YES! THIS IS THE HILLARY WE KNOW AND LOVE!

Hillary Clinton stumps for Terry McAuliffe

FALLS CHURCH, Va. – Hillary Clinton made her first campaign appearance in nearly five years on Saturday to support Terry McAuliffe, her old friend who’s running as the Democratic nominee for governor in Virginia.

But for the media and the majority of attendees packed into The State Theatre here for the event, it was all about her.
She laid out a case for him that rested strongly on women’s equality, gay marriage and rejecting the “scorched earth” politics that have defined Washington over the past several months. Though she didn’t directly call out Republicans, it was clear who she was talking about when she said some politicians have been operating in an “evidence-free zone”, “do not believe in America’s progress” and are trying to “hijack” the future. (perhaps, a little at Obama as well.)

“There are times when none of us can sit on the sidelines,” Clinton told the crowd of more than 700 people. “And right now, here in Virginia, is one of those times. … The whole country is watching this election. Watching to see whether the voters of Virginia lead the way of turning from divisive politics [and] getting back to common sense and common ground.”

The crowd chanted “Hillary! Hillary! Hillary!” before she even started speaking. McAuliffe served as her warm-up act, describing Clinton as an “inspiration to men and women all across Virginia and all across the globe.”

The speech effectively ended Clinton’s hiatus from electoral politics. But Clinton, whose allies are mindful of her being in the spotlight too early, kept it devoid of heavily-partisan barbs and language, allowing her to maintain some distance.

Though most of her remarks were in praise of McAuliffe, Clinton also hinted at themes of a potential speech for her own national campaign, focusing on issues spanning the work of her entire career. The Iowa caucuses, of course, are still two years away and Clinton insists she hasn’t decided whether to run.

But it was the first of what will be many speeches the former Secretary and senator gives over next year that will be parsed for hidden meaning as she decides whether to launch a second presidential run. One line seemed to offer a window into her own thought process about her future.

“When you think about why people run for office in these times — if it’s only about yourself, if it’s only about you wanting to get a job and the perks that go with it, and having people stand up when you come into the room, that’s not enough anymore because its hard. Politics is hard.”

(Also on POLITICO: Clintons go all out for McAuliffe)

“Recently in Washington, unfortunately, we have seen examples of the wrong kind of leadership, when politicians choose scorched earth instead of common ground,” Clinton said at another point, bemoaning “when they operate in what I call the ‘evidence-free zone,’ with ideology trumping everything else.”

She went on to cite the human toll of the shutdown: families who suffered through furloughs, businesses that lost revenue, mothers who struggled to provide formula for babies.
“That is not the kind of leadership we need in Virginia and America today,” she said. “Openness and tolerance are essential … building blocks for a creative, dynamic and diverse economy.”

Clinton never mentioned Republicans specifically, and struck, to the extent possible, a theme of bipartisanship. She also never specifically talked about gay marriage, saying the need to protect people’s rights to love whomever they want is paramount. While she never made reference to her own potential ambitions, it was clearly on the minds of everyone there.

Looking rested and donning a pantsuit and hairstyle evocative of her Senate days, Clinton joked at the outset that “I’ve been out of politics for a few years now.”

“And I’ve had a chance to think a lot about what makes our country so great. What kind of leadership is required to keep it great.”

“Yours!” someone in the audience cried out, to applause.

Clinton allies are hoping she can keep her poll numbers, which are always stronger when she’s viewed as stepping away from politics, relatively high as she decides over the next year whether to run. Most people close to her believe she will and are eager to see her steer clear of politics as long as possible.

McAuliffe was billed as one of the few exceptions to her no-politics plan this year, a fact that the GOP-leaning super PAC America Rising rapped Clinton for ahead of her speech. They noted she’s avoiding New Jersey, where Democrat Barbara Buono has been struggling in her campaign for governor, and suggested she was dissing a female candidate.

But Clinton is clearly hoping to avoid strict partisan lines, in her actions and in her speeches, as she talked up “common ground.”

The nation, Clinton said in her address at the event, is “watching to see if it’s possible to move toward a new economy that works for everyone, and also provides good jobs with benefits for everyone and where equal work really does mean equal pay for everyone.”

People are waiting to see, she said, “if the rights of women and girls will be respected, especially over our own bodies and health care.”

“I’ve been in a lot of elections,” Clinton said with a light toss of her head and a smile, toward the end of her speech. The crowd ate it up.

“I know at the end of the day it all comes down to who takes the trouble to show up and vote,” she said.

Clinton has given a number of speeches, paid and unpaid, since she left the State Department early this year. But she was prohibited from political activity at State, and McAuliffe is the first candidate she has publicly endorsed since the end of the presidential election in 2008.

Seeming stilted at first, Clinton warmed up as she went on. Clinton’s currently high popularity, buoyed by her time out of the political limelight, is a boost to McAuliffe as he looks to drum up turnout among the Democratic base in his campaign against Republican Attorney General Ken Cucinelli.

It was clear that Clinton, not McAuliffe, was the main draw for many in the crowd.

