Subject: Correct The Record Sunday November 16, 2014 Roundup
From: Burns Strider <[email-masked]>
To: CTRFriendsFamily <[email-masked]>
Date: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 14:51:43 -0500
List-Id: <CTRFriendsFamily.americanbridge.org>

*​**Correct The Record Sunday November 16, 2014 Roundup:*

*Headlines:*

*New York Times: “The Clintons Look to the Past, for Now”
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/us/politics/the-clintons-look-to-the-past-for-now.html?partner=socialflow&smid=tw-nytnational>*

"In her first public event since the midterm elections, and before she
announces whether she will run for president in 2016, Mrs. Clinton joined
Chelsea Clinton at the William J. Clinton Presidential Center to discuss
the advancement of women and girls and to take questions from an audience
of friends and local activists."

*BuzzFeed: “At Clinton Reunion, Hillary Talks About Past With An Eye To The
Future”
<http://www.buzzfeed.com/rubycramer/1at-clinton-reunion-hillary-talks-about-past-with-an-eye-to>*

“It was a weekend to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Clinton
Presidential Center, a four-day reunion and retrospective of the 42nd
president’s White House. But at her first public event here, Hillary
Clinton did not reminisce much about the ’90s or recall the policies of her
husband’s administration.”

*Washington Post: “At library celebration, Bill Clinton and others talk up
the past, but not the future”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/at-library-celebration-bill-clinton-and-others-talk-up-the-past-but-not-the-future/2014/11/14/25f955b2-6c2c-11e4-9fb4-a622dae742a2_story.html>*

“Bill Clinton, his presidential legacy and his outsize political persona —
barbecue and saxophones included — is everywhere here this weekend in the
Arkansas capital, the bosom of the Clinton political brand and home to his
presidential library. So is the crackle of possibility, as the tightly knit
Clinton political machine awaits Hillary Rodham Clinton’s all-but-declared
2016 presidential campaign.”

*Politico: “At celebration for husband, a Hillary Clinton panel looks to
the future”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/at-celebration-for-husband-a-hillary-clinton-panel-looks-to-the-future-112929.html>*

“Former first lady Hillary Clinton and her daughter, Chelsea, held an event
Saturday that was firmly rooted in the present and aimed at the future, one
focused on the participation of women and girls globally and how it impacts
everything from economics to education to politics.”

*Politico: “Hillary Clinton backs Ex-Im Bank, says critics fueled by
ideology”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/hillary-clinton-export-import-bank-112928.html>*

"'Thank you for mentioning the Ex-Im Bank, because I’m a very strong
supporter of the Ex-Im Bank, because it is a tool for us to be competitive
in order to support our businesses exporting,' said Clinton, a former
secretary of state."

*The Hill blog: Ballot Box: “Progressives' answer to 2014 midterm election
results? Be more liberal”
<http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/224276-progressives-answer-to-2014-be-more-liberal>*

"'There might be some differences on tax policies, maybe some conservative
Democrats have a different idea on individual or corporate tax rates, but
on things like Wall Street reform and minimum wage, Democrats are pretty
close together,' Burton added."

*The Hill blog: Ballot Box: “Franken: 'Sure' there will be challenger to
Hillary Clinton”
<http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/224311-franken-sure-there-will-be-challenger-to-hillary-clinton>*

“Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said in an interview broadcast Sunday that he is
‘sure’ there will be challengers to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic
presidential primary.”

*New York Post: “Is Iowa already sick of Hillary Clinton?”
<http://nypost.com/2014/11/15/is-iowa-already-sick-of-hillary-clinton/>*

“Crawford, who has led presidential campaigns in Iowa for almost three
decades, acknowledges Clinton could easily stumble out of the gate if
sometimes contrarian Iowans believe they are being force-fed an unlikeable
candidate.”

*Salon: “No, I’m not ‘ready for Hillary’ — but here’s why resistance is
futile”
<http://www.salon.com/2014/11/15/no_im_not_ready_for_hillary_but_heres_why_resistance_is_futile/>*

[Subtitle:] “Left media goes on the attack and Warren boosters keep hoping
-- but battling Hillary is a pointless distraction”

*BuzzFeed: “Bill Clinton: Obama Immigration Delay May Have Caused ‘Loss Of
Hispanic Vote’”
<http://www.buzzfeed.com/rubycramer/bill-clinton-obama-immigration-delay-may-have-caused-loss-of>*

“At the 10th anniversary celebration of his presidential center, Bill
Clinton said that Democrats may have suffered a ‘little bit of a loss of
the Hispanic vote’ in the midterms because President Obama delayed
executive actions to ease deportations of undocumented immigrants until
after the election.”

*Articles:*

*New York Times: “The Clintons Look to the Past, for Now”
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/us/politics/the-clintons-look-to-the-past-for-now.html?partner=socialflow&smid=tw-nytnational>*

By Amy Chozick

November 15, 2014

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Hillary Rodham Clinton’s in-between phase started here
on Saturday, at a carefully staged appearance with her daughter and
surrounded by old friends.

In her first public event since the midterm elections, and before she
announces whether she will run for president in 2016, Mrs. Clinton joined
Chelsea Clinton at the William J. Clinton Presidential Center to discuss
the advancement of women and girls and to take questions from an audience
of friends and local activists.

“The fact that we have a granddaughter means that we are even more focused
on these issues and thinking about what the world she will grow up in will
be like for young girls,” Mrs. Clinton said in one of many references to
Chelsea’s new baby, Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky. Her joint
question-and-answer session was part of a weekend-long celebration of the
10th anniversary of the Clinton Center.

After the event, Mrs. Clinton said, “You have to look at the past, you have
to see what we’ve done and why we did it and we learned from it in order to
think about what you can do for the next two years.”

The event provided a warm Arkansas embrace for Mrs. Clinton as she waded
back into charitable work after weeks of intense campaigning for Democrats,
many of whom lost their midterm races.

Before she and Chelsea took the stage, the former first couple strolled
through the lobby of the sunlit museum, embracing Arkansas friends and
White House aides who had flown in for the weekend’s festivities.

