, and that potentially can be useful in outreach in NV.
Tim’s public career was as a city councilman and Mayor of Richmond VA, before becoming LT Gov and then Gov, then chair of the DNC, and then US Senator elected in 2012 to succeed Jim Webb. He got to know HRC while he was mayor and she was in the White House. In phrasing his support of her for President this cycle, he provided a context of knowing several of the other candidates through service in the Senate. He serves on one committee with Sanders, and says he loves him. He also serves on committees with both Cruz and Rubio. He puts it bluntly — she is “head and shoulders” above any other candidate this cycle. He described her as having passions that has animated her adult life, specifically children and women. He referred to her many activities on behalf of children while traveling across the South as a white woman on behalf of African-Americans — schools, teens in adult prisons, etc. He pointed out that she was the first Secretary of State to declare empowerment of women to be a fundamental American policy,
On guns, Kaine reminded us that we still have scar tissue over the gun issue (Virginia Tech), and that he is himself a gun owner, but that he agrees with Clinton that we need to address sensible gun control.
Clinton has, he pointed out, made helping families in need of assistance a major focus of her public career, including the special focus she brings to military families (Kaine has a child serving in the military, making him one of very few in the Senate). He talked about the gravitas of her personality which she brings to issues.
Kaine pointed out that all the Democratic Senators know and love Bernie, but want to keep him in the Senate. To date 39 Democratic Senators, knowing both candidates, have endorsed Clinton, and none of have endorsed Sanders. He somewhat scoffed at the notion that they did so because they were the establishment. For example
- Tammie Baldwin, first openly gay US Senator and a hero of LGBT people around the world
- Maizie Hirono, born in Japan and the first Buddhist Senator (although she does describe herself as non-practicing), the only person of Asian ancestry in the Senate
- himself,who practiced civil rights law for many years
- Sherrod Brown, who has been a forceful opponent of Wall Street
- Claire McCaskill, who prosecuted sex crimes.
As a man, Kaine thinks we are well overdue to have a woman President. He points out that we still have sexual imbalance in our national legislature, which is on 19% female, placing us well down compared to other countries on that criterion. Even Iraq with 27% and Iran with 28% are well ahead of us. For us Virginians, he reminds us that the only woman ever elected statewide was 2 term Attorney General Mary Sue Terry (D), to which I note only Lesley Byrne D)has served in the House (we have 11 House seats), and that among those who have lost general elections for statewide office were Terry for Governor, Edie Dalton (R) and Jodie Wagner (D) for Lt. Gov.
I found Kaine to be a forceful and persuasive advocate for Hillary Clinton. I would suspect he might well be on the short list for her running mate should she get the nomination, although he forcefully reminded us she needs to be considered an underdog until she wins.
Some question things about Hillary Clinton. Polling data demonstrates concerns about her honesty. I want to address that. Hillary Rodham Clinton has been the target of decades of attacks, smears and more, in part because she was married to Bill, in part because for a long time she kept her maiden name (not something popular in the South in the 1970s), in part because she was on the House Judiciary Committee Staff during the impeachment hearings against Richard Nixon (and I have little doubt that her service there was part of the motivation behind some seeking to remove her husband from office via impeachment). We know from the words of House Republican Whip Kevin McCarthy that the Benghazi hearings were intended to damage her as a possible candidate — remember that before Benghazi occurred her approval rating as SecState was astronomical). There have been many rumors and false charges bruited about against her over the years, and for far too many people, rather than seeking to see what reality there is behind such rumors and innuendo they are influenced by the notion that where there is smoke there must be fire. We are already in an increasingly polarized political environment, where many in the opposing party have been willing to inflame passions and anger — whether it was McConnell saying his highest priority was to ensure Obama was a one-term President (FAIL), or the willingness of too many to at least passively accdept if not actively encourage the notion that Obama was not a citizen and.or was a Muslim. Since Clinton would clearly represent a continuation of the direction in which Obama moved, and since she is a formidable candidate, even with the hostility directed at her, it was important to diminish her in any way possible.
The press has never been all that fond of the Clintons. I can remember some nasty commentary from some major voices in “the Village) when they took over in Washington. Millbank is also correct that there is a significant amount of sexism in how Hillary Clinton is portrayed. It is my perception that Bernie Sanders is shouting in debates as much as she is, for example, but that is never made an issue.
I think Clinton was concerned about that. I noted during the debate Thursday that until it turned to foreign policy she made a real effort to modulate her volume and her pitch. I think that somewhat surprised Sanders. From my perspective, I think she had a much stronger performance than he did, and not because I am supporting her. I do things like watch facial expressions and body language, and Sanders seemed more than a little uncomfortable on both. While I think he can make the case that his main issue is key and relevant to some of the questions he was asked, far too often he repeated too much of his standard verbiage without getting completely to the topic of the question. I also consider her closing statement to have left viewers/listeners with a very strong positive feeling whereas his really did not provide as powerful a conclusion.
I think some of his attempts at sarcasm did not do him well. Yes, it is true he did not run against Obama, but that is irrelevant, because Obama first asked Clinton if she wanted to be considered for VP and then picked her as SecState. She was a partner with Obama once he was President. Meanwhile Sanders was undermining him: Jonathan Alter, who was at Harvard (and on the Crimson) with my wife and with whom I have occasion to interact over the past 23 years, tweeted that Sanders was regularly bashing Obama’s policies to him and other reporters. And it is a matter of record that he explored finding a primary challenger to Obama in 2012. Of greater importance, that kind of dig seems contrary to his assertion that he has never run a negative ad.
A further observation if I may. I expect Obama will officially stay neutral until the primary process is clear. But there is no doubt where his inclinations lay, and where those of his administration for the most part come down. Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture, worked very hard to ensure Clinton’s Iowa win. He is as I write this in SC on her behalf. Tom Perez was one of the key people in the spin room after the debate on Thursday. I am unaware of any major player in the Obama administration, present or former, who is actively supporting Sanders.
I have in general chosen not to engage here at Daily Kos in most of the exchanges about the primary process. I occasionally comment, and recommend, but most of what I have done online is when I live tweet. When I do so, I offer criticisms of Clinton when I think warranted, and praise for Sanders when I think he has earned it. I also live-tweet Republican debates. A number of my students have insisted that I continue to do so, although time allowing I would already be so inclined. This is the 3rd cycle of heated primary battles I have been through here, having started as a Dean supporter, first visiting the site in November 20-03 while volunteering for Howard in NH. As occurred in previous cycles, there are people I consider friends and other whom I greatly respect who take a different position on the respective candidates than I do. From my perspective neither friendship nor respect is diminished by even the most heated of disagreements over primary contests.
At their worst, the Democratic debates to date have been models of civility when compared to what happens in the other party. Last night’s food fight was a real embarrassment for Republicans, a point made clear by tweeting from Republican Frank Luntz:
And when Luntz offered this:
John Amato helped put Luntz in context:
I am a Clinton supporter. I offered this probably far too long post to provide some more context for my support. That does not represent either an attack on Sanders nor a denigration of those who choose to support Bernie.
All in all, I can say I am glad I have sensible choices among Democrats. God forbid that the only choices before the American people were the clown car occupants on the other side.
Peace.