The worst thing Hillary Clinton has done

[Karmadillo]

http://www.salon.com/2015/10/15/the_worst_thing_hillary_clinton_has_ever_done/

THURSDAY, OCT 15, 2015 02:54 PM EDT
The worst thing Hillary Clinton has done
During the debate, Clinton touted her years at the Children's Defense Fund. Here's the truth she didn't talk about
BEN NORTON

<edit>

“I don’t take a back seat to anyone when it comes to progressive experience and progressive commitment,” Hillary Clinton insisted in the debate. “You know, when I left law school, my first job was with the Children’s Defense Fund, and for all the years since, I have been focused on how we’re going to un-stack the deck, and how we’re gonna make it possible for more people to have the experience I had.”

This is true — Clinton not only worked with Children’s Defense Fund (CDF), a non-profit advocacy organization that seeks to help American youth; she served as the head of its board.

Later in the debate — amid her hawkish rhetoric — Clinton twice more mentioned her work with CDF, wielding it as an example of her purportedly progressive policies.

The problem with Clinton’s claims, however, is that she betrayed children as First Lady. Under the guise of welfare reform, the Clinton administration worked with Republicans to gut social services, ignoring their own senior officials’ warnings that, by doing so, they would be plunging over a million children into poverty.

more...

[guillaumeb]

1. But it looks good on her resume.

Her resume looks nice, but the details are what hurt. The actual truth behind all the rhetoric.

[NCjack]

2. The ol' resume trick: "how may I appear to help you?"

[scscholar]

38. "What is your biggest weakness?"

[PeaceNikki]

3. There are important comments on on that 4 month old article.

Like this one:

Is Benjamin Norton lazy, stupid or a political shill for Hillary Clinton's opponents? There must be some reason he has written an article filled with half-truths or outright lies that attempts to paint Secretary Clinton as having misrepresented her history as an unabashed advocate for children. In political articles, particularly of this length, few readers click on all the "footnotes" which allows pundits like Norton to misrepresent the meaning of the source. Knowing as I do that Hillary is not conservative about doing whatever is possible to enhance the lives of children, I clicked on the "1992 academic article" that was summed up as being wholly critical of Hillary's policies regarding children. Based on the rest of Norton's fantasy hit piece, I was not surprised to see that the 1992 academic article was extremely positive about Hillary's then-history of working on behalf of children.

"Taking into account her work on behalf of children through the Children’s Defense Fund we conclude that Hillary Rodham Clinton has been an important voice for the cause of children. "

And this was before Hillary was the driving force behind adoption legislation that allowed middle- and working-class people to adopt children even if they didn't have health insurance and, particularly, if the child would require lifelong health care due to their special needs. It was before Hillary was the driving force behind the S-Chip Program which provides health care for kids whose working parents make too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance policies. And it was before Hillary Clinton circled the globe as First Lady and Secretary of State calling on all nations to treat their children, particularly their little girls who are most often maltreated or thrown away, as the precious gifts that they are.

Shame on Salon for hiring a POS like Benjamin Norton to write attack articles on Hillary Clinton. I'm sure that he would be more comfortable working for Glenn Beck over at The Blaze.

[onecaliberal]

15. I am actually more concerned about her voting for Illegal wars

And her willingness to jump into 4 more wars anywhere and everywhere. There are millions of people dead because of her poor judgment. This country is in a shamble and we need to STOP spending money on wars, and start taking care of our own damn people right here in the United States.

[PeaceNikki]

17. 82 Democrats in the House and 29 in the Senate did. Including several who have run for POTUS since.

Your post has the rigoddamndiculous implication that it was her and only her.

[onecaliberal]

20. I NEVER fucking said no one else voted for it, those people are NOT running for POTUS

talking about their experience. Her experience is demonstrating a breathtaking poor decisions. Terrible judgment on a multitude of levels. eom

[PeaceNikki]

22. "There are millions of people dead because of *her* poor judgment. " (emphasis mine)

It would have passed without her vote. Which she admits was wrong.

