Subject: Correct The Record Wednesday September 24, 2014 Afternoon Roundup
From: Burns Strider <[email-masked]>
To: CTRFriendsFamily <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 24 Sep 2014 14:43:29 -0400
List-Id: <CTRFriendsFamily.americanbridge.org>

*​**Correct The Record Wednesday September 24, 2014 Afternoon Roundup:*

*Tweets:*

*Sec. Hillary Rodham Clinton* @HillaryClinton: Proud to announce 3 more
#JobOne <https://twitter.com/hashtag/JobOne?src=hash> commitments at #CGI
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/CGI?src=hash> to create more job pathways for
youth- Join us athttp://www.clintonfoundation.org/jobone
<http://t.co/ISwCKp5L1S> @ClintonGlobal <https://twitter.com/ClintonGlobal>
 [9/23/14, 7:27 p.m. EDT
<https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/514556684325650432>]

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: .@HillaryClinton
<https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton> "not only has the right message, she
has the perfect message." James Carville
http://thehill.com/opinion/james-carville/218698-james-carville-right-message-matters-and-clintons-got-it
…
<http://t.co/5bKF4CxaXv> [9/24/14, 10:06 a.m. EDT
<https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/514777970758926336>]

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: Sec. Clinton visited every country in
Southeast Asia, renewing & strengthening ties #HRC365
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/HRC365?src=hash> http://usat.ly/MqPu2N
<http://t.co/AFNd1ML1WU>[9/23/14, 12:31 p.m. EDT
<https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/514451891120402432>]

*Headlines:*

*Bloomberg: “Hillary Clinton Leads $600 Million Effort for Girls in
Education”
<http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-09-24/hillary-clinton-leads-600-million-effort-for-girls-in-education>*

“Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, along with the Brookings Institution, are
spearheading an almost $600 million effort to help disadvantaged girls,
mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southwest Asia, attend secondary school.”

*Time: “After Boko Haram: Hillary Clinton Promises Education For 14 Million
Girls”
<http://time.com/3425011/hillary-clinton-education-boko-haram-julia-gillard/>*

“The Clinton Global Initiative and Brookings will evaluate the progress of
the organizations towards their goals over the course of the next five
years. Any government that wants to join the effort can.”

*Bloomberg: “Hillary Clinton Hints at Platform to Support Working Moms”
<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-24/hillary-clinton-hints-at-platform-to-support-working-moms.html>*

“Hillary Clinton said today that women shouldn’t have to choose between
motherhood and advancing their careers, a theme that may resurface as part
of a platform if she runs for president in 2016.”

*Associated Press: “Hillary Clinton Pushes School Program for Girls”
<http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CLINTON_GLOBAL_INITIATIVE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT>*

“Hillary Rodham Clinton announced a $600 million effort Wednesday to enroll
girls in secondary schools around the globe, aiming to address security and
access problems in the developing world.”

*New York Daily News: “Hillary Clinton calls for paid family leave for
working mothers”
<http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/hillary-clinton-calls-paid-family-leave-working-mothers-blog-entry-1.1951134>*

“Speaking on one of her core issues of women's equality, Hillary Clinton
said Wednesday the U.S. must work to provide paid family leave for new
mothers to ensure women’s equality in the workforce.”

*New York Times: First Draft: “At Clintons’ Event, a Really Close Watch on
Reporters”
<http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2014/09/24/?entry=577>*

“An escort is required wherever we go, lest one of us with our yellow press
badges wind up somewhere where attendants with an esteemed blue badge are
milling around.”

*Washington Post blog: She The People: “Cleaner, more efficient cookstoves
should be on front burner of women’s needs in developing countries”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2014/09/24/cleaner-more-efficient-cookstoves-should-be-on-front-burner-of-womens-needs-in-developing-countries/>*

“In November, the alliance holds the first Cookstoves Future Summit:
Fueling Markets, Catalyzing Action, Changing Lives in New York. The
invitation-only summit will be co-chaired by Clinton, who’s the honorary
chair of the Alliance Leadership Council.”

