Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Hillary Clinton Flip-Flopper on TPP vs. Bernie Sanders

UPDATE /// (October 9th, 2015) How could Joe Biden run against Hillary (who only now opposes the TPP trade) and Bernie (who has always opposed the TPP trade deal) when Joe Biden's spokesperson just confirmed that Biden supports the bill and will help pass it on the Hill. The TPP trade deal is vehemently opposed by labor unions, whose support Biden would have to count on if he enters the race. But as a sitting Vice-President, it would be impossible for Biden to oppose the TPP because it is one of Obama’s top priorities. /// END UPDATE

First, let's be very clear about a few things. Obama turned out to be a "moderate" Democrat who ran as a "progressive" Democrat. He was never a "Socialist". Just look at the TPP trade agreement that he loves so much (that most Democrats were against) that benefits multi-national corporations at the expense of American workers. (TPP, TTIP and TISA -- The Triple Trade Treaty Threat)

Hillary Clinton (just like her husband, as a "centrist/Third Way politician) is also an admitted "moderate" Democrat — but who is trying to falsely appear as a "progressive" Democrat — and probably after only realizing how popular Senators Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders populist messages have been. So Hillary didn't "evolve" — for political expediency, Hillary's just acting. Any sensible person can see though her charade!

And no God-fearing Russian Socialist or self-respecting European democratic socialist would ever approve of such a terrible trade agreement. Warren and Sanders both always opposed the TPP trade deal, the one that Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden had helped push --- BUT ONLY JUST TODAY did Hillary Clinton now say she opposes TPP!

Does anybody else see a pattern here? Once again, following in Bernie Sanders' footsteps (like she has on college tuition, same-sex marriage, the Keystone Pipeline, prescription drug prices, the Cadillac Tax on healthcare plans, stricter controls on sales at gun shows, trade agreements. etc) --- it was only during her presidential campaign that she has JUST STARTED advocating on behalf of issues that Bernie Sanders has been doing for years, sometimes for decades. Hillary is the biggest flip-flopper of all time! What a fake person she is!

The triple "moderate" threat vs the REAL progressive: Bernie Sanders
The triple "moderate" threat vs the REAL progressive: Bernie Sanders

Unlike Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren is a Democrat who truly believes in very "progressive" values. Whereas Bernie Sanders is a self-described "democratic socialist" — but unlike Warren, he actually caucuses with "progressive" Democrats — and has always advocated on behalf of "progressive" issues (for decades, and not until just lately like Hillary.)

Earlier, at one of many campaign rallies, at the University of New Hampshire, Senator Bernie Sanders drew over 3,000 supporters; a Clinton event two days earlier at the same place attracted a mere 600. Recently almost 30,000 showed up to see Bernie Sanders speak in Boston. (His next rally is scheduled for October 9th, where he will address supporters in Tucson, Arizona — just four days before his first debate with Hillary Clinton).

Julia Barnes, the state director for Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign, says: “In a normal campaign, you spend an enormous amount of effort signing up volunteers. We don’t have to waste time doing that here. Our folks are engaged and ready to go — to the point where we’re dragging behind them! We need to turn all those people who go to rallies into workers.”

The (libertarian) Washington Post will praise Hillary Clinton when it's comparing her to Bernie Sanders. Why Hillary Clinton is more progressive than Bernie Sanders, in one sentence: “I am not in favor of making college free for Donald Trump’s kids,” Hillary said. The Washington Post wrote: "Real progressives seek to show that government can operate smartly, not haphazardly. Real progressives spend money on urgent needs, not on the rich. But it’s hard to attract huge crowds by calling for reasonableness."

Meanwhile, from the (liberal) Huffington Post: Bernie Sanders Is About as Radical as Harry Truman: "The mainstream media continues to be shocked that Bernie Sanders keeps gaining traction against frontrunner Hillary Clinton. However, if you look at what Sanders actually stands for, it is well within the mainstream of what used to be the Democratic Party."

The Democratic party used to be "progressive" under FDR — but according to the Republicans, the corporate media and "moderate" Democrats today, FDR would be a "far-left wing radical Socialist".

Hillary Clinton said that while Bernie Sanders is beating her in New Hampshire, polls show her winning in Iowa, South Carolina, Nevada and nationally. “I’ve got work to do in New Hampshire. I’m very excited to be leading everywhere else,” Clinton said, laughing. But Bernie has also been steadily gaining on her in all those other polls. The website Democrats.Com shows her losing badly (Bernie at 50% to Hillary 20%).

