Hillary's Campaign Totally Ignores Poverty, Edwards' Signature Issue. Obama has VERY detailed plans

[KittyWampus]

Now maybe I missed it on Hillary's Issues section on her campaign's webpage. That is where candidates put their detailed policy proposals so prospective voters can contrast and compare. You can say this and that in a speech. But show us your policy proposal in writing :)

Anyway, all I could find on Hillary's Issues page was vague, fuzzy mention of what she'll do to help the Middle Class. And there wasn't much detail there, anyway.

Poverty is an Issue unto itself and must be addressed as such. It needs a comprehensive, holistic approach.

It's very different to talk about getting jobs for an educated middle class person than for someone who has little education or experience keeping a job.
It's very different to talk about housing for middle class workers who have credit and poor who have no equity.

I could not find specific, detailed policy proposals for how she will alleviate Poverty.

It could be very well that I totally missed that section on her Issues page. If so, I apologise in advance.

However, many DU'ers are claiming Hillary reflects Edwards' vision. However, it seems odd anyone would say that when she doesn't have a section devoted to Poverty.

And I'm not talking about a press release. I mean detailed policy proposals.

Obama has a VERY detailed section on his issues page devoted to Poverty.

Again, please forgive me if I have missed Hillary's section on this issue. Just provide me with a link so we can compare the two candidates proposals.

Thanks! :)

[KittyWampus]

1. here is Obama's page dealing with Poverty

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/poverty/

[neutron]

2. She has co-written and passed a TON of legislation for the poor

Ye Gods. Take a look at The Clinton Foundation on the web.

Right now Bill is talking about what she has done for the VETS
when they get home.

[Cha]

24. This is brilliant..

"Create a Green Jobs Corps: Obama will create a program to directly engage disadvantaged youth in energy efficiency opportunities to strengthen their communities, while also providing them with practical skills in this important high-growth career field."

Helping our people through working towards a greener environment..all these suggestions for raising people out of poverty resonate.amazing what could happen when lower incomes are raised and "paid sick days" are given to people who've never had them. Why, this could be a country for all of us..not just the corps and the have mores.

[KittyWampus]

3. maybe too many Hillary supporters have me on Ignore or they are scouring her website

so it may not be so easy to find and I can be forgiven for being too silly not seeing it right away.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

4. Someone just had a thread saying the total opposite....

It's enough to make a person's head spin....

[KittyWampus]

5. Obama goes into detail on each of these 5 aspects of Poverty:

Expand Access to Jobs
Make Work Pay for All Americans
Strengthen Families
Increase the Supply of Affordable Housing
Tackle Concentrated Poverty

He also has an INPUT section, where people can send in their ideas.

[Seeker30]

38. He has it planned so well he's taking requests

I've heard it all now

[KittyWampus]

39. it's just a chance to give input. If you check the page, you'd see how comprehensive it is.

it isn't just a bunch of cobbled together bullet points dealing with this or that and extended to incidentally cover Poverty

[Nite Owl]

6. He not only has detailed plans

I think his heart is truly in it. He graduated from Columbia U with the world at his feet and yet worked for the community, to make things better for others. He listens to people.

[Danger Mouse]

7. Obama's done a lot of work in the inner city hasn't he?

I think he's walked the walk, and intends to continue to do so in the White House. That's just my 2 cents.
What does he have to say about poverty on his page?

[KittyWampus]

8. he transformed the face of Chicago politics by getting poor folks involved & helping them find their

voice.

[Danger Mouse]

9. it's funny that people shout about his lack of 'experience'..

when he's had plenty of experience...in the illinois legislature and on the streets.

[maddiejoan]

14. Exactly

and he greases his giant griddle with giant pads of butter strapped to his feet while his blue ox "Babe" stokes the bellows to heat up the fire.

[KittyWampus]

17. he got down in the trenches and helped make a significant difference

[Tatiana]

31. Hey, I give him props, as a Chicagoan.

He worked in areas that not many ivy league grads would want to work in.

I disagree with him on other issues, but his commitment to underrepresented people and the disadvantaged is genuine.