As those around Mrs. Clinton begin to angle for positions on a potential
campaign, she has wound down her public schedule to a handful of awards
galas and events related to her charitable work at the Bill, Hillary &
Chelsea Clinton Foundation.

On Friday, Bill Clinton had closed a day’s worth of panel policy
discussions about his administration to deliver a passionate defense of his
legacy. But on Saturday, it was Mrs. Clinton’s turn, and she focused on her
early work with single mothers and children as first lady of Arkansas.

Mrs. Clinton and Ms. Clinton asked some local advocates and business
leaders to join them on the stage to talk about their relationship with the
Clintons and how their work to help women and girls overlaps.

“I started a lot of these programs and the point was to show that, as
Chelsea rightly said, these can work and you can’t get discouraged,” Mrs.
Clinton said after the event.

*BuzzFeed: “At Clinton Reunion, Hillary Talks About Past With An Eye To The
Future”
<http://www.buzzfeed.com/rubycramer/1at-clinton-reunion-hillary-talks-about-past-with-an-eye-to>*

By Ruby Cramer

November 15, 2014, 10:27 p.m. EST

[Subtitle:] Most speakers at the Clinton reunion in Little Rock reminisced
about the White House years. At her event here, Hillary Clinton talked
about women’s issues, and how to move forward. “You’ve got to be willing to
let go of what doesn’t work.”

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — It was a weekend to celebrate the 10th anniversary of
the Clinton Presidential Center, a four-day reunion and retrospective of
the 42nd president’s White House. But at her first public event here,
Hillary Clinton did not reminisce much about the ’90s or recall the
policies of her husband’s administration.

Before a crowd of old friends, advisers, and political supporters on
Saturday afternoon, Clinton led a conversation about her family’s
foundation that focused on the work she did in Arkansas to advance women’s
economic opportunity — and how it could be applied in the future.

The discussion, held on the second floor of the glassy Clinton Presidential
Center, marked the 10th such event for No Ceilings, an initiative the
former secretary of state started after joining the Clinton Foundation
early last year.

Foundation officials working on the project — led by Clinton and her
daughter Chelsea — have been collecting data about the economic and social
participation of women and girls. The data will show what progress has been
made, and what “gaps” remain. On Saturday, Clinton said the foundation
would release the “preliminary” results of the analysis “in the next few
months.”

“Data matters because you’ve got to learn what works,” Clinton told the
audience of about 200 people. “You’ve got to be willing to let go of what
doesn’t work.”

The event was Clinton’s first public appearance since the midterms, when
she campaigned for more than two dozen Democratic candidates. The majority
fell short on Election Day. Clinton did not talk about the sweeping
Republican victories on Saturday — or mention the presidential campaign
many expect she will launch sometime next year.

The conversation on Saturday did not stray far from the foundation.
Throughout the program, Clinton called on Arkansas community leaders in the
audience — many Clinton has known for years — to discuss the work they’ve
done here to expand economic opportunity for women.

The speakers included Ginger Beebe, the first lady of Arkansas; Grant
Tenille, the executive director of the Arkansas Economic Development
Commission; and Anna Strong, the head of the child advocacy and public
health at the Arkansas Children’s Hospital, where Chelsea said she was a
patient growing up in Little Rock.

More than one person pointed out that Clinton herself pioneered most of the
initiatives highlighted during the program. One was the childhood education
program called the Home Instruction Program for Preschool Youth, or HIPPY,
that she brought to Arkansas in the 1980s.

At one point, when another person mentioned that Clinton was behind one of
the projects being discussed, Chelsea joked, “This was not the theme that
we organized.”

Still, the discussion was not as reflective on the ’90s as others this
weekend. Asked whether the discussion fit into the wider program, Clinton
said, “Of course it did.”

“I started a lot of these programs,” she told a small group of reporters in
the hallway outside the center’s Great Hall. The point of the event,
including the guest speakers, Clinton said, was to show that “things can
work. And you can’t get discouraged, and you can’t give up.”

“I think we need to hear that right now,” Clinton said. “So of course you
have to look at the past. You have to see what we’ve done and why we did it
and why we learned from it, in order to think about what you can do for the
next 10 years.”

Most of the events this weekend here in Arkansas — the place where Bill
Clinton launched his political career 40 years ago — took the shape of a
rolling family reunion. Clinton alumni moved in packs from panels to
late-night drinks in the Capital Hotel, the social hub during the
celebration. (Rooms have been sold out for months.)

On Friday morning, cabinet officials from the 42nd president’s
administration, including Gene Sperling and Bruce Reed, recalled the
Clinton years in a series of panels. Later that afternoon, Bill Clinton
delivered a sprawling, hour-long-plus speech about his administration. “We
made our fair share of mistakes,” he said to an audience full of familiar
faces. “But in the end, on foreign and domestic policy, economic and
social, you can honestly say that people were better off.”

After the speech, Bill Clinton stood near the front of the stage for more
than 25 minutes to greet a long receiving line of former staffers and
Arkansas friends.

“I knew I saw you back there,” he told one man in line.

Another approached and said it was his first time seeing the presidential
center.

“It’s good, right?” Clinton responded.

Others came with stories. “Remember when Nancy introduced you in New
Hampshire and said only thing we have in New Hampshire of trickle down
economics is yellow snow?” one man asked Clinton. “And you just laughed and
laughed?”

“I loved that,” Clinton replied. “We’ll see you later.”

Between panels and over drinks this weekend, attendees talked freely about
what they expect will be a second Clinton bid for the White House. But the
subject was a nonstarter at the official programming here on Friday and
Saturday.

At one event, when longtime Clinton adviser Vernon Jordan was asked about
the former first lady’s future, he had a quick, dry response at the ready.

“That’s not the subject of this event.”

