I am voting for Hillary!

[ellisonz]

I am strongly endorsing Hillary Clinton to be the Democratic Presidential Nominee for 2016 and the 45th President of the United States of America.

As a strong supporter of President Barack Obama (and his One-Millionth Campaign Contributor), I know that the work of keeping America on the right path is far from over. Hillary has proven herself to not just be a great First Lady and capable Senator, but also a talented Secretary of State.

Hillary did not have to humble herself and take on that challenge. she could have gone home to a nice quiet life and enjoyed the rest of her days. However, Hillary chose not to do so instead continued to fight for democracy and human rights around the world.

I strongly encourage you to not just vote for Hillary in the primary and the general, but to take the 2016 election as a second watershed moment in the history of our country and to encourage your friends and family to participate in our democracy.

No Vote No Grumble. It's time: LEAN IN!

[liberal_at_heart]

1. good for you. I'm voting for Sanders even if I have to write his name in.

[MissDeeds]

30. I am too

I no longer will hold my nose and vote for "the lesser of two evils". Bernie Sanders embodies everything I believe in, and I will gladly write his name in if it comes to that. He has earned my support and my vote.

[NET]

47. So throw your vote away

The republicans thank you

[liberal_at_heart]

49. *yawn* You guys need some new material.

[NET]

50. It's not material

It's a fact

You could say you guys need new facts but that really wouldn't work in this case.

As you said you would do a write in before voting for Hillary

The republicans thank you for this...

[Katashi_itto]

62. Ok, will write Bernie Saunder's name in backwards.

[Rolando]

84. Would you put the incorrect apostrophe in your write-in vote?

[Katashi_itto]

89. Gosh I hope so.

[liberal_at_heart]

86. go right ahead. We are all free to do as we choose. Some around here would like to make

people vote for Hillary. I'm sorry. That just isn't the way our political system works. We are free to vote for whomever we want. If you want to write in Bernie Sanders backwards go ahead. I unlike some Hillary supporters will not insult you or intimidate you.

[MissDeeds]

71. No, 'throwing our votes away'

would be casting our votes for someone who many of us think is a DINO. Perhaps it is the Republicans who will thank you for your vote.

[840high]

117. +100

[840high]

116. This is a very stale line.

[hifiguy]

48. I also.

Had enough of the corporatists to last me ten lifetimes.

[NYC_SKP]

2. I cannot support Hillary in any way.

I like you and most of her supporters here, ellisonz, but I cannot support this candidate. I feel we need someone far more courageous and passionate about economic equity.

[ellisonz]

9. I believe in forgiveness.

Hillary has made mistakes. She has learned from them. A lot of people were wrong on Iraq (John Kerry for example). If Warren was running, I would give her strong consideration. But she's not and there's far too much at stake.

You don't think Obama rubbed off on Hillary on the economic equity issues?

[NYC_SKP]

16. We can only hope.

Maybe it has rubbed off and she's keeping her best thoughts for later battle.

But for now I'm advocating for a good primary.

[ellisonz]

22. Hope is a powerful thing!

It often leads to change!

FIRED UP, READY TO GO!

[Warren DeMontague]

90. Right, as long as she's not in favor of building an important telescope on a Mountain someone has

Decided is magic.

IWR? TPP? fiddlesticks! ....We'll see how much "forgiveness" she gets if she comes out in favor of the TMT.

Amirite?

[ellisonz]

119. No, you're wrong.

Talk about changing the topic!

[MissDeeds]

31. +1

I cannot support HRC.

[AuntPatsy]

3. I'm voting for the Democratic elected candidate, here's to hoping the best candidate wins :)

[RKP5637]

70. Yep, I'll vote for whomever wins the primary. I want to see a dem in the WH in 2016. No

president is ever perfect. The republican lineup is dreadful. I'll take HRC any day to one of those misfits in the WH.

[Rolando]

76. It's "whoever," not "whomever."

Let's all vote for somebody who supports education.

[RKP5637]

85. Well, Rolando, thank you for your astute observation. It is duly noted! Even those with advanced

degrees occasionally make mistakes. Oh, BTW, thank you for your snarky remark! Yes, IGNORE is a nice feature on DU! Just for your edification, whomever is correct. I suggest you take a grammar course. Here is some help for you! http://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/whoever.asp

[DemocratSinceBirth]

105. That was a funny exchange.

Touche!

[RKP5637]

108. ...