*Associated Press: “NYC Mayor Steps Onto Bigger Political States”
<http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NYC_MAYOR_BIGGER_STAGES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT>*

"De Blasio now is mentioned as a leader of the progressive wing of the
Democratic Party as 2016 approaches. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the strong
favorite for her party's presidential nomination if she decides to run, is
closely linked to him. He managed her 2000 Senate campaign."

*The Hill blog: Ballot Box: “RNC hits Hillary Clinton for ties to Goldman
Sachs”
<http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/218761-rnc-hits-hillary-clinton-for-ties-to-goldman-sachs>*

“The Republican National Committee released a video on Wednesday with the
point of showing how well the CEO of Goldman Sachs and Hillary Clinton know
each other, echoing a criticism usually voiced on the left.”

*Washington Free Beacon: “Wall Street Gets to Bill and Hillary”
<http://freebeacon.com/politics/wall-street-gets-to-clintons/>*

[Subtitle:] “After summer in Hamptons, Clintons adopt Wall Street tune on
inversions”

*Articles:*

*Bloomberg: “Hillary Clinton Leads $600 Million Effort for Girls in
Education”
<http://www.businessweek.com/news/2014-09-24/hillary-clinton-leads-600-million-effort-for-girls-in-education>*

By Janet Lorin

September 24, 2014

Hillary and Chelsea Clinton, along with the Brookings Institution, are
spearheading an almost $600 million effort to help disadvantaged girls,
mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southwest Asia, attend secondary school.

Hillary Clinton announced the effort today at the annual meeting of the
Clinton Global Initiative, which with the Center for Universal Education at
Brookings helped draw participation. More than 30 groups have committed to
the project.

The money is expected to aid about 14 million girls in the next five years.
It will establish programs to help them enter secondary schools in a safe
environment, improve the quality of learning, complete secondary education
and support them through universities and into the workforce. Each group --
including nonprofit organizations like UNICEF, the country of Nepal and
corporations such as Pearson Plc (PSON) and MasterCard Inc. -- will decide
how its own money is spent to achieve the effort’s goals.

“We’ve made progress at the primary level,” said Rachel Vogelstein,
director of women and girls programs at the Clinton Foundation. “This
initiative addresses the unfinished business in girls’ education, which is
progress at the secondary level.”

The idea for the project came from Julia Gillard, the former Australian
prime minister, in her role as a fellow with Brookings, said Jennifer
Klein, senior adviser for the Foundation’s women and girls programs.
Gillard, the first woman to lead Australia, was defeated in a leadership
vote last year.

*Girls’ Education*

Gillard, who is also board chair of Washington-based nonprofit group Global
Partnership for Education, approached former U.S. Secretary of State
Clinton more than a year ago with the idea to work on “second-generation”
girls’ education issues, Klein said.

The result is called Collective Harnessing Ambition & Resources for Girls
Education, or CHARGE. For groups to participate, they must have already
raised 75 percent of the money they plan to commit, Klein said.

“Each partner will determine the needs of the country where they are
working,” Klein said.

For example, a group called BRAC, founded in 1972 as Bangladesh Rural
Advancement Committee, will work in eight countries to teach life skills,
financial literacy and microfinance, among other initiatives. The
government of Nepal will provide bicycles for girls to get to school.

The Clinton Global Initiative, which began Sunday night and concludes
today, is an annual gathering of political and business leaders,
philanthropists and celebrity activists.

Some of the speakers included World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim;
actor Leonardo DiCaprio; President Barack Obama; and Mary Barra, chief
executive officer of General Motors Co.