*Washington Post: “At library celebration, Bill Clinton and others talk up
the past, but not the future”
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/at-library-celebration-bill-clinton-and-others-talk-up-the-past-but-not-the-future/2014/11/14/25f955b2-6c2c-11e4-9fb4-a622dae742a2_story.html>*

By Anne Gearan

November 14, 2014

LITTLE ROCK — Bill Clinton, his presidential legacy and his outsize
political persona — barbecue and saxophones included — is everywhere here
this weekend in the Arkansas capital, the bosom of the Clinton political
brand and home to his presidential library.

So is the crackle of possibility, as the tightly knit Clinton political
machine awaits Hillary Rodham Clinton’s all-but-declared 2016 presidential
campaign.

That shadow campaign, however, was a taboo subject Friday at the start of a
four-day celebration to mark the 10th anniversary of the Clinton
Presidential Center.

“The thing I’m proudest of is that we did what I set out to do” in the
policy and political realms, the former president said.

“We had a good time doing this, as you can probably tell. We made our fair
share of mistakes. We beat our heads against our fair share of walls. It
didn’t always work out, but at the end on foreign and domestic policy,
economic and social, you could honestly say that people were better off
when we quit,” he said.

Hillary Clinton’s official participation is limited to a symposium
scheduled Saturday with daughter Chelsea on the empowerment of women and
girls, and as co-master of ceremonies with her husband. But the motto of
the library anniversary — “The work continues” — hints at both Bill
Clinton’s ambitious post-presidential agenda and the likelihood that
another member of the family will seek the office.

Out-of-town participants flew in to Bill and Hillary Clinton National
Airport and drove down President Clinton Avenue, not far from the state
Capitol where both Clintons came to political prominence. A hotel in the
spiffed-up section of downtown Little Rock that houses the library campus
has a restaurant called Camp David.

The gathering is a sort of destination wedding for Clintonistas past and
possibly future, complete with a huge concert featuring something for every
demographic, from Nick Jonas to Kool and the Gang. The long weekend also
features a day of volunteer service and a discussion of how the Clinton
library has improved Little Rock’s economic bottom line.

“The best thing for Bill Clinton’s political career was that he spent most
of it here,” said longtime Clinton White House adviser and speechwriter
Bruce Reed, referring to Clinton’s centrist sensibilities and capacity for
compromise as a Democrat in a conservative state.

Hillary Clinton was not on hand Friday as former Clinton Cabinet members,
senior advisers and a long list of loyalists and retainers met to chew over
the earned income tax credit, the 1993 budget impasse and the government
shutdown.

Some of Hillary Clinton’s closest friends and advisers were there, however,
including Capricia Marshall and Cheryl Mills. Both women served in the
Clinton White House and at Hillary Clinton’s State Department, and both are
expected to be part of a 2016 campaign should she mount one. She has said
she will decide early next year whether to run a second time.

Many participants in Friday’s session were reluctant to talk about the
political confluence of the Bill Clinton White House and a potential
Hillary Clinton campaign, and they turned questions about Hillary Clinton
back to the subject and events of the anniversary weekend.

“I’ll get in trouble,” one adviser said before dashing down the hall.

Molly McGowan of Little Rock said Hillary Clinton would “be a perfect
choice, a natural fit” for president. “It’s in the back of everyone’s mind,
but this is, as it should be, about President Clinton and his legacy,” she
said.

Among the mostly laudatory retrospectives were joking asides about Bill
Clinton’s wordy

speeches, occasionally explosive temper and unruly management style. There
were some partisan swipes as well: Different participants referred to
former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R) as a “partisan hack” and a “baby.”
The name Monica Lewinsky did not come up, nor was there any analysis of the
impeachment drama that followed revelations of Clinton’s White House
dalliance with the intern.

Participants included former White House chief of staff Erskine Bowles,
former labor secretary Alexis Herman and retired Gen. Wesley Clark, the
former NATO commander.

“What made it so easy to work for Bill Clinton was that he had a clear
philosophy of how he wanted to govern,” Reed told the audience.

“It was a magical time,” said veteran Clinton economic aide Gene Sperling,
who also worked for the Obama White House. “You’re suddenly working for the
guys who were doing everything right.”

Bill Clinton later joked about meeting Sperling’s “really beautiful”
girlfriend — “She was like super fit, man” — and told the workaholic aide
that his priorities were misaligned. (The audience greeted the remarks with
nervous laughter.) Clinton got a louder laugh when he noted later that his
former vice president, Al Gore, “was funnier than he got credit for.”

Also Friday, the University of Virginia’s Miller Center released a trove of
more than 130 oral history interviews with Clinton administration
participants in collaboration with the Clinton Presidential Center.

The histories collected over roughly a decade of scholarship detail “the
eight consequential years of one president, Bill Clinton,” said Miller
Center director Gerald Baliles.

Although some locals snicker that the boxy building looks like a
double-wide trailer plunked down on the banks of the Arkansas River, the
Clinton Center has drawn more than 3 million visitors and claims an
economic footprint of $3.3 billion for downtown Little Rock.

The library center is a mix of memory-lane photographs of the grinning,
fair-haired Bill Clinton, a scholarly collection of papers and memorabilia
from engraved state dinner menus to a bizarre carved wooden saxophone stool
given to him by a foreign admirer.

A mock Oval Office is outfitted as Clinton’s office was and includes many
of the actual artifacts from his desk and shelves. A full-size armored
presidential limousine is a favorite exhibit. Word came this week that
marked-up scripts from the Clinton-inspired television show “The West Wing”
are being donated to the library.

*Politico: “At celebration for husband, a Hillary Clinton panel looks to
the future”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/at-celebration-for-husband-a-hillary-clinton-panel-looks-to-the-future-112929.html>*

By Maggie Haberman

November 15, 2014, 10:15 p.m. EST

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – For three days, the focus at the 10th anniversary
weekend celebrating the Bill Clinton presidential library has been on the
past – his years in the White House, his economic record, his time in the
Arkansas governor’s office.

But former first lady Hillary Clinton and her daughter, Chelsea, held an
event Saturday that was firmly rooted in the present and aimed at the
future, one focused on the participation of women and girls globally and
how it impacts everything from economics to education to politics.

