Disclaimer: This is intended to be a safe haven for Hillary Clinton supporters. While anyone can come and post here, we ask that any non-Clinton supporters be civil towards the rest of us, and we’ll do our best to reciprocate.
For those who may have missed Hillary Clinton news and conversation, check out Lysis’s News & Views, as well as the afternoon Hillary Hangout threads, and evening Live Blogs.
You can also read diaries from the Hillary Writers Circle, or visit #HIllaryClinton and related hash tags, and wade through the muck until you find some gems, such as below:
El Mito: The #imWithHer #EstamosContigo #EresCualificada Friday Fundraising Thread Abrierta
First Amendment: Clinton Increases Pledged Delegate Lead, +212. +2 Net Gain. After New York, 65.5% Awarded.
mrules: Just a Reminder, Electing Women Actually Matters
topdog08: In case you missed it: Sanders today said Clinton is qualified
floridageorge: Today Show Town hall: “But is she (Hillary) qualified?” Bernie: “Of course”.
JasperMcguff: I Am Proud To Be A Staunch Supporter of Hillary Clinton. Here’s Why…
HillFanNY: Prediction Markets are Usually More Accurate than Polls — And Hillary is SURGING on Predictit!
In other news, this has been a strange week. It started with triumph from the Sanders campaign and supporters over Bernie Sanders’s victories in states that, going in, he was already considered likely to win. Then came the “qualified” flap, where Bernie claimed Hillary called him unqualified first (she didn’t). Now there’s weirdness with the Vatican invitation, where Bernie thought he was going to meet Pope Francis, but now he’s actually going to a meeting at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences just days before the New York primary, while Pope Francis travels to the Greek island of Lesbos?
Scan: Bernie’s Vatican Misadventure: Can 2016 Get Any Weirder?
Laurence Lewis: Vatican official: “Sanders made the first move, for the obvious reasons”
In terms of today’s Wyoming caucus, there’s probably little positive that will come out of it for the Hillary camp, except that it means only one state caucus remains, and Hillary could do well enough to exceed the viability threshold. Then it’s on to the April 19 New York primary! Hillary has been campaigning throughout New York State, most recently in Buffalo. She even used the subway in New York City, with a card not a token, and encountered what apparently is a very common experience:
Meanwhile, Paul Glastris of Washington Monthly notes that in the New York Daily News interview, in scoffing at the Establishment for failing to provide paid family leave, Bernie Sanders overlooked the fact that it was Bill Clinton who signed the Family and Medical Leave and Act (FMLA) into law after it had been twice vetoed by George H.W. Bush.
This is an astonishing thing for Sanders to say for a couple of reasons. First because, as he surely knows, it was the “establishment” Bill Clinton who, as one of his first acts as president in 1993, signed the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA)after it had twice been vetoed by his predecessor. Second (and maybe Sanders doesn’t know this; few do), having signed the FMLA providing up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to workers to care for a newborn or a sick family member, Clinton, with the active help of his wife, became the first president to use federal power to provide paid leave to American workers.
So the “establishment” politician Hillary Clinton can rightly claim a share of the credit for the paid leave programs that exist in the United States. They’re far from universal, but they’re real, up-and-running programs that seem to be working as advertised. And the reason they’re not more wide spread is not “establishment politics”—they are in fact the result of establishment politics—but Republican resistance.
Finally, I wanted to end this with a little bit about my love of Tracy Flick from Election. I never quite understood why she was as villainized as she was in that movie. She was ambitious, yes. Had trouble making friends, yes. Had a temper, yes. But her worst sin was ripping down the election posters of her privileged male opponent, whom she—not without reason—resented for waltzing into the race at the last minute. The movie (or maybe just the male protagonist) seemed to view her as a temptress to older men. Yet even if she did tempt them, even if she sought to tempt them, she was the child and they were the adults, and they should have placed limits. Looked at from another angle, Tracy Flick comes across as someone who, on a deep level, needed to be loved and accepted by older male authority figures (her own father having abandoned her family).
Now what does that have to do with Hillary Clinton? Not much. However, Hillary is an ambitious woman who, like Tracy, doesn’t try to hide her ambition. And that makes her bad for… reasons.
Just a note: my real life work schedule is killer this month, and Pacifist has kindly offered to do the Sunday morning thread. I hope to be back in my normal routine next week.
This is your open thread.
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