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Today's Hillary News & Views begins with Clinton’s NARAL endorsement, published on Medium.
Among the Democrats, we are happy to report that all three candidates for president have perfect voting records on reproductive rights. In an ordinary year, that would be enough to wait to endorse until the general.
But the bottom line is that 2016 is no ordinary year. Women’s reproductive rights and, by proxy, our freedom and equality, are under attack like never before in my lifetime. As a nation, we stand at a crossroads: in one direction, we forge ahead into a future where policies match what people need to thrive in our careers and our families; in the other, our collective destiny is sacrificed to the backwards vision of an extreme minority.
And while all of the Democratic presidential candidates are worthy allies, to travel the path into the future, we need more than an ally. We need a champion, and Hillary Clinton is that champion — for all of us.
They go on to give five reasons for rallying behind Hillary. Here are two of them:
1. A proven priority.
No one has shown as much leadership as Hillary on challenges too often written off as “women’s issues.” At every stage of her career, she has established innovative programs to help women facing challenging circumstances, whether they be rape victims in the Deep South, low-income new mothers, or women’s rights advocates in developing countries. Hillary’s now-famous speech in Beijing in 1995, defying the Chinese authorities to declare “women’s rights are human rights,” is only the highest-profile example in a lifetime of making the plight of women her priority. Our opportunities have always been a core part of her vision for a better future for all.
4. Silence is surrender.
Silent support in the face of extreme opposition has led us to the crisis women now face in our country. Even Democrats who claim to champion women’s rights are too often unwilling to discuss the most basic and profound right of all — the right of a woman to make decisions about her own body, to decide whether and when to grow her family. And that silence has allowed an extreme minority to create our current crisis, where far too many women cannot access abortion when they need it. Abortion access has never been Hillary Clinton’s sole or even signature issue — her concerns and expertise range far too widely for that. But she has never left it out, never shied away from talking about it, because she knows that’s a sure way to lose a right we can’t afford to sacrifice.
The Guardian reports highlights from Clinton’s interview with Chris Matthews yesterday:
“There needs to be a rival organization to the NRA of responsible gun owners who know that their hunting rights, their shooting rights, their collection rights … all of that is not going to be affected,” Clinton said Tuesday in a pre-recorded interview with MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews during campaign stops in Iowa. “So I’m going to keep beating the drum, and I’m delighted that the president announced the actions he did today.”
Clinton recalled an exchange with a gun owner at a campaign event on Tuesday.
“He asked me, ‘What can I do?’,” Clinton said. “I said, ‘Well, please stand up against the NRA and the gun lobby, and please talk to your friends. Because what we are proposing is consistent with constitutional rights’.”
“I’ve just met so many people, from Columbine to Sandy Hook,” she said. “I just can’t remain silent.”
Clinton stuck to her New Year resolution and did not say anything about Trump.
She did, however, indirectly reject Trump’s proposed prohibition on Muslims entering the US while trying to tie other Republicans in the field to his controversial rhetoric.
“When I hear what’s coming from the other side, and it’s not just one person, there’s an echo chamber there,” she said. “And we should not reward people who use inflammatory rhetoric, who use the kind of derogatory comments, whether it’s about Muslims, or Mexicans, or women, or people with disabilities.”
“That is not a sign of leadership,” she added. “That’s a sign of, you know, showmanship, of desperation, that should be rejected roundly by the American people.”
Here is some reporting on Clinton's campaign stops in Iowa yesterday.
CNN reports:
"I am absolutely determined that we're going to make sure we have a Democrat to succeed President Obama so we don't let the Republicans rip away the progress we have made together," Clinton said in Davenport on Monday.
The refrain has become a staple on the stump and gives Clinton the opportunity to herald President Barack Obama's plan to push executive actions on guns Tuesday.
Earlier in the day at an event in Davenport, Clinton argued that if a Republican wins the White House in 2016, they will repeal the Affordable Care Act, Obama's landmark health care law, and do nothing to combat climate change.
