Mediaboss Marketing

As Hillary Rodham Clinton mulls a second presidential bid, liberals are closely watching whether the onetime supporter of the Iraq war moves to the left or straddles the center.

Democrats say economic issues such as raising the minimum wage and protecting Social Security have become paramount for anyone aiming to lead the party after years of tough economic times.

During the 2008 primary campaign against Barack Obama, Clinton was hurt by her stand on the Iraq war while she was a senator. But she burnished her image among party loyalists during four years at the State Department in the Obama administration. Now liberals want to see how she might carry the torch from Obama.

"We're going to see income inequality play the same role that the war in Iraq played in 2008," said Ilya Sheyman, executive director of MoveOn.org, a liberal advocacy group. "This is less about what she did before. The issue landscape right now is very different than in 2008."

Whether a viable Clinton alternative emerges for the 2016 campaign remains a looming question.

Vice President Joe Biden is leaving his options open. Some liberals hope Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., will reconsider statements that she has no plans to run. Others point to ex-Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who addressed a progressive group in Iowa in December, or Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, who is considering a presidential run but endorsed Clinton in 2007.

Liberals have backed efforts by Warren to expand Social Security benefits instead of trimming them to keep the program solvent. In a speech at Colgate University last year, Clinton suggested she shared Obama's approach for a "grand bargain" style deficit reduction that would include increases to tax revenue and adjustments to entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.

Progressives want Clinton to take a tougher stand on Wall Street. They grumble about her speeches at private financial conferences, where she can command fees of $200,000.

"It's a big unknown on where Hillary Clinton stands on issues like core economic populist issues," said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. He said there are "a lot of people who want to support her and are rooting for her to adapt to the times" but if she doesn't, there will be room for a challenger.

On Super Bowl Sunday, liberals reacted favorably when Clinton urged fellow Democrats to avoid tougher penalties against Iran as the administration negotiates a comprehensive nuclear deal.

Continued here:

A Fresh Start for Hillary Clinton and Liberals? - ABC News

Former Army Gen. David Petraeus , who has traditionally stayed away from political endorsements, appears to be eager to support a Hillary Clinton candidacy, a new book alleges.

Shed make a tremendous President, the former commander and CIA director reportedly says in the new book HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton, by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes.

RELATED: PETRAEUS TRIED TO DOWNGRADE WAR HEROS AWARD

Like a lot of great leaders, her most impressive qualities were most visible during tough times, Petraeus adds.

The comments mark an interesting departure for Petraeus, who, when it comes to politics, has typically remained quiet.

RELATED: FRIEND MAILS FAKE GRENADE TO PETRAEUS

The book, to be released Tuesday, alleges that the unlikely pair forged a friendship while Clinton was Secretary of State.

According to excerpts of HRC, obtained by ABC News, Clinton, soon after taking office, invited Petraeus to her Washington home to drink wine and discuss Middle East issues. The night was so enjoyable that she invited him over again the next night to continue their chat.

Go here to see the original:

Ex-Gen. David Petraeus says Hillary Clinton would make ...

AP Photo/Gerald Herbert

Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton delivers remarks to the National Automobile Dealers Association meeting in New Orleans, Monday, Jan. 27, 2014.

Cast about for Democratic presidential hopefuls in 2016, and there arent a whole lot of names that come up other than Hillary Clinton. Most of her potential opponents have already endorsed her as-of-yet-non-existent candidacy. And the few weighing runs arent serious threats, such as former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.

(MAGAZINE: Can anyone stop Hillary?)

But if the epic 2008 primary fight was any indication, Clintons greatest challengein a potential presidential bid isnt another candidateits her own candidacy. She entered the 2008 race as the front-runner and the campaign was hers to lose. Now, as it was then, she already wears the thorny crown of inevitability. But she has yet to show that shes learned from the mistakes of her last campaign debacle. Here are six reasons Clinton might be her own worst enemy.

Inevitability

Comfort breeds laziness. Last time around, Clinton didnt log the hours of retail politics needed to win Iowa, and then was shocked when she lost it. A month before the caucuses, shed been to less than half of Iowas 99 countiescompared to John Edwards, whod visited all 99, and Barack Obama whod been to 68. Part of the reason she lost the last time was because she ran as if she were the incumbent and she campaigned from behind the rope line as if she was in the White House, says one of Clintons top fundraisers. So she needs a complete attitude shift.

Out of touch

In 2008, Michelle Obama pooh-poohed the idea that her husband would run again in 2012 if he failed in 2008. Why? Because they would be too far removed from reality by then and not in touch with everyday Americans. Mitt Romney was hammered in 2012 for saying that while he didnt watch NASCAR, he had a lot of great friends who are NASCAR team owners.