Don Evans, 60, of Fairfax, said the event “caught our attention” because Clinton was appearing — and that he came with his elderly father-in-law, who is bedridden but insisted on leaving the house to see Clinton speak.

“My father-in-law, who’s in a wheelchair, he really wanted to see Hillary … it’s a big production to get him out here because he’s bedridden, and has had a stroke,” he said. “But he said he saw the first Catholic president, first black president, and now he wanted to see the first female president.”

Many voters said they’re hopeful Clinton will run in 2016 — and that they don’t know who they’d support if she doesn’t.

“I’ve got my ‘Ready for Hillary’ bumper sticker – I’m counting on her to run,” said Alexa Williams, 21, a student at Wellesley College who’s originally from Alexandria, Va. “I haven’t thought about anyone else.”

Tracy Henderson, 48, of Fairfax, Va., said she came to see Clinton and McAuliffe equally — she’s been paying close attention to the Virginia race.

“[Clinton] just lends a sound, calm voice to this,” she said. “I trust her because she’s been such a great leader through the last two decades.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/hillary-clinton-terry-mcauliffe-virginia-98560_Page2.html
…………

Hillary’s speech has made me feel incandescent and euphoric. The way I felt in 2008′ until her campaign was abruptly halted while seeking the Dem nomination.

Advertisement

Long lines and inspiration accompany Hillary Clinton at SU

Even before the doors opened for students to find a seat to see Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speak at Syracuse University Monday morning, a line began to form. Over the next couple of hours, it kept growing as a sturdy column of students, faculty, and community members stretched through campus in the cold rain.

SU Senior Zach Schleien says he arrived at 8:30 am. “We were actually at the very end of the line, but we waited it out. It’s really long, let’s say two and a half football fields,” he said.

His friend corrected him. “It’s half a kilometer!”

At ten, about two hours before the Secretary arrived, security personnel began funneling the crowd of more than a thousand through a row of metal detectors.

Syracuse resident Mary Lou Balcom says she wrote Clinton’s name on the ballot in 2008.

“I don’t really agree right now, with a lot of things that are going on. I would just as soon see us out of Iraq and Iran,” Balcom said. “But I really think she’s very diplomatic. I think she’s doing her best to solve a lot of conflicts.”

Some people who waited didn’t even make it inside, when SU’s Hendricks Chapel reached its maximum seating capacity of 1,100 people. But there was one lucky person who escaped the colossal line, quite by accident.

“You know, I parked the car… I saw a back door, and I walked in!” said Clay resident Ed Stronsky. He guesses that his baseball hat that says “News Junkie” made security personnel think he was a reporter.

For an hour, Clinton discussed policy and the difficulty of foreign diplomacy with her former deputy secretary James Steinberg, now Dean of SU’s Maxwell School.

Grad student Laura Alexander said the event reinforced her decision to take the first part of the Foreign Service exam in June.

“I’m very interested in the development side of diplomacy,” she said. “Being able to affect the lives of others in a positive way… not even to affect them, to enable them to affect their own lives in a positive way.”

Alexander will be able to take her first step this summer as an intern for the State Department.

LINK

…………………………………………………………..

Dreaming of Hillary in 2016 2012

NEXT, NEXT PRESIDENT – Hillary Clinton holds the record for being named Gallup’s most admired woman, 16 years to be exact. Her favorability ratings among the general population are in the mid-sixties and among Democrats she has an 86 percent favorability score. The question now is what is she going to do with this stockpile of good feeling?
She has not always been the most popular or favored political figure whether because she was perceived as too meddlesome, too tough, or not tough enough. But once she became Secretary of State her favorability has remained above 60 percent. And while four years ago her own party was deeply split on her fit as presidential candidate today Democrats from all wings of the party want her to be the nominee in 2016.

According to a poll just released by Public Policy Polling Hillary Clinton has got it in the bag. If the Democratic primary were to be held today she would receive 57 percent of the vote with Vice President Biden coming in at a very distant second with less than 20 percent.

As in 2008, Hillary Clinton has very solid support among women where nine out of ten lady Democrats have a favorable opinion of her. Among the gentleman, that figure drops slightly but only to 8 out of 10 having a favorable opinion of her. And while the glass ceiling isn’t completely cracked, it’s getting there — this poll found that only 10 percent believed that the Democratic nominee should be a man.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has denied that she will seek elected office after stepping down from her current position. More specifically she has denied interest in running for the 2016 Democratic Presidential nomination. And while her husband confirms her intent not to run he very recently opened up the door to such a possibility when he said on Good Morning America that if she changes her mind and decides to run, he’d be happy.

Well, according to public opinion a whole heck of a lot of people would also be happy. But there is a Latina friend of mine in Austin, Texas who would be ecstatic. This friend has affirmed to me on multiple occasions that if Hillary Clinton were to run she would quit her job (a very prestigious one at that) and move to Washington DC to work for her campaign without pay!