[mopinko]

22. one of these days soon i should do a long post on harold washington

don't suppose that name means a lot to younger folks, or folks outside chicago. but he is a shining star in democratic history, and if more people knew his story, they would understand where obama is coming from. i confess i do not exactly know what obama's relationship to those days is, except that the firm that he worked for, the miner, is judson miner, harold's press secretary. but there is no doubt that the political world here in chicago was shifted on it's axis by the washington years. obama is definitely from that mold.
and for some of us, a little touch of harold makes you all good.

[kerry-is-my-prez]

37. No kidding.... I lived in Chicago when Harold was Mayor. These whippersnappers...

n/t

[KittyWampus]

44. I will go check Wikipedia

[Yael]

10. I was neutral until I read Obama's poverty positions

I feel that by working the streets of Chicago, this is very important to him.

I won't say that it is a 'life cause' like it is for John Edwards -- but then again, just as Al Gore made climate change his signature life work, poverty belongs to John and I would be almost insulted if someone tried to take that from him.

I am thinking that, like Al, John and Elizabeth can make a much bigger dent in this issue if they AREN'T distracted -- and I support them.

Obama's poverty position was the turning point for me. The "loan" and "going without pay" stories sealed the deal as I am SICK of games in politics.

This John Edwards Democrat supports Obama on his poverty policy and applauds him for the stance he has taken on this.

[KittyWampus]

13. I think it's important to note that Poverty isn't something you can approach piece meal

it's a systemic problem that has to be approached holistically.

If you've never held a job, you don't know how to do an interview, dress for work, show up on time, deal with customers respectfully.

If you have no job nor own any assets, you have no economic leverage.

Just extrapolating out that some policy proposal geared towards the middle class MAY help the chronically poor just doesn't work.

[tishaLA]

11. Here's what I have found about Sen Clinton and poverty

Partner with faith based community in empowerment zones

Time-out for mortgage companies on march toward foreclosure

Hedge funds incentivize risk, but need regulation
http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/Hillary_Clinton_Welfare_+_Poverty.htm (etc.)

Sen Clinton on Faith, Values, and Poverty: YouTube

[KittyWampus]

16. Thanks for that, but it's not a detailed policy page. It's a summary someone gleaned.

It's sad she doesn't address this as an Issue. :(

Maybe she is working on it.

[Radical Activist]

12. Obama started working on poverty in his 20's

As a community organizer he went door to door in the housing projects on the south side of Chicago to help people organize to improve their neighborhoods. He hasn't stopped since then.

I know some people will be impressed by what's in a speech but I look more at what a person has done. Obama has been there for a long time.

[JVS]

15. I like Obama's plan to raise the minimum wage and keeping it up by a cost of living adjustment.

I also like his plan to cap the level of interest that Payday lenders can charge, because both of these are issues that make a difference to people in real povery.

[jillan]

18. Hillary talks about poverty a great deal in her stump speeches.

fyi.

[KittyWampus]

19. thanks, but Krugman points out it's the policy proposals that matter, not words in a speech!

:)

I think she'll come up with something at some point soon.

[AZBlue]

35. But what are her plans?

Just mentioning it isn't enough.

[IndyOp]

20. Very good video: Obama on "Changing the Odds for Urban America" - 7/18/07

He begins by talking about Bobby Kennedy's quest to witness and expose poverty. He talks about a great program in New York to lift families out of poverty that he wants to re-create in other cities. I very much like the description of this program because it is very comprehensive - health, education, jobs...

Click on the link below and then use the scroll bar to go to "Changing the Odds for Urban America" - 7/18/07

http://origin.barackobama.com/tv/

[ellisonz]

21. It's not that Hillary hates poor people or doesn't understand that there is poverty out there...

...she just doesn't really get it because she never grew up in it and has been removed from truly understanding it for so long that she really doesn't understand how it is a product of the economic system and not simply a buzzword.

I'll be honest, I just don't trust Hillary to give a shit about the bottom 2/3rds of America. It's not her style.

