Mediaboss Marketing

Story highlights A key Republican attack on a would-be Hillary Clinton presidential run would be that she'd be Obama's third term Clinton has been talking with a number of high profile Democratic operatives while considering a presidential run Clinton has also reportedly hired advisers from Obama's 2008 and 2012 runs for top jobs in her campaign

But ahead of Tuesday's State of the Union address, critics say Clinton is making their job easy.

Tim Miller, the executive director of America Rising, an anti-Clinton communications and research super PAC, argues in talking points to other Republicans that Clinton is tying herself to Obama by working with and hiring many of his staffers ahead of her all-but-certain 2016 run.

"By hiring his key political and policy staff and making no public moves to place clear distance between herself and the President on issues likely to be front and center in the coming Congress, Clinton is signaling that she's not just from the same party as the President, but that she's an Obama Democrat, who will back his policies, pursue his agenda, and represent a Third Term of the Obama Administration," Miller argues in a memo to the group's supporters.

Since last year, Clinton has been meeting with a broad array of Democratic operatives and possible campaign staffers ahead of a possible 2016 run. But in the last month, Clinton has reportedly began to tap certain Democratic operatives -- many with ties to Obama's two successful presidential runs -- for certain jobs on her nascent campaign.

John Podesta, a top aide on the Obama White House, has said a number of times that he plans to leave the White House in early February and would happily work for Clinton is she runs.

"If she runs, as I hope she will, I will do whatever she asks me to do," Podesta, who previously worked as chief of staff to former President Bill Clinton, said on the Charlie Rose Show in November. "Right now she hasn't made a decision to run, so I am expecting to return to what I was doing before."

Democrats widely expect -- and other outlets have reported -- that Podesta will serve as Clinton's campaign chairman, should she run.

In the memo, Miller argues that Podesta's inclusion on team Clinton is the biggest sign of her joining with Obama. "He [Podesta] will bring that same policy agenda, willingness to subvert Congress and rhetoric to Team Clinton," he writes.

What's more, Clinton has reportedly selected pollsters Joel Benenson, John Anzalone, David Binder and media adviser Jim Margolis for top roles in the campaign. All have worked in similar capacities for either the President's 2008 or 2012 campaigns.

See the original post:
Clinton critics jab at Obama camp hiring

Story highlights Gallup released a survey of most admired living people on Monday Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has repeatedly won the list for women

Hillary Clinton takes the top spot on a list of admired living women for the 13th year in a row, according to an annual survey released by Gallup on Monday.

President Barack Obama, meanwhile, is considered the most admired living man in any part of the world.

When asked to name a woman they've heard or read about and admire, 12% mentioned Clinton, the former secretary of state, New York senator and first lady.

Eight percent said Oprah Winfrey, 5% said Nobel Peace prize winner Malala Yousafzai, and 4% said first lady Michelle Obama.

Other names mentioned included actress and humanitarian Angelina Jolie (2%), former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (2%), Princess Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge (2%), Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Massachusetts (1%), and former first lady Laura Bush (1%).

Clinton, who's considered the Democratic frontrunner if she runs for president in 2016, has also held the top spot in 17 of the past 18 years. Laura Bush was considered the most admired woman in 2001, not long after the 9/11 attacks.

In the seven decades that Gallup has been asking the question, Clinton has won the designation more than any other woman, including six times more than former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Obama is also continuing a streak, with this year marking his seventh year in a row as the most frequently mentioned man who people admire most. He was given the designation in 2008 shortly after winning election to his first term.

According to Gallup, the U.S. president is almost always mentioned as the most admired man, with only 12 exceptions in the past 68 years.

Here is the original post:
Clinton, Obama most admired

The president's proposals are designed to force his presumptive successor to campaign and govern on his terms.

Jim Young/Reuters

Theres a subtext to President Obamas slew of domestic policy proposals since the November elections: President Obama does not trust Hillary Clinton very much.

None of the presidents domestic-policy brainwaves has much chance of becoming law in the next two years: not free community college, not cash grants to selected middle-income households, and certainly not heavy tax increases on upper-income earners. The president knows these odds better than anybody. So why keep propounding such no-hopers? The intent, pretty obviously, is to box in his presumptive successor as head of the Democratic Party.