While the Latino community came to embrace Barack Obama as the nominee and has since consistently supported him, Hillary Clinton was the Latino electorate’s first love in 2008. She won the Latino vote in every primary with the exception of Illinois, by one point, and Virginia.

Clinton wasn’t everyone’s first love in 2008. However, over the course of her tenure as Secretary of State she has been able to woo those who initially did not love, let alone like her. She has gained a respect separate from that of her experience as First Lady or elected official. Through her role on the national stage Hillary Clinton has earned new respect and deepened it among those who already had it.

Anything can happen in four years, but with that stockpile of favorability it would be a shame to not give that glass ceiling that final big crack it needs.

(Dr. Victoria M. DeFrancesco Soto received her Ph.D. from Duke University and was recently named one of the top 12 scholars in the country by Diverse magazine. Her research on political behavior has been widely published in scholarly journals and cited in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Time, and POLITICO. This column was posted first at NBCLatino, LA Progressive.com and drvmds.com)
-cw

Clinton: Done with the ‘high wire’ of politics. Really.

President Obama greeted Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton at his State of the Union address earlier this week

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton meets with Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., on January 25, 2012. State Department photo/ Public Domain

Karen DeYoung

Like President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says she hasn’t been watching the Republican primary debates. But at least Clinton has an excuse for tuning out — she says she’s quitting government after the election no matter who wins.

“What could we do to persuade you to run for vice president?” a staffer asked at a State Department town hall meeting Thursday, referring to  cyclical rumors  and the wishful thinking of some supporters. “Oh, my goodness,” Clinton replied.

“I will certainly stay on until the president nominates someone and that transition can occur,” said Clinton, who has insisted repeatedly that she will be a one-term secretary. “But I think, after 20 years …of being on the high wire of American politics, and all of the challenges that come with that, it would probably be a good idea to just find out how tired I am.”

The famously workaholic secretary said she has “no idea” what she will do in the future, and doesn’t want to think about it because it might divert attention from today’s diplomatic tasks. The election, she said, is going to “suck up a lot of the attention from following areas that we think are so important,” including “trying to resolve frozen conflicts” and “trying to build up America’s reputation” in the world.

But that might be good thing, she said, because “maybe we can even get more done” if the rest of the country is fixated on the polls.

“It’s a little odd for me to be totally out of an election season,” Clinton said. “But, you know, I didn’t watch any of those debates.”

And what about that vice president question? Although friends and colleagues say neither she nor the White House is interested, Clinton took a pass.

“I am happy to work with Vice President Biden, who does an excellent job and is a huge advocate and support for this department,” she said.

WP article link

STRONG WOMEN: “THE IRON LADY” to HILLARY to Revolutionary, DEBORAH SAMSON…

Meryl Streep is starring as PM Margaret Thatcher in the new movie “Iron Lady.”
Meryl Streep also donated her salary $1.000,000 for making this movie to the National Womens Museum  under construction in Washington, DC.

Ms.Sreep’s favorite woman from Revolutionary Times is Deborah Samson who dressed as a man and joined the military to fight for her country. Upon her discovery, she won a commendation from the US WAR Dept…She was wounded in battle and had to sue the government for her disability pension of $40.00/mo which she received until her death at the age of 66.

Her story of courage and valor is below the jump-

SIGN “THE DRAFT HILLARY PETITION” HERE

Hillary discussing her goals for America

Statue of Deborah Samson at Sharon, Massachusetts public library, She served in the Revolution as "Robert Shurtlieff of Uxbridge, Massachusetts"

Deborah Sampson was born in Plympton, Massachusetts, a small village in New England, on December 17, 1760. Although her family name was originally spelled ‘Samson’, without the ‘p’, Herman Mann’s biography of her used a mistaken spelling and it is under this spelling that she is most commonly remembered. She was the oldest of six children of Jonathan and Deborah Bradford Samson, both of old Colonial stock; the elder Deborah was a descendant of William Bradford, once Governor of Plymouth Colony. Her siblings included Jonathan, Sylvia and Jeremiah. The family lived in Middleborough, Massachusetts, during her youth. Her family was poor, and when they received word that Jonathan Sampson had drowned in a shipwreck in 1765, they were forced to go into service as indentured servants. Jonathan Sampson, who was Deborah’s father, told the family that he was going to England. However, some sources say that Jonathan Sampson instead sailed to Maine and remained there for the rest of his life.

Deborah lived in several different households; first with a spinster, then with the widow of Reverend Peter Thatcher, and finally, in 1770, she ended up an indentured servant of Deacon Jeremiah and Susannah Thomas.

When she turned eighteen and was released from her indentured servitude with the Thomas family, she became a school teacher, rejecting the suggestion that she marry, even though she did marry later on.

