Hillary Warren, I Mean Clinton, Arrives in Iowa

By Scott Galindez, Reader Supported News

18 April 15

es Moines, Iowa – It’s not just Hillary Clinton, it seems that all the candidates on both sides are trying to sound a lot like Elizabeth Warren. Even the Republicans are talking about helping the middle class, so it was no surprise to hear Hillary Clinton say she wants to be a “champion for the middle class.” In what some are calling a listening tour through Iowa, Clinton held two small public events and met with Democratic Party leaders.

On Thursday, Time Magazine published the following tribute to Elizabeth Warren, penned by Hillary Clinton:

It was always going to take a special kind of leader to pick up Ted Kennedy’s mantle as senior Senator from Massachusetts – champion of working families and scourge of special interests. Elizabeth Warren never lets us forget that the work of taming Wall Street’s irresponsible risk-taking and reforming our financial system is far from finished. And she never hesitates to hold powerful people’s feet to the fire: bankers, lobbyists, senior government officials and, yes, even presidential aspirants.

Elizabeth Warren’s journey from janitor’s daughter to Harvard professor to public watchdog to U.S. Senator has been driven by an unflagging determination to level the playing field for hardworking American families like the one she grew up with in Oklahoma. She fights so hard for others to share in the American Dream because she lived it herself.

High praise for a possible future opponent. I think it is safe to say that Clinton doesn’t think that Warren will jump into the race anytime soon.

Clinton is trying to reinvent her image. In 2008, many saw her as aloof and a candidate who didn’t connect with voters. This time around, instead of flying around Iowa in a “Hillacopter,” Clinton rode 1046 miles from Chappaqua, New York, to Iowa in a Secret Service-approved Chevy Van that some are calling the “Scooby Mobile.” Clinton’s campaign events on the two-day swing were at a community college and a small fruit company. The events were so small that only local television cameras and a couple dozen print reporters were allowed in, due to lack of space. The national media had to depend on a pool; even still photos came from a pooled camera.

The event at Kirkwood Community College was held in the college’s automotive technology shop. The curriculum emphasizes automotive electronics and features courses in body electrical, engine electrical, and computerized fuel delivery systems. One feature of the college is that high school students take accelerated courses that give them both high school and college credits. One high school student who participated in the event will have over 40 college credits when she graduates from high school. Clinton was quick to praise the program as one way lower the cost of a college education, since the classes are free. Clinton said the relationship between the high school and the college is a model that should be repeated throughout the country.

While the former secretary of state laid out broad themes for her campaign, there were no specific policies brought forward. Clinton said she was meeting with people and getting input and that she will develop policies based on the advice from those she meets on her “listening tour.”

“So, I’m here in Iowa to begin a conversation about how we do that and to hear from people about what’s on your minds – what the challenges that you see are. And I’m going to work hard to meet as many people. I’ll be rolling out ideas and policies about what I think will work,” said Clinton. “But I want it to be informed by what’s actually working, and to build on what works going forward.”

Clinton also  attacked economic inequality: “I think it’s fair to say that as you look across the country, the deck is still stacked in favor of those already at the top. And, there’s something wrong with that. There’s something wrong when CEOs make 300 times more than the typical worker. There’s something wrong when American workers keep getting more productive, as they have, and as I just saw a few minutes ago is very possible because of education and skills training, but that productivity is not matched in their paychecks. And there’s something wrong when hedge fund managers pay lower tax rates than nurses or the truckers that I saw on I-80 as I was driving here over the last two days.”

According to Politico, the former senator from New York has not surprised or offended her supporters on Wall Street: “It’s ‘just politics,’ said one major Democratic donor on Wall Street, explaining that some of her Wall Street supporters doubt she would push hard for closing the carried interest loophole as president, a policy she promoted when she last ran in 2008. ‘The question is not going to be whether or not hedge fund managers or CEOs make too much money,’ said a separate Clinton supporter who manages a hedge fund. ‘The question is how do you solve the problem of inequality. Nobody takes it like she is going after them personally.’”

This is not the first time Clinton has campaigned on these themes, but it is the first time they have been the primary focus of her campaign.

“Let’s finally do something about the growing economic inequality that is tearing our country apart,” said Clinton in June 2007. “The top one percent of our households hold 22 percent of our nation’s wealth. That’s the highest concentration of wealth in a very small number of people since 1929, so let’s close that gap.”

“We’re going to say, ‘wait a minute Wall Street, you’ve had your president, now we need a president for Main Street,’” she added in Ohio the next February.

The question is will Hillary Clinton go far enough to make a real difference, and if she does, will the backlash from Wall Street put her campaign at a disadvantage against the Republican fundraising machine next year?

Another major focus of Senator Warren is student loan debt, also a major theme of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. “There’s something wrong when students and their families have to go deeply into debt to be able to get the education and skills they need in order to make the best of their own lives. And I looked at the figures. The average Iowa graduate, from a four-year college, comes out with nearly $30,000 in debt and that’s I think the ninth highest debt load in the country and people are struggling. I met earlier today with a young student who is piecing together work and loans, knowing full well he’s going to come out owing a lot of money. So, we’ve got to figure out in our country how to get back on the right track and I’m running for president because I think that Americans and their families need a champion – and I want to be that champion. I want to stand up and fight for people so that they can not just get by, but they can get ahead, and they can stay ahead,” said Clinton.

