 "Hillary Clinton joins presidential race, pledges to close income gap")
Hillary Rodham Clinton, in a speech that was at times sweeping and at times policy laden, delivered on Saturday a pointed repudiation of Republican economic policies and a populist promise to reverse the gaping gulf between the rich and poor at her biggest campaign event to date.
Under sunny skies and surrounded by flag-waving supporters on Roosevelt Island in New York, Clinton pledged to run an inclusive campaign and to create a more inclusive economy, saying that even the new voices in the Republican Party continued to push "the top-down economic policies that failed us before."
"These Republicans trip over themselves promising lower taxes for the wealthy and fewer rules for the biggest corporations without any regard on how that will make income inequality worse," she said before a crowd estimated at 5,500, according to the campaign.
"I'm not running for some Americans, but for all Americans," Clinton said. "I'm running for all Americans."
Offering her case for the presidency, she rested heavily on her biography. Her candidacy, she said, was in the name of "everyone who has ever been knocked down but refused to be knocked out."
Clinton portrayed herself as a fighter, sounding a theme her campaign had emphasised in recent days. "I've been called many things by many people, quitter is not one of them," she said.
Standing on a platform set in the middle of a grassy memorial to Franklin D. Roosevelt on the East River island named after him, Clinton invoked his legacy. She also praised Obama and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, but declared that "we face new challenges" in the aftermath of the economic crisis.
While some Republican detractors have tried to make an issue of Clinton's age (if she won she would be 69 when she took office in January 2017), she sought to embrace it and to rebut the notion that she cannot stand for change or modernity. Offering her campaign contact information, she spoke about the lives of gay people, saying Republicans "turn their backs on gay people who love each other."
In one of the biggest applause lines, she said: "I may not be the youngest candidate in this race, but I will be the youngest woman president in the history of the United States." Underscoring the point with a riff on an old Beatles song, Clinton said: "There may be some new voices in the presidential Republican choir. But they're all singing the same old song."
"It's a song called 'Yesterday,' " she continued. "They believe in yesterday." Allison Moore, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, called the speech "chock-full of hypocritical attacks, partisan rhetoric and ideas from the past that led to a sluggish economy."
Clinton specified policies she would push for, including universal prekindergarten, paid family leave, equal pay for women, college affordability and incentives for companies that provide profit-sharing to employees. She also spoke of rewriting the tax code "so it rewards hard work at home" rather than corporations "stashing profits overseas." She did not detail how she would achieve those policies or address their costs.
Clinton spoke to the criticism that her wealth makes her out of touch with middle-class Americans, saying her candidacy is for "factory workers and food servers who stand on their feet all day, for the nurses who work the night shift, for the truckers who drive for hours."
Uncomfortable with the fiery rhetoric of Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat, Clinton offered some stark statistics to address the concerns of the Democratic Party's restless left. "The top 25 hedge fund managers make more than all of America's kindergarten teachers combined, often paying a lower tax rate," she said.
Clinton said many Americans must be asking, "When does my family get ahead?" She added: "When? I say now."
In a campaign in which Republicans have emphasised the growing threat of Islamic terrorism and an unstable Middle East, Clinton hardly mentioned foreign policy. She did speak of her experience as a senator from New York after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
"As your president, I'll do whatever it takes to keep Americans safe," she said, weaving the skyline and a view of the newly built One World Trade Center into her remarks.
For as much as the content of the speech mattered, the theatre of it was equally important. For a campaign criticised for lacking passion, the event gave Clinton the ability to create a camera-ready tableau of excitement.
The Brooklyn Express Drumline revved up the crowd assembled on a narrow stretch at the southern tip of the island. And Marlon Marshall, the campaign's director of political engagement, rattled off statistics about the number of volunteers who have signed up and house parties held in the early nominating states. A section with giant screens set up for an overflow crowd stood nearly empty.
But a crowd of supporters and volunteers from the staunchly Democratic New York area does not exactly represent the electorate writ large. The real test for Mrs. Clinton and how the speech was perceived will be in Iowa, where she was to travel on Saturday evening for several events. Iowa, the first nominating state, shunned her the last time she sought the presidency, in 2008.
"I was disappointed she didn't challenge Obama four years ago," said Dominique Pettinato, a 24-year-old parole officer who lives in Brooklyn.
For some members of the skeptical liberal wing of the Democratic Party still concerned that Mrs. Clinton will embrace her husband's centrist approach, the speech went only so far in convincing them otherwise.
"This was mostly a typical Democratic speech - much better than the direction Republicans offer America," said Adam Green, a co-founder of Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a liberal advocacy group. But he said the speech had not offered "the bold economic vision that most Americans want and need."
Mrs. Clinton did not broach one issue that liberals are increasingly frustrated by: trade. On Thursday, Senator Bernie Sanders, a socialist from Vermont who is also seeking the Democratic nomination, pointedly criticised Mrs. Clinton for not taking a position on a controversial trade bill Mr. Obama is pushing, as well as other contentious issues like the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline and the renewal of the Patriot Act. "What is the secretary's point of view on that?" Mr. Sanders asked of the act, which he voted against.
Mrs. Clinton had hardly stopped speaking Saturday when Bill Hyers, a senior strategist for Martin O'Malley, the former governor of Maryland, who is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, criticised her as vague on trade and other issues. Mr. O'Malley, he said, "has been fearless and specific in the progressive agenda we need."
If there is one demographic Mrs. Clinton's campaign is hoping to excite it is young women. It is an obvious connection that her 2008 campaign played down as it tried to present the former first lady as a strong commander in chief.
But on Saturday it was clear that Mrs. Clinton will make gender more central to her campaign this time. In her closing remarks, she called for a country "where a father can tell his daughter yes, you can be anything you want to be, even president of the United States."