Army

In 1778, she felt the need to do her part for the war and wanted to enlist in the Continental Army. In that day and age, women were not allowed to enlist, so she disguised herself as a man. She had little trouble doing this, since she was tall and educated. Even her own mother failed to recognize her while she was disguised as a man. In disguise, the local recruiting office enlisted her under the name of “Robert Shurtleff” of Carver. Because of the notable manner in which she held a quill pen, she may have been recognized and did not report the next day for service. On May 20, 1782, she tried again, this time successfully enlisting in the army on the muster of Master Noah Taft of Uxbridge, under the name of her deceased brother, Robert Shurtleff Samson, [1] and his/her residence as Uxbridge, Massachusetts.[1] Her signature still exists in Massachusetts records.[1]

She was chosen for the Light Infantry Company of the 4th Massachusetts Regiment[1] under the command of Captain George Webb. The unit, consisting of fifty to sixty men, was first quartered in Bellingham, Massachusetts and later the unit mustered at Worcester under the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment, commanded by Colonel Shepard. Although she had some trouble with the men in her regiment after she looked in on the men changing, her distant cousin, Reverend Noah Alden, a minister in Bellingham, kept her secret.

Deborah fought in several skirmishes. During her first battle, on July 3, 1782, outside Tarrytown, New York, she received 2 musket balls in her thigh and an enormous cut on her forehead. She begged her fellow soldiers to just let her die and not take her to the hospital, but they refused to abandon her. A soldier put her on his horse and they rode six miles to a hospital. The doctors treated her head wound, but she left the hospital before they could attend to the musket balls. Fearful that her true identity would be discovered, she removed one of the balls herself with a penknife and sewing needle, but her leg never fully healed because the other ball was too deep for her to reach. On April 1, 1783 she was promoted and spent seven months serving as a waiter to General John Patterson. This job entitled her to a better quality of life, better food, and less danger.

After the peace treaty was signed, everyone thought the war was over. However, on June 24 the President of Congress ordered General Washington to send a fleet of soldiers to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to aid in squelching a rebellion of several American officers. During the summer of 1783, Deborah came down with malignant fever and was cared for by a doctor, Barnabas Binney. He removed her clothes to treat her and discovered the band she used to bind her breasts and, thus, discovered her secret. He did not betray her secret; he took her to his house, where his wife and daughters further treated her.

After Sampson recovered she returned to the army, but not for long. In September 1783 peace was assured through the signing of the Treaty of Paris. November 3 was the date for the soldiers to be sent home. When Dr. Binney asked her to deliver a note to General John Patterson, she thought that her secret was out. However, General Patterson never uttered a word; instead, she received an honorable discharge from the service, a note with some words of advice, and a sum of money sufficient to bear her expenses home. Thus, on October 25, 1783, General Henry Knox honorably discharged Deborah Sampson from the Army at West Point, after a year and a half of service.

Deborah Sampson wikipedia

NEW HAMPSHIRE voters contemplate DRAFTING HILLARY CLINTON:

New Hampshire voters should draft Hillary

Taken almost one year ago today- December 23, 2010- GIVE US HILLARY for PRESIDENT in 2012

We are now calling on Democratic voters nationally — particularly in New Hampshire — to organize a write-in campaign for Clinton. This is something that New Hampshire voters have a long history of doing.

YOU’RE GONNA LOVE IT! SIGN THIS PETITION, please.

HILLARY REPLACING OBAMA AS THE DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE

We advocate this DRAFT HILLARY movement not because of the desire to make political mischief — but to put the country on the right course.

It’s clear that Obama has been unable to build consensus and, with the polarizing campaign he is now running, will be unable to govern effectively even if reelected. Only Clinton can commit the Democratic Party — and, indeed, the nation — to a unification and healing process. This could allow Washington, in a bipartisan manner, to finally address the economic and governmental
crises that now grip America.

We are facing a crisis of national leadership, so citizens should step up and take charge of their country the way demonstrators in the Middle East did earlier this year. And, stunningly, as the people of Russia are now doing.

It’s time to take the decision about America’s leadership out of the hands of the established powers and return it to the citizens of our country. That opportunity to change U.S. politics will appear in the second week of 2012 in New Hampshire.

To seize this moment two things are required:

First, and most important, ordinary Democrats and independents in New Hampshire should mobilize behind a grass-roots effort to write in Clinton’s name during the Jan. 10 Democratic primary.

Second, a committed group of Democrats with resources and stature needs to help facilitate an authentic citizens’ movement — independent of party structure, Clinton and organized interests — to support a massive New Hampshire write-in campaign and put this before a deeply disaffected electorate.

There is already an online petition to draft Clinton, created by Democrats.
“We the undersigned Democrats want a new Democratic nominee for president who can win in 2012. We are convinced that the only person with the national stature, experience … who can win in the general election in 2012 is Hillary Rodham Clinton. We are fully prepared to take matters in to our own hands and launch our own massive write-in campaign,” it reads.

Even if one does not agree with their every argument, we urge everyone who shares our beliefs go to that website now — and to tell their friends to go to there and sign it.

Since 1944, when approval ratings first became reliable, there have been five cases in which the incumbent president had an approval rating below 49 percent a year ahead of the election. Each time, the incumbent party lost.

Obama’s approval rating has dropped to 43 percent — less than Jimmy Carter’s. Obama now has the worst job approval rating of any president at this stage of his term in modern political history. Many, particularly on the left, have begun to demonstrate with signs reading,

“Buyer’s remorse.”

