Hillary’s Fundraising Problem

Hillary Clinton’s problem isn’t that she can’t fundraise but you might say she is doing it too well. She and her husband have all the fat cats riding around in their limousines donating large amounts of money to their foundation and also outrageous fees for speaking engagements.

The Clinton Foundation

The Foundation has done a lot of good by connecting various charities with donors. But the problems arises in that the foundation is accepting donations from foreign governments. That would generally not be a problem, but when you are running for President it can look like the foreign governments are trying to buy influence. Not where you want to be when running for President.

Failure to Think Ahead?

The foundation took foreign donations up until 2009 when she became Secretary of State. They stopped because it didn’t look good having foreign governments donating indirectly to a top administration official. But when she stepped down as Secretary of State, the foundation started taking foreign donations again. You would think that she and Bill had in mind her run for President. It seems like a poor choice to resume the practice given this and makes you question the ethics but also the surprising failure to see how it would be perceived.

Defending the Donations

The Clinton’s put out a statement defending the practice and pointing out that they are very transparent about who donates, and making available a donor list. But many of the people who are donating to her campaign fund are also making significant donations to the foundation as well. That just doesn’t look good. One can  make the assumption that people are donating larger amounts to the foundation than they otherwise might because they were assuming she was running for President and now know she is.

Republican vs. Democrat Outlook

It is not unusual for politician’s to buddy up to wealthy people who can write big checks. But the Republicans have an advantage because they are generally seen as on the side of business vs. labor and they generally don’t see it as a problem to be cozying up to rich people. Rather, it is almost a badge of honor. But Hillary has been pulling in money from the wealthiest people in the world for the foundation and these people usually want something in return. Combine that with the fact that the Democrats draw a lot from labor and the middle to lower classes and it makes for a very difficult balancing act.

Catch-22

The problem can go both ways. Her poll numbers have been dropping which is not the direction she wants them to head. However, they have been receiving large donations which have been rapidly filling the campaign coffers which gives her power compared to most rivals.

Clinton’s Emails

As many people know, Hillary Clinton, in addition to people complaining about her role in not getting aid in time to our compound in Benghazi in Libya are also concerned about her emails.

Everyone agrees that regarding the emails, she did nothing illegal. It is a matter of the perception of what she did. It would be illegal now because the law has changed.

Private Server

Clinton used the federal encrypted email system for emails that needed to be secure. But she had her own email system that she used. It was run from a server in her home. It was a private account used exclusively for official business. It did give her more control than normal over access to the emails.

It is not clear why Hillary Clinton chose to set up her own server. It probably gives her more protection from subpoenas but less protection from hackers and viruses than in a data center. The server itself was probably safe because her home is guarded by the Secret Service. Although, it would have been susceptible to fire or flood.

The Scientific American has a nice article on why it isn’t that odd for Hillary Clinton to have her own server. It almost made us want to go out and get our own.

Federal Records Act and Freedom of Information Act

According to the New York Times she used a private email account for official business. This could be a potential problem because the Federal Records Act requires all employees to save emails and other correspondence. So the question they asked was whether this private email account saved all of her work related emails.

The AP has requested the government under the Freedom of Information Act to see the emails but has been waiting a year. The private account first came to public attention because of emails of Sidney Blumenthal’s that were released by a convicted Romanian hacker. Then Trey Gowdy, the Republican leading the investigation into Benghazi became aware of the separate email accounts.

Clinton Calls for Release

Clinton now wants the State Department make available 55,000 pages of emails from the time she was at the Department. She made the statement at a campaign stop in Iowa. Her reason was probably because a judge overruled the State Department. They were going to release them all at one time by January (which seems like a long way away). But the judge says they need to be release as they become available. So there will be constant small releases. This is probably not to Hillary’s liking since it won’t hit the news and then die, but keep the information constantly coming up in the news. But, as she pointed out, it is up to the State Department, Clinton no longer has control over the emails, they are government property.

In some ways, she has made the situation worse. Her statement Tuesday that she wanted the emails release was the first time she had taken questions from reporters in a month. This has given Republicans ammunition, saying that she has something to hide.

She also answered some questions about the $25 million she and Bill Clinton have made from speeches since January of 2014, along with even more money contributed to their charitable foundation. She also said she now felt voting for the Iraq War was a mistake.

Hillary’s Early Years

Most people first became aware of Hillary Clinton as Bill Clinton’s wife. Probably the next thing they remember is the disaster of the Health Care reforms that she spearheaded at the time. Also, the controversy about Whitewater and Vince Foster’s Death. Then they were aware of her as a Senator from New York, followed by Secretary of State after losing to Barack Obama or the Presidency. But most people don’t know much about her early years.

