RandySF
RandySF's JournalHillary Clinton’s poll numbers are beside the point
But, in reality, the size of Clinton’s lead doesn’t really matter. All campaigns have peaks and valleys, and even winning candidates hit bumps in the road. The hyperbolic coverage of the summer and early fall, suggesting that Clinton was in trouble because of her alleged e-mail scandal, made for good news copy, but it always masked the underlying and inescapable reality of the Democratic primary race — namely, that barring some unforeseen scandal, Clinton will be the Democratic nominee for president.
Her advantages are too many, her support within the party too great, her political skills too well refined, and the limitations of her opponents all too glaring. I don’t know if Clinton’s lead today really stands at 40 percent. Maybe it’s half that; maybe it’s even higher. But I do know that a Democratic National Convention in 2016 in which Clinton is not the party’s presidential nominee is very, very hard to imagine. Beware any media narrative that suggests otherwise.
https://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2015/10/28/hillary-clinton-poll-numbers-are-beside-point/WwcBaTIT6eLPMCEF5PDaBK/story.html
Hillary Clinton: 'No Excuse' For Attack At Spring Valley High School
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Tuesday condemned the actions of a South Carolina school resource officer who attacked a high school student sitting in her chair and then dragged her across the floor.
Video of the incident went viral on Monday, and Clinton tweeted that the actions of the officer, Deputy Ben Fields, were unacceptable.
One of the girl's classmates was also arrested for disturbing school and released on $1,000 bond simply because she burst into tears following the event, WLTX reported. The classmate, Niya Kenny, said that she was standing up for the girl who was attacked.
Fields has been placed on administrative duty and banned from school property. The FBI has also launched a civil rights investigation.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-spring-valley-high-school_562fb64de4b0c66bae59acf2
Hillary Clinton Asks NC Governor to Veto Anti-Immigrant Bill
It's not often that a pending North Carolina law makes its way into a presidential campaign, but Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign took a swipe Friday at House Bill 318, calling the measure "simply unacceptable."3
The bill would prohibit state and local government from recognizing consular cards and other identity documents issued by foreign governments for most purposes. Law enforcement would be able to use the documents only if a person they are arresting or helping has no other ID on him or her.5
House Bill 318 also prohibits local governments from ordering their police agencies not to enforce federal immigration laws or to make immigration enforcement a lower priority. Proponents say such "sanctuary city" provisions allow police to focus on more pressing issues and develop better relationships with immigrant communities, but critics argue that those here illegally are committing a crime that should be prosecuted.5
"This anti-immigrant bill is more evidence of the influence Donald Trump has on the Republican Party," said Lorella Praeli, Hillary for America's Latino outreach director.
http://www.wral.com/hillary-clinton-slams-nc-sanctuary-cities-bill/14943765/#rmegfcW6CEBuBzhS.99
The Evolution of Leadership: Hillary Clinton and DOMA
In the past few days there has been a lot of talk about Hillary Clinton and the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). DOMA was a 1996 piece of legislation designed to deny marriage equality to gay couples. President Bill Clinton opted to support DOMA early to take it out of play in advance of the 1996 election. At the time, I headed the largest LGBT advocacy organization, the Human Rights Campaign, and was quite literally in the maelstrom of this painful battle.
How DOMA was handled by the Clinton Administration was wrong. It was constitutionally indefensible. It was also a time when so many Americans were still caught in a fog of misunderstanding about LGBT Americans and the issues that affect our lives. That made for foggy judgment.
In recent days, some have been trying to reconcile presidential candidate Hillary Clinton with the first lady Clinton, circa 1996, on this issue. Here is my take. Putting aside the fact that the decision on DOMA in 1996 was not Hillary's to make, the Hillary of 1996 is not the Presidential Candidate of today. She knows that DOMA was discriminatory and wrong. Her perspective and knowledge on LGBT issues has deepened extensively since those days.
Her views have now been shaped by 20 years of being a serious student of repressive anti-gay global policies around the world; an observer of the devastating effect of anti-gay policies, including DOMA, on friends and family here at home; and, a leader who has had plenty of time to reflect on ways to be very effective in tough political moments. Secretary Clinton has emerged as among the most important global voices on LGBT rights.
This is a Secretary of State that made a historic UN speech, stating simply: "Gay rights are Human rights." And, she implemented the most LGBT supportive human resources policies in the history of the government as both a Senator and Secretary of state. For all of her leadership, I am grateful.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elizabeth-birch/the-evolution-of-leadership-hillary-clinton-doma_b_8394700.html?utm_hp_ref=politics
Maddow confronts Bernie Sanders over past opposition to marriage equality
“Exactly why you think it’s important that you were right first,” Maddow asked Sanders, pushing him to distinguish himself from his rivals.
Maddow then pressed Sanders on his refusal to back Vermont’s move to legalize same-sex marriage while running for Senate in 2006.
“My view was, give us a little bit of time,” Sanders explained, pointing to political contention among the electorate.
“Isn’t that the same kind of tactical thinking, the same kind of political pragmatism, that may have driven the decision for which you criticized Secretary Clinton,” Maddow pushed-back.
http://www.salon.com/2015/10/27/rachel_maddow_confronts_bernie_sanders_over_past_opposition_to_marriage_equality_how_are_you_any_different_than_hillary_clinton/
Hickenlooper offers full-throated support for Hillary Clinton
In a leafy neighborhood on the outskirts of Denver last night, supporters for Hillary Clinton crowded the living room of former U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar for the kind of grassroots get together organizers said will be key to winning the March 1 Colorado caucuses.