© 2015 The New York Times News Service
Under sunny skies and surrounded by flag-waving supporters on Roosevelt Island in New York, Clinton pledged to run an inclusive campaign and to create a more inclusive economy, saying that even the new voices in the Republican Party continued to push "the top-down economic policies that failed us before."
"These Republicans trip over themselves promising lower taxes for the wealthy and fewer rules for the biggest corporations without any regard on how that will make income inequality worse," she said before a crowd estimated at 5,500, according to the campaign.
"I'm not running for some Americans, but for all Americans," Clinton said. "I'm running for all Americans."
Offering her case for the presidency, she rested heavily on her biography. Her candidacy, she said, was in the name of "everyone who has ever been knocked down but refused to be knocked out."
Clinton portrayed herself as a fighter, sounding a theme her campaign had emphasised in recent days. "I've been called many things by many people, quitter is not one of them," she said.
Standing on a platform set in the middle of a grassy memorial to Franklin D. Roosevelt on the East River island named after him, Clinton invoked his legacy. She also praised Obama and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, but declared that "we face new challenges" in the aftermath of the economic crisis.
While some Republican detractors have tried to make an issue of Clinton's age (if she won she would be 69 when she took office in January 2017), she sought to embrace it and to rebut the notion that she cannot stand for change or modernity. Offering her campaign contact information, she spoke about the lives of gay people, saying Republicans "turn their backs on gay people who love each other."
In one of the biggest applause lines, she said: "I may not be the youngest candidate in this race, but I will be the youngest woman president in the history of the United States." Underscoring the point with a riff on an old Beatles song, Clinton said: "There may be some new voices in the presidential Republican choir. But they're all singing the same old song."
"It's a song called 'Yesterday,' " she continued. "They believe in yesterday." Allison Moore, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, called the speech "chock-full of hypocritical attacks, partisan rhetoric and ideas from the past that led to a sluggish economy."
Clinton specified policies she would push for, including universal prekindergarten, paid family leave, equal pay for women, college affordability and incentives for companies that provide profit-sharing to employees. She also spoke of rewriting the tax code "so it rewards hard work at home" rather than corporations "stashing profits overseas." She did not detail how she would achieve those policies or address their costs.
Clinton spoke to the criticism that her wealth makes her out of touch with middle-class Americans, saying her candidacy is for "factory workers and food servers who stand on their feet all day, for the nurses who work the night shift, for the truckers who drive for hours."
Uncomfortable with the fiery rhetoric of Senator Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat, Clinton offered some stark statistics to address the concerns of the Democratic Party's restless left. "The top 25 hedge fund managers make more than all of America's kindergarten teachers combined, often paying a lower tax rate," she said.
Clinton said many Americans must be asking, "When does my family get ahead?" She added: "When? I say now."
In a campaign in which Republicans have emphasised the growing threat of Islamic terrorism and an unstable Middle East, Clinton hardly mentioned foreign policy. She did speak of her experience as a senator from New York after the September 11, 2001, attacks.
"As your president, I'll do whatever it takes to keep Americans safe," she said, weaving the skyline and a view of the newly built One World Trade Center into her remarks.
For as much as the content of the speech mattered, the theatre of it was equally important. For a campaign criticised for lacking passion, the event gave Clinton the ability to create a camera-ready tableau of excitement.
The Brooklyn Express Drumline revved up the crowd assembled on a narrow stretch at the southern tip of the island. And Marlon Marshall, the campaign's director of political engagement, rattled off statistics about the number of volunteers who have signed up and house parties held in the early nominating states. A section with giant screens set up for an overflow crowd stood nearly empty.
But a crowd of supporters and volunteers from the staunchly Democratic New York area does not exactly represent the electorate writ large. The real test for Mrs. Clinton and how the speech was perceived will be in Iowa, where she was to travel on Saturday evening for several events. Iowa, the first nominating state, shunned her the last time she sought the presidency, in 2008.
"I was disappointed she didn't challenge Obama four years ago," said Dominique Pettinato, a 24-year-old parole officer who lives in Brooklyn.
For some members of the skeptical liberal wing of the Democratic Party still concerned that Mrs. Clinton will embrace her husband's centrist approach, the speech went only so far in convincing them otherwise.
"This was mostly a typical Democratic speech - much better than the direction Republicans offer America," said Adam Green, a co-founder of Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a liberal advocacy group. But he said the speech had not offered "the bold economic vision that most Americans want and need."
Mrs. Clinton did not broach one issue that liberals are increasingly frustrated by: trade. On Thursday, Senator Bernie Sanders, a socialist from Vermont who is also seeking the Democratic nomination, pointedly criticised Mrs. Clinton for not taking a position on a controversial trade bill Mr. Obama is pushing, as well as other contentious issues like the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline and the renewal of the Patriot Act. "What is the secretary's point of view on that?" Mr. Sanders asked of the act, which he voted against.
Mrs. Clinton had hardly stopped speaking Saturday when Bill Hyers, a senior strategist for Martin O'Malley, the former governor of Maryland, who is also seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, criticised her as vague on trade and other issues. Mr. O'Malley, he said, "has been fearless and specific in the progressive agenda we need."
If there is one demographic Mrs. Clinton's campaign is hoping to excite it is young women. It is an obvious connection that her 2008 campaign played down as it tried to present the former first lady as a strong commander in chief.
But on Saturday it was clear that Mrs. Clinton will make gender more central to her campaign this time. In her closing remarks, she called for a country "where a father can tell his daughter yes, you can be anything you want to be, even president of the United States."
© 2015 The New York Times News Service