And Clinton should know, since her husband used the presidential bubble against George H. W. Bush during the 1992 campaign. Clinton mocked Bush for not knowing the price of milk. So, perhaps Hillary should not be admitting that she hasnt driven a car since 1996, as she did at the National Automobile Dealers Association meeting in New Orleans last month.

Link:

Hillary Clinton Could Be Her Own Worst Enemy in 2016 ...

Hillary Clinton, once President Barack Obamas political foe, emerged as his top ally on what would become his signature policy achievement: revamping the U.S. health-care system.

She quietly advised administration officials and lawmakers uneasy after a summer of attacks by the small-government Tea Party movement, according to the book HRC: State Secrets and the Rebirth of Hillary Clinton. (Crown, 440 pages, $26.)

A member or two may have stopped and asked me what I thought, Clinton is quoted in the book as saying. And I thought, You need to work with the president and try to get this done.

HRC, by Bloomberg News reporter Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes of The Hill newspaper, is the first book-length account after Clintons tenure as secretary of state to explore her political comeback after losing her 2008 presidential bid to fellow Democrat Obama. The reported narrative, to be published today, gives new details about her reaction to the killings of four Americans at a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, and her plans for a possible 2016 presidential run.

Sitting to the right of Obama at a Sept. 10, 2009, cabinet meeting, Clinton listened with alarm as other secretaries asked whether health-care legislation was worth sacrificing much of the rest of the presidents agenda, the book says. This is the time to do it, Clinton says in a pep talk the authors recount in the book. Were all in it. Everyone in this room knows how important this is.

Her own experience with pushing for a health-care revamp informed her advice to senior Obama administration officials and lawmakers, the authors write. In 1994, during President Bill Clintons first term, the first lady lost a fight to change the countrys health-insurance system.

I thought, Look, the president had more support in Congress than my husband did back in 93, 94, so he could put together a majority, Clinton says in the book. If the Republicans stonewalled, which they were beginning to show they would, despite his best efforts, he could still put a package on the floor and get it passed in both houses, which doesnt come along every first term of a president.

Obama signed the Affordable Care Act -- dubbed Obamacare -- into law March 23, 2010. Democrats are still experiencing repercussions; the issue cost them the House of Representatives in 2010 and has returned as a dominant theme of this years congressional races. Republicans are positioned to retain the House and need a net of six seats to take the Senate.

The book also traces Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lews path through Obamas administration. In a twist, the former Citigroup (C) Inc. executive began in the State Department in 2009 after Obamas then-chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, objected to installing him at the Treasury Department.

Emanuel was worried that it wouldnt look good to put a Citigroup executive in that job in the midst of a Wall Street bailout, the book says.

Visit link:

Hillary Clinton Emerged as Top Obama Ally on Health: Book

(Corrects Bob Packwood's party affiliation to Republican in 11th paragraph.)

How responsible is a wife for the betrayal of her husband?

In the case of Hillary Clinton, the answer is, a lot, according to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and Senator Rand Paul.

They got delicious material to use in their effort from exchanges between Clinton and her best friend Diane Blair. Blair died at 61 in 2000. Her husband donated her papers to the University of Arkansas, where they were reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative website.

The charge against Hillary is that she was an enabler, not a victim, of her husband's extramarital affairs, a long string of which culminated in the White House encounters with Monica Lewinsky.

Recalling a 1998 conversation, Blair wrote: HRC insists, no matter what people say, it was gross inappropriate behavior but it was consensual (was not a power relationship) and was not sex within real meaning.

As engrossing as it is to get inside Hillary's mind, to use Bill Clinton's behavior against Hillary requires that you think she let the philandering happen, that she somehow deserved it (she's often portrayed as cold and withholding), that she did nothing to stop it, blamed the other woman, and through it all, didn't suffer.

Her first reaction about Monica was the one many of us would have: This can't be true; surely, not in the Oval Office (or the adjoining study), surely not with an employee; surely not someone young enough to be his daughter. Then came the second thought: How do I protect Chelsea, calm the rabble hounding us on the front lawn night and day, keep our enemies from using it?

What she didn't do was leave. But since when do we punish people for NOT breaking up their marriages? Aren't Republicans the family values folks? And her instinct was to believe her husband above the women with whom he strayed. Who wouldn't?

Still these remembrances from Blair show Hillary to be ready to attack women to defend her husband, guilty to all but her. She believed too long, defended too strenuously, and lined up with women's groups who wouldn't ordinarily be siding with a public official who treated women so badly.

See the rest here:

The Politics of Hillary Clinton's Marriage