And Hillary never mentioned a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll that shows Bernie Sanders outperforms her in Iowa and New Hampshire in a general election against Republicans. So theoretically, Democrats who vote for Hillary Clinton could give the 2016 presidency to the GOP.

By far, Bernie has also been drawing much larger crowds to his campaign events. So why wouldn't Senator Elizabeth Warren and all the labor unions also come out early to endorse Bernie? The other Democratic "establishment" members of the party's political machine seem want to keep the status quo just as it is (doing too little for the middle-class and poor) — and will endorse another "moderate" such as Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden (despite whoever most voters would probably prefer. This might help explain why Congressional approval ratings have been so historically low.

Referring to an appearance she made on Saturday Night Live over the weekend, Hillary said: “You know, I’ll admit, I’m a more reserved person than maybe some people in politics are. But as you can see from the skit, I also like to have a good time. So we’ll mix it up a little bit in the campaign.”

Of course, that was after Bill Clinton had his Hollywood pal Steven Spielberg supplied Hillary Clinton with acting coaches to critique her campaigning performances — to make her more "likeable". This may have helped her acting career on SNL, but so much for "authenticity. (We'll see how "likeable" she is when confronting Bernie Sanders at their first debate.)

Hillary Clinton promised to unveil proposals to go after Wall Street and hold banks and individuals responsible for “their bad behavior" (despite benefiting from the support of wealthy Democratic donors on Wall Street). This is an issue that regularly stirs loud applause at the rallies of Senator Bernie Sanders. Clinton had recently approved of Ben Bernanke's remarks while promoting his new memoir that “people should have gone to jail” after the financial crisis of 2008. (Wow! Hillary Clinton as an anti-banker economic populist! I which I owned a bridge in Brooklyn!)

The Nevada and South Carolina polls suck for Bernie (where there are lot of Latinos, especially in Las Vegas — and African-Americans in South Carolina — so Bernie needs to get on the ball with minority voters.

Otherwise, they will end up voting against their own economic best interests (by voting for Hillary or Joe) because they aren't familiar with the name "Bernie Sanders" or his past track record on civil rights, racial injustice, wages, incarceration rates (etc) and a slew of other issues that would greatly benefit them — more so than the Clintons or Biden has ever in the past.

Billionaire financier George Soros, a top contributor to the Clinton Foundation, had Hillary’s ear when she was Secretary of State. Washington Post: “How Hillary kept her wealthy friends close at the State Department”. Soros also funded #BlackLivesMatter, the group that interrupted a Bernie Sanders rally in Seattle — despite Bernie's record associated to Black Lives.

As for the other "moderate", Uncle Joe: If Joe runs, it won't necessarily be against Hillary Clinton (the Democratic Party Machine Establishment choice), it will be against Bernie Sanders if Hillary falters.

The "Draft Biden" super PAC announced that it will spend six figures ($999,999?) running an ad on cable TV urging the vice president to get into the race. Politico reported that it was Joe Biden himself who leaked the word of his son's dying wish for his dad to run for president: "The vice president is mourning. He’s also calculating." (If this is true, who would have ever guessed that a politician would ever behave in this way?)

The New York Magazine reports that if Joe Biden jumps into the Democratic primary, Hillary Clinton will be ready to go on the offensive. According to a Clinton campaign source, a team of opposition researchers working on behalf of Clinton is currently digging through Biden’s long record in office to develop attack lines in case the vice-president runs. The research effort started about a month ago and is being conducted by operatives at Correct the Record, the pro-Hillary superPAC founded by David Brock, which is coordinating with the Clinton campaign.

Bernie doesn't run negative campaign ads or fight dirty against his political opponents. But then again, that could change according to the New York Times:

"For months, Mrs. Clinton has gingerly approached Mr. Sanders, the Vermont senator, who has routinely drawn tens of thousands of Democrats to his rallies and who is rivaling her in polls of Iowa and New Hampshire voters. She has seldom mentioned his name, let alone criticized him. But while Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. may be a looming threat, Mr. Sanders poses more immediate concerns to Mrs. Clinton and her aides. Many Democrats believe that Mr. Sanders, an independent who calls himself a democratic socialist, will prove too far left-leaning to capture the nomination, despite his popularity at this stage. But the growing chance that he could win either Iowa or New Hampshire, or both, has raised the stakes for the debate on Tuesday in Las Vegas. Beyond the debate, neither Mrs. Clinton nor Mr. Sanders has ruled out resorting to negative advertisements in the months ahead, though both have insisted they would prefer to avoid them." [I'm not sure if that is true.]

But from everything we've witnessed so far, all Bernie has to do is speak the truth from his heart to the American people. He doesn't have to put on a Academy Award performance like Hillary.