[onecaliberal]

24. Poor judgment. I don't give a rip if it would have passed. I care about the person who is running

to be president now. The one who said it's okay that 26 million people don't have healthcare. The one who said we can't send people to college unless we bankrupt them in the process, the one who accepts money from many of the 62 people who hold more wealth than 3.4 billion. The person who sent and received classified information on a personal server she had at her house. I'm sick of people who think that just because they aren't one of these suffering people that nothing should be done about it because heaven forbid, we might have to ask these insanely wealthy people to pay their fair share.

[PeaceNikki]

25. Your concern has been noted.

[roguevalley]

35. Her vote is her eternal shame

[PeaceNikki]

40. She and the other 110 Democrats who voted for it should wear a scarlet letter for all of eternity.

[JoeyT]

50. Yes, they absolutely should.

It amazes me that people act like the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people are no big deal that we should just pretend never happened. Especially when it was done by people that knew it was wrong in the first place and just did it because they valued their political careers more than the lives of innocent people.

What would YOU think is a sufficient punishment for people that caused that kind of damage?

[PeaceNikki]

53. Who thinks it's "no big deal" and/or "that we should just pretend never happened" ?

[JonLeibowitz]

62. Anyonr who would think for a second about voting for her.

[PeaceNikki]

64. oh, bullshit.

[JonLeibowitz]

65. What is bullshit is voting for a warmonger. n/t

[PeaceNikki]

66. Even bullshitier is using a site created to build up Democrats to trash them and those who

support them.

[JonLeibowitz]

71. Ok.

[mountain grammy]

59. Yep, I'd be ok with that.

[GeorgeGist]

78. Yes.

[Admiral Loinpresser]

81. I strongly agree!

Better yet, Chelsea should be drafted and have to serve in combat.

I really believe we should have a draft. And the draft should be prioritized so that members of Congress, the Executive branch and their children should be drafted first and have to serve in combat zones. That might actually end these wars of choice we routinely engage in now.

[Duval]

42. +1000! Her judgment issue is one of the reasons I'm for Bernie.

[840high]

61. Yes. The constant lies

get old, too.

[truedelphi]

83. No one has said that she is the only one who voted for the IWR.

But we certainly can discredit her foreign policy for doing so.

[PeaceNikki]

84. The poster to whom I replied implied that. See:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=1130612

[progressoid]

87. And 147 Democrats voted against it.

Its goddamned ridiculous that so many Democratic "leaders" did vote for it.

[Bjornsdotter]

29. Agreed. n/t

[Laser102]

23. Great research! Thank you for the information.

[shireen]

67. very troubling

He has written a very effective hatchet piece on Hillary. It's so convincing that I don't believe much of it. Hillary may not be my candidate but she certainly does not deserve to be painted as a monster.

So much venom being hurled around from all sides. It's sad.

[rhett o rick]

73. Lots of words but you failed to refute the main point of the OP article. "Under the guise of welfare

reform, the Clinton administration worked with Republicans to gut social services, ignoring their own senior officials’ warnings that, by doing so, they would be plunging over a million children into poverty." There are 16,000,000 children living in poverty and another 16,000,000 living in low income homes. The Clintons failed millions of American children. But they did gain huge personal fortunes from corporations that appreciate their service.

"The Clintons worked with Republicon". Some see this as a good thing, telling us how effective Clinton would be working with the REpublicons. I say no thanks to that kind of "effectiveness". I guess one can say she was very effective working with Republicons when they wanted to invade Iraq.

We are fighting for our freedom from the culture of Big Money corruption.

[PeaceNikki]

74. As I said, those are comments on the article, not my words.

Here was another I grabbed: http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1251&pid=1130041

We are also fighting for gender, reproductive and racial equality. There are a lot of issues at stake. SCOTUS is the one which will have the longest lasting impact for our future.

[rhett o rick]

75. If you are truly interested in the SCOTUS, then you would want to put the best candidate

forward to defeat the Republicons. That candidate isn't Clinton.

[PeaceNikki]

76. ...in your opinion.

