Tag: Hillary Clinton (page 25)

Barack Obama is seeking to portray himself as the better candidate on issues pertaining to NAFTA, jobs, unions and labor.

For voters in Texas, Ohio and PA (it's too late for Wisconsin), I suggest you examine their voting records in the Senate on these issues. It's a far better yardstick than speeches. A good starting place: Progressive Punch.

Hillary Clinton's voting record during her seven years as U.S. Senator is 100% progressive on "Aid to Workers Negatively Impacted Upon by International Trade Agreements", on General Union Rights and on Outsourcing of American Jobs Overseas.

Barack Obama has no voting record on "Aid to Workers Negatively Impacted Upon by International Trade Agreements."

Here is Hillary's record on Preventing Workers' Rights From Being Eroded by International Trade Agreements. It is solidly progressive with the exception of two votes on one bill in 2002. [More...]

Conservatives attacking Barack Obama and his supporters wanting change believe Obama is a more progressive candidate than Hillary Clinton. Let's take a look at that, because their voting records in the Senate suggest otherwise.

Progressive Punch is a site that rates the legislative records of all Senators on progressive issues. For 2007-2008, Barack Obama is the 43rd most progressive out of 100 Senators. # 44 is Joe Lieberman. After #50, they are all Republicans, except for Tim Johnson. (Overall, his ranking is 88% or 24 out of 99, possibly suggesting he has become less progressive over time in the Senate.)

Hillary Clinton is rated far more progressive for 2007-2008, at #29. Her score is 90% to Obama's 81%. Overall, she ranks 17 out of 99, with a 91% progressive voting record, to his 24 out of 99 and an 88% progressive voting record.).

Obama's weakest score: On human rights and civil liberties he's at 75%, and #42 out of 99. One reason: in 2005, he voted "no" on a bill to cut funding for a new $36 million maximum security prison at Guantanamo.

Writing in the Wall St. Journal today, Karl Rove offers some advice for Hillary Clinton with respect to challenging Barack Obama:

Mrs. Clinton can do much more to draw attention to Mr. Obama's lack of achievements. She can agree with Mr. Obama's statement Tuesday night that change is difficult to achieve on health care, energy, poverty, schools and immigration -- and then question his failure to provide any leadership on these or other major issues since his arrival in the Senate. His failure to act, advocate or lead on what he now claims are his priorities may be her last chance to make a winning argument.

Other than that advice, the column is a disappointing, and in my view, inaccurate portrayal of Obama as a leftist hiding in centrist clothing. I think Obama is a centrist. See my new post comparing his and Hillary's progressive voting record and rankings.

ABC News has a pretty thorough analysis of the status of things in Texas, and which way different demographics are breaking.

There's three problems for Hillary in Texas, and they don't sound small.

• 1/3 of the delegates will be awarded based on a caucus held at the conclusion of the primary.

• Delegates are apportioned partially by Democratic voter turnout in prior elections

• The primary is open to Independents

The significance: Obama does better in caucuses and primaries where Independents can vote.

The places with the greater amount of liberal and African American voters (Dallas, Houston, Austin) had greater voter turnout than the Latino communities in prior years, so even if Hillary gets a great Latino turnout, she won't score as many delegates. [More...]

Since the networks cut it off, here's the text of Hillary's new speech delivered in Youngstown, Ohio last night.

It seems to me the most prominent issue in the campaigns is now NAFTA and that it will be as important in Ohio as it was in Wisconsin.

Admittedly, it's an issue I know nothing about. But the sense I get from the media is that Obama has gained an edge on the issue by bashing Hillary because Bill Clinton pushed for NAFTA.

Last night, Hillary released a four point specific plan to fix the problems of NAFTA. It's in her speech and reprinted below and my questions are, what is Obama's specific plan, how does it differ from Hillary's and do they really differ on the issue? [More...]

Lots of folks in the comments last night criticized Hillary Clinton because she didn't congratulate Barack Obama on his win in Wisconsin in her speech. Huffington Post reports she called him after the speech to congratulate him. His press secretary confirms this.

And, while her speech contained some criticism Obama, it was nothing compared to that of her introductory speaker, Machinists Union President Tom Buffenbarger. Via Ken Vogel at Politico:

He also compared Obama with "Janus, the two-faced god" of Roman mythology. He called him "silver tongued" and a "thespian" and "the man in love with the microphone."