[NJSecularist]

25. I feel the same way

Obama and Edwards have that connection to the lower and middle class. They came from nothing. I don't feel the same about Hillary. I also find that while Hillary is supposedly the lower to middle class candidate and she polls well in those demographics, Obama offers more substance in his policy about what he'll do to fix poverty.

[ProSense]

23. Some information:

Obama Announces Rural Poverty Summit (Updated)

Obama urges alumni to help fight poverty

2004 Report on Illinois Poverty (PDF)

[Cha]

26. Thanks, I'm bookmarking

this thread..valuble information.

[KittyWampus]

28. It's an Issue that Obama excels at. Along with Telecom,Net Neutrality/Tech Stuff.

[Cha]

29. I was lookin for our DUer

on this thread who is always talking about poverty and what the candidates will and have done for it. It seems like it would make her happy.

I know she likes John Edwards but Obama has been working for it, too, for a while and now that I'm thinking about it..Edwards should be ectactic that Obama really cares about his main issue and is not just a puff piece.

[KittyWampus]

27. I really appreciate the input on this page and hope Obama supporters will keep contributing to this

because it's an important issue.

One that our candidate grasps and has real solutions for.

[saltpoint]

30. Agree with the OP on this one as a matter of looking and listening,

which many people are beginning to do in earnest now that we're post-Iowa.

Sen. Clinton has given us sincere words on helping the middle class. I hear the words and I keep waiting for a connection between those words and a specific plan. I don't find excessive evidence of her championing the middle class heretofore.

Sen. Obama has worked building communities in Chicago and that stands for me as tangible evidence that he is more of a ground-up political visionary. That would not have been easy work, it would not have been simple or sweat-free. It impresses me that he did it, when he had the brains to skip it and park himself in an air-conditioned office somewhere in a law firm's swank high rise.

I hear just these last couple days Sen. Clinton's pronouncement that John Edwards would have a role in her administration, or words to that effect, and perhaps that will come to pass. If so, I think the nation is the better for it because Edwards drove the debate this year on domestic issues generally and on poverty specifically.

Obama speaks of the full range of U.S. society in THE AUDACITY OF HOPE, and is as sure-footed and researched on those who are nameless and living in poverty as he is about life and work in the halls of Congress. It's impressive. We certainly have not seen the likes of it for many years.

Just my take.

[Tatiana]

32. Seniors with income under $50K will pay NO INCOME TAX under his plan.

During the Great Depression, one of the hardest-hit segments of the population were seniors, with their poverty rate exceeding 50%.



They are one of the most vulnerable groups, as many are on fixed incomes and subject to fluctuating market increases in energy and food costs. This is one of Obama's best proposals towards combating poverty.

[Digit]

33. Has Obama mentioned Soylent Green?

Creates more food, opens up job opportunities, saves resources for the rest of us to enjoy...:wow:
Just kidding

Bad Digit, BAD

[Pirate Smile]

34. I don't know how anyone who knows that he moved to Chicago, earned only$10,000 a year trying to help

poor people for years. How could anyone honestly believe poverty isn't an important issue to him or that he doesn't understand it?

Of course, I've read 'Dreams From My Father' so I know all of this but others have created this fictional version of his life story so they can dismiss him as style over substance.

1980s: Director of the Developing Communities Project

The time Obama spent as a community organizer had a profound impact on his approach to politics. He was the director of the Developing Communities Project in the mid-1980s, spending 4 years organizing African-American neighborhoods on Chicago's South Side. Obama recalled being told, "I just cannot understand why a bright young man like you would go to college, get that degree and become a community organizer." He said, "It needs to be done, and not enough folks are doing it."

Obama considers his work on political empowerment, economic development, & grassroots community organizing to be the "best education" he has received. He noted, "Organizing teaches as nothing else does the beauty & strength of everyday people."

Obama learned that "ordinar citizens are taught that decisions are made based on the public interest or grant principles, when in fact, what really moves things is money and votes and power." This was his first lesson that fighting cynicism was a first step in political change.

