John Lewis: "I think today (Hillary Clinton) is most qualified person in America to be president"

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The Hill ‏@thehill 18m
John Lewis: I'm in for Hillary Clinton in 2016 http://j.mp/14aXEhs


- 08/13/13 03:31 PM ET

Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) said Tuesday that he would support Hillary Clinton if she runs for the White House in 2016.

The civil rights icon made waves during the 2008 Democratic primary when he switched his support from Clinton to President Obama but made clear in a recent interview that his support for the former secretary of State remains strong.

“I won’t make an endorsement, but I will say this: If she makes a decision to run, I would be with her,” Lewis told The New York Times.

“I think today she is the most qualified person in America to be president. No one has worked so hard or done a more effective job in representing this country as secretary of State in modern times.”

read: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/316881-john-lewis-says-he-would-back-hillary-clinton-presidential-bid?utm_source=buffer&utm_campaign=Buffer&utm_content=buffer33e4a&utm_medium=twitter

[arely staircase]

1. maybe

I think there are plenty of qualified people. But if she runs I am about 80 percent sure I will support her in the primary and 100 percent I will support her in the general and about 65 percent sure she will win. I was for Obama in the 08 primary but I still and always have really like both the Clintons.

[bigtree]

5. I'd certainly hope so

. . . man's certainly entitled to his opinion, tho . . .

She is eminently qualified for the job, fwiw.

[arely staircase]

6. I have all the respect in the world for Lewis.

He is a REAL hero. Not a cut and run and hide type. But a real fighter.

[bigtree]

7. unlimited respect here

. . . one just has to spend an hour or so listening to any one of his recent interviews to recognize the absolute gift of having this man on our planet with us.

[DonRedwood]

34. "He did not want to go back. I did not want to go back."

A close approximation of his speech during the elections.

One of the best speeches of modern times, I truly believe. I wrote him a letter telling him so and he responded with a lovely personal letter.

That man has my respect for sure.

[RZM]

2. 'This time I mean it guys. Seriously'

I always wondered what the backroom story on this was back in 2007.

My guess was that Bill leaned on him hard and early and Lewis initially agreed because he didn't think Obama could go the distance. Perhaps there were favors owed as well.

I don't know if Hillary is the best choice or not. It's still a long way off. A lot is going to happen between now and 2016 primaries, including midterms that will have important consequences.

[okieinpain]

3. oh she is the best choice, unless you can get colin powel to run as a dem. n/t.

[RC]

42. Best choice as a New Democrat, maybe.

But we need Old Democrat to run, to get this country back on track.
Haven't we had enough of the Republican Lite, 3rd Way, DLC, DINO's and New Way Democrats sucking up to the Right?

[bigtree]

4. nice. Internet guy says John Lewis bought and sold by Clintons

. . . you obviously don't know a fucking thing about John Lewis.

[RZM]

10. Politics is a rough business

Lewis backed Hillary and then abruptly dropped her when Obama began to garner massive support in the African-American community. That's what happened.

Are we not supposed to wonder why that was or what was going on behind the scenes? Lewis assumed office right when Bill's star began to rise and was in the House for the duration Clinton presidency. There were plenty of opportunities for favors to be exchanged and/or placed in pockets for later use. That's kind of how it works. Perhaps it was even simpler in that Lewis just wanted to get in on the ground floor with the right horse and at first that looked to be Hillary.

Bill is no slouch and he probably knew before most that Obama would end up getting a lot of the African-American support Hillary would have needed to win. He probably leaned on Lewis early with this in mind. Get a civil rights icon on her side and you might staunch some of the flow.

Why are you getting so worked up? It's politics. That's how the game goes.

[bigtree]

11. It's the way you put that RZM - Lewis deserves to have his integrity defended

. . . and he provided a perfectly reasonable explanation for his switch in support which has nothing to do with 'favors' or any other cheap political deal-making.

Lewis switched his vote, as did several other GA. politicians, when their constituents voted for Obama by 10-to-1.

"After taking some time for serious reflection on this issue, I have decided that when I cast my vote as a superdelegate at the Democratic convention, it is my duty ... to express the will of the people," his statement said.

[RZM]

12. I remember that well

He did say it was because of his constituents. And to be fair he does have a duty to them and they clearly preferred Obama.

I just can't help but be amused that Lewis backed Hillary when she was 'inevitable' and then dropped her when she wasn't. Now that she's 'inevitable' again he's back on the team. I don't even really fault him for it either, I just think it's kind of funny.