According to the newest independent Quinnipiac University Poll — for the three States of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

  • Clinton and Trump have the worst overall favorability ratings
  • Clinton and Trump have the lowest scores for being honest and trustworthy
  • Hillary Clinton is losing ground among Democrats
  • Biden does better against leading Republicans than does Clinton or Sanders

The Washington Post writes in their newsletter:

Clinton leads among Sunshine State Democrats with 23 percent, while Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden are tied at 19 percent.

With Pennsylvania Democrats, Hillary dropped 9 points to 36 percent, with Biden closing in at 19 percent and Sanders at 19 percent, compared to August.

In the general election, the survey pegs Carson and Biden as the optimal nominees at this point (they have not been attacked relentlessly for months on end).

  • In Florida, Biden beats Carson, 45 to 42 percent
  • In Ohio, Carson beats Biden, 46 to 42 percent
  • In Pennsylvania, Carson beats Biden, 47 to 42 percent

* It should also be noted that Bernie Sanders also lacks much of the publicity that Clinton and Biden have both enjoyed for many years prior; so Bernie (as of yet) is still not that well known among the general population. Hopefully the debates will help change that.

11 comments:

  1. Ebony ---------------///////////////

    Meet Bernie Sanders: Where the Black Voter Fits Into His Ambitious Plan

    "The 74-year-old Vermont senator isn't that familiar to African Americans, but he makes the case to EBONY.com why he should be."

    www.ebony.com/news-views/meet-bernie-sanders-where-the-black-voter-fits-into-his-ambitious-plan

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  2. Why did Hillary Clinton need to take acting lessons to make herself appear more "likeable" and to learn to better "connect" with people, because the public perception of her was not very human, not very likable and not very authentic?

    Hillary has been involved in politics for 40 years — so how long does it take to learn to be a conniving, self-serving and manipulating politician?

    In 1971 she met fellow law student Bill Clinton at Yale.
    In 1974 she was on the impeachment inquiry staff in D.C., advising a House Committee during the Watergate scandal under Nixon.
    In 1974 Bill had been running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives in Arkansas.
    In 1975 Hillary married Bill.
    In 1976 Bill Clinton won election for Arkansas Attorney General.
    In 1979 Hillary became the First Lady of Arkansas (from 1979 to 1981 and from 1983 to 1992 for a total of 12 years).
    In 1993 she be came the First Lady of the White (from 1993 to 2001 for a total of 8 years).
    In 2001 she became a U.S. Senator for New York from (from 2001 to 2009 for a total of 8 years).
    In 2007 and 2008 she campaigned for president.
    In 2009 she became the Secretary of State (from 2009 to 2013 for a total of 4 years).
    In 2015 she began campaigning for president for a second time.

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  3. Hillary recently flip-flopped on the TPP trade deal to get to Joe Biden’s left -- on an issue that is very important to organized labor. After her husband spearheaded NAFTA, and after she repeatedly promoted TPP as secretary of state, Clinton’s flip-flop may (or may not) help shore up wavering blue-collar support. She flip-flopped in an era when voters so badly crave authenticity.

    Bernie Sanders on Hillary's flip-flop: “As someone who has voted against the North American Free Trade Agreement [NAFTA], the Central American Free Trade Agreement [CAFTA] and Permanent Normal Trade Relations [PNTR] with China — and who has helped lead the effort against the Trans-Pacific Partnership — I am glad that Secretary Clinton has now come on board.”

    "I was for the Iraq war, before I was against it". — John Kerry
    "I was for the TPP deal, before I was against it". — Hillary Clinton

    Meanwhile, while pandering to labor unions, Vice President Joe Biden joked about joining the presidential race: "If I don’t move, I’ll be demoted to secretary of state or something."

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/10/07/joe-biden-jokes-about-being-demoted-to-secretary-of-state/

    This is the biggest bull$hit of all: Hillary Clinton will promise more prosecutions of individual executives and bankers at firms (her biggest campaign donors!). She will also bar more people convicted of crimes from working in any capacity in the industry. (It's a bit ironic that she says this as her e-mail scandal continues to get worse.)

    http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2015/10/07/hillary-clinton-has-a-new-plan-to-stiffen-wall-street-penalties/

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  4. In Iowa this week, Hillary Clinton (an Illinois native) declared she will be rooting for the Chicago Cubs in the playoffs. But when she was running to be a senator from New York in 2000, she claimed to be a Yankees fan. But back then, in typical "Clinton Speak", she smartly dodged this "gotcha moment" by insisting that New York is her favorite "American League" team (but why not the Chicago White Sox?) while the Chicago Cubs is favorite "National League" team. (or why not the New York Mets?)