-snip-
Community organizer on Chicago's South Side

The 3 years Obama spent in Chicago as a community organizer served as a political apprenticeship. And a demanding challenge it was, one fraught with frustration and infrequent rewards but one that taught him firsthand the plight of America's inner cities and the resilience of residents.

Working with a tiny network of community activists and volunteers from South Side churches who were attempting to help residents improve conditions--and, often, simply cope--in deteriorating neighborhoods plagued by sky-high unemployment & crime; where city services were slow at best; where parks were left untended & schools under-funded; where sometimes it seemed only those who couldn't afford to leave stayed; Obama did the same thing he would do when he later ran for office: he knocked on doors and attended neighborhood meetings.

In 2007, when Obama announced for the presidency, he alluded to his years as a community organizer when he said, "I learned that meaningful change always begins at the grassroots."

http://www.ontheissues.org/2008/Barack_Obama_Welfare_+_Poverty.htm

More:

Create 20 Promise Neighborhoods in high-poverty cities

Establish 20 Promise Neighborhoods: Obama will create 20 Promise Neighborhoods in cities across the nation that have high levels of poverty and crime and low levels of student academic achievement. The Promise Neighborhoods will be modeled after the Harlem Children's Zone, which provides a full network of services, including early childhood education, youth violence prevention efforts and after-school activities, to an entire neighborhood from birth to college.

Ensure Community-Based Investment Resources in Every Urban Community: Obama will work with community and business leaders to identify and address the unique economic development barriers of every major metropolitan area. Obama will provide additional resources to the federal Community Development Financial Institution Fund, the Small Business Administration and other federal agencies, especially to their local branch offices, to address community needs.

[stillcool]

40. I found this from 2004..

from the Illinois Times website: illinois.gyrosite.com
POSTED ON MARCH 11, 2004:
Head of the class

Barack Obama banks on his progressive legislative record to win a seat in the U.S. Senate. Is that enough for Illinois voters?

By Todd Spivak

Despite his weary voice, Obama began the day with an extra bounce in his step. Just weeks before the election, he suddenly became the front-runner in most statewide polls for the first time since announcing his candidacy in January 2003. The Chicago Tribune had endorsed him in that day's paper, calling him "one of the strongest Democratic candidates Illinois has seen in some time."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Obama, 42, graduated from Columbia University and Harvard Law School, where he became the first African-American president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review. He journeyed to Chicago as a civil-rights attorney and community activist. In 1992, during Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign, Obama was director of Illinois Project VOTE!, a massive voter-registration and education drive credited with helping elect Carol Moseley Braun to the U.S. Senate.

In 1996 Obama was elected to the state Senate, representing Chicago's 13th District. He teaches constitutional law at the University of Chicago Law School, and lives with his wife, Michelle, and two daughters in a high-rise building overlooking Lake Michigan just outside the U. of C. campus in Hyde Park.

Although Obama has achieved much during his tenure in Springfield, he is counting on his stellar performance in the legislative session last spring to catapult him ahead of the pack in the March 16 primary.

Obama rode a publicity wave by sponsoring such legislation as a bill banning the use of the diet supplement ephedra, which killed a Northwestern University football player, and another one preventing the use of pepper spray or pyrotechnics in nightclubs in the wake of the tragic deaths of 21 people during a stampede at the now-notorious E2 nightclub in Chicago.

Other legislation sponsored by Obama was monumental for the state and the entire country, according to one political ally, House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie, D-Chicago. "Barack passed some particularly outstanding legislation last year that reflects his progressive values and progressive ideals," Currie says.

Obama's bill requiring police to record interrogations of homicide suspects was the first of its kind in the country. It has been hailed as the most far-reaching reform the Illinois legislature has passed in its efforts to repair a crippled criminal-justice system.

With another bill, Obama sought to combat racial profiling by requiring police to record the race of stopped motorists. In accordance with the new law, the collected data will be forwarded to the state Department of Transportation, which will analyze the information to determine whether motorists are being pulled over on the basis of race.