*Time: “After Boko Haram: Hillary Clinton Promises Education For 14 Million
Girls”
<http://time.com/3425011/hillary-clinton-education-boko-haram-julia-gillard/>*

By Eliana Dockterman

September 24, 2014, 9:34 a.m. EDT

[Subtitle:] Clinton and former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard
announced $600 million in private and public funding for global education

On Wednesday morning, Hillary Clinton and Former Australian Prime Minister
Julia Gillard announced a new Clinton Global Initiative commitment with the
Center on Universal Education at the Brookings Institute for girls’
education called CHARGE (The Collaborative for Harnessing Ambition and
Resources for Girls Education). The initiative will include 30 other
partners, including governments like the United States and organizations
from the private sector, committing $600 million to reach 14 million girls
around the world in the next five years.

“It’s time to both celebrate the progress we’ve made and redouble our
efforts,” said Clinton at the announcement.

Gillard, a fellow at the Brookings Institute, approached Secretary Clinton
and Chelsea Clinton a year ago to work together on the initiative. “I think
across the world, as we talk about women in developing countries, there’s
been increasing recognition that empowering women and girls is a key change
agent for development. There have been some truly shocking incidents that
have caused us to have tears in our eyes and sharply intake our breath—what
happened to Malala, what has happened with the Nigerian schoolgirls—that
powerfully remind us that in some part of the world, getting an education
is still a very dangerous thing for a girl,” Gillard told TIME. “It’s being
targeted because it’s powerful. Education is powerful, which is why some
people want to stop it and why we should feel so passionate about assuring
that it occurs.”

Up until now, world leaders have focused on enrolling girls in primary
school at the same rate as boys. And though the rate of female enrollment
in primary school has risen from less than half to nearly 80% in the last
25 years, issues of quality and safety still persist. The Girls CHARGE
initiative aims to address what they are calling a “second generation” of
girls’ issues especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and South West Asia. And
while incidents like the kidnapping in Nigeria of more than 200 school
girls by the radical group Boko Haram are extreme, they are emblematic of
the harsh realities of educating girls in some parts of the world.

CHARGE has five main goals:

1. Keep girls in school

2. Ensure school safety and security

3. Improve quality of learning for girls

4. Support transitions from and out of school

5. Support girls’ education leaders/workers in developing countries to
fulfill these goals

Partners of CHARGE are taking different steps in specific regions to reach
these goals. The government of Nepal is committing $29 million to the cause
and providing bicycles to girls to ensure girls can get to and from school.
The BRAC organization is establishing 8,000 adolescent girl clubs in
Bangladesh by 2019 to provide safe spaces for girls, among other efforts.

The Clinton Global Initiative and Brookings will evaluate the progress of
the organizations towards their goals over the course of the next five
years. Any government that wants to join the effort can.

Developing nations must work towards gender equality in education to
improve their economy: Educated women add to family income by working, and
their children are more likely to become educated themselves. But those
girls most desperately in need live in countries where the governments
don’t want to cooperate with initiatives like this one. “That’s obviously a
huge challenge,” Rachel Vogelstein of the Clinton Foundation’s No Ceilings
Initiative told TIME. “We’re hoping to work with our partners and civil
society organizations to cultivate leaders on a grassroots level in those
locations.”

But even as Clinton and Gillard look to empower women across the globe,
they recognize that there are still equality gaps in the Western World as
well. Both Gillard and Clinton have faced misogyny throughout their
political careers. Gillard points out that women in countries like the
United States and Australia cannot settle and must still fight for progress:

“My own perspective is that in many places around the world—Australia, here
in the United States—after the big push of the second wave of feminism in
our own nations, there was the assumption made that naturally gender change
was happening and everything would equalize. I think in recent years
there’s been a realization that no, there are still problems in our own
nations, including domestic violence, that require a dedicated focus and
approach. The dialogue both in Australia and the United States must still
include questions of political leadership, corporate leadership, civil
society leadership where doors still need to be opened for women.”

*Bloomberg: “Hillary Clinton Hints at Platform to Support Working Moms”
<http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-24/hillary-clinton-hints-at-platform-to-support-working-moms.html>*

By Jonathan Allen

September 24, 2014, 11:06 a.m. EDT

Hillary Clinton said today that women shouldn’t have to choose between
motherhood and advancing their careers, a theme that may resurface as part
of a platform if she runs for president in 2016.

