Hillary being Hillary: Clinton flaunts wonky side at Washington panel
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Version 0 of 1. “Amen,” sighed Hillary Clinton, as she debated urban development at a Washington thinktank that was 180 miles – and 180 degrees – away from the fiery campaign launch of Republican rival Ted Cruz at the same time in Virginia. “I love sessions like this because it’s really nice to get back into an evidenced-based discussion,” she added, in oblique reference to the email scandal that has so far overshadowed her own attempt to begin a more earnest, policy-focused campaign. None of the panel at the Center for American Progress – a centre-left thinktank set up by Clinton during her last tilt at the White House – were rude enough to bring it up again during what proved a more tightly controlled appearance than her disastrous press conference on the affair two weeks ago. But the former secretary of state’s relief at being back on ideological home turf could not have been more palpable. Three times during her brief remarks, she also paid tribute to the Clinton Global Initiative and Clinton Foundation, family-run institutions whose reliance on corporate and overseas donors has also attracted more negative public attention of late. A starker contrast still for Clinton was to the more colourful, if less cautious, political message being unveiled further south by Cruz. White the Texas senator was reaching out to evangelicals and conservatives with a full-throated assault on the Washington consensus, Clinton was here to preach to its policy wonks, and hopefully show her concern for Democratic causes in danger of becoming captured by leftwing rival Elizabeth Warren. “A lot of our cities truly are divided,” said Clinton. “They have a lot a of inequality that has only gotten worse ... They have people that are trapped in generational poverty and whose skills are not keeping up with what the jobs or today and tomorrow demand.” This was no policy speech, more a mood music hymn, replete with the requisite buzz phrases such as “abolishing silos” and “creating the conditions for coordination and collaboration”. But this was also a putative presidential candidate willing to quote research by Harvard professors on the causes of social immobility and draw uncomfortable comparisons between parts of the country that had got it right and those that had not. “Two cities with similar affluence – Seattle and Atlanta – have markedly different rates of economic mobility,” said Clinton. “It’s not about race ... It turns out that places where the fabric of community is strong, with a vibrant middle class, places that are more integrated across class, places with good skills, places with unions, places with religious and civil organisations, help people feel rooted in being part of a community and be able to pull together all of the aspects that play into upward mobility.” While Cruz railed against big government, the queen of Washington’s political class was also unafraid to sing its praises and hint at a more European-style economic intervention. “We have 5.6 million people in America between 16 and 24 who are neither in school nor at work, and if we don’t consciously try to reach out to these people and train them, [then] they don’t have the hard skills but they also don’t have the soft skills,” she added. “The other thing that Germany has is instead of an unemployment system they have a wage subsidy system, so you don’t let people go in the first place, and I think there are lots of creative ideas both in our own country and elsewhere in comparable economies.” There may be many more speeches and events like this before Clinton even formally declares she is in the race for the White House. But if the first public appearance since the first wave of scandals began to die down is anything to go by, Hillary is planning to carry on being Hillary. |