[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Sign-in] [Mail] [Setup] [Help]
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
|
(s)Elections See other (s)Elections Articles Title: Clinton cites no economists for plan [we don't need no stinkin badges] Clinton cites no economists for plan Posted May 4, 2008 12:10 PM by Rick Pearson INDIANAPOLIS--In an interview on ABC's This Week, Sen. Hillary Clinton couldn't name any economic experts who support her call to suspend federal gasoline taxes and finally cast opponents to her plan as coming from an "elite" mindset that has done little for the working class voters who she is actively cultivating. Speaking at an hour-long "town-hall" forum that featured voter questions from Indiana as well as North Carolina, the two states that hold primary balloting on Tuesday, Clinton also contended she never said rival Sen. Barack Obama didn't have the credentials to be commander in chief--even though she told reporters in March that only she and likely Republican nominee John McCain had crossed the "commander in chief threshold." Clinton was asked by show host George Stephanapoulos twice if she could name an economist who supported her summertime gas-tax suspension plan which is opposed by Obama as a poll-driven political gimmick that would save motorists little money and do nothing to curb consumption of foreign oil. But instead of directly answering the question, Clinton sought to further portray opponents of the proposal as having an elitist mindset that is out of touch with the average voter. "I think we've been, for the last seven years, seeing a tremendous amount of government power and elite opinion basically behind policies that haven't worked well for the middle class and hard working Americans," Clinton said. Pressed to name a supportive economist, she replied, "I'm not going to put my lot in with economists because I know if we did it right, if we actually did it right, if we had a president who used all the tools of the presidency, we would design it in such a way that it would be implemented effectively." Clinton said she didn't understand "this incredible push back" for her plan in light of what she called a federal government bailout of Bear Stearns. "We have to get out of this mindset where somehow elite opinion is always on the side of doing things that really disadvantage the vast majority of Americans," she said. Clinton was also asked if she believed whether Obama, an Illinois Democrat, was qualified to be commander in chief. "Of course," she said. "I've said that he's qualified to be president on numerous occasions. The question is, how are voters going to determine who they vote for, because that's going to be the real issue in the fall. And this is not in any way a comment about him (Obama). It's a comment about me. I feel like I am going to be able to stand up to Sen. McCain and I know him well and standing up to him is challenging." But in March, she said she and McCain had crossed the threshold for becoming commander in chief though she wouldn't say the same thing about Obama. "I think that since we now know Sen. (John) McCain will be the nominee for the Republican Party, national security will be front and center in this election. We all know that. And I think it's imperative that each of us be able to demonstrate we can cross the commander-in-chief threshold," the New York Democrat said. "I believe that I've done that. Certainly, Sen. McCain has done that and you'll have to ask Sen. Obama with respect to his candidacy," she said. Clinton also said she believed it was time for the Democratic presidential campaign to move beyond the issue of Obama's controversial former pastor, although her campaign has benefitted from the Illinois senator's relationship with Rev. Jeremiah Wright. "We should definitely move on and we should move on because there's so many important issues facing our country that we have to attend to," she said. While Stephanopoulos was a fixture of the Bill Clinton administration's first term, he and Hillary Clinton have not been close, particularly since his book described her as ambitious and unyielding. But she didn't do him any favors when she said she and Stephanopoulos both opposed the North American Free Trade Agreement "I'm talking about (Stephanopoulos) in his previous life--before he became an objective journalist," Clinton said.
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
|
||
|
[Home]
[Headlines]
[Latest Articles]
[Latest Comments]
[Post]
[Sign-in]
[Mail]
[Setup]
[Help]
|
||