“The absence of paid leave is a strong signal to women, and particularly
mothers, that society and our economy don’t value being a mother,” the
former U.S. secretary of state said. “The absence of quality, affordable
childcare -- and affordable and quality have to go together -- is a very
big factor in limiting and sometimes ending women’s participation in the
workforce.”

Clinton, who spoke during a panel discussion with philanthropist Melinda
Gates at the Clinton Global Initiative’s annual conference in New York, has
increasingly embraced advocacy for women and girls as a political plus
while she considers a second presidential bid. Many of her closest friends
and advisers lamented her decision to play down her gender during her
losing 2008 presidential campaign.

Now, Clinton is calling attention to obstacles to women becoming and
remaining full participants in the economy as well as possible remedies.

“If we did more on child care and we did more on paid family leave,
particularly for new mothers, we would be sending the right signals,” she
said. Clinton added that society must find a way to ensure that women are
“not being penalized” for becoming mothers.

“We still have a lot of cultural, customary, even attitudinal,
psychological barriers” to equality, she said.

*Associated Press: “Hillary Clinton Pushes School Program for Girls”
<http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CLINTON_GLOBAL_INITIATIVE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT>*

By Ken Thomas

September 24, 2014, 11:32 a.m. EDT

Hillary Rodham Clinton announced a $600 million effort Wednesday to enroll
girls in secondary schools around the globe, aiming to address security and
access problems in the developing world.

The former secretary of state unveiled the plan at the Clinton Global
Initiative to help 14 million girls typically between the ages of 11 and 16
to attend school. The initiative, carried out via her family's foundation,
aims to improve the quality, safety and security at schools around the
world.

"We know when girls have equal access to quality education in both primary
and secondary schools, cycles of poverty are broken, economies grow, glass
ceilings crack and potential is unleashed," Clinton said.

Clinton has promoted the advancement of women and girls around the world
through an initiative at the foundation called "No Ceilings." The former
first lady and New York senator is expected to announce by early next year
whether she will seek the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016.

Philanthropic groups and non-governmental organizations have sought to
address the gap in secondary education and security concerns for young
girls in the aftermath of the kidnapping of dozens of young women by Boko
Haram in Nigeria. The issue received global attention following the 2012
attack on teenage activist Malala Yousafzai, who received world acclaim
after she was shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating gender
equality and education for women.

Clinton's foundation noted that in sub-Saharan Africa, 1.5 million fewer
girls than boys attend secondary schools. The initiative, which will be led
by former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard, includes more than 30
partners, including the United States, Nepal, the United Kingdom and
Discovery Communications.

*New York Daily News: “Hillary Clinton calls for paid family leave for
working mothers”
<http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/hillary-clinton-calls-paid-family-leave-working-mothers-blog-entry-1.1951134>*

By Annie Karni

September 24, 2014, 1:02 p.m. EDT

Speaking on one of her core issues of women's equality, Hillary Clinton
said Wednesday the U.S. must work to provide paid family leave for new
mothers to ensure women’s equality in the workforce.

“The absence of quality affordable childcare is a very big factor in
limiting and sometimes ending women’s participation in the workforce,”
Clinton said at a panel discussion with philanthropist Melinda Gates,
moderated by New York Times Upshot editor David Leonhardt, at the annual
Clinton Global Initiative conference. “The absence of paid leave is a
strong signal to women and particularly mothers that the society and our
economy don’t value being a mother.”

 The Family and Medical Leave Act was signed into law by former President
Bill Clinton more than 20 years ago and offers up to 12 weeks of unpaid
leave. But the U.S. lags behind other high-income countries in not offering
paid leave.

"If we did more for childcare and we did more on paid family leave,
particularly for new mothers, we would be sending the right signals,”
Clinton said.

But she said life is better than it was for American women 20 years ago.