Their event, for the No Ceilings project housed at the Bill, Hillary and
Chelsea Clinton Foundation, was laden with references to data and an
upcoming project the group is working on about analyzing statistics ahead
of the 20th anniversary of a famous speech Hillary Clinton gave about
women’s rights in Beijing. The resulting report should be “linked to our
policy agenda,” Hillary Clinton said.

The No Ceilings gathering was Hillary Clinton’s first public event during
the weekend’s celebrations, and the only one featuring her daughter, who
flew back to New York shortly afterward. It comes as Hillary Clinton is
likely to declare a second run for president in the coming months, a
campaign that would take place amid stagnant wages and frustration among
voters with President Barack Obama’s tenure.

Hillary Clinton, seated in a chair at a packed room at the Clinton
Presidential Center, said that her daughter had made clear to her that
there is a generational divide for younger women about that Beijing speech,
in which the then-first lady declared that “women’s rights are human
rights.”

Chelsea Clinton told her mother that “I don’t think a lot of young women
know what that means,” Hillary Clinton recalled, saying her daughter added,
“Beijing was a long time ago.”

“I said, ‘Don’t remind me,’” said Clinton, a former secretary of state who
faces the prospect of becoming the party’s oldest nominee in decades, but
who may have to try to appeal to an increasingly younger Democratic
coalition.

“Mark Zuckerberg was still in high school when my mom went to Beijing,”
Chelsea Clinton said, referring to the Facebook billionaire.

At the start of the event, Hillary Clinton mentioned her granddaughter,
Charlotte, as her son-in-law sat in the front row. Hillary Clinton has
seemed ebullient about her granddaughter since she was born in September,
and the little girl allows her to discuss the future for a new generation
in a meaningful way.

The event was packed with local residents but also friends of the Clintons,
including singer Barbra Streisand, who was spotted by a CNN reporter being
escorted to the front row late.

Throughout the hour-long panel, there were validators who tethered Hillary
Clintons’ focus on women’s issues – which her allies hope will factor
heavily in a campaign message – to her time as Arkansas’ first lady.
Several of the people who spoke during the event worked at programs Hillary
Clinton had launched.

“This was not the theme as we organized,” joked Chelsea Clinton.

After the event, Hillary Clinton was swarmed by people who wanted to take a
photo with her, press a business card into her hand or tell her when they
knew her in the past. One man, a New York City-based elections specialist
who worked with her when she was the state’s senator, gamely mentioned
there’s a lot of work to do on Board of Election issues.

Clinton avoided most attempts to ask her questions. But she did say that
she saw the hour-long panel as rooted in both her past and her present.

“I started a lot of these programs, and the point was to show, as Chelsea I
think rightly said, things can work,” she said. “And you can’t get
discouraged. And you can’t give up. And part of what the foundation has
successfully done for 10 years is to focus on what does work, and to
continue to be creative, entrepreneurial, to try to, as we say, do it
faster, do it leaner, do it better.”

Clinton added: “I think we need to hear that right now. A lot of people
don’t know that we have so many different approaches to social and economic
problems. But we haven’t knit them all together. The foundation tries to do
that. So of course you have to look at the past. You have to see what we’ve
done and why we did it and why we learned from it, in order to think about
what you can do for the next 10 years of the foundation.”

*Politico: “Hillary Clinton backs Ex-Im Bank, says critics fueled by
ideology”
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/hillary-clinton-export-import-bank-112928.html>*

By Maggie Haberman

November 15, 2014, 8:52 p.m. EST

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Hillary Clinton on Saturday said she strongly supports
keeping the Export-Import Bank, an institution that has been criticized by
some Republicans as an example of government waste.

Clinton made the comments at an event in Little Rock for the No Ceilings
project, which focuses on equal participation for girls and women, after a
member of the audience spoke in favor of the bank and its leader, longtime
Clinton supporter Fred Hochberg.

“Thank you for mentioning the Ex-Im Bank, because I’m a very strong
supporter of the Ex-Im Bank, because it is a tool for us to be competitive
in order to support our businesses exporting,” said Clinton, a former
secretary of state. “But there are those who wish to end the role of the
Export-Import Bank, and it’s not based on evidence, it’s based on ideology.”

Clinton is expected to announce early next year whether she will make a
second run for the White House. Her husband, former President Bill Clinton,
voiced support for the bank over the summer.

*The Hill blog: Ballot Box: “Progressives' answer to 2014 midterm election
results? Be more liberal”
<http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/224276-progressives-answer-to-2014-be-more-liberal>*

By Ben Kamisar

November 16, 2014, 6:00 a.m. EST

Amid the post-election Democratic handwringing, some activists have an
answer — be more liberal.

After a resounding midterm defeat, progressive leaders argue Democrats
played it safe, sidelined the president and lost. But now, the party can
win by moving to the left.

“The reason Democrats lost in 2014 was that there was not a united and bold
Democratic economic vision, it was very much an election about nothing, in
some cases, small-bore or conservative ideas,” Adam Green, the co-founder
of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, told The Hill.

“The real issue is that the Democratic Party has not painted a picture in
people’s minds of what a bold, populist Democratic governing agenda looks
like.”

Green and his co-founder, Stephanie Taylor, wrote in an op-ed days after
the electoral rout that the party needs to coalesce an agenda that
aggressively trumpets issue like Wall Street reform, cutting the cost of
college and student loans, and expanding Medicare and Social Security. They
pointed out that Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat beloved
by their organization, was popular on the stump for many embattled
Democrats because she touts that message.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), another progressive favorite that’s weighing a
bid for president in 2016, said on Friday that Americans want a more
progressive message despite the midterm results.

“The irony of our time is that on virtually all of the important issues,
the American people want government to act on their behalf and are
progressive,” he said on The Big Picture radio show with Thom Hartmann.

“The bad news is for a hundred different reasons, they are voting for the
candidates that are opposed to everything they believe in and we’ve got to
figure that one out.”

Sanders and Green both mentioned how a number of states voters backed
ballot measures like a minimum wage expansion even while they chose
Republican senators.