[DemocratSinceBirth]

109. "whomever" sounded better....

I am hypersensitive about my grammar now.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

4. This is true

Hillary did not have to humble herself and take on that challenge. she could have gone home to a nice quiet life and enjoyed the rest of her days.

I hope and pray she lives to be one hundred but if she wins and is elected and re-elected she will be spending a large part of the rest of her life running for president and being president. That's a huge sacrifice for us.

[woo me with science]

5. Oh look. Vapid, a glossy picture, and zero mention of a policy agenda.

Yep, that's a corporate candidate's ad, all right.

[ellisonz]

15. It's an endorsement.

Not a policy memo!

[paleotn]

33. An endorsement based on what?

........................................................................

[Bobbie Jo]

45. His opinion

So what?

[ellisonz]

55. Policy and politics.

Policy without politics is just so much talk. Believe me, I'm a month away from finishing a graduate program in public policy. If you can't win the battles you need to implement your policy you are just blowing smoke.

I want results! I don't see anybody better positioned to get them

[paleotn]

115. I bet Jamie Dimon wants results as well.....

...not to mention the boys at Goldman. She has my vote, but I'm under no illusions we're electing anyone remotely resembling a liberal Democrat.

[Katashi_itto]

63. True, by Wall Street

[pintobean]

36. Jury results

Surprised it didn't go 0-7

On Sat Apr 18, 2015, 12:27 PM an alert was sent on the following post:

Oh look. Vapid, a glossy picture, and zero mention of a policy agenda.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=6528572

REASON FOR ALERT

This post is disruptive, hurtful, rude, insensitive, over-the-top, or otherwise inappropriate.

ALERTER'S COMMENTS

Good gawd. This is Democratic Underground, what's up with the constant insults? Disagree? Fine. Leave the nasty commentary elsewhere. So sick of the gratuitous attacks.

You served on a randomly-selected Jury of DU members which reviewed this post. The review was completed at Sat Apr 18, 2015, 12:44 PM, and the Jury voted 1-6 to LEAVE IT.

Juror #1 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #2 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: Alerter should grow up. There is no personal attack here, just a description of a picture. If you are thin skinned enough to not like that ....
Juror #3 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: Gotta be watching out for sexism constantly now, but I don't think this was it. "Vapid" is about as accurate as it gets--absolutely no substance here, agree with the OP or not.
Juror #4 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: Oh, please.
Juror #5 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given
Juror #6 voted to HIDE IT
Explanation: Totally irresponsible and uncalled for.
Juror #7 voted to LEAVE IT ALONE
Explanation: No explanation given

Thank you very much for participating in our Jury system, and we hope you will be able to participate again in the future.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

39. It was a gratuitous shot at a poster who made an innocuous post but definitely not alertable...

Par for the course here...

[MissDeeds]

42. You've GOT to be kidding me!

Someone alerted on this?! What the hell is going on here?

[Autumn]

6. No I'm not in this time.

[4139]

7. TPP, Keystone, Iraq War, Libya war.... These are thing you are for?

[hrmjustin]

8. I strongly support her as well.

[ellisonz]

12. Yeah the writing is on the wall...

...I have forgiven Hillary and she has earned my support. I think of the tens of millions of young women in this country who will be inspired by her election.

Good to message again!

[hrmjustin]

13. And I think she will help bring the house and senate back to us.

[ellisonz]

18. ^^^^

This!

[ellisonz]

26. And don't forget SCOTUS!

[hrmjustin]

27. Agreed!

[cascadiance]

44. If you want someone like Chemerinsky nominated you're better off with someone like Sanders or Warren

... than a Republican or a Democratic corporatist candidate like Clinton...

Read more on what kind of mind set someone like Erwin Chemerinsky would bring to the bench if he were put on the court. We NEED more like him to balance out the court against the likes of Roberts and Scalia...

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-if-corporations-cannot-vote-should-they-have-right-spend-money-elections

...
According to UC Irvine Law School Dean Erwin Chemerinsky, the nation’s leading Constitutional Law expert, “Previously the Supreme Court upheld the ability of the government to restrict corporate expenditures in political campaigns. Now it appears there are five votes on the Court — Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Scalia, Justice Kennedy, Justice Thomas, and Justice Alito — who want to overrule those precedents.”
...