Parents

She grew up on Park Ridge, IL near Chicago. It was a middle class community. Her father served in World War II in the Navy and had a drapery business after that. Interestingly, he not only sold them, but designed and printed them. He was a died in the wool Republican. Hillary had two brothers and they and their mother helped out in her father’s business when possible.

Hillary’s life growing up was very stable, unlike her mother’s. Her mother’s parents abandoned her and she was sent to live with relatives who also didn’t really want her. That would make you or break you. It seems to have made her because when she was 14 she started working and trying to support herself so she could be independent and didn’t have to worry about these other people. But it also made her want a different life for her own children.

Childhood

Hillary went to public schools and was in the Brownies and Girl Scouts. She also played girls softball. Her mother, Dorothy taught Sunday School in the Methodist Church which is what Hillary was brought up as. Through the youth program, Hillary got to see Martin Luther King speak and the youth minister was a key reason that Hillary became a lifelong advocate for social justice.

College, Law School and After

Hillary went to Wellesley College and then to Yale Law School where she met Bill Clinton. After law school, instead of working for a law firm, she worked for the Children’s Defense Fund.

She then served on a congressional committee investigating Richard Nixon. She then moved to Arkansas and started Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. In 1975, she married Bill Clinton. As first lady of Arkansas, she pushed for better health care access and to improve educational standards and performance.

Hillary Clinton and the Black Vote

We just wrote about Hillary and possible problems with a generational gap and appeal. But there is another audience that will be critical to her election, the black vote.

How do you follow up on a performance like Barack Obama’s in turning out the black vote. It will be hard to repeat.

Some people not only wondered whether she will get the black vote, but whether she enjoys it. F. Michael Higginbotham wrote and interesting article that makes the claim that she does deserve to be supported by blacks.

Police Relations

He points to her speech at Columbia University on April 29th. She spoke about a number of causes for the problems in Baltimore and other issues around the country and her proposed solutions.  She spoke about the racial inequities in the criminal justice system but just as importantly in the US in general and in the areas of politics and the economy.

Although it has become obvious to most Americans over the last year with Baltimore, Feguson and unfortunately many other incidents, she pointed out the poor relationship between the law enforcement and minorities. She also commented on the dramatic disparity in arrests, sentencing and imprisonment by race. Black men are much more likely to be stopped, searched,  and charged and they receive longer prison sentences than white men for the same crime.

One solution she suggested, which has been at the top of many people’s minds recently is body cameras for police. But, she said there were problems that were even more important than relations with the police. It was the lack of employment for black men. In Baltimore, the black unemployment rate is twice that of whites’. In the 20-24 year old age range it is 3 times as high. More disturbing is that the median net worth of whites in the US is 18 times that of blacks, which is higher than in South Africa during apartheid.

Economic and Educational Opportunities

She pointed out that more economic opportunities are needed and better education. She also suggested more support for poor families so they can better give a leg up to the children.

Voter Rights

In a speech last summer, she also condemned voter identification laws and restrictions that had a greater impact on the minority community. She was very critical of the Shelby County vs. Holder decision by the Supreme Court which invalidated part of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. She pointed out that the Voting Rights Act has done more democratization than almost any piece of legislation. Within 4 years of becoming law, 800,000 new voters registered, mostly black.

Hillary Clinton, David Letterman and Mad Men

What do Hillary Clinton, David Letterman and Mad Men have to do with each other? On the surface, not much. They are or are about Baby Boomers. So what?

Who is going to be voting for Hillary Clinton? Granted, there is a population bulge with the Baby Boomers, but they are beginning to die off and the Greatest Generation from World War II is rapidly fading.

David Letterman and Jay Leno were dominant during their long runs, but they have now handed things over to the next generation of Conan O’Brien, Seth Meyers and Jimmy Kimmel. Yes Letterman represented the Baby Boom generation and the attitude of Question Authority. But the irony and and sarcasm that he brought to the fore as a contrast to Rat Pack type cool of Johnny Carson, isn’t new and cutting edge anymore. Besides, everyone is doing it. The younger generations have grown up instead on The Simpson’s and South Park.

You also have a generation of news anchors turning over such as  Bill O’Reilly for Megyn Kelly and Diane Sawyer for David Muir.

Then there is Mad Men, which is quintessentially about the 60s and the beginnings of the Baby Boom dominance. But what younger group really wants to watch things like this or reminisce about Ed Sullivan or The Beatles or Edgar Bergen? They would rather focus on things that relate more closely to them.

This is the problem for Hillary Clinton. She is 67. Obama is 53 and was only 47 when elected. Hillary will be on the upper end of the age range for Presidents. Obama energized the youth vote who were excited about a change. Can she relate to this part of the population and can she energize them in the same way that Obama did?