Clinton Hits the Mother Lode
EmailABC News’ Eloise Harper Reports: Senator Hillary Clinton wants to make a connection.
At a campaign event at the YWCA in Manchester, New Hampshire, on Tuesday, Clinton, D-N.Y., reminisced about her days as a young working mother while unveiling her "Helping Parents Balance Work & Family" agenda.
"I remember one time when I had to be in court when I was a young lawyer," Clinton recalled, as part of a week-long focus on the women’s vote dubbed "Women Changing America Week", "Chelsea was a baby and we had a young woman who did come in and help me; she’d come in early and then I’d come back and she’d go home. And Chelsea was sick and my babysitter wasn’t there and she called and she was sick too. It was just that gut wrenching feeling and I was lucky enough to have a friend who would come over and watch Chelsea while I ran to court and ran back home."
Clinton continued the trip down memory lane with another personal aside:
"I remember when I was pregnant I was working as a lawyer. The firm had never had a pregnant lawyer. And I just kept getting more and more pregnant and the lawyers just kept walking down the hall looking away and nobody would talk about it because I didn’t know what I was supposed to say and they sure didn’t know what they were supposed to say. And Chelsea came early and I was actually ending a trial and thinking, gosh, now I’ll have three weeks, maybe a month to get ready, and she was on a different time table. So the morning after she was born, I’m in the hospital and one of the partners from the law firm calls me up and says, ‘Well, I heard you had a baby.’ I said, ‘Well, that usually happens when you are pregnant.’"
The former first lady also shared a private conversation she had with Chelsea:
"Late one night (Chelsea) was crying inconsolably. I said, ‘Chelsea, you’ve never been a baby before and I’ve never been a mother before, we’re just going to have to work and figure this out.’"
In her remarks on the details of her policy plan, Clinton asserted that "women can be fired just for being pregnant if an employer has a no leave policy."
The Democratic contender said she would ban this policy as president, adding, "I assume that I will have 100% of support from the Republicans."
According to a statement released by her campaign, "Hillary’s plan would set an ambitious goal for all states to implement a paid family leave program by the year of 2016 and offers $1 billion per year in grants to encourage innovative paid family leave programs at the states level. Hillary would also extend the Family Medical Leave Act to cover 13 million additional workers across the country and guarantee every American worker seven days of paid sick leave to help crisis faced by themselves or their children."
Clinton also said she would promote model workplaces with grants to support new workplace flexibility and ensure better access to affordable high quality health care.
Campaign advisors said that the program would cost an estimated $1.75 billion dollars a year.
Brian Deese, Clinton’s Deputy Economic Advisor, said these funds would be covered "without increasing the deficit by taking a important common sense anti-tax tax sheltering reform" which "is establishing a uniform definition of what a tax sheltering activity actually is."
The Clinton campaign cites estimates that such a change "will raise about $2 billion a year".
After giving a speech for working mothers getting balance with work and family, Clinton visited My Gym in tony Bedford, NH – a historically Republican town.
Clinton attended a playgroup with 3-7 year-old children with their mothers (most of whom don’t have full time jobs) looking on. The gym costs $60 dollars a month — and the kids can come three times a week. The class focuses on combinded early physical education and helps kids develop skills like confidence and self esteem, according to Greg Burns, owner of My Gym.
Several mothers watched their children dance to the "Itsy-Bitsy-Spider" while Clinton spoke to a counselor. The children also performed the classic "Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" and "Crab Push-Ups."
Perhaps recognizing the disparity between her earlier speech and the expensive day care alternative being showcased at the afternoon event, Clinton came over to speak with reporters and said, "You know I’m looking at all the ways we can get kids more active, I’m looking at the obesity epidemic, we have to get kids moving again."
"This is a fast growing business around the country and I wanted to come by and see this, I wasn’t familiar with this," Clinton added. "They really are doing a whole body workout."
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Whatever you do, do not vote for Clinton! She is a bilderberg puppet and she has voted time and time again to keep us in this war! She has voted to push us deeper into the middle east and voted to take more of your hard earned money and spend it just as irresponsibly as the George Bush did! She is no different neither is Obama! The only candidate is RON PAUL! Vote for RON PAUL if you want freedoms in 4 years!
Posted by: Ezra | October 16, 2007, 3:51 pm 3:51 pm
The next time Hillary Clinton is at an event like this that represents different demographics, notice that she sends a different “idea” or proposal every time. When was in front of the black audience, the idea was “baby bonds”, when she was front of senior citizens, it was the “401-K plan” proposal, now its to extend the Family Leave Act”. Watch the next time she is at similar event. Its called tranglation, the ability to touch on a subject, idea or proposal that people want to hear depending on the audience just enough not to invoke too much criticism from the right wing or the general election. I have no idea what she stands for on social security, foreign policy, or economics. Do you?