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  5. Facing a spirited challenge from Senator Bernie Sanders in Iowa and New Hampshire, Hillary Rodham Clinton’s campaign has reminded her supporters that she will be better positioned to defeat Mr. Sanders once the primary fight moves to more racially diverse states, where polls show she has a large advantage over him among blacks and Hispanics.

    A late entry by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. into the Democratic contest could complicate Mrs. Clinton’s strategy, particularly if he were able to portray himself to minority voters as President Obama’s rightful heir.

    But polls show that Mr. Biden would probably compete for the same pool of Democratic voters as Mrs. Clinton. But he would not begin with significant support from minorities: A New York Times/CBS News Poll taken last month showed Mrs. Clinton with support from 52 percent of nonwhite voters, compared with 18 percent for Mr. Biden and 17 percent for Mr. Sanders.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/08/us/politics/for-biden-easing-hillary-clintons-grip-on-minority-voters-could-be-tricky.html

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  6. Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) is set to back Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential bid on Friday, giving the independent a boost in his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination. It will be Sanders' first endorsement from a member of Congress. Grijalva is the co-chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which Sanders helped found in 1991. Grijalva is also a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-endorsement_56154809e4b021e856d3192d

    And Bernie Sanders says he’ll work very aggressively to attract Latino voters.

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/bernie-sanders-latino-voters_56159891e4b021e856d3819f

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  7. Today Hillary presented an award at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s 38th Annual Awards Gala in D.C.

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  8. President Obama also spoke at the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute’s 38th Anniversary Awards Gala.

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  9. How Hillary Clinton Would Regulate Wall Street

    New York Times: "The desire to assail too-big-to-fail-banks energizes the left and has propelled Senator Elizabeth Warren and the presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders. But some of the party’s most prodigious donors come from the financial industry and don’t much care for its vilification. And Bill Clinton’s administration oversaw the deregulation on Wall Street. All that makes the question of how Hillary Clinton would regulate the financial sector a crucial test of her campaign to win the Democratic nomination ... With the first Democratic debate taking place next week, the stage is set for financial reform to be a major area where Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Sanders can clash."

    http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/09/upshot/how-hillary-clinton-would-regulate-the-too-big-to-fail-banks.html

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  10. Check out the events over the past 4 months in this timeline:

    JUNE 2015: Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) drew fire for her vote to end the debate on fast-tracking the TPP trade bill. Labor unions, which oppose the bill, expressed anger that McCaskill (a big Hillary supporter) had moved ahead, even though the legislation omitted a program to help workers who are hurt by trade deals.

    http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/politics-government/congress/article25776718.html

    JUNE 2015: McCaskill said Bernie Sanders was TOO liberal, and complained that the media was being too nice to Senator Bernie Sanders because they weren't calling him a "socialist" often enough. (Bernie has always opposed the TPP trade deal.)

    http://bud-meyers.blogspot.com/2015/06/why-corporate-democrats-and-media-fear.html

    JULY 2015: On Ed Schultz's very last actual appearance on The Ed Show before being cancelled, he had Bernie Sanders on as a guest. They had discussed Hillary Clinton's reluctance to offer a clear and concise opinion on the TPP trade deal.

    http://bud-meyers.blogspot.com/2015/09/can-dnc-hijack-elizabeth-warren-to-best.html

    OCTOBER 2015: McCaskill criticized the co-hosts of MSNBC's "Morning Joe" for criticizing Hillary Clinton's latest flip-flop on her position of the TPP trade deal — and not focusing enough on Republicans, who also changed their positions.

    http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/claire-mccaskill-morning-joe-hillary-clinton-tpp

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  11. Hillary's flip-flop on the TPP trade deal puts her at odds with those she worked with most closely during her time in the administration. Some of her former State Department aides — and some of her current campaign aides — were among the strongest proponents of the trade accord as a linchpin of the Obama administration’s Asia strategy. And many have continued to lobby in favor of the deal since leaving office.

    Her decision to oppose the pact has been viewed by her rivals on the campaign trail as a politically expedient move to insulate herself from attacks from the left. Most of the Democratic Party opposes the TPP deal, including her top competitors for the Democratic nomination.

    Clinton composed a Foreign Policy magazine cover story in October 2011 in which she wrote that the TPP could become “a benchmark for future agreements.”

    https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ex-state-aides-still-talking-up-pacific-rim-pact-clinton-turned-her-back-on/2015/10/08/e1665fc2-6de6-11e5-aa5b-f78a98956699_story.html

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