[ellisonz]

56. Sanders will not win.

Warren is not running.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/01/13/elizabeth-warren-president_n_6464192.html

[cascadiance]

67. I said someone "like" Sanders or Warren...

We NEED a populist to put in place decent supreme court justices to reverse things like Citizen's United. Not Republicans or corporate Democrats!

"Warren is not running!" is not a relevant topic to this question.

And you don't have a godlike omniscient knowledge to KNOW that Sanders won't win either. You are just echoing the corporate media's mantra on this to elect someone to represent the corporate interests over the people's interests.

[zappaman]

77. Well, you better get on it then!

Time is running out for you to find and support this magical candidate!

[leftofcool]

64. Warren isn't running and Bernie is not a Democrat.

[cascadiance]

68. Amazing how so many of you don't want to really answer the question...

Bernie, if he runs, WILL be a Democrat then! Whether he is now or not is NOT relevant. And I would argue that if you are arguing the merits of what party he is a member of, he has more traditional Democratic values representing the average American citizen than either Clinton or Obama do.

[Agschmid]

72. It's absolutely relevant...

He's going to be a true DINO.

[cascadiance]

73. So being against the TPP is a DINO position? FDR if alive day would LAUGH at your assertion!

And cry that so many Democrats today are confused about what traditional Democratic Party values really are!

[Agschmid]

79. No but switching to a party just so you can run certainly seems like a "INO" act.

[cascadiance]

96. You'd then rather he run the way Ralph Nader ran and put a Republican in the White House?

The way the system is rigged, this is the way he has to run to not do that. He's smart and doesn't want a Republican to win any more than many of the rest of us Democrats want. Which is a lot more than I can say for many other REAL DINOS who are Republicans calling themselves Democrats that don't really care too much if a Republican wins or if a Republicrat wins and implements Republican policies.

And if you are saying Bernie is no different than them and would put in place Republican policies, then you really need to be laughed off the stage!

Tea party people understood this variable too, which is why they registered as Republicans even if they wanted to actually be a separate political party. They knew they couldn't get elected with the current rigged system if they did that. Are Republicans calling Tea Partiers RINOS?

[Agschmid]

98. .

And if you are saying Bernie is no different than them and would put in place Republican policies, then you really need to be laughed off the stage!

Not at all what I am saying, I've actually had the pleasure to meet him several times and vote for him.

[MissDeeds]

75. Exactly

And he has always caucused with the Dems. He has said he will not run as a spoiler, but as a Democrat. What the naysayers fail to acknowledge is that Bernie embodies more traditional Democratic values and tenants than many who claim to be Democrats.

[Agschmid]

78. I think he embodies socialist/populist values.

Do you disagree with that?

[MissDeeds]

83. Which are traditional Dem values

That is before the party moved to the right.

[Agschmid]

87. So the last time the Democratic Party embraced those values was...

Let's just *guess* Carter?

What makes you think that they will go back to them? Why haven't we all become independents?

[MissDeeds]

91. The Democratic Party would do well

to embrace Carter's ideals.

[Agschmid]

93. But they haven't at least according to this assessment...

Carter was President how many decades ago? What are people waiting for? How are you still supporting a party that has reflected the views (I think) you'd support for ~40 ish years?

This isn't an attack, it's not meant to be if it comes across like one.

[MissDeeds]

95. Oh whatever

How many years ago was FDR in office, yet he is still mentioned as an icon, as are JFK and to some extent LBJ. The tenure of our finest presidents has no expiration date. Yes, it is an attack and you are cloaking it in discourse. Knock yourself out. I'm going out to dinner with some folks to determine how we can bring more progressive candidates into local politics. Have a great evening.

[Agschmid]

107. Thanks you too.

[cascadiance]

101. And it's been about that long since we haven't had a trade deficit...

... that has exploded over the years since both Republicans and corporatized Democrats have embraced the corporate serving free trade deals that have totally screwed our government up. Just because it has been a long time since we've had a Democrat with real Democratic values to bring back the times when our country was strong under those values doesn't mean that they are "meaningless" and "outdated" any more.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

14. As do I...

[hrmjustin]

17. .

[DemocratSinceBirth]

20. That is probably my all time favorite political commercial...

It never gets old.

[hrmjustin]

24. No it doesn't.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

25. That photo of Bobby Kennedy taking communion with Cesar Chavez gives me the chills.

NT

[hrmjustin]

29. Yes. A great moment.

[Purveyor]

10. Everyone better nod your head like a bobble-head doll your YOU will go on the LIST!!

[hrmjustin]

19. Oh?

[Purveyor]

21. OH.

[hrmjustin]

23. Well Hillary hasn't paid me yet so I won't hand over the list.

[leftofcool]

65. There is a list? I didn't get my copy!

[Warren DeMontague]

92. Yeah.

There are a lot of lists.