“When I was a young woman, there were colleges I couldn’t go to,
scholarships I couldn’t apply for, jobs that had basically invisible, but
very clear signs saying ‘no woman need apply,’” Clinton said.

That has improved over the past two decades, but women still lag in their
earning potential compared to men, she said. “We’ve gone from 77 cents to
78 cents compared to a dollar [earned by men],” she said. “That’s hardly
groundbreaking progress.”

*New York Times: First Draft: “At Clintons’ Event, a Really Close Watch on
Reporters”
<http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2014/09/24/?entry=577>*

By Amy Chozick

September 24, 2014, 12:33 p.m. EDT

Charitable commitments have been made. Important topics like Ebola and
elephant poaching have been discussed. World leaders from President Obama
to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan have convened.

But, for me, perhaps the person who stands out is the friendly 20-something
press aide who the Clinton Global Initiative tasked with escorting me to
the restroom. She waited outside the stall in the ladies’ room at the
Sheraton Hotel, where the conference is held each year.

Security, foundation aides told me, dictates that the hordes of
journalists, many of them from overseas news outlets, be cloistered in a
basement at the Sheraton. An elaborate maze of security barricades
separates where reporters enter and roam (though not freely) from the lobby
of the hotel, where actual guests enter.

An escort is required wherever we go, lest one of us with our yellow press
badges wind up somewhere where attendants with an esteemed blue badge are
milling around. When asked about the practice, Craig Minassian, a spokesman
for the initiative, directed me to a press release about American
Standard’s Flush for Good campaign to improve sanitation for three million
people in the developing world. “Since you are so interested in bathrooms
and C.G.I,” Mr. Minassian said.

On Wednesday morning, ahead of a panel discussion at which Hillary Rodham
Clinton introduced the event’s biggest commitment, to get Nigerian girls
access to secondary education (called Charge, short for the Collaborative
for Harnessing Ambition and Resources for Girls’ Education), several dozen
reporters lined up to pass through metal detectors when several people
jumped the queue. “They’re with Katie Couric!” a press aide explained when
a journalist (O.K., me) complained. (Ms. Couric, they later explained,
would be moderating a panel later that morning with Chelsea Clinton.)

It wasn’t always like this. While there were always metal detectors and
heightened security at the conference, which typically takes place during
the United Nations General Assembly and includes speeches by Mr. Obama,
Bill Clinton and others, reporters could roam relatively freely until last
year, when interest in and scrutiny of the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton
Foundation spiked amid speculation that Mrs. Clinton would run for
president in 2016.

*Washington Post blog: She The People: “Cleaner, more efficient cookstoves
should be on front burner of women’s needs in developing countries”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/she-the-people/wp/2014/09/24/cleaner-more-efficient-cookstoves-should-be-on-front-burner-of-womens-needs-in-developing-countries/>*

By Diana Reese

September 24, 2014, 8:37 a.m. EDT

American moms — and yes, I’m sometimes guilty — complain that cooking
dinner can be a burden, but we’ve got it good as we debate the merits of a
smooth surface cooktop versus traditional burners or electric versus gas
ranges.

“Little do we realize as painful as cooking seems to us, it is nowhere near
as painful and harmful as it is for our sisters in the developing world,”
said Radha Muthiah, executive director of the  Global Alliance for Clean
Cookstoves, launched by then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in
2010.

For 3 billion of the world’s people, cooking can be downright dangerous,
according to the World Health Organization: Four million premature deaths a
year, primarily of women and children, are blamed on exposure to toxic
smoke from cooking fires and rudimentary stoves that burn wood, coal and
“biomass” — stuff like animal dung and crop waste.

Various types of cancer, low birth weights for babies and even
cardiovascular disease have all been linked to the indoor pollution caused
by cooking over open fires or leaky stoves. Then there’s the increased risk
of burns; 307,000 of the 330,000 people who die from burn injuries each
year are from developing countries, according to ReSurge International,
which provides reconstructive surgery for the poor around the globe.