DRAFT HILLARY 2012 ... Hillary Can Fix This: New Hampshire residents Write in Hillary Clinton for President Primary Day!

In a recent Daily Beast piece, “Hillary Told You So,” angry, frustrated liberals were quoted saying, “No one ever had to tell Hillary” that the economy is crucial, and “Hillary is TOUGHER (and 10X SMARTER ).”

Indeed, the most active calls for Clinton to run have come from the left — indicating that there is substantial support for this idea across the board and not just from centrist Democrats.

Certainly, the recent barrage of articles by former Obama allies saying that the White House has lost white, working-class voters — a key part of the Democratic coalition — is cause enough for Clinton, who has been that voting bloc’s champion in the past, to be the Democratic standard-bearer.

Many argue that our approach is impractical and is unlikely to work because Obama will not stand down. But make no mistake, we are political realists.
As political realists, we know that every recent presidential candidate who has emerged — from Obama in 2008 to Herman Cain, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry and now Newt Gingrich — has been citizen-driven. The elites have not driven the process; ordinary voters have filled the void.

Such a void exists now.

Clinton pulled off a stunning New Hampshire primary victory over Obama during the 2008 primaries. There is every reason to believe that, as a write-in candidate, she would get a substantial number of votes in the Granite State next year.

NEW HAMPSHIRE is one state where grass-roots politics predominates. As presidential historian Theodore White wrote in 1965, New Hampshire’s primary allows candidates “to appeal directly to people” and “over the heads of the politicians.”
This primary — traditionally well before other primaries — allows independents to cast ballots for either Democrats or Republicans, unlike most other “closed primaries,” in which only registered Democrats and Republicans can vote on their respective parties’ ballots. It’s justly famous for write-in candidates, who often had substantial success.

In 1964, write-in candidate Henry Cabot Lodge had an upset victory over GOP front-runners Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller. In 1968, incumbent President Lyndon B. Johnson was not on the ballot, but as a write-in, he received nearly 50 percent of all Democratic votes.

A write-in candidacy in 2012 can send a message that the Democratic Party must stand for something more than Obama’s reelection at all costs.

We are not asking the president or the secretary of state to take action. We ask the people of the United States, Democrats and, especially, New Hampshire voters to exercise their right to be heard by writing Clinton’s name on the primary ballot.

Voters have had enough of the establishment powers dictating who can run.

All that is needed is a spark on the dry tinder of political frustration and anxiety. A few Democratic patriots can provide the means to make it possible — and change the course of U.S. history.

article written by: PATRICK H. CADDELL and DOUGLAS E. SCHOEN

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1211/70623.html

Hillary should be the democratic nominee… Obama should Opt-Out..

If Americans in their infinite wisdom choose to keep a Democrat in the White House through 2016, let it be Hillary Clinton.

Increasingly the question of whether President Obama should be challenged for the 2012 nomination is surfacing among disgruntled Democrats worried about a solid Republican victory next fall.

They’re right to be concerned: the crises facing the United States and the world deserve better than Obama’s oldest established permanent floating re-election campaign.

There’s no doubt Clinton’s tireless and often effective performance as secretary of state demonstrates she would bring more seasoned judgment to the Oval Office than its current resident. Here are a just a few reasons the Democratic Party should bite the bullet and jettison the nation’s one-term Senate orator and try to elect the nation’s first woman president.

Beginning with the political dimension of his conduct of the war in Afghanistan to class war at home, Obama’s priorities seem to be governed more by his re-election timetable than the demands of the national interest and reflective responses to the galloping changes in the global order

Contrary to mainstream opinion, Obama is a mediocre politician. Were it not so, surely he would have known that people get wise to polished repetitive, but empty speeches — and know the difference between bread and butter now and pie in the sky later.

Joblessness and fear of watching retirement savings vanish weigh heavier on the nation’s collective mind than long-range climate change and health care reform. The president’s touted political instincts should have told him all that. But, as James Carville once noted so cogently, “It’s the economy, stupid!”

But while Obama talked jobs and initiated a jobs bill on his sixth day in office, almost all of his mind and determination remained focused on health care — his overriding priority.

There is more. Even a short and substantively fruitless effort in spring 2009 to get agreement on a new U.N. climate change protocol outranked jobs at home on Obama’s must-do list.

Health care came first, no matter what. The president spent a year getting it on the books, while he assured the country that his close to trillion-dollar economic stimulus program was creating jobs.

He lost no time proclaiming the recession over — blind and deaf to the reality that it was a “jobless recovery.” He saw the upticking Gross National Product statistics and forgot or never understood they reflected only record earnings of financial institutions.

Hillary Clinton with her wealth of experience as first lady, a two-term senator from New York and now the world’s leading diplomat would hardly have been so blind.

Obama’s economic stimulus was a bust because, among his many other blunders, he left the writing of the legislation to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in their veto-proof Congress — without benefit of Republican input. As a result, Congress presented him with a Christmas tree adorned with pork barrels, but bare of jobs with a future.

