Hillary Clinton, 100 Days, and a Different View

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Wed Apr-16-08 02:21 PM
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Hillary Clinton, 100 Days, and a Different View

Hillary Clinton said today that voters are faced with the “most important consequential choice that we’ve faced in many years” in the upcoming election. Clinton, who spoke before a Building and Trades National Legislative Conference of union workers in downtown Washington, called John McCain “a good man who has served his country with great dedication and honor, but who is dead wrong on all the important issues facing America.”

Clinton was very well received by the labor crowd of a few thousand who packed the ballroom, giving her 17 standing ovations throughout her remarks. Although there were some cheers when Barak Obama’s name was mentioned during the introduction, the crowd overwhelmingly supported Clinton.

There was no mention of Obama by Clinton in her speech, only that the choice facing Democrats is a difficult one. “I’m running against an incredibly important candidate with an enormous amount of talent and ability who has demonstrated a tremendous capacity for inspiring people across the country, and I respect and honor that,” Clinton said.

Her focus was on trade and the increasing economic pressures facing middle class workers. Clinton says too many jobs have been outsourced and have gone overseas to China.

A day after John McCain's high-profile economic speech in Pennsylvania, Hillary Clinton said Wednesday the presumptive GOP nominee “has very little understanding” of the national debt to China. (http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/04/16/clinton-mccain-is-digging-us-a-hole-to-china/)

“Yesterday, he made it clear that when it comes to the economy he looks at the hole President Bush has dug us into and says, ‘Why not more? Let’s go deeper,’” Clinton said in remarks to the Building and Trades National Legislative Conference in Washington.

Accusing China of steel dumping, exporting tainted toys and currency manipulation, Clinton blasted Republicans for accommodating growing Chinese influence.

She said she remembered her brothers pretending to dig a hole to China in their family backyard.

“Little did I believe, all these years later, that we would have the Republican Party and president and a Republican nominee who are literally digging us a hole to China,” she said.

Clinton said McCain “has very little understanding of how we are going to get ourselves out of that hole”

Clinton became the third of the three remaining presidential hopefuls to appear before newspaper editors at their convention Tuesday, following appearances by Obama and Republican Sen. John McCain on Monday.

She accused Bush of having expanded executive power to the detriment of the Constitution, while often operating in secrecy.

"I'll end the use of signing statements to rewrite the laws Congress has passed. I'll shut down Guantanamo, disavow torture, and restore the right of habeas corpus," she said.

"And I'll end the practice of using executive privilege as a shield against the public's right to know and Congress's duty to oversee the president."

Clinton outlined her 100-day agenda which included the start of a troop withdrawal from Iraq and submitting a budget to Congress that rolls back some of Bush's tax cuts. She also promised to sign bills he has vetoed to expand federal embryonic stem-cell research and broaden government-supported health care to millions of lower-income children who now go without.

"In short, starting from Day One, the Bush-Cheney era will be over in name and in practice," she said at a meeting of the Newspaper Association of America.

Here's an excerpt of Sen. Clinton's remarks before the AP conference: (http://www.hillaryclinton.com/news/speech/view/?id=7115)

"Our Constitution instructs the president to take care that the laws be faithfully executed and calls upon the president to swear to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States," she said.

"The presidency is not royalty. Our Constitution is crafted carefully to prevent by election what our founders overthrew by revolution. The president is the one elected representative of the whole American people. Our president is balanced by the Congress, which speaks for regions and states, and by the courts, which defend the individual and other important rights against assaults on our liberties."

"The president is the only constitutional office holder with the power to speak for all of us and with the potential to unify us in the service of our national interest. Unfortunately, our current president does not seem to understand the basic character of the office he holds."

"Rather than faithfully execute the laws, he has rewritten them through signing statements, ignored them through secret legal opinions, undermined them by elevating ideology over facts."

"Rather than defending the Constitution, he has defied its principles and traditions. He has abused his power while failing to understand its purpose."

"This administration's unbridled ambition to transform the executive into an imperial presidency in an attempt to strengthen the office has weakened our nation. It has corrupted and corroded our moral authority and brought our prestige and reputation to its lowest ebb."

"The president has failed to use the power of the presidency, the power he sought to inflate, to expand opportunity and make a real difference in people's lives. This president seems to believe it's a good day in the White House when the government does little for ordinary Americans. That is how this administration defines the presidency: limited government, but unlimited power."

"Well, I have a different view."

"I believe in the power of the presidency to set big goals for America and to solve the problems of Americans, to ensure that our people have the tools they need to turn challenges into opportunities, to fulfill their God-given potential, and to build better lives for themselves and their children."

"That's the kind of president I will be every day in the White House, whether the issue is health care or child care, foreign policy, or the future of our economy."

"I am running for president because I believe in the promise of America and I believe in the power of the presidency to help fulfill that promise."