If a Hillary speech falls in the woods, did it ever happen? Waiting for Hal and other second guessers to decide whether Hillary's speech is 1) too long after her announcement of candidacy to matter, 2) is just riffing off of Bernie, or 3) she's rich like Gore was fat. As Digby notes, the mainstream media reaction has been to just ignore it or complain about Hillary being too boring (God yes, that wonderfully colorful Bush saved us from dull Gore years - imagine). Anyway, in a year with few compelling crises except for the continued displays of inequality, "Hillary Hears a Who" on liveable reasonably paying middle class jobs might be the resonating event that congeals her candidacy. But Who cares?
URL:
http://www.vox.com/2015/7/13/8953349/Clinton-economic-speech-transcript
Comments
As far as the media is concerned, out of the collection of candidates there's only one worth covering for more than five minutes. And it's not Clinton.
by barefooted on Mon, 07/13/2015 - 8:36pm
I read it and thought it was a good speech from her.
Bernie is doing a good job of running his own campaign and can take the heat.
Who cares what the clown car has to say.
by trkingmomoe on Mon, 07/13/2015 - 10:40pm
by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 07/14/2015 - 12:03am
Here is her condensed version from Mother Jones. They like these items in her speech,
http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/07/hillary-clintons-big-economic-speech-abridged-500-words
by trkingmomoe on Tue, 07/14/2015 - 2:31am
She gave a boring speech in her usual condescending style which treats us all like 7th graders. Never mind that I agreed with pretty much everything she said. She's a fucking Democrat; she's supposed to think and say those things. Thing is, too much of the time I just don't believe her. Yeah, I'm cynical about Secretary Clinton. But that's not your beef. I gather you're disappointed she isn't enjoying the respect and attention she deserves. It's something like that, no? Baloney. I heard about the speech plenty, even before she delivered it. And afterwards, despite how lame it was, there was ample coverage, even on a rather busy news Monday. Sorry, but a Democratic candidate for president declaring that she'll defend and strengthen social security, or that the minimum wage needs to be raised, or that parents should have access to quality preschool ain't news, or at least not front page news.
Seriously, do yourself a favor and watch or read Bernie Sanders make the case. This is a great segment of CSPAN from 1989. Here is a transcript from a more recent speech. There are dozens of these out there from decades of advocacy. I'm sure you'll agree he's really good at this. Partly it's because he's been doing it for so long. Bernie was barking about income inequality circ. 1980, when the top 1% only hoarded about 10% of the cheese every year. (This was almost a full ten years before Clinton served on the board of Walmart.) But mostly he's good at it because he believes every word. The next 6 months are gonna be interesting.
by kyle flynn on Tue, 07/14/2015 - 3:09pm
by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 07/14/2015 - 4:06pm
I don't share your certainty that Bernie Sanders can't be elected president, but I ain't betting the farm on it, either. To be clear, I like detail. Who speaks in greater detail and is more specific than Sanders? And for the record, I'll surely caucus for Sanders, but in the general I might vote for her. I'd say probably, but Washington State is gonna be blue no matter, so I'll stick with maybe. Bottom line, of course she'd be light years better than any of the idiots, jerks and bigots chasing down the Republican nomination. But let's not pretend she isn't a corporate Dem who voted to authorize the war in Iraq for ambition (an unforgivable betrayal, frankly) and who favors TPP regardless of what she might be saying lately and who will decide this way or that on many other issues as soon as the polling rolls in. Stay tuned.
by kyle flynn on Tue, 07/14/2015 - 4:38pm
I find almost all political speeches boring. They're designed to move voters who are not like me. I don't even like Bill Clinton's speeches and he's supposedly so good at connecting with the common working class American and able to explain complex issues in terms they can understand. Obama was supposedly the greatest speech maker ever. People wept and fainted and shouted "I love you." I thought he was the worst of the lot. Beautiful soaring words designed to appeal to the emotions with almost no substance at all. Is that what you like? Is that what you want more of?
His most famous speech became a fucking song lyric by Will i am. I like some good rock and roll songs as much as the next person but I don't get my policy views from them. Read the speech and see if you can determine what he planned to do as president. What rare bits of policy one might pick our of it, half I disagreed with. I don't get what people want when their politicians speak. Hillary's speech was thousands of times better than anything Obama ever said. It was 90% policy. But it bored me too, because it was a speech and imo by definition a speech is almost always superficial. It's almost impossible to do depth and nuance in a speech. Depth and nuance is conveyed in good policy papers. As was pointed out to me recently, people don't read policy papers. That's true, and that's the difference, people might not but I do.
What I find so amusing about the game is that Hillary is now tarred as an advocate for the policies of the DLC. But when the DLC had power in Bill Clinton, Hillary was called Bill's liberal conscience an actively excoriated for it. She really was an active presence in Bill's administration with an office in the West Wing and a staff of policy wonks to push her policy views. Bill's staff called her and them the bolsheviks down the hall. Bill's staff considered her far too left to be taken seriously.
by ocean-kat on Tue, 07/14/2015 - 4:50pm
I want more of this, this and this. And here is a bonus.
by kyle flynn on Tue, 07/14/2015 - 4:59pm