The PCCC’s letter cites victories by Sens. Al Franken (D-Minn.), Jeff
Merkley (D-Ore.), and Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) as proof that a bold strategy
works. But all of those races were considered safer for Democrats and gave
them the leeway to tack left.

But there is a model for Democrats looking to win tight races with a
progressive message: Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown. Despite his record as one of
the most liberal senators, Brown embraced that reputation and sailed to
reelection in 2012.

“Democrats need to make clear who we are fighting for and what we're
fighting against and draw distinctions,” he said in an emailed statement.

“If you remember what you stand for and who you are fighting for, you don’t
have to move to the center - wherever that happens to be at any moment.”

But not all Democrats believe the election was a mandate on a lack of
liberalism.

The party lost five seats in states where President Obama got 42 percent of
the vote or less—West Virginia, Montana, South Dakota, Arkansas and
Alaska—and are in danger of losing a sixth after December’s runoff in
Louisiana. With those states added to Republican-leaning contests in
Kansas, Iowa and North Carolina, many Democrats believe they had to play
the hand the map dealt them.

“Mark Pryor cannot run on the same exact message that perhaps Elizabeth
Warren could,” a Democratic strategist and Hillary Clinton supporter said
of the Arkansas senator who lost.

“Senate candidates in particular did the best that they could under the
circumstances and they ran on messages that they felt reflected the
Democrats that they were speaking to gain support from.”

Bill Burton, a political consultant and former Obama press secretary, said
the Democrats face more of a messaging issue than a policy issue and most
Democrats do back core progressive ideology.

“I don’t feel that there are real policy differences that they are talking
about,” he said.

“There might be some differences on tax policies, maybe some conservative
Democrats have a different idea on individual or corporate tax rates, but
on things like Wall Street reform and minimum wage, Democrats are pretty
close together,” Burton added.

As the party pivots towards the big prize in 2016, progressive groups like
the PCCC have been working to draft Sen. Warren into a bid for president as
a more liberal foil to Clinton, the former secretary of State.

But even if Warren declines, Green is confident that her weight within the
party, as well as her recent rise to Senate leadership as a liaison, can
make an impact on the field.

“Hillary Clinton has shown an ability to evolve, she did so on gay marriage
[and] her position on Iraq has changed. The jury is still out on corporate
power and economic populist issues,” he said.

“The path to political success for Democrats is to follow Elizabeth
Warren’s lead and campaign on big, bold economic populist ideas.”

The PCCC plans to meet with members of Clinton’s staff as she weighs a bid.
Green added that Democrats don’t have to worry about a Tea Party-like
fracture, as they believe their message is in line with the majority of
Americans, not just their wing of the party.

Many in Clinton’s camp question the characterization that she’s too
moderate for the Democratic base. The Clinton supporter added that when
push came to shove, the base would ultimately flock towards Clinton if she
has the nomination tied up.

“There are not enough big policy differences between moderate Democrats and
liberal more progressive Democrats to divide us that much,” the supporter
said.

“Its kind of funny when you think that Hillary has been labeled by
progressives as not liberal enough…she’s pretty freaking progressive.”

*The Hill blog: Ballot Box: “Franken: 'Sure' there will be challenger to
Hillary Clinton”
<http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/224311-franken-sure-there-will-be-challenger-to-hillary-clinton>*

By Peter Sullivan

November 16, 2014, 10:04 a.m. EST

Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said in an interview broadcast Sunday that he is
"sure" there will be challengers to Hillary Clinton in the Democratic
presidential primary.

Asked on CNN's "State of the Union" if Democrats need a spirited primary,
Franken said of Clinton, "I very much doubt that she’ll be the only one.
I’m sure someone will jump in."

"I don’t know how you make someone else viable, they have to make
themselves viable, but I’m sure that there will be a number of other people
in the race," Franken added.

Clinton is by far the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination. Other
names that have surfaced for a run are Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and
Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), though Warren denies she will run. Maryland
Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) is also a possibility.

Franken reflected on the lesson of the midterms by saying Democrats need to
fight for the middle class while also working across party lines.

After his razor-thin 2008 victory, the former "Saturday Night Live" star
said, "There were, I think, a lot of Minnesotans who didn’t quite know what
to expect, but what they saw is I worked every day in what I saw as the
interests of Minnesotans, and I worked across party lines to find common
ground."

"While I found common ground, I stood my ground when the powerful would
come after the middle class or those aspiring to be in the middle," Franken
said.

Franken, a leading proponent of net neutrality rules for the Internet, also
hit back against Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who called net neutrality
"ObamaCare for the Internet."

"He has it completely wrong and just doesn't understand what this issue
is," Franken said.

*New York Post: “Is Iowa already sick of Hillary Clinton?”
<http://nypost.com/2014/11/15/is-iowa-already-sick-of-hillary-clinton/>*

By Lee Rood

November 15, 2014, 3:57 p.m. EST

DES MOINES, Iowa — If you’re a die-hard Democrat in New York hoping to
overcome the disappointment that was Nov. 4, you’re worried.

But here in Iowa, where the first-in-the-nation caucuses are a mere 14
months away, some are breaking into a cold sweat.

Most party leaders here will assure you all conversations about the 2016
presidential nomination still begin and end with Hillary Clinton.

The former first lady and secretary of state is a sentimental favorite.
Though she has not formally announced her candidacy, her well-oiled super
PAC may be the most deeply rooted ever at this stage in the Hawkeye state.

“I don’t know of any party regulars or activists who are really pushing
anyone else,” says Jerry Crawford, who co-chaired Clinton’s 2008 campaign
in Iowa and helps lead Ready for Hillary in the state.

But that may be the problem. Familiarity breeds if not contempt, then
frustration.

Crawford, who has led presidential campaigns in Iowa for almost three
decades, acknowledges Clinton could easily stumble out of the gate if
sometimes contrarian Iowans believe they are being force-fed an unlikeable
candidate.

And Crawford, principal in Donegal Racing, a thoroughbred partnership,
knows a lot about front-runners and dark horses.