[beachbum bob]

4. considering this was over 20yrs ago

and its taken to this point where this could happen...btw.....the welfare reform act was a negotiated bill between the republicans and the clinton admin/democrats so yes...sure its hillary fault that in last 20 yrs both democratic admins and democratic congresses have chose to do nothing about the particular provision.....I wonder Bernie didn't get any amendments introduced or passed in last 20 yrs to address it....I am sure it was Hillary's fault that unemployment benefits weren't extend 2 years ago beyond 6 months..I must of missed Bernie's filibuster in the Senate to have something done......

[jeff47]

10. If only Clinton held a position during those 20 years where she could introduce legislation.... (nt)

[Recursion]

28. You mean like these bills she introduced in the Senate?

https://www.congress.gov/bill/111th-congress/senate-bill/182

https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/senate-bill/3708

https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/senate-bill/3609

https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/senate-bill/3631

https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/senate-bill/2549

https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/senate-bill/3497

https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/senate-bill/3334

https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/senate-bill/3027

https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/senate-bill/2944

https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/senate-bill/2877

https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/senate-bill/2514

https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/senate-bill/2476

https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/senate-bill/2244

https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/senate-bill/2175

https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/senate-bill/1712

https://www.congress.gov/bill/110th-congress/senate-bill/1452

[jeff47]

31. Did you notice your laundry list doesn't include fixing the problems that poster talks about? (nt)

[Recursion]

32. Every single one of those was about children's health and welfare (nt)

[jeff47]

34. A bill to fund more minority medical professionals is about children's health.

Yeah.....sure.

[Recursion]

36. Umm... yes.

If you don't see that... I don't know what to say.

[jeff47]

37. So how does more geriatric oncologists help children's health?

Please be specific.

[PeaceNikki]

5. Or this comment

Any serious discussion of welfare reform needs to acknowledge the context. The Republicans pushed through two brutal welfare reform packages, each of which Bill Clinton vetoed. Then, in August 1996, they put a toned-down overhaul of welfare on his desk. With the election looming, the president had a choice. He could veto a third time, giving Republican the perfect talking points heading into the election, and setting them up to take the White House or at least a veto-proof majority in Congress. Or he could sign. One can argue that he should have been bolder and continued resisting welfare reform until a version came along that would do more good than harm. One can argue that he could still have won in '96, and that the Congressional elections would still have gone well enough that another veto wouldn't result in one of the harsher reform packages being pushed through instead. It's impossible to say, at this point. But any serious analysis of Welfare Reform needs to discuss that calculus. This wasn't a case, like we've seen so often in the Obama years, where the the president's opening gambit was to offer the Republicans 90% of their wish list, and then a "compromise" is reached where he signs over most of that last 10% without so much as a veto. Clinton fought hard and won serious concessions.

I know some progressives have had it in for the Clintons since long before welfare reform, based on disagreement with the whole strategy of triangulation (and based on a herd mentality in the press corps following the Travel Office firings). But if you're going to bash them, at least provide the relevant facts, rather than drawing readers into a fantasy version of history.

[onecaliberal]

16. President Clinton should NEVER have signed anything the republicans thought was good.

It's ridiculous that so called Democrats lost their ability to stand up and tell the American people what the hell republicans want to do to working people. If Clinton had done that there would have been no reason to sign any republican bill into law.

[PeaceNikki]

18. Logical to hold his wife accountable for that.

Oh, wait, no it's not.

[onecaliberal]

21. Two for the price of one, hmmmm, who was it that said such a thing. Oh yeah.

[roguevalley]

39. she claims it therefore she owns all of it

[tularetom]

45. Yes, progressives "have it in" for the poor Clintons

Republicans have it in for them, independents have it in for them. This is America, where perception becomes reality.

Maybe a third of the people support the Clintons, a third question their motives and actions, and a third are convinced they are outright crooks. That's no basis on which to build a consensus.

The "facts" have become so obscured and obfuscated that they are almost irrelevant. "Why is everybody always pickin' on me?" is not a winning argument. When everybody is picking on you there almost always is a valid reason.

She cannot win a general election and even if she could, she cannot govern effectively.