The question I was musing on wasn't why he dropped her, which is obvious. It was why he backed her in the first place. I do think it was a combination of miscalculating what was going to happen, Bill's lobbying him on her behalf, and perhaps leftover business/favors from the Clinton presidency. I've never asked him so I don't know what his reasons were. Just offering up opinions.

I'm not saying he's a bad guy or anything nor am I shedding tears for the Clintons. Like I said, it's a rough business and they know that more than just about anybody.

[Beacool]

13. I think that you got it backward.

John Lewis endorsed Hillary. When Obama surged after IA there was a lot of pressure on him to switch his support to Obama. How could someone who had walked the walk with Dr. King not support the first AA who had a realistic chance to win the WH? Eventually he switched endorsements.

There was a lot of pressure on AA politicians to support Obama. Stephanie Tubbs Jones was pretty vocal about it. I once had a conversation with Sheila Jackson Lee on this subject, she stayed loyal to Hillary until the end.



Rest in peace, Stephanie.

[RZM]

14. That's definitely part of why he switched

Certainly you're right about him wanting to make sure he supported the first black president. He pretty much said just that after Obama had won the nomination.

From wikipedia:

After Obama clinched the Democratic nomination for president, Lewis said “If someone had told me this would be happening now, I would have told them they were crazy, out of their mind, they didn’t know what they were talking about ... I just wish the others were around to see this day. ... To the people who were beaten, put in jail, were asked questions they could never answer to register to vote, it’s amazing.

The more interesting question is the initial endorsement of Hillary. Like I said elsewhere on the thread, probably a combination of a number of things, including his history with the Clintons.

[winter is coming]

8. Whatever. n/t

[joeglow3]

9. I am tired of dynasties

Sorry, but in a nation of 300+ million, can we only come up with 3 families able to provide the best candidate for a 36 year period?

[LittleBlue]

15. How, exactly?

She was first lady, she was handed the safest senate seat imaginable due to her husband's connections, then she lost the only truly competitive contest that she's ever engaged in to a newbie from Chicago. He appoints her SoS for party unity and to appease the Clintons.

What about any of this makes her the most qualified? Not many manage to lose an "inevitable" nomination. She has to win a competitive race before we talk of how qualified she'd be for an office she hasn't won.

[bigtree]

18. hard to argue with 'unity'

. . . and it wasn't just for 'party'.

Rep. Lewis is obviously considering more than the trivialities you've listed here . . . and losing to a 'newbie? Did you even watch that election?

[LittleBlue]

19. Oh, I watched the general election

She wasn't there. She lost to Obama.

And there are now revelations that the Clinton Foundation is a den of cronies.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/14/us/politics/unease-at-clinton-foundation-over-finances-and-ambitions.html?hp&_r=1&

What exactly has she proven except that she's a career politician who desires power? Nothing, nada, zilch. She wouldn't have even had a chance at her senate seat without Bill. Do you honestly believe that if she hadn't married him, she could waltz into a state where she had scarcely lived and win a senate seat with the backing of so many major power players? Nope. Sorry.

Lewis is just another politician, whatever he's done in the past.

[bigtree]

22. doesn't sound like you watched it.

[LittleBlue]

24. Doesn't sound like you watched it

I watched the "inevitable" Hillary give her concession speech to Obama. Perhaps you don't remember it. Here:

Now go ahead and watch that all the way through.

[bigtree]

36. funny narrative you're selling here

"inevitable" Hillary . . .

Too base to bother arguing with.

Funny you believe that election defines Hillary's chances if she chooses to run again.

. . . and you pull out this video as proof. Funny stuff.

[dsc]

20. New York had a GOP Senator

from 1981 until 1999. It isn't exactly Hawaii.

[LittleBlue]

21. She took Daniel Patrick Moynihan's seat

which he had held since the 70s. Against no serious opposition.

I knew as soon as I mentioned an easy seat, someone would pretend like New York is a difficult place to win for a Democrat.

She has only ever been in contests that she was expected to win easily, and one of those she lost. Not exactly inspiring.

[dsc]

23. Again

while Moynihan was in that seat, D"Amato was holding the other seat from 81 to 99. Pataki was governor for 8 years as well.

[hrmjustin]

26. The GOP was better organized in NY back in the 90's and thru 2002

But after the 2002 election the GOp fell apart in NY.

Remember that polls going into her senate race had it tied or her only slightly ahead. She only won big because gore won NY by a bigger margin than expected.

[hrmjustin]

25. I am from NY and I can tell you at the time it was not safe.

Today it would be.

[herturn2016]

27. "safest senate seat imaginable?" Sorry you don't remember.

Hillary ran for Senate in New York in 2000, in her last and eighth year as First Lady.