. Her party — and her country — badly need her services. She’s likely the only potential winner the Democrats can muster.

Bogdan Kipling is a Canadian journalist in Washington.

RUN – HILLARY – RUN

Some posters are having trouble having their thoughts posted on asking Hillary to please run Telling her how much we need her… You can post here as an alternative and we will forward your posts to Hillary personally.

from the William J. Clinton blog:

Here is a short conversation between my friend Rumana and President Clinton Dec 9 at a book signing in Chappaqua. Here is Rumana’s synopsis:

I said to him hello Mr. President me and my friends want to know if Hillary will run, and I mean in 2012 and not 2016. He paused for a sec. And said she keeps saying no but if she gets enough encouragement maybe she will change her mind.

I said you should go to S4h FB page and see we are encouraging her. He put his hand on my shoulder and said if lot more people encourage her maybe she will run. I said Mr. President we are talking about 2012 please do something. He said she needs to know you are there for her and I said please tell her.

Go to the blog Still4Hill to post

http://still4hill.wordpress.com/2011/12/09/please-hillary-run/#comment-23550

………..

Please, Hillary, Run!

December 9, 2011 by still4hill

On this blog there is a long archive which, at some point in August, I began entitling “Media Reads on a Hillary Run.” The comment threads on those posts are chock-full of comments from HRC’s supporters who wish she would run again for POTUS and not wait until 2016 to do so. Many of us are dissatisfied to the point of infinite frustration with the way Barack Obama has squandered his golden opportunity to bring real change as he promised. Most of us did not vote for him and did vote for HRC.

The list of reasons is long, but encapsulated comprises:

1. The Leadership Deficit:

Obama’s inability to break the shell of his West Wing office and reach out to the opposition in a human and social fashion. He would have been far more effective with the GOP had he approached them as human beings, had a few people, Boehner, McConnell over for lunch, and given Lisa Murkowski a congratulatory call for her amazing write-in victory, than he proved to be by having them over for secret meetings where he lectured and adopted the stance of “the adult in the room.”

2. The Stalled Car:

For a long period last year, he and his speech writers really liked that car metaphor, but the truth was that the car was stalled. It stalled over the Gulf oil spill and the jobs the government could have generated with a CCC type effort to clean up the gulf. In fact, from day one, jobs should have been a priority but were put on a back burner for a badly flawed and wanting health care plan wherein he withdrew the single payer option.

3. The Phenomenal Collapsing President:

Every time the Republicans stood shoulder to shoulder, Obama simply laid down on the tracks and gave the GOP what they wanted (or he thought they wanted) before they even demanded it. He was, according to John Conyers, the one who offered up the social safety nets on a silver platter before they even brought up that subject during last August’s budget crisis. The GOP candidates are correct. Obama is an appeaser. Not in foreign policy. He appeases them on domestic issues without even being asked. We have seen almost three years of this!

4. The Hesitation Blues:

How long must we wait? Obama left for an August vacay saying he would introduce a jobs bill after he got back .. after Labor Day. Americans who are out of work could not afford that wait. They do not have vacations, and, while Labor Day is a holiday for those of us who have jobs, they have no holidays. It is simply another day when they cannot look for a job. In the foreign policy arena, he waited longer than necessary to establish the No Fly Zone in Libya, and we do know that HRC rounded up a posse to change his mind.So this evening I have no media articles to prompt this post. Instead I have a short conversation between my friend Rumana and President Clinton this afternoon at a book signing in Chappaqua. Here is Rumana’s synopsis:

“I said you should go to S4h FB page and see we are encouraging her. He put his hand on my shoulder and said if lot more people encourage her maybe she will run. I said Mr. President we are talking about 2012 please do something. He said she needs to know you are there for her and I said please tell her.”

So this is OUR golden opportunity!

Please comment  also at the Facebook page. President Clinton, and maybe even our preferred candidate, Hillary Rodham Clinton, will be looking there for our encouragement. Let’s go all out this weekend and let her see the support that is out here!
Hillary, may we have this dance? You are the best hope to put this country back on the rails. You are the best qualified for this hands down!

We need you! Please, please listen to us. Please run!!!!

Hillary Unleashed wishes ALL a HAPPY THANKSGIVING …

Bountiful Blessings on this Thanksgiving Day 2011

November 24, 2011
Thanksgiving prayer — Take time to give thanks

Bluefield Daily Telegraph

When the pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving in late autumn of 1621, they most likely had no thought of establishing an American holiday. That would not occur officially until 1863, when President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the fourth Thursday in November to be a national holiday for giving thanks to God. The pilgrims were merely doing what they had done for years in the old world, pausing to give thanks to God for His goodness in providing a harvest.

However, that first Thanksgiving on the soil of their new home was certainly celebrated with significant meaning in their hearts. Their landing at Plymouth, Mass., on Dec. 21, 1620, was the fruition of a dream for a new beginning, but it would be followed quickly by great danger. Their first winter was marked with illness and hunger so severe that it threatened to wipe out this fragile outpost in a new world. Barely half of the 100 pilgrims who came on shore made it until spring. Had it not been for some friendly Indians who taught them what crops to plant in this strange land, the settlement would likely have disappeared.