Iowa’s caucus season is a personality contest, and the constant challenge
of both Democrats and Republicans here every four years is to find new
blood. The heavy bruising Democrats took in the midterms cinched the need
for a deep bench.

“Democrats are worried,” said Jack Hatch, the veteran Democratic state
senator from Des Moines who sputtered in his bid to take on four-term
Republican Gov. Terry Branstad. “I’m very worried.”

Hatch says most Democrats in Iowa want an experienced leader who “unlike
Obama is not afraid to make a decision.”

But in Mrs. Clinton’s case, he said, she’s still a Clinton. “She
triangulates and Iowans don’t like that.”

There’s a slice of the state that considers her too calculating, says J.
Ann Selzer, whose firm conducts polls for The Des Moines Register in
partnership with Bloomberg News.

“Her negatives aren’t all that high, but the people who don’t like her
really don’t like her,” Selzer says.

Clinton knows from her drawn-out race in 2008 against John Edwards and
Obama that Iowa a second time would be no cakewalk, Selzer said.

Still, the last Bloomberg/Iowa Poll taken in October by Selzer & Co. showed
Clinton enjoys high favorability ratings with 76% of likely caucus-going
Democrats. She was followed by Vice President Joe Biden and current
Secretary of State John Kerry, both at 60%.

But it’s early. And at this stage of the picking process, no one knew who
Jimmy Carter or Rick Santorum were, Selzer points out.

She and a mix of other party leaders say outliers could easily inject
much-needed excitement to a race and upend a front-runner.

Most mentioned: Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders
or Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

Biden has said he won’t decide until next year whether to run. Warren has
said she is not running now, but some Iowans like her energy and wish she’d
change her mind.

O’Malley, a down-to-earth leader who finishes his second term in January,
gained a lot of respect this year in Iowa among the party faithful because
he had boots on the ground.

Not only did he visit a half-dozen times during 2014, he sent staffers
(paid for by his PAC) and raised money for Iowa candidates.

Sanders, meanwhile, has spent more time in Iowa this year than almost
anyone else with White House aspirations, excluding Clinton and Biden.

A democratic socialist, he zeroes in on a minimum-wage hike, boosting taxes
on the wealthy and targeting big money in politics — all big “yes” topics
for Democrats. He also has the charisma to reignite young activists
disappointed in Obama, politicos here say.

But Hatch, a state senator for 22 years who is expected to retire after his
term ends in January, says the Democratic Party in Iowa also has
considerable work to do to help any candidate beat the field of Republicans
expected to flood the state in the next year.

“In this election cycle, we were more coordinated than at any other time in
terms of people, money and technology,” he said. “In the end, there was a
void of leadership.”

Mike Gronstal, leader of Democrats in the state Senate, says right now,
candidates with the least name recognition are trying to figure out which
big names will really enter the race.

“The question is, ‘How much oxygen will there be left in a lake full of
fish?’ ” Gronstal said. “If both Joe and Hillary run, maybe not much.”

*Salon: “No, I’m not ‘ready for Hillary’ — but here’s why resistance is
futile”
<http://www.salon.com/2014/11/15/no_im_not_ready_for_hillary_but_heres_why_resistance_is_futile/>*

By Andrew O’Hehir

November 15, 2014, 12:00 p.m. EST

[Subtitle:] Left media goes on the attack and Warren boosters keep hoping
-- but battling Hillary is a pointless distraction

Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends: the spectacle of the
American left (I could, and perhaps should, use scare quotes around that
term) chewing on its own entrails in anguish and frustration. With the
misery of the midterm elections out of the way, and their thoroughly
unsurprising revelation that people who nominally support the Democratic
Party don’t actually care enough to vote, we can move on to bigger things.
Specifically, to the Big Kahuna of American politics, the specter that’s
been haunting the political arena from just offstage for months if not
years, like a half-inflated cartoon blimp from the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day
parade. I refer, of course, to Hillary Clinton, who will provide endless
fodder for deep-thinking punditry and 24/7 programming for the Liberal
Despair Network from now through the 2016 Iowa caucuses and beyond. If you
thought you were sick of her already, just wait.

I plead guilty as charged, of course. Clinton is so hated both on the right
and on the left, yet so overwhelmingly likely to be our next president,
that she’s like a black hole that sucks up all political energy, a bright
flame that draws in all the hapless moths. I wrote a column a few months
ago comparing her to Ronald Reagan, which I certainly meant to be
provocative but was far too arch in execution. I forgot or didn’t know the
first rule of punditry, which is to make your premise really obvious and
beat the reader over the head with it repeatedly. I still get occasional
mails from horrified liberals telling me that Clinton is the exact opposite
of Reagan, or horrified conservatives saying “LOL u wish libtard.” So
here’s the Cliff’s Note version: The comparison was not meant to be
flattering to either of them, but the point was that they both functioned
as supercharged political symbols, meant to mobilize specific voter
demographics far beyond their normal level of participation. (White men and
white women, respectively.)

That demographic superpower made Reagan impossible to defeat, and may do
the same for Clinton. Here’s my premise this time: Clinton’s impending
presidential campaign is causing immense anguish on the left (which I
share), but the 2016 battle is quite simply not worth fighting, not by
Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders or anybody else. I think we have to
consider that potent symbolic dimension when we face the left’s combination
of Hillary-mania and Hillary-phobia, which does not entirely correspond to
the measurable dimensions of Hillary Clinton as a politician, policymaker
and public figure. There just isn’t much anyone can say about her on those
latter fronts that hasn’t been said many times before. That problem
bedevils Doug Henwood’s thorough and even cautious “Stop Hillary!” cover
story in the November issue of Harper’s (unfortunately, it’s behind a
paywall), along with almost everything else that gets written about the
former first lady, former secretary of state and presumptive presidential
front-runner.