Clinton also laid out the four-point theme of her campaign:  

1. “We need to build the economy of tomorrow, not yesterday.”

2. “We need to strengthen families and communities because that’s where it all starts.”

3. “We need to fix the dysfunctional political system and get unaccountable money out of it once and for all, even if that takes a constitutional amendment.”

4. “We need to protect our country from threats that we see and the ones that are on the horizon.”

Point three is news: Clinton supports a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. Another populist theme in a very populist roll-out.

One has to wonder how authentic these positions are. Is Hillary Clinton going to really be a “champion for the middle class?” Or will she be a champion for the hedge fund operators who will fund her campaign.

Transcript of Hillary Clinton’s Remarks at Kirkwood Community College in Monticello, Iowa.

I just want to tell you a little bit about why I’m here today. I think we all know that Americans have come back from some pretty tough economic times. And, our economy and our country are much better off because American families have basically done whatever it took to make it work. But, I think it’s fair to say that as you look across the country, the deck is still stacked in favor of those already at the top. And, there’s something wrong with that.

There’s something wrong when CEOs make 300 times more than the typical worker. There’s something wrong when American workers keep getting more productive, as they have, and as I just saw a few minutes ago is very possible because of education and skills training, but that productivity is not matched in their paychecks.

And there’s something wrong when hedge fund managers pay lower tax rates than nurses or the truckers that I saw on I-80 as I was driving here over the last two days. And there’s something wrong when students and their families have to go deeply into debt to be able to get the education and skills they need in order to make the best of their own lives. And I looked at the figures. The average Iowa graduate, from a four-year college, comes out with nearly $30,000 in debt and that’s I think the ninth highest debt load in the country and people are struggling. I met earlier today with a young student who is piecing together work and loans, knowing full well he’s going to come out owing a lot of money.

So, we’ve got to figure out in our country how to get back on the right track and I’m running for president because I think that Americans and their families need a champion – and I want to be that champion. I want to stand up and fight for people so that they can not just get by, but they can get ahead, and they can stay ahead. And a lot of people in the last few days have asked me, “Well, you know, why do you want do this? What motivates you?” And I’ve thought a lot about it and I guess the short answer is: I’ve been fighting for children and families my entire adult life, probably because of my mother’s example.

She had a really difficult childhood – was mistreated, neglected, but she never gave up. She had to basically be on her own at the time she was fourteen and she just kept going. And my father who was a small businessman and just believed that you had to work hard to make your way and do whatever you had to do to be successful and provided a good living for our family. And then I was thinking too about, you know, the lessons I learned from my church. You know, you’re supposed to give back. You’re supposed to do what you can to help others and that’s what I’ve tried to do and we’ll have more time to talk about that as we go forward.

When I got out of law school I worked for the Children’s Defense Fund and one of the projects there was literally going door-to-door. This was back in the ‘70s when kids with disabilities were basically shut out of our schools, and thanks to your great former Senator, Tom Harkin, that’s no longer the case. But I was knocking on doors saying, “is there anybody school-aged not in school?” And finding blind kids and deaf kids and kids in wheelchairs who were just left out and I was able in Arkansas to work to try and improve education there and give more kids chances who really deserved them. And then as First Lady to fight for healthcare reform and keep fighting until we got health care insurance for kids. And then as Senator, dealing with the problems that faced New York after 9/11 and trying to help people get whatever they needed – the victims’ families, the first responders. It was an incredible honor to do that. And then, as Secretary of State, standing up for our country.

So when I look at where we are as a country, I am just so absolutely convinced that there isn’t anybody, anywhere, who can outcompete us – who has better values, who can do more to provide more people the chance to live up to their own God given potential. But we can’t take that for granted, and so I want to be the champion who goes to bat for Americans in four big areas – four big fights – that I think we have to take on because there are those don’t agree with what I think we should be doing, and they’re pretty powerful forces.

We need to build the economy of tomorrow, not yesterday. We need to strengthen families and communities, because that’s where it all starts. We need to fix our dysfunctional political system and get unaccountable money out of it once and for all, even if that takes a constitutional amendment. And we need to protect our country from the threats that we see, and the ones that are on the horizon.

So, I’m here in Iowa to begin a conversation about how we do that and to hear from people about what’s on your minds – what the challenges that you see are. And I’m going to work hard to meet as many people. I’ll be rolling out ideas and policies about what I think will work. But, I want it to be informed by what’s actually working, and to build on what works going forward. And to stand up against those who have a different vision of our country. A different one than I grew up with, and a different one than what I think is best for everybody.

So, with that, what I’d love to do is just, you know, ask a few questions and hear from folks about what their experiences have been and, you know, try to learn what you think would be ways of helping more young people get the kind of education they need without having the personal bank be broken and put you and your family at financial risk.

Scott Galindez attended Syracuse University, where he first became politically active. The writings of El Salvador's slain archbishop Oscar Romero and the on-campus South Africa divestment movement converted him from a Reagan supporter to an activist for Peace and Justice. Over the years he has been influenced by the likes of Philip Berrigan, William Thomas, Mitch Snyder, Don White, Lisa Fithian, and Paul Wellstone. Scott met Marc Ash while organizing counterinaugural events after George W. Bush's first stolen election. Scott will be spending a year covering the presidential election from Iowa.

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