"He’s not just a trained thespian, he’s a terrific shadow boxer. You know the type. Outside the ring, he pretends he can float like a butterfly and sting like a bee," he said. "But Barack Obama is no Muhammad Ali. He took a walk every time there was a tough vote in the Illinois state Senate. He took a walk more than 130 times. That’s what a shadow boxer does. All the right moves, all the right combinations, all the right footwork, but he never steps into the ring. He walks away from the fight.”

Vogel reports the union crowd loved it.

Update: MSNBC, 9:01pm: Too early to call but Obama has lead in exit polls.

Bump and Update: Polls about to close. CNN is going to announce what they know and then talk about Huckabee. What does that tell you? If the media makes you crazy tonight, here's a new thread to vent about it.

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Polls close in 45 minutes in Wisconsin. MSNBC results here, CNN results here. Predictions? Thoughts? More below.

The demise of the Clinton campaign was sewn just after the 2004 election, when pollster Mark Penn sought to explain the Bush victory among so-called "values voters."

He found that uptight parents were less concerned with abortion than the idea of their kids watching "Sex in  the City," "pumped into their homes" which they'd never seen, and was then only on cable, and playing "violent videogames."

The next year, Senator Clinton held a press conference with Joe Lieberman and Republican Senators Santorum and Brownback, threatening the game industry with legal restrictiopns if they didn't "clean up their act."

Clinton allies introduced State Laws, with press releases claiming "86% of 16 year old boys play 'these' games."

For what it's worth, via My DD: The Gallup Daily Tracking poll has a Hillary rebound. It's now Hillary 45%, Obama 46% with Democrats and Democratic-leaning voters.

Clinton was seven percentage points behind Obama in the Feb. 15-17 average. In Monday night's interviewing, Clinton's percentage of the vote of national voters was higher than Obama's, but there has been fluidity in the nightly tracking numbers over the past several days as Democrats nationally process the intense, often heated, nature of the campaign. Monday's news coverage of the Democratic campaign was replete with a focus on the Clinton campaign's charges that Obama had plagiarized material from Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick and other negative attacks on Obama by the Clinton campaign. It is unclear which, if any, of these factors could be responsible for changes in the candidates' standing.

Howard Wolfson, on a conference call with reporters today, said Hillary Clinton has raised $15 million in the 15 days -- all since SuperTuesday.

Mark Penn said Wisconsin "has always been difficult" for them. On Texas,

Since promising victory in Texas, the Clinton campaign has acknowledged that the way Democrats allocate delegates in Texas poses a challenge. One-third of the delegates comes from a caucus which begins as soon as the primary polls close on March 4th. The other two-thirds of delegates are awarded by state senate district. Predominantly African-American state senate districts in Texas have more delegates than the state's Hispanic districts because African-Americans have turned out in higher numbers in the state's last two general elections.

The campaign also flatly denied earlier reports about an unnamed campaign official who said Hillary would go after Obama's pledged delegates.

CNN Politics.com is reporting that a new poll suggests the battle for the Democratic presidential nomination between Sens. Hillary Clinton of New York and Barack Obama of Illinois is a statistical dead heat in Texas. Really?

More below the fold.

Both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are scheduled to speak in Texas tomorrow, the day Wisconsin voters go to the polls. They each had to cancel events Sunday in Wisconsin due to weather. Hillary did local campaigning at a diner and grocery store while Obama flew to North Carolina to seek John Edwards' endorsement.

Hillary rescheduled her canceled Wausau event for today, and addressed the labor-oriented crowd on issues.

Surrounded by several hundred enthusiastic union members, Hillary Clinton hit strongly populist themes in her second campaign appearance today in Wisconsin.

At the Wausau Labor Temple, the Democratic presidential candidate emphasized economic themes, including what she wanted to do as president to keep jobs in America, revive manufacturing jobs, hold down interest rates on student loans and stem home foreclosures.

She also spoke to a crowd of 500 at St. Norbert College in De Pere. Obama, on the defensive much of today for using Mass. Gov. Duval Patrick's speeches in his own without crediting the usage, will speak in Beloit tonight.

Hillary and Chelsea will be at a rally in Madison tonight. Hillary also offered new policy today. She announced a food safety recall plan, in the wake of this weekend's huge beef recall.

Who will win Wisconsin and by how much? Take our poll below: