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Published January 17, 2015

Hillary Clinton appears to have scared away much of the competition should she seek the Democratic nomination for president in 2016. But her early and practically all-encompassing effort also presents the potential liability that she will sail through the primary season largely untested for the bare-knuckled general election.

And it could deny Democrats the chance to define themselves to Americans, strategists say.

It's not good for a party because the Democratic Party needs a real debate about what it's for, who it's for, what it's about and where we'll take the country, says Dennis Kucinich, a former Democratic congressman, presidential candidate and a Fox News contributor.

The 67-year-old Clinton plans to make an official announcement in early 2015, leaving some doubt about whether she will indeed run. But her frontrunner status is unquestionable.

She has roughly 62 percent of the likely vote and leads all potential Democratic challengers by a numbing 49.5 percentage points.

And those numbers combined with an ambitious public-speaking schedule and the fundraising and cheerleading group Ready for Hillary are making it difficult for potential primary challengers to raise money.

In addition, Clintons most formidable, likely primary challenger now, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, insists shes not running, leaving the Democratic field so wide open that 73-year-old Bernie Sanders, an independent and junior senator from Vermont, is now fourth behind Clinton, Warren and Vice President Biden, according an averaging of polls by RealClearPolitics.com

I think you miss the chance to vet ideals, says Richard Fowler, a Democrat and host of the progressive-leaning Richard Fowler Talk Show. I think that's what elections are about.Elections are about ideals and how ideals would then turn into policy that will then turn into how we govern.

Clinton, a former first lady, secretary of State and New York senator, hasnt been in a campaign-style debate since 2008, when she lost the Democratic presidential primary to President Obama, then a freshman Illinois senator.

Read the original here:
BATTLE UNTESTED? Easy ride in '16 primary may weaken Clinton

Hillary Clinton doesnt routinely wade into live policy debates swirling in Washington, but she made an exception on Friday, sending out a tweet that took aim at congressional efforts to roll back some of the regulations imposed after the financial collapse in 2008.

In her tweet, Mrs. Clinton sounded a populist chord that will surely hearten supporters of liberal firebrand Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.

Attacking financial reform is risky and wrong, wrote Mrs. Clinton, who is expected to announce her presidential candidacy in the next few months. Better for Congress to focus on jobs and wages for middle class families.

This week, the House passed a bill that would loosen parts of the Dodd-Frank law passed in 2010 to prevent the sort of meltdown that had shaken the economy in 2008.

Should she run, Mrs. Clinton will face pressure from liberals to align herself with middle class interests and repudiate a Wall Street community that has been a lucrative source of donations to her familys political and non-profit pursuits over the years. In this tweet and in some recent speeches, she has introduced populist themes that seem meant to mollify the partys liberal wing.

After she tweeted, conservative critics were quick to pounce.

Tim Miller, a spokesman for a group called America Rising, sent out a tweet of his own: 1st @HillaryClinton tweet in over a month a stilted attempt to not alienate Warren fans or her big donors. Inspiring.

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Hillary Clinton Strikes Populist Note in Tweet on Financial Regulation

WASHINGTON Hillary Clinton is defending the Dodd-Frank Act as Republicans in Congress look for ways to water down the overhaul of financial regulation and some fellow Democrats accuse her of being too cozy with Wall Street.

"Attacking financial reform is risky and wrong," Clinton, a former U.S. Secretary of State who's considering a White House run in 2016, wrote Friday in a Twitter message. "Better for Congress to focus on jobs and wages for middle class families."

Clinton, who has been quietly building a campaign team in recent weeks, is expected to announce a second run for the presidency in the next few months. Her Twitter message ends a period of relative silence for Clinton, whose potential Republican rivals - including former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, 2008 Republican nominee Mitt Romney and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul - are jockeying for early position.

The tweet came two days after House Republicans made one of their first attempts in the new Congress to roll back Dodd-Frank constraints on Wall Street, in what's poised to become a recurring battle with Democrats who oppose changing the law. The House passed a bill that would delay aspects of the Volcker Rule restriction on banks making risky investments, a bill that President Barack Obama has promised to veto.

Clinton's message addresses a possible weakness she has that has been highlighted by the populist stands of Senator Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat who has said she won't challenge Clinton for the Democratic nomination. Warren's opposition to Wall Street banker Antonio Weiss for a key Treasury Department post prompted him to withdraw his name from consideration this week.

Polls have shown that many of Clinton's fellow Democrats are worried that she favored Wall Street too much during her time as first lady, senator from New York, secretary of state and philanthropist.

Clinton has raised tens of millions of dollars from donors in the financial industry to support her political campaigns, initiatives of the State Department and the Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton Foundation.

An earlier attempt by Clinton to show solidarity with the anti-Wall Street sentiments of some Democrats fizzled.

"Don't let anybody tell you that it's corporations and businesses that create jobs," she said in October at a rally for Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley that was also attended by Warren.

Clinton later clarified to say that she meant that giving tax breaks to businesses that ship jobs overseas doesn't create jobs in the U.S.

The rest is here:
Clinton defends Dodd-Frank as Republicans move to change law

A composite photo of Hillary Clinton (right), and actress Viola Davis (left), the lead character in the television series How to Get Away with Murder.

Image: Mashable composite / Getty Creative

By Rebecca Ruiz2015-01-17 16:06:31 UTC

For years, Hollywood has asked women on screen to play one of three roles: girlfriend, wife or mistress. These characters are often hollow, with few aspirations or desires beyond illuminating the inner life of a male keeper.

Now that illusion seems to be slowly, stubbornly receding in favor of the complicated female character. Like the generations of male characters that came before her, she is often deeply flawed, rejects convention, and isn't necessarily powerful or self-assured. She might even be an anti-heroine.

In this pop culture universe, a woman with hard edges is appealing, interesting, even marketable. This momentum may not be remaking American culture, but it does hint at a newfound appreciation for the complex woman. And it could come at no better time than when we start to contemplate, yet again, what it would mean to have a female president.

Hillary Clinton, the presumed frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, has been defined by complexity since she became first lady in 1993. One of the most vocal advocates for women and children in modern history, she is also notorious for her hawkish stance on the Iraq War, subverting the popular notion that a woman, and particularly a mother, would avoid war at all costs. Among the most vilified women in American politics, she's withstood vicious attacks on her personality and motivations, sometimes with a smile. When her husband was outed as a philanderer, she remained his partner.

These complexities have been both Clinton's strength and weakness, transforming her through resilience but also making her a target for skeptics and criticism, some of it sexist. So it's worth asking: Can this particular moment in pop culture can change the way we think of Clinton?

Might the hard-charging women of Shonda Rhimes' television empire help the American public see female strength as an asset in a way they haven't before? Or maybe the grit and vulnerability of Sandra Bullock's marooned astronaut in Gravity convinced viewers that women possess both qualities in equal measure and still prevail in harrowing circumstances.

If the compelling female characters in film and television have messy lives, that arguably broadens our vision of what it means to be a modern American woman.

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Could Hollywood's new love of complex women help Hillary Clinton?

Further fueling the speculation around his all-but-certain 2016 presidential bid, Gov. Scott Walker took a swipe Thursday night at former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Addressing GOP officials in California at the Republican National Committee winter meeting, Walker used a common theme of his speeches as governor to attack the potential Democratic nominee.

"She lives in Washington. She works in Washington. She came to Washington through this president and his administration," Walker said of Clinton, Politico's Alex Insenstadt reported. "She was in Washington when she was a United States senator. She was in Washington when her husband was president of the United States. You look at everything that people dislike about Washington, and she embodies it."

Walker frequently invokes a contrast between the nation's capital and the state of Wisconsin.

"Some in Washington believe government should play a growing role in our lives and rarely question its expanse. Others have such disdain for government that they attempt to keep it from working at all," Walker said during his State of the State address. "Instead, we have a chance to lead here in Wisconsin. I believe that government has grown too big and too intrusive in our lives and must be reined in, but the government that is left must work."

That speech came one week after his inaugural address, in which he contrasted the difference between Wisconsin and "the politicians along the Potomac."

"We get things done here in the Badger State," Walker said. "There is a clear contrast between Washington and Wisconsin."

The governor, re-elected to a second term in November, has yet to confirm that he'll seek his party's nomination in 2016. But when he describes the candidate he thinks he could win, it sounds an awful lot like him: a governor, a fresh face from outside Washington, someone who's taken on challenges and emerged victorious.

While former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has distinguished himself from the presumed Democratic nominee by voluntarily releasing 250,000 emails from his time as governor drawing a sharp line between himself and Clinton, whose business is notoriously guarded Walker has sought to do the same through rhetoric.

Some on the left aren't buying it.

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Scott Walker slams Hillary Clinton, Democrats hit back