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Hillary Clinton says negotiations with North Korea shouldn't be done over Twitter Washington Post May 2, 2017 1:56 PM EDT - Hillary Clinton said negotiations with North Korea require more strategy than a tweet. Clinton spoke at an event hosted by Women for Women International on May 2. (Women for Women International). May 2, 2017 1:56 PM EDT ...

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Hillary Clinton says negotiations with North Korea shouldn't be done over Twitter - Washington Post

Election 2016: It took a lot of numbers-crunching, but Democratic Party pooh-bahs say they now know why Hillary Clinton lost: Many of the "base" voters she counted on in Blue States didn't show up, and switched to Donald Trump instead. It took them nearly six months to figure out the blindingly obvious, but it still doesn't get at the truth.

The findings of a poll and focus groups conducted by Priorities USA for the Democratic Party advisory firm Global Strategy Group were devastating not just for Hillary Clinton, but for Democrats as a whole: It found that many former supporters of President Obama flipped and voted for Donald Trump instead of Hillary Clinton.

For Democrats, it should be disquieting that the findings completely contradict their own carefully-managed self-image as champions of the underdog: Some 50% of those who voted for Obama and then defected to Trump said their incomes are lagging behind the cost of living, while another 31% said they were just treading water, the Washington Post's The Plum Line blog noted.

Most devastating of all, 42% of these former Obama voters who moved over to vote GOP said congressional Democrats' economic policies favor the rich. That compares with 21% who said the same thing about Trump.

In short, to many Americans now living through economic tough times, the Democrats have become the party of the rich and the connected. Some 77% in the poll said that Trump's policies would help all classes of Americans, vs. just 58% for congressional Democrats.

Even so, that leaves out one key point that appeared nowhere in the Democratic Party analysis that we saw that is, the Democratic Party has veered sharply leftward in recent years. They easily capture the bright Blue population centers on both coasts, but increasingly have trouble capturing the middle, both geographically and metaphorically.

As a mid-2015 Gallup Poll noted, 47% of Democrats identified as "social liberal and economic moderate/liberal." That compares with just 39% identifying that way in 2008, and just 30% in 2001. Centrists in the party have been marginalized.

As 2016 Democratic presidential candidate James Webb, himself a centrist, complained in early February, the party has shifted "very far to the left" in recent years due to its "focus on identity politics." This, he said, has diminished a "key part of their base."

Even Chris Matthews, the liberal MSNBC host and former aide to liberal icon Tip O'Neill, admitted last weekend on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the party had shifted too far left in recent years. "A lot of it's cultural, not just economics," he said.

As we point out in a separate editorial today, the Democrats seem to have developed a "tolerance" problem. As in, Democrats can't tolerate any disagreement whatsoever.

This has led to major losses for the Democrats in recent years. During President Obama's two terms, Democrats lost 9 U.S. Senate seats, 62 House seats, 12 governorships and a shocking 958 state legislative seats.

Far from the base leaving the party, as the Priorities USA poll suggests, the party is leaving the base.

That can be seen in those the party pushes forward as its leaders and "stars," including socialist Bernie Sanders, far-left former professor Elizabeth Warren, and Democratic National Committee Chairman Thomas Perez, another far-lefty who has all but declared war on the Democratic Party's centrist and conservative wings.

Here's where Hillary Clinton comes in: 30% of those queried in the poll said they voted against Clinton, rather than voted for Trump. What she was selling, even some Democrats didn't want to buy.

So maybe they were being kind, or perhaps they just fear Hillary, but the party's insiders now saying Hillary's "base" didn't show up sounds like a cop-out. Yes, the Democratic Party has big problems. But as the saying goes, a fish rots from the head down. Rather than run as a centrist alternative to Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton's me-too leftism left many centrist Democrats cold.

When Hillary emerged from semi-seclusion in early April to discuss her epic defeat, she blamed a number of things for her loss: The FBI reopening its investigation into her emails; WikiLeaks issuing stolen emails; something she called the "weaponization of information"; the media; sexism and "misogyny." It was a long list.

But, as the Washington Examiner has pointed out, she named and blamed everything except herself.

The Democrats chose someone as the standard-bearer of their party who had a very low likability quotient with average voters to begin with. Pushed by theleftward drift of her own party, she adopted an equally far-left election platform of higher taxes, more regulation, and imposing a liberal cultural agenda across the nation.

The result: She alienated key Democratic-base voters, and lost a race that many said was impossible for her to lose.

Hillary Clinton was not "most qualified person ever" to run for the presidency, as some deluded Clinton supporters and the media propagandized. Her record at the State Department and with the various scandals email server, Benghazi, pay-for-play show how wrong that idea is.

So maybe she should be congratulated: Given her sharp turn to the left last year and lack of genuine qualifications, it's surprising she did as well as she did.

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The Real Reasons Why Hillary Clinton Lost In 2016 - Investor's Business Daily

I know its early in Trumps first term. I know the Republicans will have another bite at the budgetary apple. And, yes, I know that Trump is today loudly signaling his displeasure with the spending deal and vowing to fight next time. But lets be honest a Republican president, a Republican House, and a Republican Senate just made a deal that Hillary Clinton would have been happy to sign. The wall has to wait. Planned Parenthood gets its cash. The administrative state continues to grow.

Yes, the GOP did win some limited victories like boostingdefense spending but the GOP won limited victories back when it only controlled the House. Considering Hillarys well-established hawkish tendencies, increasing defense spending is exactly the kind of concession shed make.

