Hillary's Top Ten List On Letterman

Thought I'd post something fun & light-hearted going in to the long weekend, so here's Hillary's top ten list of (tongue in cheek) campaign promises starting with #10...

"Bring stability and long term security to 'The View.'"
"Each year on my birthday, every American gets a cupcake."
"You'll have the option of rolling dice against the IRS for double-or-nothing on your taxes."
"Having trouble getting a flight and Air Force One is available -- it's yours."
"My Vice President will never shoot anybody in the face."
"Turn Gitmo into a Dairy Queen as soon as possible."
"For over a century there have been only two Dakotas -- I plan to double that."
"We will finally have a President who doesn't mind pulling over and asking for directions. Am I right, ladies?"
"I will appoint a committee to find out what the heck is happening on
'Lost.'"
"One more pantsuit joke and Letterman disappears."

You can see the video of this at this link

Two Big Endorsements In the Lead-Up to Labor Day Weekend

I just posted a diary entitled Hillary's Plan: Fighting for Working Families ( http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/8/30/142614/399 ) over on that dailyKos site which maps out Hillary's plan to strengthen working families, and talks about two huge endorsements she's received in the last two days. Given it's length I won't re-post it in it's entirety here, but I think a few things are worth noting.

Hillary received the first labor union endorsement of the campaign season yesterday, when it was announced that the United Transportation Union in throwing it's support behind her effort to win the White House. They have 125,000 active members in the railroad, bus and public transit sectors across America and Hillary's campaign put out a press release which you can check out at http://www.hillaryclinton.com/news/release/view/?id=3074 .

And today, she receieved the endorsement of one of the nation's largest industrial trade unions, the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, representing over 700,000 active and retired members in airline, aerospace, manufacturing, railroad, woodworking and shipbuilding industries, and a member of the AFL-CIO. Check out the campaign's press release on this at http://www.hillaryclinton.com/news/release/view/?id=3082 .

Finally, in light of the upcoming holiday I thought it was worth drawing attention to Hillary's plan to strengthen working families. I won't post the entire position paper here, but here are a few highlights from it...

For 230 years, Americans have been united by a simple, common dream that
tomorrow will be better than today. The promise of American life, handed on
through a dozen generations, rests on this basic bargain: all of us should have
the opportunity to live up to our God-given potential, and the responsibility to
make the most of it. In the 20th century, unions in this country fought for that
basic bargain and built the greatest middle class the world has ever known.
Unions have been essential to our success as a nation. They have helped millions
of families realize the American dream and helped create a strong middle class
in this country. As President, I will fight alongside the labor movement in
order to promote the economic growth of America's middle class.

HILLARY’S VISION

Hillary's highest priorities as president will be to restore the basic
bargain to America's working families by:

Giving workers a fair chance to join a union - Hillary will sign the
Employee Free Choice Act into law so that we can create an atmosphere where
workers can choose to form a union free from employer coercion and bargain
collectively. This fundamental right must be protected in order to ensure
workers have a voice. She will fight to strengthen unions because she believes
they are essential to keeping our middle class strong.

snip

HILLARY’S RECORD
Right to Organize/Collective Bargaining: Throughout her career, Senator Clinton has stood with all workers as they exercise their right to organize and bargain collectively and is an original co-sponsor of the Employee Free Choice Act. She has actively opposed anti-collective bargaining provisions contained in the Department of Defense's proposed National Security Personnel System and has voted in favor of collective bargaining rights for TSA screeners.

Offshoring - Senator Clinton opposed CAFTA and again opposes "Fast Track"
legislation being promoted by the Bush Administration. She is the co-founder of
the Senate Manufacturing Caucus to examine manufacturing sector concerns,
including global and domestic trade practices. Senator Clinton has said that all
new trade deals must have strong labor and environmental protections.

snip

Intervened on Behalf of Workers in Labor Disputes - Hillary has played an
active role in advocating for unions by bringing people back to the negotiation
table and urging them to negotiate in good faith.

The plan goes on to talk about all she's done on behalf of labor.