She was already a rockstar, and was guaranteed worldwide celebrity status if she never ran for anything. But she put it on the line. She moved to New York, but she didn't head down to Manhattan and try to win on glitz and glamor; instead, she headed upstate to half-remembered cities and long-forgotten towns and wore out her shoe leather and listened -- even though her PRESUMPTIVE OPPONENT was Rudy Giuliani. Now this was a pre-9/11 Rudy, but lets be honest, he had huge credit at the time for turning the City around.

It was only AFTER she got in that she had the gift of facing Rick Lazio.

I remember all the righties, especially Limpballs, laughing at the idea that she would risk anything and actually run. Well she did, and she won.

Oh, and then all she had to face in 2008 was a "newbie from Chicago?" -- Please.

Yeah, a newbie that all the Kool Kids loved, who could count on the African-American vote, who said exactly what needed to be said in exactly the right terms to get all the well-off college kids and their upper-middle-class parents to vote for him, and who had operatives (Chicago, to be sure) to rig every empty-state caucus they could get their hands on.

Yep, she's never done anything.

[sabrina 1]

30. Giuliani's approval ratings at that time were about 25% due to years of bullying, affairs, inability

to get along with anyone, and mostly at the time, his treatment of his wife. He dropped out of the race because he didn't have a chance in hell of winning that year, no matter who his opponent was, but especially Hillary Clinton. Then they ran one of the most weak candidates against her. The seat was available, Giuliani was finished politically at the time, saved shortly after by 9/11 which he took full advantage of but NYers weren't fooled by his 'America's Mayor' nonsense.

I would not support Hillary Clinton for president due the incredible bad judgement she displayed on one of the most important issues she would ever have to vote on, Bush's Iraq Invasion. I said it back then and I meant it. My conscience would not allow me to support ANYONE who supported that murderous invasion. For anyone to have actually believed Bush's obvious lies about WMDs shows a degree of immaturity that completely disqualifies them for the WH.

[Beacool]

37. Your condescension and disdain is duly noted.

You also have zero knowledge of Hillary, but that's OK. Tootle along and vote for someone else. It's a free country.

[Hekate]

16. Coming from John Lewis, that is certainly something to consider. nt

[hfojvt]

17. and there I was thinking Lewis was pretty awesome

and then he had to go and do that.

[bigtree]

38. ha!

. . . that sure wipes out all of that civil rights stuff he was involved with.

John Lewis isn't 'pretty awesome,' he's extremely awesome. You'll likely never see anything compared to the awesomeness that this man's life experience represents, in your lifetime.

. . .but, we do get a good idea of the depth of your view of Rep. Lewis from that comment. For that, I suppose it was worth the time you took to come on this thread and share with us.

[nomorenomore08]

28. She's a tad conservative for my tastes. Then again, so is Obama and I voted for him twice.

I'll vote Dem in the general like I always do, if only for lack of better options.

And yes, by almost any standard she certainly is qualified, though "most" is quite subjective.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

29. We are in pitiful state if Hillary is "The most qualified person in America to be president."

Gah!

[demosincebirth]

31. I agree 100%.

[Douglas Carpenter]

32. I wonder how long we will have to wait before it is okay to nominate a liberal or a progressive?

Another 2020 or 2024? - or another generation - or never?

[bigtree]

39. it shouldn't escape you

. . . that you have to work to generate that level of support. So far, there haven't been enough primary voters to make that kind of choice.

I'm really not sure by what you mean by 'okay.' Folks tend to speak about these elections like they're abstractions. These candidates still have to convince people to vote for them.

[Zorra]

33. Well, since she appears to be the anointed one, I sure as hell hope so. nt

[bigtree]

41. she's 'annointed' because she has a track record

Hillary campaigned in nearly every state in the union and will benefit from that earlier organization. I'm always perplexed by the notion that someone is going to appoint these folks to the nomination. If someone wants to beat Hillary (if she runs) they'll need to get their asses out these and generate the kind of support and organization which Hillary appears to have a head start on.

[liberal_at_heart]

35. good for him. I don't base who I vote for on endorsements.

[HappyMe]

40. You know what they say about opinions.

I'm hoping for a primary because I would like a choice.

[bigtree]

43. I'll say this, HappyMe

I'd be just fine (and somewhat relieved) if I didn't have to defend the Clintons in this next presidential contest.

I would hope that any challenger who has the potential to assume that leading role in the Democratic contest has their shit together enough to win the general.

[HappyMe]

44. I hope so too.

I don't like the whole dynasty thing. I'm also hoping for some fresh, more progressive ideas.