I should know, I'm on a bunch of em.

[Purveyor]

114. You are not worth your salt if you are not! lol eom

[treestar]

34. That post was as positive as could be

The person wants Hillary to win the primary. Trying to convince others just like the other primary contenders and their supporters can.

[liberal_at_heart]

52. I've just been told the Republicans thank me for not voting for Hillary. I guess I've been told.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

11. I'm not. I'm not leaning in, falling in, or being bullied in.

[darkangel218]

54. +1

[MADem]

28. I'm voting for her as well. nt

[bigwillq]

32. I'm not

Last edited Sat Apr 18, 2015, 05:56 PM - Edit history (1)

but have no issue with anyone supporting her.

Good luck to her.

[Lil Missy]

35. She has my support!!!

[FarPoint]

37. I've been waiting since 2008. I'm ready for Hillary.

I've been respectful and supportive of President Obama.....let's see the same behavior be returned to the Hillary Team.

[Martin Eden]

38. In a Democratic primary I will NOT support anyone who voted to give GW authority to invade Iraq.

THAT automatic disqualifies Hillary Clinton.

I will vote for the Dem nominee in the general election, whoever it is.

But I hope it's not Hillary.

[freshwest]

40. Wow, she looks very young there. A lot like Chelsea. Love your enthusiasm. n/t

[one_voice]

41. You know there is no shortage of...

I'm not voting for Hillary because...or Hillary sucks because, or I hate Hillary because, or Hillary is just like a republican because, or Hillary supporters are _____fill in the negative comment threads on DU....and yet whenever someone wants to say something nice about Hillary or show their support people break their fucking ankles to jump on the bandwagon to throw insults at not only the poster but Hillary. Kinda of reminds me of bullies....waiting for their next target. God forbid someone have a nice thread...nope, it must be pissed and shit all over.

And before the typical posters come along and complain about me trying to silence their opinion, oh no, that's not at all what I'm doing...I'm just giving my opinion about YOU. Don't like it? Lump it.

this message is brought to you from non committed voter.

[ellisonz]

59. That's pretty much been DU since the start.

It's good to have idealism, but it's self-defeating to through practicality under the bus for it.

I've had it with the nastiness too and will be making avid use of the "Ignore" function this election.

[Awsi Dooger]

43. I never stopped supporting her

Hillary should be president right now, if not for the inept handicapping by our party in 2008. The party definitely would be in better shape overall. Obama has lost so much support among white working class men that it largely offsets the Hispanic shift. Not all of it, but at least 5-6 years worth. Consequently the GOP is in far better shape in presidential terms than it had right to be, or any legit hopes to be. No guarantee we can win back those white males, not in any meaningful percentage.

Our party started making pathetic strategic choices a full decade ago, when we initiated the brilliant plan to cleanse the party by pushing aside moderates. I warned Chris Bowers about this numerous times on MyDD. Bowers, like so many others, is an idealist but a truly inept handicapper. He had no clue how his plan would apply down the road and to balanced terrain. Bowers was emboldened during a period in which Republicans were unusually weak, with Bush at sustained low approval rating via Iraq and Katrina. Consequently it seemed cute to push aside moderates and play from the outer crust. Meanwhile, the devastating bottom line had not threatened to change, with the nation 32% self-identifying as conservatives to only 21% as liberals. It was a minor miracle that we held the House for so long, given those fundamentals. One district after another will not threaten to elect a liberal. I warned Bowers that only moderates and complacency were holding up our House of cards. If both sides started to actually get involved and dictate nominees while funding more races, it could only work in the GOP's favor, and by massive number. I wrote that the default would be 240-260 Republican seats and 55-60 senators, if his scheme were fully put in place and enough time to find a balanced landscape and not one severely favoring Democrats.

Unfortunately, here we are. Now the only chance at a Democratic House is if a Republican is president and uncommonly unpopular for a lengthy stretch. The odds against are overwhelming.