By the time November came, they had harvested their crops and stored up a meager supply of food for the coming winter. They would not forget their custom, however, of setting aside a special time for a harvest thanksgiving festival. For three days they celebrated God’s goodness, inviting their Indian friends, who provided five deer for the feast. In spite of severe hardship and suffering, they wanted to thank God for His provision and for the freedom to worship Him as they saw fit in their new land.

Just a few years after that celebration, the hymn most clearly identified with Thanksgiving, “Now Thank We All Our God,” was penned. The conditions under which it was written in 1637 were every bit as challenging as those the pilgrims faced. German pastor Martin Rinckart served in a town that became a home for political and military refugees during the catastrophic Thirty Years War. Then the Black Plague arrived. There were four pastors in town. One fled and Rinckart buried the other two in the same day. Only he remained to minister to a dying city. He conducted funeral services for as many as 50 people a day, officiating at almost 4,500 funerals in one year. But Rinckart is best known for writing the great hymn that triumphantly proclaims thanks to God:

Now thank we all our God,

with heart and hands and voices

Who wondrous things has done,

in whom this world rejoices;

Who from our mothers’ arms

has blessed us on our way

With countless gifts of love,

And still is ours today.

My prayer is that we might recapture the heart and spirit of gratitude to God that was expressed by the pilgrims and by Martin Rinckart. We live in challenging times, difficult for many, but certainly not the magnitude of hardship faced in those earlier days. For most of us, the real challenges that might distract us from giving thanks to God for His bountiful blessings come in the form of ease and plenty. Our day will be filled with sumptuous meals, football games, family fun and last-minute plans for how to execute our Black Friday shopping trip. The very way we celebrate Thanksgiving may well crowd out any thought of the God who has blessed us so.

Please don’t misunderstand me. None of those things is inherently wrong. I don’t want to be a Scrooge (sorry, wrong holiday). But please take time today to thank God for how good He has been to us, for all of the blessings He has provided us. Please thank Him, regardless of your personal or economic struggles, in spite of the hardships of your life. Paul reminds us in the Bible to be “always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 5:20), and to “give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18).

Take time today to give thanks to God for life, for health, for the abundance of material blessings with which He has showered us. Thank Him for your food, for your home, for your clothing, for your transportation, for your job. Praise Him for your family, your friends, your neighbors and your church family. And most of all, by all means, thank Him for what Paul calls His “unspeakable gift” (2 Corinthians 9:15). That gift is His Son, Jesus Christ, whom He sent to this world to take the penalty for our sin by His death so that we might be forgiven by God, brought into His family, and given an eternal home in heaven.

If you do indeed carve out time to actually thank God on this day, you may find that your heart begins to resonate with the words of Martin Rinckart’s second (and lesser known) verse of his famous hymn:

O may this bounteous God

through all our life be near us,

With ever joyful hearts

and blessed peace to cheer us;

And keep us still in grace,

and guide us when perplexed;

And free us from all ills,

in this world and the next.

— Dr. John King

senior pastor

Johnston Chapel Baptist Church

The Clinton doctrine on economic statecraft: Clinton to urge U.S. diplomats to put economics at top of foreign policy agenda

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi Sept. 26, 2011. (David Karp/AP)

There is no shortage of players jostling for turf on the complex matter of Chinese currency valuations. Witness Senate Democrats’ vow to take up legislation this week that could sanction China for allegedly undervaluing the yuan–at the cost, according to Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), of American jobs.

As a practical matter, the delicate work of managing relations with China–the leading creditor of the United States–falls only in part to America’s top diplomat, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. But if she has her way, she’d have more of a say.

If the fight against terrorism dominated American foreign policy in the decade after 9/11, the decade ahead could well be defined by efforts to manage the U.S. role in the global economy.

And in many ways, Hillary Clinton’s diplomatic portfolio is increasingly dominated by global economic challenges. Trade issues obviously have a direct impact on America’s efforts to emerge from the present economic downturn–from the battles over the national debt to the need to stimulate job growth. But economic issues also shape other less-noted features of the American foreign-policy agenda, be it the effort to contain fallout from Europe’s debt crisis, to managing the rise of G20 economic powers such as Brazil, Turkey and India—all of whom come bearing their own foreign policy ambitions. As a result, diplomats say, economic and foreign policy are growing ever more intertwined.

“The trading floor is increasingly replacing the battlefield as the forum for state contacts,” according to one of Clinton’s State Department advisers, who spoke on condition of anonymity so as to describe the department’s economic plans more broadly.

So Hillary Clinton has been working hard to beef up the economic bench strength of the State Department, while also mounting a bid for State officials to play a more decisive role in determining U.S. global economics policy. Aides expect her to lay out what they are calling the “Clinton doctrine on economic statecraft” early this month, likely in a speech in New York. Timing and venue for the address are still being worked out, her aides say.