Besides Salazar, on hand for pro-Hillary speeches were Gov. John Hickenlooper, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and Lorella Praeli, a former undocumented immigrant who directs Latino outreach for the Clinton campaign. Former Gov. Roy Romer and ex-Denver Mayor Wellington Webb made the rounds among a smattering of Democratic lawmakers, politicos, lawyers, lobbyists, retirees and young people who ate from a buffet and drank Tecate beer on the lawn.
In the summer Hickenlooper had donated to the Clinton campaign, but as recently as this month he’d also made headlines for “expressing doubt” about her amid continued controversy over her use of a private e-mail server in her role as secretary of state.
Some at the Denver event didn’t know if Hickenlooper had yet officially endorsed Clinton for president, although he is a clear supporter. The governor himself downplayed such formalities.
http://www.coloradoindependent.com/155842/hickenlooper-offers-full-throated-support-for-hillary-clinton
Bernie Sanders shouldn’t throw stones on LGBT rights
Nothing could be further from the truth. First of all, it was Bill Clinton and not Hillary Clinton that signed DOMA. Bernie Sanders was in the House of Representatives and voted against the bill, but unlike his own revisionist history, he wasn’t for same-sex marriage at the time either. He should have read the rest of my tweets on the subject.
In the twenty years since DOMA, Hillary Clinton has not only evolved on the issue, she has become a global leader in the fight for LGBT equality. As senator from New York, she pushed to repeal the ban on gays in the military and secure employment protections for LGBT Americans. As secretary of state she extended her view of human and women’s rights with a groundbreaking speech at the United Nations in 2011 declaring that “gay rights are human rights” and made the protection of gays, lesbians and transgender people a priority in her dealings with repressive regimes around the world. Perhaps most importantly, she engaged with the community – closely – for the last 25 years. Listening, learning, sometimes disagreeing but always striving and evolving and always caring.
Bernie Sanders has done none of the above. Despite being from Vermont, a state with a progressive record on LGBT rights, Sanders was a follower. He supported civil unions as a solution for as long as many leading Democrats.
In short, Bernie Sanders may like the idea that I can prod my friends the Clintons to do better and more, but he can’t compete with how often they have listened and responded. He would do better to look for another issue with which to “ensnare” Hillary, because LGBT rights just isn’t his thing.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2015/10/27/bernie-sanders-is-revising-history-too/
About that survey that showed Sander's winning all 50 states
I took it and it and matched BOTH Bernie and Hillary at 93%. Is that what's really happening in all 50 states?
Vox: 'Supergirl' is the start of something great
CBS's Supergirl, debuting on Monday, October 26 — some 31 years after the film's ill-fated release — understands Ebert's advice much better. By leaning into its earnestness, Supergirl delivers moments of clear, smile-inducing joy. Amidst this age of gloom-and-doom superheroes, Supergirl has no fear of being happy, hopeful, and bright — something that's true to the character that writer Otto Binder and artist Al Plastino created for DC Comics in 1959. And there's something courageous in that daring pursuit. The result is one of the scrappiest and most irresistible shows on television this season.
While Supergirl flexes some dazzling special effects — the show feels very expensive — and engages in some complicated myth building, at its heart Supergirl is really about the decision to be great. Kara Zor-El, a.k.a. Kara Danvers (Melissa Benoist), was sent to Earth to protect her baby cousin (yes, that would be Superman), but instead gets put in a holding pattern by way of an intergalactic wormhole, which delays her arrival. The show begins a decade or so later. She's left her parents' (Dean Cain and Helen Slater, who played Superman on Lois & Clark and Supergirl in that not-good movie, respectively) small-town home and is now an assistant to media empress Cat Grant (Calista Flockhart), a devil who wears Prada. And now, with her cousin saving the world, she wants to do the same.
Her heroism is a choice. The show explores what that really means: how choosing to be a hero makes you a target; how you lose ownership over your story; how the decisions you make for yourself end up affecting the people around you; and how you come to define yourself. While Superman's story is about saving the world, Kara's story is about living up to those lofty expectations.
"By putting on that uniform, Kara decides to live up to the legacies and responsibilities that come with it," Sterling Gates, the writer of DC's Supergirl comic book (2008 to 2011) told Vox when asked about what he thought the character represented.
http://www.vox.com/2015/10/26/9616482/supergirl-tv-review
Sen. Tom Carper endorses Hillary Clinton for president
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware has endorsed Hillary Rodham Clinton's bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Carper said in a statement that he called Clinton on Monday to wish her a happy birthday and give her his endorsement. Clinton turned 68 on Monday.
Carper says he did not endorse Clinton earlier "out of deference and respect for another dear friend, Joe Biden." The vice president and former Delaware senator announced last week that he will not seek the presidency. With Biden out of the race, Carper says Clinton has his "full and enthusiastic support."
Carper was elected to the Senate alongside Clinton in 2000. He says she was "a terrific first lady, an exceptional senator and colleague, and a tireless secretary of state."
http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Sen-Tom-Carper-endorses-Hillary-Clinton-for-6591797.php
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