"Here is what I don't understand. I don't think all the Republicans are that ignorant. I don't," Clinton said, clearly fired up. "I think they are doing the bidding of the fossil fuel industry, the Koch Bothers and other of their big donors and puppeteers who say to them, 'you better not say climate change is real.'"
The New York Times reports:
“Think hard about the people representing themselves to you,” she told the crowd of roughly 600 people at Iowa Western Community College here.
“Their experience, their qualifications, their positions and particularly for those of us who are Democrats,” she added, “their electability and how we make sure we have a Democrat going back into that White House on Jan. 20, 2017.”
Earlier on Tuesday, at a town-hall meeting in Sioux City, Mrs. Clinton was asked what the key differences were between her and Mr. Sanders. “I think I have a broader, more comprehensive set of policies about everything, including taking on Wall Street,” she said.
Again, she implied that Mr. Sanders was not as prepared for the presidency. “I am a progressive who likes to get things done,” Mrs. Clinton said.
The second part of Mrs. Clinton’s closing argument focused on her own family. “For me, it’s about my granddaughter and my next grandchild next summer,” she said. “Bill and I are going to do everything we can to help her have every opportunity in life, but that is not enough, my friends.”
She continued, “It really matters what kind of country we have, what kind of world is out there waiting for our children and grandchildren, and I believe in the promise of America.”
“I want to make it possible for every child, not just my granddaughter, to have the opportunity to live up to his or her God-given potential,” she said, capping off her most enthusiastic rally of the 48-hour tour. “That will be my mission.”
Clinton's Wall Street plan is backed by Mayor Bill de Blasio, who endorsed Clinton late last year.
Politico reports:
“Having studied all the Wall Street reform proposals, I firmly believe Hillary Clinton has put forward the toughest, farthest-reaching plan of anyone running for President,” de Blasio said in a statement to POLITICO. “She would not only go beyond Dodd-Frank to ensure the needed authority exists to break up or downsize banks that are too large, but she also imposes new constraints on activities in the shadow banking sector, which is too often overlooked.”
He added: “Hillary Clinton’s plan confronts risk-taking wherever it occurs, from investment and commercial banks to insurance firms to hedge funds. Her plan goes the farthest to crack down on the true causes of the last financial crisis, and to prevent the next one.”
The Wall Street Journal reports on Clinton’s ground game in Iowa:
As Hillary Clinton campaigned across Iowa this week, workers with clipboards wandered through her events, looking for voters willing to pledge their support for the Democratic front-runner.
In every city, local organizers made direct pitches to participate in the Feb. 1 caucuses. “If you’re in my precinct, I’m coming after you to be sure you are there,” vowed precinct captain Penny Rosfjord.
On a two-day Iowa swing this week, Mrs. Clinton traveled from one end of the state to the other, hitting six cities and speaking to more than 2,000 people. At each stop, she laid out her agenda and promised to take the fight to Republicans, and often dropped mentions of local issues, such as a controversy over closing a pair of state mental-health facilities.
At her events, supporters said they were receiving a steady stream of outreach from the Clinton campaign.
Mrs. Clinton is making her case personally. As she was working the rope line and posing for selfies at an Iowa rally, she told one voter after the next: “I need you.”
Parents of daughters are more likely to support Hillary Clinton.
The Washington Post reports:
The first columns of the display, in fact, shows that parents of daughters are 14 percentage points more likely to support Hillary Clinton in the primaries than parents of only sons. The error bars in the figure suggest that the effect of having a daughter on support for Clinton is somewhere between 8 and 20 percentage points.
The remaining columns also indicate that this “daughter effect” on Clinton support is consistent for all kinds of parents. Mothers and fathers alike, regardless of how many children they have, are more likely to support Hillary Clinton in the primaries if they have a daughter. Additional analyses also uncovered a statistically significant effect of daughters on support for Clinton among white, African American, and Hispanic parents.
Crossposted at HillaryHQ, an independent, progressive blog committed to the electing Hillary Clinton as the next President of the United States.