The Language of the State of the Union

Every time the president advances a concept that thrills his partys liberal base, he creates a dilemma for Hillary Clinton. Does she agree or not? Any time she is obliged to answer, her scope to define herself is constricted.

Hillary Clinton emerges from the Democratic Partys business wing. Whatever her own personal viewsstill an elusive quantum after all these years in public lifeshe is identified in the public mind with her husbands record, her husbands appointees, and her husbands donors. Not just in the public mind, but seemingly in the presidents mind, too. So as the clock runs down on his administration, he seems determined to set the post-Obama Democratic Party on a more leftward course than he himself had the strength to steer.

Obama here is sharply departing from the practice of other recent two-term presidents as their transition neared.

As Ronald Reagans second term entered its final stretch, he and his last chief of staff, Ken Duberstein, became legendarily solicitous of the views of the Republican Partys likely next presidential nominee, George H.W. Bush. Bush got such a voice in major policy decisions and appointments that insiders dubbed the process a friendly takeover, with the emphasis on the takeover, not the friendly. President Reagans 1987 and 1988 State of the Union addresses were strikingly cautious: more old nostrums, like the balanced budget amendment, than new initiatives. The outgoing president seemed determined to avoid anything that might compromise his likely successor.

President Bill Clintons relationship to Vice President Gore was more fraught than Reagans with Bush. President Clinton was also more personally energetic in his final two years than the more elderly Reagan. Yet to the extent that Clinton tried to shape the next presidential election, he did so by hammering upon the theme on which he and Gore most emphatically agreed: earmarking government surplus revenues to the Social Security trust fund, rather than tax cuts or new spending, the famous lockbox.

Excerpt from:
The Real Target of Obama's Speech on Tuesday? Hillary Clinton

Hillary Clinton is under pressure to adopt a more populist image. Photo: AFP

Washington: Hillary Clinton, the presumed frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, will give a pair of speeches on Wednesday in Canada hosted by a major bank that has been the subject of several investigations into wrongdoing over the past dozen years.

Ms Clinton and the bank refused to say if she's being paid for the speeches. But the appearances are all but certain to fuel complaints that she's too close to the corporate elites, especially coming a day after President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech focusing on the plight of the middle class and signs that several top Republicans also plan to make economic populism a centrepiece of their campaigns.

Ms Clinton has given dozens of speeches since leaving office as secretary of state, many for free and many drawing paychecks of as much as US$200,000 to US$300,000. The Wednesday addresses could stand out, as they'll be hosted by a foreign bank with a record of investigations by US officials.

Advertisement

In 2003, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce settled a case with the Securities and Exchange Commission for $US80 million for allegedly helping the Enron energy company mislead investors through a series of transactions over a period of several years, according to the SEC. At least two executives agreed to settle charges of aiding and abetting the fraud, paying a total of $US600,000.

In 2005, CIBC settled another case with SEC for $US125 million after it was accused of financing late trading to increase their customers' trading profits at the expense of long-term mutual fund shareholders, according to the SEC.

And again in 2005, the bank agreed to pay nearly a half million dollars to settle SEC allegations that it broke the law by underwriting municipal securities for the state of California after making campaign donations to six politicians, including former Democratic Governor Gray Davis, according to the SEC. Securities law forbids a corporate donor from doing municipal securities work for an issuer within two years of a contribution.

More recently, it was hit with a series of class action lawsuits seeking $US4 billion over allegations that it did not adequately warn investors of its exposure to the US subprime market. In each case, even the ones in which CIBC settled, it denied any wrongdoing.

Clinton will speak in Winnipeg and Saskatoon as part of the Global Perspective speakers series sponsored by the Toronto-based bank with millions of clients and tens of thousands of employees. Tickets are being sold for the events that will be held in large arenas, at the RBC Winnipeg Convention Centre and the TCU Place.

See the original post here:
Hillary Clinton talks to be hosted by bank often investigated for wrongdoing

Hillary Clinton Announces Candidacy on NYSU
Hillary Clinton has a big announcement that she #39;s only going to make on No, You Shut Up. That is until Dracula called in and ruined everything.

By: NoYouShutUp!

More:
Hillary Clinton Announces Candidacy on NYSU - Video