Posted by: James | October 16, 2007, 4:32 pm 4:32 pm
The only arrow in this person’s quiver is to take one person’s money and give it to another. Small businesses take heed. She will expand the Family Leave program to cover companies with fewer than 50 employee and make it a paid benefit.
Posted by: Harold Vick | October 16, 2007, 4:43 pm 4:43 pm
If your voting for Hillary, your voting for George Soros. Is he best for our country
Posted by: pzsokd | October 16, 2007, 4:48 pm 4:48 pm
I have nothing bad to say about Obama. If Obama wins – whoever wins the Democratic nomination, I’m behind him/her all the way.
But, seriously, between the Black guy with two years experience
and the only team to win back-to-back presidential campaigns since FDR,
(the team that beat war hero Bush and war hero Dole),
…who do you think the GOP wants to run against?
Posted by: Wil Burns | October 16, 2007, 4:54 pm 4:54 pm
If the Republicans believe that defeating Senator Clinton will be a cakewalk I can only encourage them in this delusion. One look at the Bush presidency shows what happens when you elect rich white guys with a C+ GPA. I don’t see a single candidate on the GOP side that will be able to stand against Clinton in an honest debate. She is one smart cookie and will just run circles around these guys.
Posted by: Cal | October 16, 2007, 6:18 pm 6:18 pm
I think the GOP best chance would be to run against Clinton. My reason is because of the baggage she brings. The problem with Clinton is her centralism on the issues, they are “inconsistent with her inconsistencies.” 2. The polls say the she is leading 50% nationally for the democrats but her negative poll is 46% and among a poll likely caucus voters she has 34% rating with Obama close behind at 31% 3. Iowa and NH voters independent people and do not like to be told who to vote especially on a cold morning in January.
Posted by: James | October 16, 2007, 6:56 pm 6:56 pm
Huh, my mom was never a flaming socialist who believed more in the government than anything else.
Posted by: TexBork | October 16, 2007, 9:00 pm 9:00 pm
Before you conclude that Hillary is the shrew for you, think about this for a minute.
Back in Hillary’s cattle futures trading days, her annual salary was $25,000, and Bill’s was around $27,000. Hillary opened her futures trading account with $1,000, and never deposited another penny. Nevertheless, despite her modest means and piddling investment, Hillary at one point held 115 cattle contracts valued at $2.3 MILLION. How could this be, you ask? Answer: it couldn’t. Period.
As anyone who knows anything about this stuff can tell you, her positions representated a HUGE exposure to her brokerage given that even a small move against her would have wiped out her account (but wait, her account balance had already been wiped out – it in fact had a NEGATIVE balance of minus $18,000 at this point) and left the brokerage holding a very large, very uncollectable bag. Just as a casino won’t let you walk in and bet a fortune on next week’s Redskins game without first knowing whether you have the means to pay up if you lose, NO BROKERAGE will allow a trader to place a huge bet against money they don’t have.
None of these facts are in dispute, and as we have since learned, Hillary – neophyte trader that she was – magically overcame her negative balance and parlayed her $1,000 investment into $100,000 before withdrawing her money, never to trade again.
My point? This was a political payoff, pure and simple, and a spectacularly incurious left wing press chose to look the other way. Blather on all you want about how this is “old news” and how “no laws were broken,” but the bottom line is this: Hill and Bill were pols on the take then, and I assume they remain so today. The stakes are just higher now (think “presidential pardons” and “U.S. missile technology to the Chinese”), and the press remains as laughably incurious as ever (anybody ever heard of Sandy Burger?).
Posted by: kookleft | October 16, 2007, 11:24 pm 11:24 pm
HILLARY UR PERFECT UR THE EBST I LOVE YOU GO GIRL GO- HILLARY 2008//
PRESIDENT HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
BLACK CANDIATE IS OUT CANDIATE THAT HAS NO EPXREIENCE ARE OUT ALSO.
Posted by: LAURA | October 17, 2007, 1:53 am 1:53 am
I just love the “futures” comment. . . .some folks just cannot stop making Hillary Clinton a genius while slinging mud at her. According to this person’s post Clinton can do every thing just short of murder and get away with it yet when you look for substance it’s the ole mighty Hillary does all of these dastardly things yet walks around free as a bird . Hmmmmmm. If everything this poster writes is true, I wonder how that is possible. Must be that “magical thinking” stuff again!!