Henwood’s article was the longest and most articulate entry in a
stop-Clinton litany that has also included pieces in the Nation, In These
Times and the New Republic over the last year or so. This week brought us a
gossipy summary in Politico, loaded with unfounded surmises and insiderish
jargon, which argues that the “liberal media” is desperately trying to gin
up an anti-Clinton crusade and provoke someone into running against her
from the left: Sanders or Warren or outgoing Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley
or, what the hell, outgoing Virginia Sen. Jim Webb (who isn’t a left-winger
by anyone’s definition). This article is both vastly dumber than the
Harper’s essay and, curiously, much more on point. Hillary Clinton’s actual
positions are not really in doubt, and as Henwood rigorously details,
anybody who fails to grasp that she’s a hawk on both economics and foreign
policy, a pawn of Wall Street, a creature of the neoliberal “Washington
consensus” and a loyal defender of the deep state is living inside a willed
delusion.

No, the focus of current left-wing obsession is not so much Hillary herself
as the Hillary conundrum. It’s meta-Hillary, Hillary meteorology or perhaps
Hillary Kremlinology: Can she be stopped? If not stopped, can she be
diverted onto a new course, like a runaway locomotive or a hurricane? Do we
resist, submit or run away? What, in short, is to be done? (I agree, by the
way, that it’s condescending to refer to a female public figure primarily
by her first name. I wouldn’t do it if it weren’t for the fact that
Clinton’s official website and her super PAC, Ready for Hillary, have both
embraced the usage.)

My larger point is that these questions are the wrong questions, and that
they only serve to expose the sense of impotence and worsening crisis on
the American left. But at the risk of being sucked into the weeds of
political wonkery, the answers are pretty obvious: Nothing is to be done.
Hillary Clinton cannot be remodeled as a politician or a policymaker at
this stage of her career, beyond superficial questions of campaign
branding, and is not foolish enough to try. The only plausible way she can
lose the Democratic presidential nomination is if she decides not to run,
or through the intervention of some unforeseen scandal or crisis. Sanders
and Warren probably won’t run, and if they do they will lose. Progressive
voters are at liberty to stay home or go Green or flirt with the
half-appealing, half-crazy, libertarian jazz-dance stylings of Rand Paul,
as they choose. But they can’t stop Hillary.

Viewed through that prism, the litany of Clinton-bashing assembled in the
Politico story is something like the denial that marks the first stage of
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’ famous model of grief (with a fair amount of anger
and bargaining, steps two and three, mixed in). When a handful of
modest-circulation publications on the leftward edge of the Democratic
Party stand shoulder-to-shoulder in an anti-Hillary united front, they’re
in denial about the fact the 2016 primary process is almost a foregone
conclusion, dominated by big-money corporate donors lined up in advance and
a crushing political machine honed for this purpose over the last eight
years. They’re also in denial about the fact that they wield very little
influence with the Democratic electorate as a whole, and that in the wake
of the midterm catastrophe, Clinton – as the safe, consensus choice, the
“moderate,” and the perceived likely winner – is in an even more commanding
position than she was before.

As various political operators and observers tell the Politico reporters,
the bargaining stage comes next. For a veteran progressive like Nation
editor Katrina vanden Heuvel, the crusade against Hillary is almost
certainly more about trying to push the candidate toward Elizabeth
Warren-style positions on taxing the rich and forgiving student debt than
about defeating her. It’s more like short-term political tactics than
long-term political strategy: Galvanize the left-leaning base, or at least
reduce its sense of alienation and marginalization, and hold the
“Democratic coalition” together long enough to win another election. Not an
unworthy goal, you may say, but also not terrifically inspiring.

David Corn, the Washington bureau chief for Mother Jones, provides the
Politico article’s final quote, or kicker: “It’s easy to gripe about
Hillary. It’s a lot harder to find a solution.” That’s because there is no
solution and because Hillary Clinton, noxious as she may be, is not really
the problem. To put it more precisely, Clinton’s likely nomination and
probable victory in 2016 are an important symptom of the underlying
disorder within American politics, but are not the disorder itself. This is
really a side issue, but I suspect Clinton’s ardent defenders are correct
that an element of sexist or misogynistic caricature creeps into the
exaggerated scorn heaped upon her from the left, just as it does into the
right’s fantasy portrayal of her as a ball-slicing feminist harpy.

What the left’s Kübler-Ross negotiation with Hillary Clinton is really
about is more than another election of being forced to swallow a
center-right, corporate-sponsored candidate barely preferable to the
Republican alternative, or about watching the feminist dream of a female
president come to fruition in such agonizing fashion. Disillusionment with
Clinton is inevitably contaminated by disillusionment with Barack Obama,
who ran in 2008 as the reformist candidate to her left but has protected
the power and privilege of the Washington establishment more than any
previous Democratic president. What is really being mourned in this grief
process, whether people realize it or not, is the demise of a political
party that once stood for economic populism (whatever its ample flaws in
other areas) and for at least the last two decades, since the
administration of Hillary Clinton’s husband, has stood with Wall Street.

As former Clinton aide Bill Curry wrote earlier this year, it was Bill
Clinton, not Reagan or either of the Bushes, who enthusiastically gave away
the public airwaves to Big Telecom and deregulated the financial markets,
undoing a whole series of progressive reforms that stretched back to FDR
and Woodrow Wilson. The Clinton tactic of “triangulation” toward the center
was only partly a matter of ideological compromise and ruthless
realpolitik; it was also about flinging away issues of economic and
political power that were once central to the Democratic brand and
identity, and stuffing the party coffers with corporate cash.

The Democrats have sold their souls, and if we learned one clear message
from the midterm elections, we learned that the Democratic brand is in
profound crisis. (The Republicans were never big on soul, at least not
since the days of Teddy Roosevelt. Their brand is in crisis too, as they
will be reminded soon enough.) That’s a hopeful sign, in its way, as is the
fact that the tiny handful of Democrats who ran as vigorous economic
populists this year did OK, while the ones who sold themselves as Vegan
Steak Alternatives — not quite as red-blooded as a real conservative! —
were eviscerated. There are genuine and unmistakable stirrings of genuine
anti-corporate populism in and around the Democratic left, and even in the
general population. Elizabeth Warren should not be oversold as the lefty
Jesus, but she might represent the leading edge of an effort to recapture
elements of the party power structure, or an effort to build something new.
Or she could just be a nostalgic glimpse backward toward Paul Wellstone and
Frank Church, a political Throwback Thursday.

