2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumHartford Courant, the oldest continuously operated newspaper in the United States - Endorsement:
Great endorsement!!!
Courant Primary Endorsement: Hillary Clinton Most Qualified And Effective
Bernie Sanders is an unlikely candidate to bring idealism back to presidential politics. A son of Jewish immigrants from Brooklyn who found his calling as a socialist from Vermont, Sen. Sanders has reminded us what politics is supposed to be about: Making the ideals of equality and justice work for all Americans.
He speaks eloquently to the need to eliminate inequities in a system that advantages those who already have wealth and power. His popularity speaks to the fact that Americans are tired of the cozy relationship between business and government, of the gridlock and bitterness that defines politics today.
Hillary Clinton, who has long been a fighter, is now clearly part of the political elite that Mr. Sanders has taken aim at. Young voters have turned their backs on her while flocking to Mr. Sanders. She needs to take a long look in the mirror and make sure she doesn't forget why she got into politics in the first place.
But the choice before us is not who is the better candidate, but who would make the better president. And on that score, we believe a pragmatist like Mrs. Clinton is the better choice to fight for those ideals.
Why Mrs. Clinton?
The state and nation are in an uneasy place. The economic recovery hasn't lifted all boats. Families continue to struggle with doctors' bills, even with Obamacare bending the cost curve, and students wonder how they'll pay for college. Terrorism in Europe frightens Americans, while the U.S. has its own homegrown terrors.
Few candidates in history have had Mrs. Clinton's prepping for such challenges. As a senator from New York, she was more effective at legislating than Sen. Sanders was, The Washington Post says. As secretary of state, she secured the tough sanctions against Iran that eventually led the dismantling of much of its nuclear program. While first lady, she shrugged off the failure of her health-care-for-all plan in 1993 and set about helping to get millions of poor children coverage.
Yes, she has flaws. She's seen as polarizing, and as a hawk for voting for the 2002 Iraq war resolution. She was wrong to skirt the rules with her personal email use while secretary of state. Benghazi happened on her watch. She's too close to Wall Street, and has been too willing to take sizable speaking fees from those who expect the favor to be repaid one day.
Mr. Sanders is right to ask whether Mrs. Clinton is too embedded in the establishment to change it. The question is whether Mr. Sanders has the political tools to change it. She does. She has often crossed the divide to solve problems, whether negotiating a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas or getting Republican support for the Children's Health Insurance Program.
We believe she can do the one thing that President Obama has not done and that Mr. Sanders may not do, with his ambivalent record on guns (including voting against the Brady bill) use her political skills to get greater gun controls. Dec. 14, 2012, has tragically made that Connecticut's salient issue.
As a moderate Democrat, she might appeal to a wider swath of independents in the general election than Mr. Sanders would. This is no small matter because Democrats need someone who can beat the Republican front-runner who would be ruinous as president: Donald Trump.
The next president will need a spine to preserve the gains made by Obamacare in insuring Americans. She has it. Mr. Sanders would undo those gains by starting anew, at enormous expense, with a single-payer system. Republicans would also undo them, just to erase a Democratic legacy.
Why Not Mr. Sanders?
Mr. Sanders is appealing in his promises: Who doesn't want tuition-free universities, single-payer health care and bigger Social Security checks? But the costs are far greater than he's acknowledging. Also, the tax increases required would make Congress keel over. Finally, the quality of his Medicare-for-all system wouldn't match today's.
He is idealistic. But he is also unrealistic.
Mrs. Clinton has turned dreams into laws. She has fought for the underclass, championing the causes of women and children around the world. Her grasp of foreign policy is deep including, through sorry experience, the limits of U.S. power.
Given her resume, few people today are more qualified for the Oval Office than she is.
Copyright © 2016, Hartford Courant
Bernie Sanders Hillary Clinton Iranian Nuclear Program
http://www.courant.com/opinion/editorials/hc-ed-hillary-clinton-our-choice-for-democratic-nomination-20160415-story.html
Armstead
(47,803 posts)---------------------
And also an endorsement that matters, even though she's just an average person
oberliner
(58,724 posts)In many ways, that is a job to which he is ideally suited.
Armstead
(47,803 posts)Watch that longer video in the post up top, and listen to his speech. In addition to his familiar themes, he talks about accomplishments in real specific down to earth nuts and bolts terms. Every bit as "wonky" as Clinton.
And the identification of people with Bernie as a leader is the same on the national scale as on the local level where pepoole interacted with him directly.
And he did face opposition as mayor, and demonstrated both how to work with the opposition while staying with a progressive agenda.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)The politics and demographics there are unique to that particular type of city.
Armstead
(47,803 posts)Burlington is the real world.
Vermont is not Mars. Yes it's got superficial characteristics that are more favorable to progressive politics on the surface. .But people are people.
If you watch the positive energy and the basic goals reflected in the videos, many people would resonate to the same spirit tailored to national and individual regions has an equal chance of success.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)My only point was that Bernie was the perfect person for the job of Mayor of Burlington.
I don't especially think that is instructive of what kind of President he would be one way or another, because I think they are very different kinds of jobs in many ways.
That being said, I would love to see Bernie win the presidency. If he gets the nomination, I will campaign for him with maximum vigor and enthusiasm.