These primitive methods of cooking also impact the environment by creating
25 percent of the world’s black carbon emissions (commonly called “soot“)
and destroying forests.

Muthiah described to me the typical day of a woman in rural Kenya or India:
The woman will rise as early as 4 a.m. so she can collect fuel — be it wood
or animal or crop waste — “anything they can burn.” Because of
deforestation, women sometimes have to walk for several hours to pick up
enough wood, putting themselves at risk for animal attacks and other
violence.

A daughter might come along to help, missing out on school. They may carry
up to 60 kilograms (132 pounds) of fuel on their heads or in baskets.

Women often struggle with this chore three or four times a week, Muthiah
said, because cooking over an open fire or with rudimentary stoves is such
an inefficient use of fuel.

“It’s a real timesink for women,” she said, taking up one-third to one-half
of a woman’s 24-hour day.

For the urban women in developing nations, the issue is economic. They can
afford to buy only small quantities of fuel at a time, making it more
expensive, Muthiah said, as they spend up to 40 percent of their daily
household income on fuel.

More efficient stoves requiring less fuel would save time and money for
rural and urban women. That savings of time gives them the opportunity to
pursue other activities, whether it’s walking with their children to school
or earning a livelihood — empowering women to take charge of their lives.

This is a big week for the alliance, what with the Clinton Global
Initiative 10th Annual Meeting and the United Nations Climate Summit 2014
in New York. In November, the alliance holds the first Cookstoves Future
Summit: Fueling Markets, Catalyzing Action, Changing Lives in New York. The
invitation-only summit will be co-chaired by Clinton, who’s the honorary
chair of the Alliance Leadership Council.

The strategy of the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves differs from
previous efforts to simply donate cookstoves to families around the world
without a good idea of their needs and sometimes without providing
education, training or service.

Instead, the alliance focuses on creating a global market for clean
cookstoves and clean fuels. “The consumer needs to be involved,” Muthiah
pointed out. “We need to view the user as a consumer and understand what
attributes [of stoves and fuels] are valuable,” rather than seeing the end
user as “a passive beneficiary.”

So the alliance has partnered with public, private and nonprofit interests
to work on every facet of creating that market, including the design,
manufacturing, assembly, distribution, sales and even after-sales service.
In many cases, that manufacturing and assembly are done locally, Muthiah
said.

It’s not “a one-size-fits-all solution.” Latin American women often stand
while cooking and want a large top burner to cook multiple tortillas and a
pot of beans, while African women sit down and need a simmer button for
long-term cooking, Muthiah said, requiring different types of stoves.

In the southern state of Kerala in India, 97 percent of homes have some
access to electricity, so they can move directly to stoves using
electricity, while rural villages elsewhere in India do not and need stoves
powered by other sources of cleaner fuel such as liquified petroleum gas,
ethanol, solar and biogas.

The alliance has also worked with the International Organization for
Standards to develop a rating system for cookstoves, measuring four
performance indicators: fuel use, total emissions, indoor emissions and
safety.

Most families are not aware of the hazards or health implications from
their cooking methods, Muthiah said. They don’t realize the possible link
between how they cook food and their baby’s low birth weight or their
child’s pneumonia.

“Awareness is so important,” Muthiah said. “It’s more than half the battle.”

But it’s also a process of changing behavior. “We have to show them they
can [still] cook the same meals as their mothers and grandmothers cooked”
on new stoves, she said.

But once women see the statistics and the stories, “they get it,” Muthiah
said. “Women are practical all over the world.” They want to figure out how
to get a decent cookstove. Some go for the cheaper model they can buy
outright, while others look at financing plans.

The cost for these safer and more efficient stoves can range from $15 to
$150, depending on factors such as fuel type and durability. Some women
become marketing and sales agents, turning the cookstove into an income
generator.

The goal for the alliance is to switch 100 million households to cleaner
stoves by the year 2020. It’s a triple win, Muthiah points out, for health,
for the environment and for women’s empowerment.