[PeaceNikki]

48. Your concern has been noted.

[tularetom]

52. Well, you can "un-note" it because I'm not "concerned"

I'm going to enjoy watching her fall on her ass. I only hope she does it before she becomes the nominee of the Democrat party so we will at least have a chance in the general election.

[PeaceNikki]

54. kthxbai!!

[CharlotteVale]

6. K&R. That was a chilling, damning article.

[dbackjon]

44. Only if you are not smart enough to see it is full of lies

I swear, DU is becoming more like Freeperville daily with the blind smearing and the willingness to believe SHIT like this.

[CharlotteVale]

77. Except it's the truth. She supported "welfare reform." I can see why

Clinton fans are so desperate to deny her history, though. Insulting me doesn't change her record. It just makes it obvious you can't refute the article.

[onehandle]

7. Once significant Salon is becoming Breitbart with every passing day.

They should just merge with them.

[SheenaR]

58. Still very significant

I'm sorry it doesn't bode well for your candidate of choice

[Tanuki]

8. Speaking of Hillary's relationship with the Children's Defense Fund....

They don't seem to share your opinion that she "betrayed children." In fact, they honored her at their 40th Anniversary gala in 2013:

http://www.childrensdefense.org/newsroom/cdf-in-the-news/press-releases/2013/honoring-hillary-clinton.html

The Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) celebrated forty years of changing the odds for children and honored Former Secretary of State and CDF alumna Hillary Rodham Clinton on Monday, September 30, 2013. Secretary Clinton was recognized for her dedication and contributions to child advocacy.

“CDF is pleased to recognize Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has been a tireless voice for children. She’s brilliant. She cares deeply about children. She perseveres. She’s an incredibly hard worker, and she stays with it. She’s done extraordinarily well in everything she’s ever done. and I’m just so proud of her,” said Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children’s Defense Fund.

......

Hillary Rodham Clinton was with CDF from the beginning. Rodham joined CDF as a young staff attorney right out of law school and knocked on doors to research and help prepare CDF’s first landmark report, Children Out of School in America – a major catalyst for the enactment of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, now the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. She became a CDF board member and ultimately board chair until she became First Lady.
........

The Children’s Defense Fund has worked relentlessly over the past forty years to create a level playing field for all children. CDF’s work has helped millions of children escape poverty and receive needed heath care, nutrition, Head Start and Early Head Start, child care, education, special education, family support services, adoption and guardianship assistance, and helped ensure protections for children in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems and protection from gun violence.

----------------------
Here are a couple of picture of Hillary and Marian Wright Edelman that evening:

[Empowerer]

88. The Children's Defense Fund must be black

Cause, you know, black people just don't understand how awful Hillary Clinton is.

But if Sanders supporters keep telling them over and over and over and over again, they'll eventually figure it out and FEEL THE BERN!!!

[studyshare]

9. Hillary fans just put the OP on permanent Ignore

[Tanuki]

11. I don't have anyone on ignore. Hillary fans don't need you for an announcer.

Nobody needs people making up any more ridiculous pronouncements.

[pinebox]

12. It's amazing anybody support her.

Why would anybody support her?
You can literally go to Google and pick out a plethora issues that show her as being dishonest.

[Duval]

46. I was hoping this would surface. Thanks, pinebox. nt

[noiretextatique]

91. if she would just admit that she changed her mind on gay marriage...fine

but she actually lies about her previous position, and she got totally hostile about it with the NPR host...actually accusing her of twisted her very clear words when she very clearly opposed gay marriage. this is a PROBLEM. i've said it before, and i will say it again: i worry that she will not win the GE because of shit like this.

[TheBlackAdder]

13. Besides drawing parallels w/assassination, downplaying MLK, Jessie Jackson, Rev. Wright...

.



A summary of forgotten transgressions starts at the 7 minute mark.

.

[DrBulldog]

14. I have known this for a long time. Only the media has prevented americans from learning about it.

What Hillary Clinton did was destroy the lives of many young mothers who desperately needed any help they can get.

[NurseJackie]

19. Cow Cookies!

[Kalidurga]

43. Brilliant retort as usual.

Fact free and bordering on insulting. Nice job.

[tecelote]

26. Her work concerning the coup in Honduras is pretty damning as well.

Plus she believes in regime change in Syria.

How many have to die for who knows what? Profits?

[AzDar]

27. How to choose? There are so VERY many...

Hillary, don't go away mad... just go AWAY.

[onecaliberal]

30. And this.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511130681

[passiveporcupine]

33. un-stack the deck

How did getting tough on crime and drugs un-stack the deck for our youth? I'm blaming Bill more than Hillary for that, but she supported it.

“CDF is pleased to recognize Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has been a tireless voice for children. She’s brilliant. She cares deeply about children. She perseveres. She’s an incredibly hard worker, and she stays with it. She’s done extraordinarily well in everything she’s ever done. and I’m just so proud of her,” said Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children’s Defense Fund.

I agree that Hillary is a smart and hard worker who advocates for women and children. But she pushes ideas that are not right for this country, regarding foreign affairs, (especially) economic policy and social policy, and I think she would be better off just focusing on what she is good at and what really is important to her. Women and children.

She has the money now to do a lot of good as a philanthropist, and to focus her energies where she really can make a difference for the better. Why does she need to grab for the gold ring, just to prove a woman can do it?

From wiki:

Rodham's early political development was shaped most by her high school history teacher (like her father, a fervent anticommunist)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton

She will never be a democratic socialist. She is capitalist all the way, and not what this country needs right now.

She is a very smart, competitive and driven woman. She could really do a lot of good in this country, if she would stop grasping for the gold ring and focus on her special interests. JMHO

[Duval]

41. We'll never hear/see this on our MSM. Thanks! nt

[dbackjon]

47. Why, when DU is doing a good job spreading lies

Well done - President Cruz thanks you.

[840high]

63. Actually - I think Hillary is

spreading lies.

[nashville_brook]

90. it's really too bad that partisanship must take a front seat to truth.

[onecaliberal]

49. The ignore feature is awesome.

[MadDAsHell]

51. Poverty has only gotten worse since the "War on Poverty" began, and that slide was happening...

long before Hillary Clinton became politically active on a national stage. I think it's a little short-sighted to blame her for poverty.

[Faux pas]

55. K N R

[nyabingi]

56. Bill Clinton's welfare reform, NAFTA,

his anti-Black/Latino crime bill, etc. are all the types of "getting things done", pragmatic things Hillary Clinton is suggesting she can get passed through Congress right now. She's promising, like her husband then, to get some bad Republican legislation passed into law in order to say that she gets things done.

I'm sorry, but I don't want her to get anything done if it means passing the bullshit she and her husband took part during his eight years in the White House.

[zentrum]

57. Not the only worst

….thing she did.

There's the Clinton privatization of prisons, so they became managed by for profit companies.

One of the ways these prisons maximized profits was to lessen benefits for staff—with a big impact on their families. And as for the prisoners—they had bad or no medical care, bad food and all the other abuses that happen every time human needs are put to profit.

But more than this—how else do you maximize profits? More customers!! So the war on drugs is hugely profitable. Incarcerating AA's at high rates, giving them looong sentences==$$$$!

And this prison model is what is now used for immigrant holding camps where people are locked up for no crime other than crossing the border and left to languish there for months, up to years—for profit.

Her so-called "progressive" policies have hugely damaged ordinary people and instituted a type of invisible racism that is hard for the average voter to see because you can so gloss it with "reform" vaseline.

AA's should think really hard about their support for her and the Clinton effect on the Justice system

[loyalsister]

70. It's both

Michelle Alexander nailed it. Mass incarceration and welfare reform are both examples of racial injustice that the Clintons both embraced.

If Hillary Clinton had enough respect for voters to say, "I was wrong and the results are inconsistant with my previous work," I and some others might see her differently. She could go on to suggest that she is best qualified to help fix it because she knows where the cracks are because she helped break it in the first place. But she doesn't have the humility to do that.

"If anyone doubts that the mainstream media fails to tell the truth about our political system (and its true winners and losers), the spectacle of large majorities of black folks supporting Hillary Clinton in the primary races ought to be proof enough. I can't believe Hillary would be coasting into the primaries with her current margin of black support if most people knew how much damage the Clintons have done—the millions of families that were destroyed the last time they were in the White House thanks to their boastful embrace of the mass incarceration machine and their total capitulation to the right-wing narrative on race, crime, welfare and taxes. There's so much more to say on this topic and it's a shame that more people aren't saying it. I think it's time we have that conversation."

http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2016/01/29/23497407/new-jim-crow-author-michelle-alexander-on-hillary-clintons-embrace-of-mass-incarceration

[zentrum]

72. Thank you!

That's a really useful quote and cite.

My source about "Prison Reform" was Robert Reich.

[noiretextatique]

92. it is puzzling to me, and has been

that the clintions are highly regarded among some african-americans. this african-american joined the green party because of bill clinton.

[loyalsister]

93. I think it's overblown

I have a lot of black friends, and if their opinions are any indication, there are not nearly as many Clinton supporters among POC as they would like us to believe.

[pnwmom]

60. Marian Edelman, the head of the CDL, has made a campaign video for Hillary 2016.

She disagrees with the OP.

[Empowerer]

89. That's because she doesn't know what's good for her . . .

[pnwmom]

94. Yeah, right. She needs all the smart white people to tell her the truth

because she can't figure it out for herself.

[Aerows]

68. Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, then and now.

[Karmadillo]

95. This is a devastating video. Thank you for posting it.

[Ferd Berfel]

69. AND she has described kicking over a Million kids into poverty as

Hillary Clinton has long described it as "a significant achievement."

A Million People Are About to Lose Food Stamps Because of Kasich-Clinton Welfare Reform

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/02/01/impending_food_stamp_cutoff_was_set_by_kasich_clinton_bill_in_1990s.html?wpsrc=sh_all_dt_tw_top

[GeorgeGist]

79. Where are the stumbling blocks?

The provision applies to able-bodied adults ages 18 through 49 who have no children or other dependents in their home. It requires them to work, volunteer or attend education or job-training courses at least 80 hours a month to receive food aid. If they don't, their benefits are cut off after three months.

[olddots]

80. Its a blanket statement that all polititians eat poop sandwichs

some don't eat bread .
At this point in time I think people here have their minds made up and we are playing internet games ( not that there is anything wrong with that ) play on .

[Beacool]

82. Children’s Defense Fund Releases Tribute Video Honoring Hillary Rodham Clinton - See more at: http:/

October 2, 2013

&feature=youtu.be

Washington, DC – The Children’s Defense Fund (CDF) releases a video entitled “Hillary Rodham Clinton: Strong and Effective Voice for Children” today as it celebrates forty years of champions changing the odds for children. The video features CDF President Marian Wright Edelman and Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton discussing Secretary Clinton’s work with CDF when it first began and the growing need for investments in the education and health of children. “CDF is pleased to recognize Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has been a tireless voice for children. She’s brilliant. She cares deeply about children. She perseveres. She’s an incredibly hard worker, and she stays with it. She’s done extraordinarily well in everything she’s ever done. and I’m just so proud of her,” said Marian Wright Edelman, President of the Children’s Defense Fund.

http://www.childrensdefense.org/newsroom/cdf-in-the-news/press-releases/2013/hillary-clinton-tribute-video.html

Yeah, she was so terrible that Marian Edelman praises her and considers Hillary a friend.

[Utopian Leftist]

85. Next time you walk down a dark alley,

ask yourself this....

Who would I rather have watching my back right now, Hillary or Bernie?

The answer is simple, I feel safer trusting the person who takes the right stand on issues, even when the right stand is not the popular one.

[cascadiance]

86. Early on, Bernie Sanders actually TAUGHT low income children through Head Start program!!

So, he's not only helped out children legislatively in education, he actually walked the walk and worked in the trenches helping children when he was younger. What was Hillary doing around those days when she was young? Campaigning for Goldwater as a Republican.