Armstead
(47,803 posts)Energizing voters and "can-do optimism," -- and then delivering. Leading an overhaul of the legislative body, building broadly based coalitions, working with the opposition (both co-opting the GOP by getting a very tight fiscal budget, while ensuring and gaining additional resources on a targeted basis), filling the potholes, working with business AND the community for civic improvements. Improving the quality of life and lifting the economy for everyone in many ways....Being named one of America's Best Mayors
He did all that and more as Mayor. No reason to believe he could not do that on a bigger scale. His rallies and results in the primaries are examples of how he came from nowhere to a close opponent nationally.
oberliner
(58,724 posts)It was a city with virtually zero racial diversity. It was also a city that leaned very much to the left. There was not even a Republican who bothered to run for mayor when Bernie won. He was obviously a very successful mayor there and I give him kudos for his accomplishments. That being said, I think the job of mayor of Burlington, VT is very different from the job of President of the United States, quite dramatically so. Think of all the foreign policy considerations, for instance.
Bernie was a great mayor and is an admirable person whom I would love to see as President. Nothing that I have written above is meant to detract from that. If he pulls off the victory, it would be one of the seminal moments in American history.
Armstead
(47,803 posts)Except to say IMO, as I noted above, the size may be different but the skill set is the same...For example, yeah he'd need help with foreign policy. But part of the job is finding good people who are experts...which is what he did in Birlington.
I just thibnk we have a chance to elect someone who will change the frame in ways it needs changing.
George II
(67,782 posts)Armstead
(47,803 posts)George II
(67,782 posts)....is about 120,000 more than Sanders ever got in any election ever before the primaries 2-1/2 months ago.
Armstead
(47,803 posts)Look at proportion of votes...and how once he has won offices he got repeatedly reelected by ever increasing margins.
But your mind is closed shut so I won't bother continuing.
George II
(67,782 posts)....35,000 people.
Arkansas is actually in the middle of the pack when it comes to "small" - it's 31st in the country with respect to population, Vermont is 49th (1/5 the population of Arkansas)
Besided, Bill Clinton isn't running for President, Hillary Clinton is, and she was elected Senator of New York twice, both times with more votes than Sanders has gotten in all of his elections (Mayor, Representative, Senator) combined.
riversedge
(70,285 posts)YES SHE CAN
"The next president will need a spine to preserve the gains made by Obamacare in insuring Americans. She has it"
DCBob
(24,689 posts)Armstead
(47,803 posts)If yo care to have a more open mind, I'd suggest you watch this video and see how "unrealistic" and non-achievement oriented he is.
He is ultimately very pragmatic as well as politically idealistic.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/12511758469
Lizzie Poppet
(10,164 posts)Her resume is one of mediocrity (at best) and failure...it's the best argument against her suitability for the office.
Armstead
(47,803 posts)she'd have just been an unremarkable back bencher
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)For those who won't read the whole thing, this paragraph summaries it perfect:
"Mr. Sanders is right to ask whether Mrs. Clinton is too embedded in the establishment to change it. The question is whether Mr. Sanders has the political tools to change it. She does. She has often crossed the divide to solve problems, whether negotiating a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas or getting Republican support for the Children's Health Insurance Program. "
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)The kinds of "compromises" she specializes in are morally unacceptable(like accepting mass incarceration in the name of saving the Violence Against Women Act...VAWA was an important piece of legislation, but it could never have been worth supporting anything that was a massive step backwards on any issue like the '94 crime bill she pushed hard for was.
That's the only kind of compromise HRC ever does.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)And that was before the Tea Party. We all know no Republican will ever vote for anything any Democratic president proposes again.
HRC can never get Republican support for any good measure again.
All they will vote with her on now is trade deals(good only for the rich) and more wars in the Middle East(again, good only for the rich).
What happened with CHIP can't ever be repeated.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)Human101948
(3,457 posts)Do you know?
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)Armstead
(47,803 posts)her negotiations in Israel put the peace process on the back burner.
She can position herself well....Results? Not so much.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)Armstead
(47,803 posts)shraby
(21,946 posts)DemocratSinceBirth
(99,711 posts)I don't think a newspaper has ever pursued such a case against an individual.
George II
(67,782 posts)aikoaiko
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mhatrw
(10,786 posts)Jitter65
(3,089 posts)Hillary is not perfect and she has made mistakes...meaning she has been out there doing something. She has learned from those mistakes and my hope and feeling is that she has much to atone for and she will. She will tirelessly try to fix the injustice of the justice system..not always the way we might want her to but she will do it. She will behind the scenes fight for the Palestinians but she know enough about Bibi and many other Israeli powerful that whatever is done must be done in a save-face manner for both sides. She will get those gun safety and gun control laws enacted. And she will reign in the banksters and corrupt Wall Street bastards because she knows how and she can meet them eyeball direct.
She will work for the aspirations of those young people out there in the streets now. If being a woman doesn't make you see things differently...being a grandmother does!!
I think she will make a really good President.
Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)Other than the dreams of the rich.
Armstead
(47,803 posts)HassleCat
(6,409 posts)"Finally, the quality of his Medicare-for-all system wouldn't match today's." Preserve what we have built for the well off. Never mind that millions of people have no access to any health care at all, never mind "quality" heath care. This is the kind of old thinking we would expect from the oldest newspaper.
workinclasszero
(28,270 posts)Great endorsement!