Sorry for the lengthy rant. I don't post here much anymore. Mostly I'm annoyed at how we threw away such a favorable opportunity with so many dense choices. Our bench, for one thing, is a joke, since we pay mostly lip service to governorships. It's truly hysterical to watch the anti-Hillary crowd reach for so many no-chance options, given that non-existent bench. I'm convinced they would settle for a political version of Sidd Finch if the liberal tag seemed undeniably proper in the write up.

[ellisonz]

61. I didn't think Hillary had learned the lesson of Iraq in 2008.

I also thought Obama was a better candidate.

White working class men trend Republican. We aren't going to get their votes by campaigning. We need to mobilize women, minorities, and young people. If Democrats can get those three groups to vote we will win and win and win. Getting that done starts with being very clear that there are profound differences between the two parties. We need to end the cynicism (my DU username used to be cynicalSOB1 too lol).

[DemocratSinceBirth]

69. I miss awsi's posts...

I agree with him in part and disagree with him in part...Where I agree with him is that our party should cast as wide as net as possible when recruiting candidates. Where I disagree with him is what caused the hemorrhaging of working class white male voters...We have been losing them for a long time. I don't think we can appease them without surrendering who we are.

[Cha]

80. No, she shouldn't be President right now. Thank Goodness President Obama won. Please don't start

bitter shit.

[Agschmid]

88. Agree.

[greatauntoftriplets]

103. Thanks, Cha.

[Cha]

104. You're Welcome, greataunt!

Thank you!

[Cerridwen]

46. "In Turmoil of ’68, Clinton Found a New Voice"

In Turmoil of ’68, Clinton Found a New Voice

<snip>

As the nation boiled over Vietnam, civil rights and the slayings of two charismatic leaders, Ms. Rodham was completing a sweeping intellectual, political and stylistic shift. She came to Wellesley as an 18-year-old Republican, a copy of Barry Goldwater’s right-wing treatise, “The Conscience of a Conservative,” on the shelf of her freshman dorm room. She would leave as an antiwar Democrat whose public rebuke of a Republican senator in a graduation speech won her notice in Life magazine as a voice for her generation.

<snip>

She attended both the Republican National Convention in Miami (bunking at the Fontainebleu Hotel, ordering room service for the first time — cereal and a daintily wrapped peach) and the Democratic donnybrook in Chicago (smelling tear gas at Grant Park, watching a toilet fly out the window of the Hilton hotel).

<snip>

When Dr. King was killed on the balcony of a Memphis motel on April 4, 1968, Ms. Rodham was devastated. “I can’t take it anymore,” she screamed after learning the news, her friends recalled. Crying, Ms. Rodham stormed into her dormitory room and hurled her book bag against the wall. Later, she made a telephone call to a close friend, Karen Williamson, the head of the black student organization on campus, to offer sympathy.

Ms. Rodham, who met Dr. King after a speech in Chicago in 1962, had admired his methodical approach to social change, favoring it over what she considered the excessively combative methods of groups like the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, or S.N.C.C., pronounced snick.

<snip>

First Lady Biography: Hillary Clinton


Copyright, Attention: This website and its contents contain intellectual property copyright materials and works belonging to the National First Ladies’ Library and Historic Site and to other third parties. Please do not plagiarize. If you use a direct quote from our website please cite your reference and provide a link back to the source.

<snip>

Occupation before Marriage:

As a young woman, Hillary Rodham worked as a babysitter both after school and during her vacation breaks, sometimes watching the children of migrant Mexicans brought to the Chicago area for itinerant work. She applied to NASA and was stunned when she was told that girls were not accepted for the astronaut program. Although she was active in young Republican groups and campaigned for Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964, she was inspired to work in some form of public service after hearing a speech in Chicago by Reverend Martin Luther King. She worked at various jobs during her summers as a college student, once in a canning factory in Alaska, in 1969. In 1970, she secured a grant and first went to work for the Children's Defense Fund. The following summer, she first came to Washington, D.C. working on Senator Walter Mondale's (Minnesota Democrat) subcommittee on migrant workers, researching migrant problems in housing, sanitation, health and education. In the summer of 1972, she worked in the western states for the Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern's campaign. During her second year in law school, Hillary Clinton volunteered at Yale's Child Study Center, learning about new research on early childhood brain development, as well as New Haven Hospital, where she took on cases of child abuse and the city Legal Services, providing free legal service to the poor. Upon graduation from law school, she served as staff attorney for the Children’s Defense Fund in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In the spring of 1974, she returned to Washington as a member of the presidential impeachment inquiry staff advising the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives during the Watergate Scandal. After the Nixon resignation in August of 1974, she became a faculty member of the University of Arkansas Law School, located in Fayetteville, where her Yale Law School classmate and boyfriend Bill Clinton was teaching as well.

