Great argument by Krystal Ball on The Cycle today about why 2016 might not be Hillary Clinton's year after all. As much as I wish everyone would just quit speculating about Hillary and what she may or may not do, this was one segment that I welcomed for her sane, rational arguments against another run at the presidency.
It is clear now that we have two economies: one for a thin slice of educated elite and one for everyone else. That is the moment we are in now. So I ask you, does Hillary Clinton sound to you like the right person for this moment?
In a time when corporations have hijacked our politics enabling them to reap all the profit without feeling any compunction to do right by their workers, is someone who sat on the rabidly anti-union board of Walmart for six years the right person to restore worker’s rights?
In a time when we are still reeling from a global financial disaster brought on by foolhardy bank deregulation, is someone who recently took $400,000 to give two speeches at Goldman Sachs the person we need to wrest control of the asylum back from the banking inmates?
Keep in mind that at those paid speeches, Clinton wasn’t giving tough love to these masters of the universe. On the contrary, she said that “the banker-bashing…was unproductive and indeed foolish.” Of course, it was her husband, former President Bill Clinton, who did much of the deregulating that got us into trouble including ending the Glass-Steagall prohibitions on mixing traditional banking with speculative investment banking.
More to the point though, in a time when we badly need to be inspired, rallied, and made to believe that America can once again be true to the American dream, we desperately need someone who is mission driven. We need someone who is clearly passionate, who is living and breathing and feeling in their bones the plight of the worker and the middle class, and who is unafraid to stand up to the Wall Street titans. That person is not Hillary Clinton. It is Elizabeth Warren.
It's here that I part with Krystal. I think Elizabeth Warren is perfectly situated to actually have some power and make a difference right where she is. Running for President removes her strong voice from the right-now needs we have in the Senate. As much as I admire Warren, I really don't want her to run for President where she'll be battered and pilloried and rendered powerless.
Krystal's remaining arguments are right on the money. I know there are lots of women who were inspired by her 2008 run, but take gender out of it for a minute and look at who Hillary Clinton is. She is not progressive at all. She's very much the captive of corporate America, right down to the WalMart director's slot.