People trust Hillary on healthcare

As reported on Pollster, a poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation found the following:

• Of all the candidates for president in 2008 regardless of party, 19% of Americans say Sen. Hillary Clinton "best represents" their own views on health care; 6% say Sen. Barack Obama.

• 27% say Clinton is "placing the biggest emphasis on health care issues;" 6% say Obama, 5% say Edwards.

Key findings of the poll, and full results.

What's Bill Clinton Saying?

Much like Elizabeth Edwards and Michelle Obama act as surrogates for their husbands, so too does Bill for Hillary. So what's Bill saying? Next month, Bill Clinton will release his new book, "Giving". "Giving" is largely apolitical but in reading about it reminded me that Bill has been active on the world stage since the end of his presidency, sort of a one-man NGO. I think the goodwill he's acquired both in his presidency and with his good works since leaving office will make him a powerful asset to a Hillary Clinton presidency. Here's how he is helping Hillary make her case:

Here's a link to a recent article where Bill touches on his presidency and starts to lay the case for Hillary's:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/27/ap/politics/main3208131.shtml

On Hillary's health care plan in the 90’s: the effort “was killed by politics, not the plan’s particulars.”“Since 2000, all the cost and coverage problems have worsened,” he writes, arguing that the country may soon be ready for a major health care overhaul.

On the environment: On climate change, “The country has refused to take serious action,” Clinton writes, complaining that “too many politicians have been resistant to implementing proven strategies to reduce emissions.”

On Clinton years v. Bush years: Clinton said "air quality standards improved, 90 percent of children were vaccinated against serious diseases, and 40 million more people had access to safer drinking water".

He joins Hillary on the trail this weekend for the kick off of the fall campaign. It will be interesting to hear what he has to say about her. I'm also hoping Chelsea joins them soon.

Welcome to Hillary's Bloggers!

Karen posted her own welcome earlier, but I would like to add mine, and share some information about why we started this site and what we hope to accomplish.

Karen ("alegre"), Melanie ("masslib"), and I ("markw") all met on DailyKos, a progressive blog supporting Democratic candidates. Some of us also post on MyDD, another progressive Democratic blog (where I post as "markjay"). We enjoy posting on those sites, and will continue to do so, but we felt it would also be helpful to have a site where we could concentrate our support for Hillary's campaign. So we launched this site to accomplish that.

We'll be posting blogs with information and background in support of Hillary. And we'll be inviting a few other bloggers we know from other sites to join us. Some of our postings will be original to this site, and many will be cross-postings of what we also post elsewhere. We welcome comments from anybody, but unlike on some large blogs, there won't be options for the public to post their own diaries.

We will draw distinctions when appropriate with the positions of other candidates, but we don't intend to get into attacks or innuendo. We want to put out a forthright and positive message about why we believe that Hillary Clinton is the best candidate for president. We encourage everyone reading this to recommend this site to your friends, relative, co-workers, and anyone who might be interested (or you hope to get interested) in the Hillary Clinton campaign, no matter how well informed they currently are about the campaign or about politics.

Welcome everybody, and let the discussion begin!

What's Your Best Argument for Hillary?

I was at a local meeting of Hillary supporters recently, and someone asked the group how to convince fence-sitters when it comes to supporting Hillary’s candidacy. One lady stood up and she said the following...

I tell them that first – I take the issue of gender out of the picture for a moment. And then I list the qualities that I look for in a candidate / president.

(for me those qualities might include some of the following...

Experienced in a wide range of issue areas
Progressive track record
A strong and capable team of staff and strategists who can quickly & effectively strike back when attacked
Integrity
Strong
Decisive
Committed to excellence
Compassionate
Respected by their peers
Known and respected around the world
Will be best suited to repair our damaged good name around the world
Will get our troops out of Iraq
Vetted - no surprises in their closet
Track record of being able to fight off attacks by the right wing noise machine)

Then she said she counts up the qualities of each of the candidates running and says that they ALL have some of them – but that Hillary’s got more than anyone else. She then poses this question...

