Tuesday, January 22, 2008

That's What HE Said


Yesterday, I speculated that when Bill Clinton spoke at Nashville's Fisk University, he would likely talk about civil rights or race relations, as well as why his wife should be the next President.

Clinton very briefly acknowledged MLK day and that Fisk had played host to Martin Luther King back in the day, and then segued into stumping for Hillary. He said she should be the next President because she has the right vision and the right plan, and he made a pretty convincing case for it.

Promises made by Bill, on behalf of Hillary, for the citizens: truly affordable health care for everyone, job creation in the area of developing sustainable energy, taking global warming seriously, getting off of foreign oil, cheap electric cars, home mortgage interest rates staying the same for 5 years, a 90 day freeze on foreclosures, restoration of the Pell grant to its maximum level, withdrawal of troops from Iraq as soon as it's safe and possible.

Also, apparently, they like Hillary overseas and she has successfully worked with Republicans to pass bills in the Senate. She has been a real force for positive change in people's lives.

So basically, that's what he said.

The 3-ish thing he did was slip up a little and talk a lot about what "me" and "we" was gonna do, rather than what she was gonna do. It was in the air, though. One person in the crowd asked a question that started with, "If we elect you... um, Hillary..."

He also, apparently, did this 9-ish thing before arriving in Nashville. And yes, if you were wondering, he did seem well rested.

6 comments:

Mary Beth said...

Bill Clinton's speech in Nashville January 21:

More on what I remember Bill Clinton saying on the issues:

- Jobs. I believe he did mention how Americans can't keep the economy going by just selling services to each other (or maybe that was just me thinking that... Cindi?) and how we are deeply in debt to other countries. What he said about job creation was that in his "current life" (i.e. what he's been doing since the presidency ended) is working with cities to greenify and making it sure it saves money and pays off for the cities. Example given: has just signed a deal with NYC where ... is it public housing?... is going to be retrofitted with... energy saving devices, which saves money each year, in a certain number of years pays for itself including the labor to put them in, after which point the savings just keep accruing; meanwhile lots of jobs were created that paid for themselves. Now, this doesn't solve the big problem of how we import all our stuff from overseas, but it does sound clever and workable.

- Mortgage rates. I got the impression that it's not ALL mortgage rates that will be frozen for 5 years, just those of people in these ARMs that have gone way up and now can't pay, and who have made all their payments prior to that. He explained how the mortgages are divided up and made into financial instruments that can be traded, and that through no fault of their own these people can't pay anymore, completely glossing over the fact that this is the kind of mortgage they signed up for and they could have chosen a fixed-rate mortgage or if they didn't qualify for that, rented until they could, but this is me digressing cause he sure didn't mention that. He didn't mention that a schoolchild could have seen this coming from a long way away, if not the effects, then at least that these people in adjustable rate mortgages would eventually not be able to pay them -- I don't understand whether people who sign up for that are just figuring that mortgage rates will not go up in 30 years even though they're at an all-time low when they sign up for them? Or are they thinking that once they do, they will have a higher salary and be able to afford it? I don't know. Back to Bill Clinton. He did, however, make a case that it would be worse for us ALL if we don't do this (i.e. all those foreclosures bad for the economy.)

-Paying for college. He did mention restoring Pell grants (and I didn't even know they'd been cut!) He also mentioned a plan that I believe he put in place but then got cut by Bush, whereby with a student loan there will be a rule stating that your re-payment of the loans will be no more than a certain amount of your yearly income. So when these people graduate from college and for whatever reason don't get a high-paying job right away, they don't have to pay high payments right away, then once/if they do eventually get a good job, they will be able to keep up with the payments: thereby it's way better for the students, and it's better for the government too because people had a much less tendency to default on these loans. I thought that was a fantastic idea.

- Electric cars. I don't know that he promised electric cars as much as he said that they were coming, and talked about them a little bit.

- Health care. He made a good case for the plan. I thought it sounded pretty good. He also praised Hillary for when she and Bill's health care plan failed back in the early 90s, showing character by not wallowing in it but getting back up and keep working (and getting a Children's health care bill passed.)

All in all, I found the speech convincing.

Mary Beth said...

I've been thinking about the bail out of all those people with the adjustable rate mortgates. I guess Chrysler was bailed out, and the Savings and Loans, so it wouldn't be unprecedented, at least.

Anonymous said...

Thank you both for discussing Clinton's speech.... I'm sure I should say more but I'm having one of those, "I'm getting sick and can't quite think straight moments."

Amy

Cindi said...

MB --Clinton did talk about how we have to stop borrowing money from other countries so we can more effectively enforce outr trade agreements -- and sell them stuff rather than just buy stuff from them.
I think you are right about the mortgage rates, and he did totally gloss over how these people bought something they pretty clear;ly coundn't afford. Those of us whop didn't do that are gonna end up bailing them out.
Here's what he said about electric cars: we have to put research and money into them so they get better and cheaper. This is doable within a few years. Once enough of them are manufactured, the cost will go dramatically down.
Amy -- I'm sorry you're feeling sick and hope you recover to 100% real soon. Take care of yourself.

Anonymous said...

The current New Yorker has an article comparing Clinton and Obama. The short version is: Clinton is too wonkish and doesn't inspire people, Obama is inspiring but of questionable effectiveness.

Here is the article on their website:
http://tiny.cc/Hk7bA

It would be interesting to know how enneagram type influences candidate choice. You would think if Clinton is type 1 that competence types would be more drawn to her wonkishness. Also, what are the relative proportions of different enneagram types in a cross section of the population? Some people list GWB as a 9 so maybe type 9 makes a very appealing candidate no matter what the ideology.

Cindi said...

I think the article you mention is apt in its analysis, Russ. And I don't mind an inspirational figurehead as a President, as long as he has the right people around him, as Obama claims he does. I'm almost certain Clinton can put together the right team, though, since she's seen Bill do it, and he'll be there to help. To me, Obama is a little more risky.
Not sure about relative proportions of egram types, but subjectively, there seem to be a lot of 6s and 9s about.