Hillary Clinton laid out the themes of her presidential campaign in their fullest form yet with her Saturday speech on New York’s Roosevelt Island.
The location was meant to evoke the full-throated liberalism of its namesake, Franklin Roosevelt, but it also seemed to herald a return to Clinton’s own liberal roots, decades after they’d been snipped, buried, and otherwise obfuscated by years of the famous Clinton triangulation and shape-shifting that she and her husband rode to great political success.
At least that’s what The New Republic‘s Rebecca Traister saw in the speech.
“Banished were the anodyne residents of ‘Main Street’; instead, Hillary spoke of ‘poor people’ and ‘the wealthiest’ and ‘income inequality,’ mentioning the ‘middle class’ only as a dying historical possibility in need of ‘a better deal,'” writes Traister. “These are strong words, and certainly some new words, coming from a candidate with a long history of playing people-pleasing, power-appeasing, over-careful politics.”
“To undergird her new liberal policy positions on everything from immigration to incarceration to equal pay and paid family leave,” writes Traister. “Clinton is trotting out old biographical details-specifically the kinds of early professional commitments she’s spent years trying to make us forget. As a law student, she reminded the crowd, she investigated conditions faced by migrant workers and later became the head of the Legal Services Corporation, where she “defended the right of poor people to have a lawyer.”
The New Yorker‘s John Cassidy picked up on Clinton’s new leftward tilt.
“Had someone on Clinton’s staff been reading the speeches of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, and purloining bits of them? Not necessarily,” he writes. “The line about twenty-five hedge-fund managers making more than all the kindergarten teachers in the country was actually delivered by President Obama a few weeks ago. But, in placing CEOs and hedge-fund managers center stage, and comparing their outsized remuneration and avarice to the tribulations of ordinary working people, Clinton was acknowledging not just the economic realities of modern America but the fact that the center of gravity in her party has shifted.”
Clinton called out the “financial industry and many multinational corporations” for making too much for a few at the top, while focusing far too little on job growth and “fair compensation.” She said “democracy can’t be just for billionaires and corporations.”
All good, so far, says Cassidy. But he finds a pretty big hole in her call to liberal arms. “There remains, of course, the question of what Clinton intends to do about these evils,” he says.
There was no talk, he says, of breaking up banks or raising taxes on those at the top. Cassidy wondered how the speech went over with leading liberals who have focused on income inequality, such as Bill Clinton’s one-time labor secretary, Robert Reich, Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz, or New York mayor Bill de Blasio. “Immediately after the speech, I couldn’t find any comment on Twitter” from them, he says. “In all probability, they will want to hear more detail.”
It took Reich a full 24 hours to take to the Twitterverse, where he proved Cassidy prescient: “Grading HRC’s economic speech: A for understanding problem. A for explaining its causes, D or even F for explaining what she’ll do about it.” He filled out in more than 140 characters his tough grade on Facebook (where she seemed to nudge up to a possible C on the “what to do” question).
Liberals and the Clintons have a long history of bitter fallouts and fence-mending. Reich himself has been at the center of such drama. So, too, writes Traister, has civil rights veteran Marian Wright Edelman. She gave Clinton her first job out of law school, condemned her husband for signing a 1996 welfare reform bill, and is now back on board, narrating a new Hillary campaign video.
If Clinton is the Democrats’ nominee, liberals will have little choice but to get on board. That’s why, hazy as she may be on specifics at this point, Reich encouraged the faithful not to give up yet. “The campaign is early,” he wrote. “There’s still time.”
–MICHAEL JONAS
BEACON HILL
The state’s new sick time law is creating headaches for some small businesses. (Boston Globe)
Welfare fraud in Lawrence hints at a larger problem, says an Eagle-Tribune editorial.
Pressing ahead again on early childhood education means up the dollars, says a MetroWest Daily News editorial.
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
About 175 city employees in Boston — city councilors, staffers, other City Hall workers — now have placards they display in their cars that let them park free in loading zones, at meters without feeding them, or in resident parking spaces. (Boston Globe)
Lawrence Mayor Daniel Rivera orders city officials to suspend licenses and occupancy permits of the tenants of landlords who fail to pay their taxes on time. (Eagle-Tribune)
Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch received more than $21,000 in campaign contributions from employees or officers of contractors who benefitted from the the city’s $13.5 million spent on snow removal this winter. (Patriot Ledger)
Six Art in the Park exhibits in Worcester are damaged by vandals. (Telegram & Gazette)
The Lowell Sun, in an editorial, says Gov. Charlie Baker needs to get involved because the three communities that oversee Devens may have blocked a deal that would have brought a major biotech company to the area.
RELIGION
The Roman Catholic archbishop of Minneapolis and an aide have stepped down in the wake of the growing sex abuse scandal in the diocese. (New York Times)
WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
Several dozen sex offenders who have been released by federal immigration officials are living in the US without having re-registered, as required. (Boston Globe)
Democrats in Missouri accuse Rex Sinquefield of trying to buy state government. (Governing)
OLYMPICS
Architect David Manfredi is the man behind much of the new Boston 2024 plan that will be rolled out by the end of the month. (Boston Globe)
ELECTIONS
Former Florida governor Jeb Bush is expected to formally announce his candidacy today but will downplay his family ties, using the logo “Jeb!” without his surname for the campaign. (New York Times)
Hillary Chabot calls it the invasion of the “retreads,” as Bush and Hillary Clinton plan trips to New Hampshire this week. (Boston Herald)
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
A new WBUR poll indicates voters want economic gains spread more evenly.
The Cape Cod Times looks at the housing gap in a region where seasonal homeowners are pushing out the local year-round residents.
The country’s most affluent donors have given more than $4 billion to nonprofits so far this year, a 21 percent increase over the same period last year. (Chronicle of Philanthropy)
EDUCATION
School and union officials in Lowell are grappling over grievance issues, including time spent teaching and whether yoga pants are appropriate for teachers to wear. (The Sun)
A Lynn high school student comes out as transgender in a graduation speech. (Item)
Students who took the most recent SAT tests got an extra five minutes on one of the sections because of a printing error. (U.S. News & World Report)
HEALTH CARE
John McDonough poses a provocative challenge to the medical device industry: Let’s repeal your tax in exchange for full pricing transparency. (CommonWealth)
The Eagle-Tribune and affiliated newspapers begin a three-part series on the heroin epidemic.
Telemedicine, in which doctors see patients via a video connection, is taking off, the Herald reports.
With no dispensaries yet open more than two years after Massachusetts voters passed the medical marijuana law, some patients certified to use the drug are resorting to growing their own. (Herald News)
Exercise all you want, but if you really want to lose weight, don’t eat so much. (New York Times)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Joan Vennochi says an independent investigator should take charge of the investigation of the killing of terror suspect Usaamah Rahim, questioning whether DA Dan Conley can impartially probe the various questions the case raises when he works so closely with law enforcement on a regular basis. (Boston Globe) She points to this 2014 CommonWealth story that found no charges brought in any of the 73 cases over the preceding 12 years of police use of lethal force.
Two teens charged with murdering a 16-year-old Dorchester boy were turned in by their mothers. (Boston Globe)
Duxbury police are warning residents to be vigilant after two bottle bombs were found in a mailbox and one a front yard. (Patriot Ledger)
Brockton police released a video hoping to identify a man who used a set of keys to break into City Hall then calmly rummaged through desks in various offices. (The Enterprise)