Senator Clinton Offers Four Goals

The American presidential campaign is a long, drawn out nightmare of a process in which the media focus excessively on polls and fundraising. Very little of the discussion touches on why a candidate wants to be president. What does one hope to achieve by serving in the Oval Office for four, or eight, years? Over the week-end Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) offered four goals she has set for her hypothetical presidency. The devil, though, is in the details, which she has yet to provide the nation.

In essence, she has four “Rs”: “restore America’s standing in the world,” “rebuild America’s middle class and the economy to support it,” “reform our government” and “reclaim the future for our children.” All of which sounds wonderful, and one wishes her luck. Some of it, though, is easier than others.

Restoring America’s standing in the world shouldn’t be too hard. Most can be done by executive order, and stopping torture, closing Guantanamo and reducing US troop levels in Iraq-Nam can be her first day’s work. That should move America’s stock up a bit.

Rebuilding the middle class and the economy to support it requires a rethink of US policy since 1980. Capital is going to have to take a back seat to labor, and wages will have to rise while returns on stocks and bonds drop. The screaming from the right will be loud, but unless wages rise to the point where a single pay check can fund a family of four, the healthy middle class that America built in the 1950s will not come back to those levels.

The other two goals are less meaningful. Reforming government sounds like a good idea, until one asks “to what end?” Reform requires one to identify problems and solutions. Otherwise, it is a pointless exercise. As for reclaiming the future for America’s children, that doesn’t even mean identifying problems. That just means creating a vision of the future that looks less like the vision the country has now. For a real test of what she means, one should watch for her health care plan due in the next couple of weeks. Timing it to coincide with the release of the Petraeus Report tells one everything one needs to know about it.

© Copyright 2007 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Fedora Linux.

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