Herman

Cain

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November 5, 2007

Hillary Clinton Makes No Sense

When asked during the October 30, 2007 Democratic presidential debate whether she supported Governor Elliot Spitzer’s proposal to provide driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants, Hillary Clinton said, “It makes a lot of sense, but I did not say it should be done.”

If something makes a lot of sense, then why not just do it? Or, is this another way of saying she is for it and against it, instead of not being able to tell if she is for it or against it. Either way, it gives no indication of where she stands on a very direct question about rewarding illegal immigrants with driver’s licenses. For the record, I’m against it!

Even two of her Democratic rivals for the party’s nomination criticized the response as making no sense. John Edwards of North Carolina called it another example of her “double talk” (USA Today article by Kathy Kiely, October 31, 2007), and Barack Obama stated, “I can’t tell whether she is for it or against it.”

Preceding her non-answer to the question, which was posed directly to her a second time by NBC’s Tim Russet of “Meet the Press”, Hillary said, “This is where everybody plays ‘gotcha’.”

I think people were just looking for an answer.

I suppose it was “gotcha” when Hillary proposed giving every baby born in the U.S. a $5,000 baby bond, but in less than a week retracted the idea. When she proposed giving a $1,000 matching contribution to everyone with a 401(k) retirement account, someone wanted to know how that idea related to Social Security. Hillary stated the accounts would not replace any part of Social Security, but she is committed to addressing the long-term challenges of that program. I suppose asking “How?” would be another “gotcha”.

So! While the Social Security system keeps on ticking (as in a financial time bomb), Hillary proposes to give people a few crumbs of their FICA taxes back in the form of a “matching refundable tax credit” to be perceived as getting retirement help from Uncle Sam.

Only the Hillary Kool-Aid drinkers do not see a pattern here. If she is asked a difficult question, she responds with that annoying cackle, as when she was asked about her health care proposal recently on four TV news programs. Or her allies will say she is being attacked. Or she responds to a question in doubletalk. Or, the questioner is playing gotcha.

In the last several weeks we have seen Hillary Clinton display her ability for issue avoidance, more government giveaway proposals, political doubletalk and opportunistically playing the gender card, while claiming to be the most experienced candidate. Some of us are still waiting to hear and see the evidence that she is the most experienced candidate.

Hillary has had the highest national name ID since the official beginning of the race for the White House. She has built upon her name ID with the backing of the Democratic establishment, the perception of leadership and the liberal preferences of the mainstream media.

Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post calls Hillary Clinton the “strong front-runner” among the Democratic presidential candidates. Each week, the polls report her increasing lead over Barack Obama and John Edwards. Democratic “strategists” seem eager to just skip the formality of the primary elections and crown her the nominee. As Marcus writes, “It’s Clinton’s Race to Lose”.

I believe it is America’s future to lose if we elect a president skilled at managing perceptions, but having no depth of experience in leadership and a demonstrated lack of common sense problem solving skills.

Hillary as president just does not make any sense.

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