“This is coming from a sense that we are seeing the lines between national security and economic security blur as emerging powers are doing more to advance their economic power, and fitting their national security strategy more around economic interest,” the State Department adviser told The Envoy Friday.

A key precept in this effort is addressing a kind of cultural lag in the antiquated world of bureaucratic Washington. Lead policy makers may recognize the pivotal role that economics plays in global diplomacy–but in many ways, the diplomatic bureaucracy needs to catch up. Clinton’s planned speech is in large part a call to her own agency’s ambassadors, diplomatic staff and analysts to shift their thinking.

And as Secretary Clinton lays out that vision in more detail, she will stress two main bulwarks, aides say. First, she will highlight the need to advance relations with the wider world as part of the effort to revive the American domestic economic order. And second, she will stress that State Department diplomats and foreign policy thinkers need to work harder to understand how market forces are driving first-order national security challenges in hot spots such as Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran.

Clinton’s strong interest in global economics issues is hardly a secret. She has denied persistent rumors that she has her eye on the World Bank chief job when Robert Zoellick’s tenure ends next fall.

But such Beltway speculation aside, it’s hard not to notice the many ways that Clinton has started to sound like a World Bank or Treasury official as she holds down her present job at the State Department. And she’s managing the department with a clear eye toward bulking up its economics portfolio.

Clinton has made several recent hires in her corps of advisers, with backgrounds in economics and finance. She has launched a new energy security bureau–headed by special envoy/coordinator Carlos Pascual, the former U.S. ambassador to Mexico, aided by new deputy assistant secretary Amos Hochstein. She’s brought on a deputy secretary of state for management and budgets from Wall Street (Morgan Stanley’s Tom Nides). And she has been pushing for the State Department to work prominently in framing American economic policy objectives more broadly. That means, in part, elbowing State’s way into inter-agency discussions on U.S. international economic policy-making. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Clinton are at the heart of this scrum; Clinton’s aide won’t handicap her chance of winning–these are diplomats, remember?–but the aide stressed that she’s taking the long view.

In her in-house think tank, State Department policy planning chief Jake Sullivan, and senior adviser Jennifer Harris, a lawyer and economist who worked on the intelligence community’s Global Trends 2025 report (pdf), have been among the key thinkers helping Clinton flesh out her approach to economic statecraft. Sullivan and Harris arranged a “deep dive” on the issue for Clinton back in February.

Clinton explained the logic behind the new economic initiatives recently in Hong Kong.

“As we pursue recovery and growth, we are making economics a priority of our foreign policy,” Clinton said at the International Institute for Strategic Studies-Shangri La conference in Hong Kong in July. “Because increasingly, economic progress depends on strong diplomatic ties and diplomatic progress depends on strong economic ties. And so the United States is working to harness all aspects of our relationships with other countries to support our mutual growth.”

“All of us here today recognize that a strong economy at home is vital to America’s leadership in the world,” Clinton similarly told the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition conference in July, before sounding a retrospective note about her tenure at State. “After spending two and a half years as your Secretary of State, traveling nearly 600,000 miles, I have reached one overarching conclusion: Simply put, we need to up our game.”

http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/envoy/clinton-doctrine-economic-statecraft-clinton-moves-put-economics-110046068.html

“Budget cuts would harm US in Mideast- Our progress is significant, but our work is ongoing. These missions are vital to our national security, … and now would be the wrong time to pull back. Clinton added”

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday warned Republicans to reverse plans to cut the US foreign aid budget or undermine US efforts to stabilize a North Africa and Middle East in turmoil.

Clinton also told Republican lawmakers that their proposed cuts for 2012 would hurt US efforts to roll back the insurgency in Afghanistan, build a stable, democratic Iraq and contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

She highlighted how US diplomacy and the US Agency for International Development are helping to advance US national interests by seeking to end the bloodshed and help civilians in Libya, a major oil producer.

“This is an unfolding example of how we use the combined assets ….of diplomacy, development, and defense to protect American security and interests and advance our values,” Clinton told the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“It is the most effective — and cost-effective — way to sustain and advance our security across the world. And it is only possible with a budget that supports all the tools in our national security arsenal,” she said.

In Iraq, Clinton said, US diplomats and civilian experts are “poised to keep the peace” after the withdrawal of nearly US 100,000 troops, who cost the United States much more to deploy than civilians.

In Afghanistan, a recent surge in US troops and civilians is paving the way “for our diplomatic surge to support Afghan-led reconciliation that could end the conflict and put Al-Qaeda on the run,” the chief US diplomat said.

“We have imposed the toughest sanctions to rein in Iran’s nuclear ambitions,” she added.

“And we are working to open political systems, economies, and societies at a remarkable moment in the history of the Middle East and to support peaceful, orderly, irreversible democratic transitions in Egypt and Tunisia,” she said.

“Our progress is significant, but our work is ongoing. These missions are vital to our national security, … and now would be the wrong time to pull back,” Clinton added.

Secretary Clinton: Assessing US Foreign Policy Priorities