At a speech and Q&A in Silicon Valley yesterday, her first in over a month, Hillary Clinton gave more hints about the themes of her soon-to-be campaign:
Clinton, still using a hypothetical to describe her presidential aspirations, outlined a platform that would focus on bringing the right people together to address women's issues and economic fairness.
"We have to restore economic growth with rising wages for the vast majority of Americans, and we have to restore trust and cooperation within our political system so that we can act like the great country we are," Clinton said.
"Wages no longer rise with productivity while CEO pay continues to go up," Clinton said, channeling the Democratic Party's left-wing. "If we want to find our balance again, we have to figure how to make this new economy work for everyone"
To achieve this, she introduced a unique and perhaps impromptu updating of Obama's famed 2004 DNC keynote message...though who knows if it will catch on:
“I’d like to bring people from right, left, red, blue, get them into a nice warm purple space where everybody’s talking, where we’re actually trying to solve problems,” Clinton said. “That would be my objective if I decide to do this.”
Clinton, a longtime leader in the fight for wage equality, also seized upon a powerful recent plea that has gone viral after been seen by millions on television:
“We all cheered at Patricia Arquette’s speech at the Oscars because she’s right,” Clinton said. “It’s time to have wage equality once and for all.”
Clinton lamented that too many Americans “feel the ground shifting under their feet.” Wages for middle-class workers have been stagnant, she said, while executive pay continues to rise
“In so many ways, our economy still seems to be operating like it’s 1955,” Clinton said. She added, “If we want to find our balance again, we have to figure out how to make this new economy work for everyone.”
Multiple topics were discussed during the post-speech Q&A with Re/code co-executive editor Kara Swisher. On ISIL, Clinton largely backed the current efforts of President Obama:
"It’s a very hard challenge, because you can’t very well put American or Western troops in to fight this organism...you have to use, not only air force but also army soldiers from the region and particularly from Iraq.
A lot of the right moves are being made, but this is a really complicated and long-term problem."
Hillary's entire 5-minute answer on this topic, starting at the 25-minute mark in the video below, is well worth your time. And after marveling at the assured intricacy of her answer, imagine what the foreign policy debate might look like between her and Scott "boots on the ground in Syria" Walker and Jeb "please try to forget my brother ever happened" Bush.
As our unfortunate #43 might say: Bring it on.
Discussing her infant granddaughter, she also weaved personal inspiration from her own family into what will surely be a major campaign theme:
"Here is this new life, this new hope, this new opportunity, this blessing given to us in my family," she said.
"What kind of world is going to be there waiting for her? Is it a world of hope or fear? Is it world of possibility or shrunken, destroyed dreams? I don't know," she said. "I do know that it really matters to the life I hope she will lead, that we do everything we can do now to make sure every child is given the same opportunities."
Voters already see her as
the future...and this merely hints at a message that could keep it that way until Election Day and beyond.
Originally posted at Hillary HQ