<snip>

Presidential Campaign and Inauguration:

During the 1992 Democratic primaries, several incidents occurred which proved to be the primary basis for much of the controversy and criticism that would be leveled at Hillary Clinton as First Lady. Before the New York primary, former California Governor Jerry Brown challenged Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton with suggestions that Hillary Clinton's work as an attorney involved state funds was unethical, hinting in general terms that she had somehow profited from her husband's position. Clinton himself remarked at the time that his wife would be a full partner if he became President, terming it a "two for one" deal. Finally, in response to some of these questions, Hillary Clinton sharply retorted to a journalist's question at a public appearance that was being covered by broadcast media that the only way a working attorney who happened to also be the governor's wife could have avoided any controversy would have been if she had "stayed home and baked cookies." The remark, frequently replayed on television as a single clip from her more explicit response, sparked public debate as to whether she was intending to demean the role of stay-at-home mother. It was further fueled by Republican party supporters who sought to claim that Hillary Clinton was not in line with "family values" a phrase that was often used in the campaign of 1992. At the Republican National Convention, several speakers, including conservative columnist Pat Buchanan and Vice Presidential wife Marilyn Quayle either mentioned Hillary Clinton by name or made allusions to her as an example of what their party was running against. In a lighter tone, Good Housekeeping magazine sponsored a cookie contest asking readers to vote for their choice of recipes used by the wives of the two presidential candidates. During the 1996 campaign, Hillary Clinton addressed the Democratic convention, underlining some of the Administration's policy gains and aspirations in children's and women's issues. At the 1993 Inauguration, the Clintons created a new precedent by having a president-elect's child, their daughter Chelsea, join at the podium at the moment of the oath-of-office administration.

<snip>

Although she assumed a less open political role after the failure of the health care reform plan, the efforts on behalf of which she focused were fully public. She cited the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 as the achievement she initiated and shepherded that provide her with the greatest satisfaction. Beginning with an article she wrote on orphaned children in 1995, through a series of public events on the issue, policy meetings with Health and Human Service officials, private foundation leaders, the drafting of policy recommendations, and eventually lobbying with legislators led to its passage. The First Lady led a second effort, the Foster Care Independence bill, to help older, unadopted children transition to adulthood. She also hosted numerous White House conferences that related to children's health, including early childhood development (1997) and school violence (1999). She lent her support to programs ranging from "Prescription for Reading," in which pediatricians provided free books for new mothers to read to their infants as their brains were rapidly developing, to nationwide immunization against childhood illnesses. She also supported an annual drive to encourage older women to seek a mammography to prevent breast cancer, coverage of the cost being provided by Medicare.

<snip>

SECRETARY OF STATE

<snip>

Secretary Clinton has used the venue of an open town-hall type forum to deliver addresses on policy and also take questions from the press and public. She gave almost one dozen of these in just her first two years as Secretary of State in Washington, D.C. She also conducted the town-hall interviews around the world, giving a sense of the breadth of her travels: Manama, Bahrain, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Astana, Kazakhstan, Melbourne, Australia, Christchurch, New Zealand, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Pristina, Kosovo, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Islamabad, Pakistan (twice), Tbilisi, Georgia, Kyiv, Ukraine, Sao Paulo, Brazil, Doha, Qatar, Manila, Philippines, Lahore, Pakistan, Moscow, Russia, Abuja, Nigeria, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nairobi, Kenya, Bangkok, Thailand, New Delhi, India, Mumbai, India, Baghdad, Iraq, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Monterrey, Mexico, Brussels, Belgium, Seoul, South Korea, and Tokyo, Japan.

<snip>

Hillary Clinton’s Last Tour as a Rock-Star Diplomat

<snip>

Obama and Clinton have instead led the least discordant national-security team in decades, despite enormous challenges on almost every front. They share a vision of diplomacy that is high-minded in its support for democratic rights (in and elsewhere) but hardheaded when those values run up against American security interests (Egypt and Bahrain) or other limits of American power (Syria). They have handled crises with neither rancor nor, for the most part, public leaks intended to shape their private debates. Clinton set the tone from the start, enforcing respect for the man who bested her on the campaign trail. “Early on, when there were people around complaining about the Obama folks, she wouldn’t brook it at all,” Andrew J. Shapiro, Clinton’s former Senate aide and now an assistant secretary of state, told me. The message “was delivered quite clearly.” “We work for the president,” he recalled her saying.