Posted by: chuck | October 17, 2007, 6:40 am 6:40 am
ABC -anyone but Clinton But not Dumbo Ears. She is a phony to the Nth degree.
Posted by: Dean O | October 17, 2007, 8:41 am 8:41 am
To kookleft:
Thanks for at least framing the charge: it’s the first time I’ve heard a Clinton critic do that with respect to “Cattlegate.” Assuming without deciding that none of the facts are in dispute, please follow-up with details of the nature of this payoff. Also, how did Sen. Clinton avoid the scrutiny of state and federal regulators for behavior that you present as highly questionable. (Especially when the federal regulators’ boss was George H.W. Bush, who knew he would likely find himself in a death struggle with Bill Clinton in 1992.) And why, after at least one thorough investigation, conducted by the Clintons’ political enemies, have the Clintons not been charged with bribery?
Posted by: dawn | October 17, 2007, 9:32 am 9:32 am
Thank God for Hillary! America has terrible health care and the workplace has been very cruel to young families and their children. A BIG change is on its way and America will again be a nation to be proud of- GO HILLARY!
Posted by: lisa | October 17, 2007, 10:25 am 10:25 am
All you men act as if Hillary is proposing mass-neutering (not such a bad idea) Get a grip, stop your whining. Women are as capable as men-DEAL!
Posted by: magdelene | October 17, 2007, 10:30 am 10:30 am
Hillary is a con artist.. she flip flops from issue to issue.. The money men in NY bought her her seat in congress.. There is no way a person should be allowed to move to a state and then be elected in that state without living there for 10 yrs..I heard where Billary and Hillbillary stole stuff from Air force 1.. Who knows what else they stole while He was in office.. Then there is the marriage of convenience.. If a woman is willing to stay with a man who fools around all the time then there is something mental there.. or she is a swinger who likes to watch her hubby with other women.. or it is the black mail thing.. ? Something it terribly wrong with their marriage.. and if someone has that much baggage then something it really wrong.. Do you really want someone with this much baggage running our country? I want my country fixed.. not driven deeper into the madness..
Posted by: Dan Fisher | October 17, 2007, 10:46 am 10:46 am
I usually don’t waste my time reading blogs because personally I think that most of the Hillary bashing is actually coming from just a few well paid republician hacks. The Republician party is so scared of a truly good woman who will make a difference for real Americans. You know the ones I’m talking about the ones who actually work in this country and pay almost all of the taxes, yes you guessed it “The nearly destroyed worn out tired of being screwed middle class”. I’m sure that you will rip me to shreads after this is posted, but it really does not matter because those of us who believe in Hillary Clinton are quietly making a difference everyday. We are not sitting around on our butts ripping people apart on some blog, we are part of the solution not the problem!
Posted by: glenn W. | October 17, 2007, 2:39 pm 2:39 pm
Hillary loves to tell people what they want to hear, but what has she done with her life? Can any Hillary supporter name Hillary’s best policy success? Can you name a case she has won? Can you name a building she has built? Can you name a failing business that she has turned around? Can you name a crime-ridden neighborhood that she has made safe? I bet you can tell me how many millions she has made on behalf of middle class folks. However, getting rich on people’s sense of resentment does not impress me. Hillary really fails to inspire. Even among Hillary supporters. I hear a lot of Hillary supporters who want to beat Bush or whatever Republican comes along, but very few people who say that Hillary has inspired them to do something they would not already do anyway. Hillary is really the least-common-denominator. That is not much of an endorsement.
Posted by: Sean O'Brien | October 17, 2007, 3:50 pm 3:50 pm
I am sick of this woman (Hillary).
Obma 08!
Posted by: Imogene | October 17, 2007, 10:13 pm 10:13 pm
Being a woman, I love the idea of woman president. But I still cant support Hillary. She cares too much about winning the election and not enough about doing whats best for our country, so much that she’ll will change her opinion regardless of whats right to stay on top of her political game. Most disapointing to me is that out of the 3 major democratic contenders that really have a chance of gaining the demo. nomination (obama, edwards, & clinton) she has the weekest plan for combatting global warming. If the overwelming support and outright begging from the public for Gore to run should tell us anything, its that people want an aggressive solution to Global Warming. CLintons is only luke warm, if that. She’s too worried about upsetting potential campaign contributions from those that depend on continued destruction of the earth to even have a firm and successful plan on Global Warming. Can we do a write in for Gore? Maybe that could work…
Posted by: Rachel | October 18, 2007, 11:11 am 11:11 am