Not only are the Democrats dancing in the end zone, theyre apparently quite confident that theyre going to win the next budget contest as well. They just might be right. Legislative and partisan realities make deal-makingdifficult. Absent drastic action (like nuking the legislative filibuster) conservatives should brace themselves a Hillary budget may well be the Trump administration norm.

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Let's Be Honest - Hillary Clinton Would Have Liked This Spending Deal - National Review

The unemployed coal industry workerbehind one of the most telling moments ofthe 2016 presidential race said Tuesday that hes challenging West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin III next year.

Bo Copley, who confronted Manchin and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton one year ago at a small event inside a medical clinic in Williamson, W. Va., told Yahoo News in an interview that he was filing paperwork for the Republican primary for the Senate seat.

With everything that has happened over the past year, with all of the attention we have received, with all of the people saying, We really appreciate you representing us, we thought maybe people want someone to represent them who understands what theyre going through, Copley told Yahoos Olivier Knox. Its what Gods telling me to do.

The story of how Copley got to the Clinton campaign event in the first place despite being an obvious critic was a classic tale of life in a small town, as reported at the time.

We coach three soccer teams, and Dr. Becketts son and his daughter played soccer for me, and so weve gotten fairly close, Copley said after the event, with tears. They approached me Saturday and said they thought of me. They were looking for an out-of-work coal miner because being close to us and seeing us, they knew our situation.

Dr. Dino Beckett is the chief executive officer at the health and wellness center in Mingo County, which is one of the places most devastated by the loss of jobs in the coal industry.

Copley told Manchin at the time of his advocacy for Clintonthat,honestly, if I can be candid, I think still supporting her hurts you. It does.

President Donald Trump dominated at the polls in West Virginia, as was expected. Trump carried 68.5 percent of the vote, and in Mingo County Trump received7,911 votes, as compared with 1,370 for Clinton.

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Coal Worker Who Confronted Hillary Clinton Takes on Joe Manchin - Roll Call

Hillary Clinton admitted at a womens event that she supported the Syrian missile strike, though she said it wouldnt make much difference. She also called Syria and North Korea wicked problems, taking several jabs at President Donald Trumps foreign policy.

The former secretary of state was the featured speaker at the Women for Women International luncheon in New York City on Tuesday, being interviewed on stage by CNNs Christiane Amanpour. Clinton started with a pointed appeal to Trump.

I am going to publicly request that this administration not end our efforts making womens rights and opportunities central to American foreign policy and national security, Clinton said.

That request comes a day after an internal Trump administration memo called for ending the Let Girls Learn program, former First Lady Michelle Obamas signature education initiative for girls in developing countries.

Syria is one of those wicked problems, Clinton said after Amanpour asked her about Trumps decision to launch airstrikes against a Syrian air base after President Bashar Assads forces allegedly used chemical weapons to attack civilians.

Clinton said she supported the US missile strike, but not publicly because that wasnt my role. However, she continued, I am not convinced that it really made much of a difference, and I dont know what kind of potentially backroom deals were made with the Russians.

Theres a lot that we don't really yet fully know about what was part of that strike, she added. And if all it was was a one-off effort, its not going to have much of an effect.

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Amanpour then asked Clinton about North Korea, which the former secretary of state also described as one of those wicked problems.

While Trump is right to focus on a regional effort to basically incentivize the North Korean regime to understand that it will pay a much bigger price primarily from China, if it pursues this reckless policy of nuclear weapons development and missiles to deliver them, Clinton believes the president is handling the crisis with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un incorrectly by offering to negotiate in the absence of a broader strategic framework.

She was quoted as saying during a private speech in 2013 that she had confronted Chinese officials about North Korea, telling them: "So China, come on. You either control them [North Korea] or we're going to have to defend against them." Trumps nominee to be the ambassador to China, Terry Branstad, made similar remarks in his confirmation hearings on Tuesday, saying there are things China can do diplomatically and economically to influence North Korea.

Clinton discussed how her husband, President Bill Clinton, negotiated with Kims father, Kim Jong-il, over the countrys plutonium program. The current situation, she said, is a result of President George W. Bush walking away when there was evidence North Korea was cheating, instead of negotiating to get rid of the uranium program, too.

So negotiations are critical, but they have to be part of a broader strategy, not just thrown out on a tweet some morning that hey, lets get together and see if we cant get along, and maybe we can, you know, come up with some sort of a deal, Clinton said, referring to Trumps propensity to conduct policy on Twitter. That doesnt work.

When asked about budget cuts by the Trump administration specifically to the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) Clinton thanked Defense Secretary Jim Mattis for being one of the only voices telling Trump that diplomacy and development matter.

At a National Security Advisory Council meeting at the end of February, Mattis told members: If you dont fund the State Department fully, then I need to buy more ammunition ultimately.

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Clinton expanded on Mattis remarks, noting, You cannot talk about pursuing diplomacy and development that will be to the benefit of the United States, to our security, to our values and interests without understanding then that were left with just one tool in the toolbox, namely the military tool.

That is a necessary tool, but it should be only one of three. And diplomacy and development should be the first efforts, she continued. Im hoping that, because of voices like Jim Mattis and others, that that will begin to influence the administration.

Amanpour asked Clinton about a wide range of issues involving women, dating back to when the then-first lady represented the US at the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China in 1995.

Overall, theres been a lot of progress made on womens rights since 1995, Clinton said, but have we made enough? No, we havent.

Echoing her remarks at the Beijing conference that womens rights are human rights and human rights are womens rights, Clinton said that part of what I really believe is that womens rights is the unfinished business of the 21st century. There is no more important, larger issue that has to be addressed.

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'One-off strike won't make a difference': Hillary Clinton criticizes Trump on Syria, N. Korea - RT