Given all of that – how can I NOT support the one woman in my lifetime, who’s got a real shot at making it to the White House?

Chew on that and let the discussion begin.

Who Are You & Why Do You Support Hillary?

I posted something on the dailykos site a couple weeks ago, in which I asked people to talk a little about their background, and why they support their chosen candidate. It was a great way for us to get to know each other so I thought it might be a good way for us to get to know one another at our new site. I know this is preaching to the choir for now (until we get the word out about our new site) but what the heck - here goes...

I grew up around politics. My folks took me to anti-war rallies. I stuffed envelopes for McGovern and walked precincts collecting signatures / handing out information for various candidates. My folks were involved with anti-war groups and by extension – so was I. I walked the picket lines with them on behalf of the United Farm Workers. My mom and I took a road trip out to Chicago to lobby for the Equal Rights Amendment, and I went to protests against nuclear power plants in our state as a teenager. In college I worked with peace groups protesting US involvement in El Salvador and once I moved to DC I became an active NARAL & Planned Parenthood volunteer and helped defend women’s health clinics against the nutters who tried to shut them down over the abortion services they provided. I've attended pro-choice marches, million-mom marches, environmental rallies and marches to draw attention to the genocide in Darfur. And I'm not done yet!

I’ve volunteered with every Democratic candidate’s campaign for president since 1984 – driving out to Iowa to help with the Mondale campaign while I was in college, and out to Delaware and Philly to help with the Dukakis campaign in 1988. In 1992 I went to work with the DC office of Clinton’s campaign, and then had the honor of working with the national security section of Clinton’s Transition Team after the election. Once he was inaugurated, I volunteered in the Press Office on Saturdays for a while, and then volunteered with the campaign in 1996 when he & Al ran for re-election. I also helped with Al's campaign in 2000, and the Kerry campaign in 2004. I’m a true-blue progressive Democrat – always have been and always will be.

And now I'm raising my kids to be interested & active in politics (though they may not understand it all yet) - my daughter led her first anti-bush/cheney march around the local tot-lot when she was just 4, wearing her John Kerry t-shirt and chanting "Hey, hey! Ho, ho! Bush & Cheney have got to go!"

I am so EXCITED about Hillary’s run for the White House. To think that I’ll finally get to watch (and help) a woman make a serious run at a job that’s been held by men for over 200 years! My mother’s generation told their daughters that we could be anything we want to be when we grew up IF we worked hard, played by the rules and learned as much as we could along the way (even President of the United States). I think we all knew what a load of crap that was – no woman has ever held that job and that sent us a serious message ( it’s really not possible ). But my little girl will actually get to watch this election unfold and (hopefully) FINALLY get to see a woman make it to the top job. And what a POWERFUL message that will be – that yes, a girl really CAN grow up to be President.

I was so energized by this notion that it prompted me to write my first pro-Hillary diary in June on DailyKos entitled Would a Clinton Presidency Help Women? Absolutely! ( http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/6/21/134021/721 ) in which nearly 300 comments were posted.

Because I'm so passionate about politics and how to best fix the disastrous mess Bush has left us, I'm convinced that Hillary's the one person who can take on the right-wing hate machine, and beat them in Nov. next year. Once she's in the WH, she'll restore our good name around the world, get us out of Iraq, restore the right to choose to millions of women around this nation, catch or kill Bin Laden and his murderous band of thugs, rebuild our economy, find a way to fix our broken health care system, develop greener sources of energy, and a whole host of other things that need doing.

So there ya go. Just a tip of the iceberg really - there are a lot of reasons why she's got my support but this should get the discussion off the ground. What say YOU?

Welcome!

Well our new site is up and running now and I know we're all friends here. Just a quick reminder of why we're here... to promote Hillary's candidacy without tearing others down. This site is meant to be a positive force on the blogosphere - one that shows the world Hillary's record, her plans for our future, and to shed light on her 35 years of dedicated service and experience. Hillary's in it to win - she's ready to lead - and she's going to win if we have anything to do with it!