Other significant Obama-sponsored legislation expanded the Kid Care program to take in an additional 20,000 children who lacked health insurance, provided an estimated $26 million in tax relief to low-income families by making the state Earned Income Tax Credit refundable, and protected the state Open Meetings Act by requiring public bodies to tape closed-door meetings.
------------------------------------------------
Obama has done as well as any of the candidates to court downstate voters, according to Kent Redfield, professor of political science at University of Illinois at Springfield, who believes that the contest will be won or lost in Cook County. Unlike the 2002 election, in which Blagojevich placed third in Chicago and still managed to win the governorship, Redfield says there are "no favorite sons" in the upcoming primary.

"Downstaters look at the whole field of candidates as being from Chicago," he says. "Right now Obama has the momentum; he's getting positive press and buzz just when people are starting to focus on the race."

Local political activist Roy Williams Jr. says an Obama victory would prove that a "true grassroots" campaign can still trump big money.

"People are beginning to realize the uniqueness of this historic moment," says Williams, a Springfield coordinator for Obama. "It's not every election that you run into a guy with credentials like Barack Obama's."

http://www.illinoistimes.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3a2984

[Pirate Smile]

41. Bookmarking so the next time someone posts a thread asking "so what has Mr. Change ever changed" I

can post that article. :)

I think there was just a thread similar to that a few minutes ago and I know it will be back again soon.

[AZBlue]

36. Many here have outlined Obama's plans but let me weigh in with one more perspective.

It's a personal comment, but when it comes down to it, isn't everyone's vote personal?

One of the reasons I support Barack Obama is that poverty and assisting the poor isn't just an election keyword for him. He's been discussing this and coming out against the Bush cabal from day one of his career. This is a, yes, personal and vital issue for him - not something he talks about as a result of poll results. He comes from a poor background, he knows first hand what it's like to struggle and he knows it's not necessary and that we can put an end to it.

One thing that's not talked about much here on DU is the fact that if Obama does not win the nom and the GE this time, he most likely will not run again. Never say never, but at this point he and his wife do not see that happening. And why not? Because later on he will have been in Washington another 4 or 8 years and at that point he will have been too removed from the "common man" (my phrase, not theirs). He will no longer have his pulse on the issues most important to you and me. He will have been too isolated for too long. If I knew nothing else about the man, he'd get my vote just for that!

[ursi]

42. I couldn't find it either ...I know she throws out the middle class meme ...

When I heard her in Reno, she never mentioned poverty specifically. I guess I don't know what her strategy would be ...what concerns me is she has so many Hispanics hoping she is going to make things right for them and their families, many of whom are illegal, and we need to figure out what to do with our own poor.

[Pale Blue Dot]

43. Thank you for posting about issues.

These kinds of threads are rare these days. :thumbsup:

[dailykoff]

45. "The Middle Class Express"

Isn't that what Hilly named her brief and quickly forgotten bus tour? The theme was buying into the ownership society bullshit and lowering taxes. Pretty laughable but nobody seemed to appreciate the irony.

Anyway, once a Goldwater girl, always a Goldwater girl.

[OzarkDem]

46. You just lost a great deal of credibility

I pointed out every one of her proposals in a previous post and you chose to ignore them.

You're being dishonest. Shame on you. How sad you would want to promote one candidate over another based on lies.

[druidity33]

47. please link

to the other post...

:)

[KittyWampus]

48. He refers to scattered references to this economic bit or that. There's nothing on her policy pages

that addresses Poverty as an Issue.

Poverty has unique causes and manifestations that must be addressed.

All the above poster can do is extrapolate how a couple of Clinton's policy ideas MAY with some luck impact poverty.

[druidity33]

49. sorry

i don't want heresay. If you could link to the other post, i could see for myself. I myself am a former Kucinich, former Edwards, still undecided voter and have just about had enough here at DU.

I haven't gotten a straight answer from anyone here in weeks. Nothing but name calling, finger pointing and obfuscation. I feel like i'm in fucking grade school again.

:(



(btw, not saying i don't agree with you about HRC, but i find BO equally distasteful)

[KittyWampus]

50. kick