No Kidding: Hillary Clinton Wants to Be Obama 2.0

 

By Andrew Malcolm
IBDEditorials.com

Both Obama's 1.0 and 2.0 (AP)

If you've enjoyed these past 77 months of transforming America, Hillary Clinton has a delightful surprise for you: As president, she is not only going to follow in Barack Obama's liberal footsteps, she's going to out-Obama Obama.

Since her first presidential campaign launch a couple months ago -- a video and lonely van ride across mid-America -- kinda fell flat, Clinton pretended it was a new day and took a do-over this weekend.

As Barack Obama golfed Saturday, Clinton stood in a glaring sun on Roosevelt Island in the middle of New York City's East River with an adoring if underwhelming crowd. She even imitated Obama, with a teleprompter scrolling nearly 5,000 words of almost every liberal cliche and talking point you can imagine. (Scroll down for C-SPAN video.)

Climate change is "one of the defining threats of our time." We need to make "preschool and quality childcare available to every child in America. Let's make college affordable and available to all." "We can renew the promise of our democracy." "We should ban discrimination against LGBT Americans and their families."

"It is way past time to end the outrage of so many women still earning less than men." She wants more taxes and royalties on fossil fuel extraction for environmental protection. "You should look forward to retirement with confidence, not anxiety." "We should offer hard-working, law-abiding immigrant families a path to citizenship," the apparent assumption being they're all already here.

Perhaps worst of all, said the woman whose family foundation is embroiled in multi-million dollar foreign fundraising schemes and subterfuges, "We have to stop the endless flow of secret, unaccountable money that is distorting our elections, corrupting our political process, and drowning out the voices of our people."

Clinton is not leading Democrats' current stampede to the far left of the political spectrum. She's trying to catch up. Aides say she would go farther than even Obama's executive orders in releasing illegal immigrants from restrictions.

Conventional political wisdom months ago had Clinton plotting to find a delicate way to distance herself from her lame-duck, ex-boss for the 2016 election. His poll numbers have sagged sadly with 584 days left. And Clinton's have plunged too, especially in dangerous categories like trustworthiness as a result of her private email server scandal and inconsistencies explaining it.

Instead of distancing herself, however, the 67-year-old Clinton has clearly calculated that her ambition of becoming the first lady president is better served by actually embracing the man she so often denounced in 2007-08.

She's going to need track shoes by fall 2016 if she intends to seek the middle-road where U.S. general election competitors usually collide.

With the exception of George H.W. Bush in 1988, modern American voters have also shown a distaste for electing the same party to inhabit the White House for three consecutive terms.

That's one reason only three kamikaze candidates are challenging Clinton, and Joe Biden has been so silent. And why so many on the Republicans' well-stocked bench are competing to face her. Jeb Bush announces today. Bobby Jindal late this month. Scott Walker in mid-July.

Maybe John Kasich, Chris Christie, in addition to Carly Fiorina, Marco Rubio, Rick Perry, Lindsey Graham, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee, Ben Carson.

Strangely, the woman who boasts of traveling nearly a million miles as the architect of Obama's foreign policies for four years, mentioned being secretary of State but three times in passing during her relaunch speech.

The only accomplishments she cited: She's met Vladimir Putin. And "I was in the Situation Room on the day we got bin Laden."

GOP candidate Fiorina had a good time analyzing Clinton's diplomatic days in this short video.

Clinton's remarks were short on specifics and silent on costs. The multi-millionairess blamed rich people for many of the nation's problems, mainly Republicans and hedgefund managers.

She had no criticism for Obama beyond vague implications about the ongoing economic recovery, the worst since World War II: "I’m running to make our economy work for you and for every American....Government is never going to have all the answers, but it has to be smarter, simpler, more efficient and a better partner."

Likewise, the words "terrorism," "Muslim," "radical Islam," "Iraq," "Libya" and "ISIS" did not pass Clinton's lips.

The closest the would-be commander-in-chief came was a balmy assertion that youngsters would appreciate in the late Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood: "There are a lot of trouble spots in the world, but there’s a lot of good news out there too."