“We’re trying to put this issue on the front burner,” she told me. “In this
day and age, women should not be cooking this way.”

*Associated Press: “NYC Mayor Steps Onto Bigger Political States”
<http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NYC_MAYOR_BIGGER_STAGES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT>*

By Jonathan Lemire

September 24, 2014, 1:54 a.m. EDT

A speech at the United Nations. A spot next to Al Gore leading a massive
climate change march. A prime speaking slot at a political conference in
England.

Those big stages - all happening within a few days of each other - have
become more common for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. His profile is
on the rise both nationally and internationally and he is increasingly
viewed in political circles as a rising star, particularly in the most
liberal wing of the Democratic party.

De Blasio's higher profile - partly a concerted effort by his team and
partly a byproduct of leading the nation's largest city - has provided him
everything from a platform from which to espouse his liberal politics views
to potentially setting him up as a valuable surrogate in the 2016
presidential election.

"It enhances his power locally, because he becomes more formidable for
having achieved this global respect," said Kenneth Sherrill, retired
political science professor at Hunter College. "And he's serious about
being a spokesman for a national urban agenda."

De Blasio's rise has been sudden. A mere 18 months ago, he was a
little-known second-tier mayoral candidate. But his campaign soared just as
those of other contenders imploded, and after spending his first few months
in office solely focused on his legislative agenda, the new mayor began to
step beyond the five boroughs.

Looking to spread his view of an activist urban government, he attended
meetings with U.S. mayors in Dallas and Chicago and later hosted the U.S.
Conference of Mayors in New York. He journeyed to Washington to lobby for
big cities and attended a White House state dinner. He's hosted various
political dignitaries at City Hall and, even on a family vacation to Italy,
met with the mayor of Rome.

A spokesman for de Blasio said the mayor's focus is his city and dismissed
any suggestion that voters could perceive he was more interested in global
issues.

"Income inequality doesn't stop at a city limit, a state line or a national
border," said Phil Walzak, "and by promoting local strategies and building
a national urban agenda together, the mayor believes we can create real
change for people in New York City, and beyond."

This week is de Blasio's biggest step yet onto the global political stage.
He marched with Gore and hundreds of thousands of demonstrators on Sunday to
lobby the United Nations on climate change and then on Tuesday he addressed
the UN's General Assembly on the same topic. On Wednesday, he will speak
about progressive values at the Labour Party's annual conference in
Manchester, England.

His growing stature has been noted in national political circles.

De Blasio now is mentioned as a leader of the progressive wing of the
Democratic Party as 2016 approaches. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the strong
favorite for her party's presidential nomination if she decides to run, is
closely linked to him. He managed her 2000 Senate campaign.

Clinton was beaten on the left by Barack Obama during the 2008 presidential
primaries and some fear she may be vulnerable there again; a powerful de
Blasio could provide some protection.

"I think he could be enormously helpful to the Clintons, because a
thumbs-up from him will go a long way in progressive circles," said Jeanne
Zaino, political science professor at Iona College.

Clinton and her husband have stayed close to de Blasio, appearing at his
Inauguration and at several events since. Donna Brazile, an adviser to the
Clintons, said de Blasio has quickly become a leading voice in the party on
addressing income inequality and promoting early childhood education.

"His agenda is designed to lift up people who need better jobs, more
opportunity and better schools," Brazile said.

De Blasio is far from the first New York mayor to become a star beyond his
city's borders. Michael Bloomberg used the stature of the office - and his
personal fortune - to become a leading voice on climate change, while Rudy
Giuliani came to be viewed as a national authority on crime.

But de Blasio may not be a household name just yet. Last weekend, he and an
aide took a spur of the moment road to trip to Pittsburgh and sat in the
stands at a Pirates game.

The mayor largely went unnoticed.

