Today’s Hillary News & Views begins with a powerful op-ed piece supporting the Paris Climate Change talks.
Here’s Clinton writing for Time:
Climate change threatens every corner of our country, every sector of our economy and the health and future of every child. We are already seeing its impacts and we know the poorest and most vulnerable people in the United States and around the world will suffer most of all.
Despite the seriousness of the threat, the world has not always rallied to respond. For years, international negotiations were stymied by deep divisions between developed and developing nations, and by resistance on the part of the Chinese and others to taking responsibility for curbing carbon pollution. While President Obama has made strong progress cutting pollution and deploying more clean energy in the United States, he faces a Republican Party that alternates between denial of the reality of climate change, defeatism about our ability to do anything about it, and outright obstruction of the tools and programs we need to solve the problem.
But President Obama remains committed to making the United States the global leader in the fight against climate change—and so do I. In Paris this week, world leaders have the best chance in years to forge a new, durable, ambitious international climate agreement. I believe they must be guided by three principles. First, all countries must take responsibility for combating this global crisis, and put forward commitments to curb their own greenhouse gas emissions. Second, the agreement should galvanize financial assistance for, and spur private investment in, developing countries to help them adapt and achieve sustainable economic growth.
And finally, it must be an agreement that can be strengthened over time. Countries should agree to come together regularly to raise their collective ambition. In the years ahead, technology will improve and become even cheaper; more companies and investors will put skin in the game; and city and state leaders will take actions that outstrip the ambitions of their capitals. Solving the climate challenge for the long term will take more than the solutions we have in 2015—it will require the new tools we build together.
The Guardian explores Hillary Clinton’s connection to the legacies of Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt, in an article that makes a strong case for both Clinton and fellow candidate Bernie Sanders being “Roosevelt Democrats”:
In the 2016 cycle, Hillary Clinton would seem to have cornered the Roosevelt brand. Her admiration for Eleanor Roosevelt – the first first lady to rise, at times, to the level of equal partner with the president – is famous.
If Clinton becomes the first woman to be elected president of the United States, the link to Eleanor Roosevelt could begin to look like a mismatch. Time might have to stick a cigarette holder in Clinton’s teeth.
Her candidacy insists on the premise. “The deck is stacked in favor of those at the top,” she says on the stump. She has called “raising incomes for hard-working Americans” the “defining economic challenge of our time”.
Clinton has been a lifelong, forceful advocate for social welfare programs such as the Children’s Health Insurance Program and a leading voice for equal pay for women, progressive tax policy and a higher minimum wage. She may not be a Democratic socialist, but Hillary Clinton is a no-joke Democrat.
After Sunday’s endorsement from Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, Clinton followed up with a whole slate of endorsements from New Hampshire mayors.
WMUR reports:
Endorsing Clinton were Mayors-elect Jim Donchess of Nashua and Jack Blalock of Portsmouth, along with Mayors Jim Bouley of Concord, Dana Hilliard of Somersworth, T.J. Jean of Rochester, Kendall Lane of Keene and Bob Lister of Portsmouth.
They praised her rollout on Sunday of a $275 billion, five-year plan to rebuild and modernize the nation's infrastructure, which she says will be a "down payment on our future."
Jean of Rochester said he was “extremely impressed” by the plan because infrastructure “is such a critical component of our daily lives in the municipal world."
Bouley of Concord said infrastructure “has a huge impact on all of our lives,” while Hilliard said Granite Staters know their roads and bridges “take a serious beating annually” during the state’s harsh winters and are in constant need of upgrading.
Lane said Keene, because it is “fairly isolated,” is highly dependent on updated, safe roads.
Warren Buffett will campaign for Clinton in Nebraska, a state in which Clinton is already organizing.
Omaha World Herald reports:
Hillary Clinton is not taking Nebraska for granted.
The Democratic presidential front-runner will be stumping in Omaha on Dec. 16, with the help of famed Omaha investor Warren Buffett.
A Clinton campaign staffer said the visit is an effort to organize grassroots support before Nebraska’s Democratic caucuses.
She is also expected to talk about tax reform with Buffett, who has called for an income tax increase on the nation’s wealthier citizens.
Clinton appeared on stage with thirteen female Democratic Senators last night, an event that demonstrated the depth of her support in the chamber of Congress that she once served.
NBC reports:
"We have one great candidate," said California Sen. Dianne Feinstein. "You come to the conclusion that this is really the only candidate out there that has an opportunity because of the knowledge that's in her brain to solve some of the problems that we face as the most indispensable nation on earth."
"She is the woman for this job," added Washington Sen. Patty Murray. "Just like all of us, she still puts her pantsuits on one leg at a time."
Clinton was clearly thrilled to be on stage with her former colleagues, and singled out Sen. Barbara Mikulski, who is retiring this year, noting Mikulski is the reason Clinton was allowed to wear pants on the Senate floor. "You know what we saw in Colorado Springs the other night was just horrific and we have to stand up for the rights of women to get the healthcare that they need and we have strong," she said. She went on to praise the "strong soldiers and fighters in pursuit of that behind me."
Clinton touched on the theme earlier in the day during an appearance at the Atlantic Council in Washington in which she discussed foreign policy. "It would be probably predictable for me to say this but there's a lot we can learn from Latin America's success at electing women," she said.
Perhaps the most entertaining reveal of Clinton's latest round of e-mails is Clinton emphatically rejecting the analysis of Mark Penn.
The Hill reports:
“I don't think the emotion in the hearing works to your advantage -- looks more like they rattled you on something no one outside the crazy right blamed you for anyway,” Mark Penn, Clinton’s former top political strategist, wrote to Clinton the day after the hearing.
“I think you either let it lie and say I think I've said everything that needs to be said on this or if asked why so emotional you might explain that you were just frustrated with the apparent high level of partisanship on this issue — we should be pulling together here and not losing our focus on the fight against terrorism which has always been a bipartisan issue and focusing on the big questions that confront us,” he added.
In a subsequent email chain with her top aides Philippe Reines and Jake Sullivan, Clinton largely brushed off the advice.
“i say this as someone who has never had a problem with Mark or held him as accountable as other people do - but...
Give
Me
A
Break,” Reines wrote.
“You did not look rattled. You looked real," he added. "There's a difference. A big one.”
“My problem with Mark's analysis is that it repeats the same flawed assumption that underpinned his advice in 2008,” added Sullivan, “namely, that being yourself is risky.”
“BINGO!!” Clinton responded.
Finally, Clinton’s latest campaign video captures the historic nature of her candidacy through the lens of the young girls watching that history unfold:
Crossposted at HillaryHQ, an independent, progressive blog committed to the electing Hillary Clinton as the next President of the United States.