Clinton: 'Gilded class' in 'Rust Belt'

[babylonsister]

Clinton: 'Gilded class' in 'Rust Belt'

Posted April 6, 2008 7:30 AM
The Swamp

by Glenn Thrush


On the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination, Hillary Rodham Clinton flew to Memphis, Tenn., where she called for the appointment of a Cabinet-level "poverty czar" to cope with the economic downturn.

Shortly thereafter - at the bury-the-news hour of 4:05 p.m. on a Friday - staffers released Bill and Hillary Clinton's 2000-2006 tax returns showing that the couple earned a not very working-class $109 million.

Clinton, a member of the gilded class clinging to a Rust Belt base, had long delayed disclosing details of her fortune, for fear of driving blue-collar and low-income voters to Barack Obama. The Illinois senator and his wife have earned about 4 percent of the Clintons' income during the past seven years.

But some political observers now say Clinton's procrastination was self-defeating because the release of the returns comes so close to the make-or-break April 22 Pennsylvania primary - and within days of the dreaded April 15 Internal Revenue Service filing deadline.

"The timing of this was just silly," said Chris Borick, director of the Muhlenberg College Institute of Public Opinion in Nazareth, Pa. "They were sandbagging. ... They would have been much better off getting rid of it earlier in the cycle."

University of Pennsylvania professor Marie Gottschalk, who studies presidential politics, said, "I know she wanted to minimize the impact, but it may have more resonance now because it's tax time and people are a lot more agitated and focused."

more...

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/04/clinton_gilded_class_in_rust_b.html#more

[madrchsod]

1. "Clinton, a member of the gilded class"

they really have`t a clue or they just don`t care....

[flor de jasmim]

2. I suspect they've lost touch with "our" reality and don't have a clue.

I mean, when was the last time she had to do her own grocery shopping, price comparison shopping, filling up her own car with gas, etc. etc.???

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. Right. After she loses the nomination she can always fall back

to waiting tables.

ONE HUNDRED AND NINE MILLION DOLLARS!

GAVE AWAY TEN MILLION DOLLARS!

They gave away ten times the money over seven years than most of us will earn in a fucking lifetime.

Don't get me wrong - I don't begrudge them the money, any more than I begrudge Edwards his money (which, oddly enough, I remember a lot of Clintonistas making a huge issue).

It is your dismissal of the idea that they have NOT moved into the guilded class. Many senators, many governors and all presidents are automatically honorary members; having a hundred million + makes it official. With one hundred million dollars, they could spend $9,132 every single day for thirty years without spending out that amount - never mind the interest earned by that amount over that time.

Yeah, I know, they donated 10 million, and paid 34 million in taxes, meaning they really have only 63 million - poor babies. They need never do ANYTHING they do not choose to do - and they CAN do virtually ANYTHING they do choose to do. THAT is the guilded class.

[roseBudd]

4. Anyone know how rich McCain is?