But in any case the revolutionary moment is not here. Where I come down,
and it’s a painful landing, is all the way at acceptance, the final stage
of the Kübler-Ross process. I honor the rage of people like Doug Henwood,
and I sympathize with the ardent bargaining of Katrina vanden Heuvel. But
it’s just not worth it. Self-described progressive pragmatists like Markos
Moulitsas and Arianna Huffington are right that it’s not worth trying to
stop Hillary Clinton — but not because there is any reason to be optimistic
about her presidency. (Yeah, I know: SCOTUS and abortion. Fine.) It’s not
worth it because presidential elections in general are an irrelevant
distraction from the long, hard struggle against money and power and
entrenched dark forces that might someday, just maybe, return meaning to
American politics — and the 2016 election is more irrelevant than most. And
it’s not worth it because it won’t work: Hillary Clinton feeds on the
anguish of leftists, and to stand against her only makes her stronger. If
you haven’t figured that out, you haven’t been paying attention.

*BuzzFeed: “Bill Clinton: Obama Immigration Delay May Have Caused ‘Loss Of
Hispanic Vote’”
<http://www.buzzfeed.com/rubycramer/bill-clinton-obama-immigration-delay-may-have-caused-loss-of>*

By Ruby Cramer

November 15, 2014, 11:21 p.m. EST

[Subtitle:] “It was a tough call for him,” Clinton says. Immigration
activists protested several of Hillary Clinton’s rallies on the campaign
trail this year.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — At the 10th anniversary celebration of his presidential
center, Bill Clinton said that Democrats may have suffered a “little bit of
a loss of the Hispanic vote” in the midterms because President Obama
delayed executive actions to ease deportations of undocumented immigrants
until after the election.

Clinton discussed the results of the midterms — in which Democrats lost far
more seats than expected in the Senate and the House — in detail for the
first time since Election Day at an event on Saturday in Little Rock hosted
by Politico.

The event was part of a four-day celebration of the 10th anniversary of the
Clinton Presidential Center. The gathering is as much a retrospective of
the White House years as it is a political and family reunion for the
Clintons and their friends and former staffers.

Obama is expected to announce the executive actions soon, and details of
the planned actions have been reported. But after saying he would take
action before the end of the summer, the president decided to hold off on
the plans until after the election, fearing the order would damage
Democrats’ chances in conservative-leaning states this year. Clinton
sympathized with the president, but suggested the delay hurt Democrats more
than not.

Polls leading up to the election were as high as 14 points off, noted
Clinton. “There was a collapse of the youth vote. The African-American vote
held fairly steady,” he added, “and was remarkable given that we had a
little bit of a loss of the Hispanic vote, perhaps because the president
didn’t issue the immigration order.”

“But it was a tough call for him, because had he done so, a lot of the
others would have lost by even more,” Clinton said. “It was a difficult
call.”

Clinton, whose comments made clear he had pored over exit poll data after
Democrats losses on Election Day, campaigned for more than 47 candidates
this year, according to a list of his events provided by his office.
Hillary Clinton campaigned for more than 26. In total, the Clintons
headlined 75 events.

This year, immigration activists associated with the organization, United
We Dream, crashed a handful of Hillary Clinton’s campaign rallies, causing
mostly minor disturbances before being escorted out by security. The
protesters said they hoped to pressure Clinton, who is considering another
run for president, to say whether she supported Obama’s planned executive
actions to slow deportations.

At one event last month, a rally for Democrats’ gubernatorial candidate in
Maryland, the protesters staged a particularly jarring and effective
protest. “Immigration is an important issue in this state,” Clinton told
the protesters from the lectern.

Bill Clinton, answering a question by the moderator of the event,
Politico’s Mike Allen, said part of the reason Democrats lost by such wide
margins was because the party wasn’t able to broadcast a cohesive economic
message to voters.

“People who were for us just, in all the din, couldn’t hear what was
actually a fairly coherent economic message coming out,” he said.

Exit polls, he added, showed that Democrats wished their candidates had
“talked about student-loan reform or equal pay or creating jobs through
infrastructure projects. And almost 100% of the Democrats I campaign with
talked about all that, but we didn’t have, again, a national advertising
campaign.”

“That might have made all the difference in a couple of close races,”
Clinton said, “but it would not have changed the larger outcome.”

Even Republicans were taken aback by the degree to which they won, said
Clinton.

“I have talked to several of them. And a lot of them were surprised by
their victory margins.”

*Calendar:*

*Sec. Clinton's upcoming appearances as reported online. Not an official
schedule.*

·  November 19  – New York, NY: Sec. Clinton is honored by the National
Breast Cancer Coalition (Breast Cancer Deadline
<http://www.breastcancerdeadline2020.org/donate/fundraising-events/2014-NY-Gala-Evite.html>
)

·  November 21  – New York, NY: Sec. Clinton presides over meeting of the
Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves (Bloomberg
<http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-11-02/clinton-aides-resist-calls-to-jump-early-into-2016-race>
)

·  November 21  – New York, NY: Sec. Clinton is honored by the New York
Historical Society (Bloomberg
<http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-11-02/clinton-aides-resist-calls-to-jump-early-into-2016-race>
)

·  December 1 – New York, NY: Sec. Clinton keynotes a League of
Conservation Voters dinner (Politico
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/09/hillary-clinton-green-groups-las-vegas-111430.html?hp=l11>
)

·  December 4 – Boston, MA: Sec. Clinton speaks at the Massachusetts
Conference for Women (MCFW <http://www.maconferenceforwomen.org/speakers/>)

·  December 16 – New York, NY: Sec. Clinton honored by Robert F. Kennedy
Center for Justice and Human Rights (Politico
<http://www.politico.com/story/2014/11/hillary-clinton-ripple-of-hope-award-112478.html>
)