*The Hill blog: Ballot Box: “RNC hits Hillary Clinton for ties to Goldman
Sachs”
<http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/218761-rnc-hits-hillary-clinton-for-ties-to-goldman-sachs>*

By Peter Sullivan

September 24, 2014, 11:39 a.m. EDT

The Republican National Committee released a video on Wednesday with the
point of showing how well the CEO of Goldman Sachs and Hillary Clinton know
each other, echoing a criticism usually voiced on the left.

The GOP "rapid response" video, posted on YouTube, is a clip of Clinton
inviting Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein on stage at the Clinton Global
Initiative's annual meeting in New York on Wednesday.

The caption of the video is "Goldman Sachs CEO jokes about how well he
knows Hillary Clinton."

After Clinton introduces Blankfein, along with two other people, he takes
the stage, greets Clinton, and says, "So this isn't the first time we've
all met."

Blankfein was there to discuss Goldman Sachs' 10,000 Women iniative, which
supports women in business around the world.

It is not surprising that the RNC is releasing videos critical of Clinton,
given that she is the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination for
president, but this video makes a point usually heard from liberals.

There has long been grumbling on the left that Clinton is too close to Wall
Street, leading to speculation that she could face a liberal primary
challenger such as Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Clinton in particular came under fire for speaking at Goldman Sachs in
October.

In 2012, Democrats were the ones trying portray the Republican presidential
nominee, Mitt Romney, as out of touch because of his past at the private
equity firm Bain Capital.

Earlier in the program on Wednesday, Clinton announced an initiative
through the Clinton Foundation that will spend $600 million on helping
girls attend secondary school around the world.

*Washington Free Beacon: “Wall Street Gets to Bill and Hillary”
<http://freebeacon.com/politics/wall-street-gets-to-clintons/>*

By Brent Scher

September 24, 2014, 11:15 a.m. EDT

[Subtitle:] After summer in Hamptons, Clintons adopt Wall Street tune on
inversions

Bill and Hillary Clinton spent the summer in the Hamptons where they would
“field thoughts on policy” with Wall Street’s wealthiest as they attended
lavish fundraising events. Wall Street seems to have gotten to them.

Hillary used her time among Wall Street executives to get the political
pulse of the wealthy Democratic donors who could provide the financial
backbone of her likely 2016 presidential campaign.

One issue she focused on was finding out “what they thought of Mr. Obama’s
efforts to eliminate inversions,” according to a report in the New York
Times.

It appears the Clintons are taking what they heard in the private Hamptons
talks to the public stage.

Speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative conference in New York City, Bill
Clinton expressed the point of view of corporations that “feel duty bound
to pay the lowest taxes they can pay,” according to the New York Times.

“Like it or not, this inversion, this is their money,” said Clinton on
Tuesday, speaking of companies that have been called “unpatriotic” by
President Barack Obama.

“We have the highest overall corporate tax rates in the world, and we are
now the only [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development]
country that also taxes overseas earnings,” said Clinton. “A lot of these
executives, even if they wanted to bring the money home, they think this is
crazy.”

Clinton also took some blame for creating a tax system that is forcing
companies to seek out lower tax rates in other countries.

“I should make full disclosure here, I signed and supported the bill that
raised the corporate taxes in America to the level they are now,” said
Clinton.

These statements by former President Clinton reflect the type of message
that Hillary Clinton may adopt for her presidential run, according to
insiders who say that her message would stress corporate tax reform above
the need to restrict corporate inversions.

It is also a message that clearly contrasts the rhetoric coming from the
Obama administration, which has called inversions an “abuse of our tax
system” and attempted to enact legislation that would restrict them.

“We should not be providing support for corporations that seek to shift
their profits overseas to avoid paying their fair share of taxes,” wrote
Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew in a July letter to lawmakers.

The administration announced new measures to crack down on companies that
choose to move their headquarters overseas on Monday, saying that
inversions “erode the U.S. tax base, unfairly placing a larger burden on
all other taxpayers, including small businesses and hardworking Americans.”

Critics of the measures say that they will be ineffective, and that there
is no stopping inversions as long as the United States has the highest
corporate income tax rate in the developed world.