<snip>

A truth often overlooked in the Beltway obsession with assigning blame and credit is that in any administration, the president ultimately determines foreign policy. This was true even under George W. Bush, despite Dick Cheney’s best efforts to create a separate foreign-policy apparatus inside the Office of the Vice President. The job of the secretary of state is to help shape and then carry out the president’s policies, something her aides emphasize repeatedly.

<snip>

It was Obama, not Clinton, who led the country into the war, though it was left to Clinton and Susan Rice to win enough votes at the United Nations Security Council and to persuade allies like Britain and France that a no-fly zone meant more than a limited intervention.

Clinton’s message to them was blunt. The intervention they favored meant the use of overwhelming force at the outset; it meant killing people on the ground. By Saturday, the United States and NATO struck, even as Clinton returned from her second trip to Paris. With determination and abundant miles in the air, she forged an unwieldy diplomatic and military alliance, at once cajoling and reassuring leaders as disparate as President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani, prime minister and foreign minister of Qatar. And she held it together through the next seven months, even as officials in the White House grumbled that the conflict was grinding on far longer than anyone had expected.

<snip>

Each linked article has far more information than I am able to show with only 4 paragraphs.

[JaneyVee]

51. KNR!

[darkangel218]

53. Good for you. nt

[FLPanhandle]

57. I am too and fuck those enablers of republicans who don't

If she is the nominee, then I will fully support her. Those who don't are just enablers of the republican party. I think some of them actually are republicans.

[liberal_at_heart]

74. go ahead. Call us all the names you want. It won't change our minds or our votes.

[FLPanhandle]

97. It's not name calling

It's what you will be.

[liberal_at_heart]

100. wow, Hillary supporters are being particularly nasty today. I think I will go cook dinner.

You can call me a Republican supporter all you want. I don't care. I will still vote for Bernie Sanders.

[workinclasszero]

58. Me too!

Unless someone else gets the nomination which I don't see happening.
I'll back her a million %! It is vital that Democrat's keep the white house.

Go Hillary!

[Thinkingabout]

60. I am voting for Hillary, we agree on many issues, issues which are important to the DNC.

I know others have been noted but I stand with Hillary, some of the others do not comfort me on their national security votes. We also need a president with foreign experience, she has that experience. She is smart and has the courage to make the decisions a president needs to make.

[leftofcool]

66. I am voting for Hillary too. Don't let the Hillary haters get to you.

[olddots]

81. do we still have hidden ballots ?

oy .

[vankuria]

82. Will absolutely vote for Hilary

If she's the nominee, she may not be the perfect choice but the White House must stay in the hands of Democrats. Letting Jeb, Rand or whoever else they put up take control of this country would be a tragedy of epic proportions!

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

94. I'm 100% with Hillary after the Primary

I expect she'll win the primary, but I expect Bernie to run as a Dem and I will vote for him.

[cherokeeprogressive]

99. Yawn...

Doo dah.

[1StrongBlackMan]

102. At this point, I'm leaning towards going all in for HRC ...

But that's because, of the announced primary challengers, she is (at this point) by far the strongest. That could change, however ... with a new, a few new, contender(s).

[YOHABLO]

106. I admire her tenacity. I think Bernie Sanders speaks the truth. Love to see him challenge her

Challenge her simply to draw out her alliance with Corporate America, Wall Street etc. On the campaign trail she'll talk the populist talk. They all do. Rick Perry recently was out there talking it up about mom and pop and how Corporate America has a strangle hold on the middle class. Makes me want to puke. Obama did the same. But now he wants to fast track the TPP.
Oh hell yeah, they'll say anything to get your vote. Once in power we know who pulls the strings in this country. The Pentagon, Wall Street, Corporate America .. not to mention the NRA and the Christian Right.

[earthside]

110. Not "in" for Hillary.

Nope.

No Vote for Hill ... I'm Grumbling about her candidacy.
It's time: 'No Time for Oligarchy!'

[darkangel218]

111. +1

[djean111]

112. Goodness!!!! Is it time to vote in a primary already?

Or is this the usual pledgey thingy.

[anamnua]

113. Amen NT

[ileus]

118. You won't be the only one....We ALL will before it's said and done.