Clinton urges use of faith-based initiatives

Headline is linked.

Sen. Clinton urges use of faith-based initiatives

Ha! probably fooled you already, as you probably thought that the Clinton that was mentioned was gonna be Bubba, I mean former Pres. Bill Clinton, and not wanna be future Pres. and current Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Showing (yet again, apparently) that she's a very shrewd politician, it seems that perhaps Sen. Clinton "gets it":



On the eve of the presidential inauguration, US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton last night embraced an issue some pundits say helped seal a second term for George W. Bush: acceptance of the role of faith in addressing social ills.
In a speech at a fund-raising dinner for a Boston-based organization that promotes faith-based solutions to social problems, Clinton said there has been a "false division" between faith-based approaches to social problems and respect for the separation of church of state.
"There is no contradiction between support for faith-based initiatives and upholding our constitutional principles," said Clinton, a New York Democrat who often is mentioned as a possible presidential candidate in 2008.
Addressing a crowd of more than 500, including many religious leaders, at Boston's Fairmont Copley Plaza, Clinton invoked God more than half a dozen times, at one point declaring, "I've always been a praying person."
She said there must be room for religious people to "live out their faith in the public square."
The issue of faith in politics has been at the center of debate following the presidential election, with some arguing that Bush's strong identification with religious values was a key to his victory over Senator John F. Kerry.
The dinner was a fund-raiser for the National TenPoint Leadership Foundation and the Dorchester-based Ella J. Baker House. Both youth outreach programs are directed by the Rev. Eugene F. Rivers 3d, a leader of the clergy-based efforts to stem youth violence in Boston in the 1990s that has become a national model for community-police partnerships.
The minister has often criticized established black leaders and liberal politicians, saying they have failed to deal honestly with the problems of youth violence.
Rivers said he hoped Clinton's appearance last night would build broader support for an issue on which some Democrats have been skittish.
"She is in a position to articulate a progressive vision around this issue of faith and values," Rivers said.
"The Clintons, on faith-based solutions, have always been way ahead of the curve," said Rivers, citing President Clinton's support of a 1996 law banning the federal government from discriminating against religious organizations seeking funding available to groups delivering social services.
In her speech, Clinton praised the efforts of Rivers and others working to curb youth violence, saying those of faith are often most willing to walk the streets of the country's most dangerous neighborhoods to try to reach young people. Where others "see trouble," she said, Rivers and faith-based soldiers "see God's work right in front of them."
Although the senator has insisted that she is focused only on her work in the Senate and constituents in New York (she faces reelection in 2006), talk of another Clinton seeking the White House seems to be a topic of speculation wherever she goes.



... more at linked article, linked from article by Michael Jonas, Boston Globe Correspondent | January 20, 2005


Note the highlighted section. I have trouble reading the words myself, as I might actually be in agreement with Senator Clinton on this one (or perhaps she's in agreement with me, which may or may not be less comforting to me).

I do believe that this is part of Hillary's effort to make herself more "main stream", a move taken from her husband's playbook, and which he used pretty successfully.

I wonder what Dick Morris would have to say about this? I expect we may hear from him about it soon on FNC or Sean Hannity's radio show.

1,986 views 5 replies
Reply #1 Top
I'll just bet that this one raises a shi* storm with the LLL's
Reply #2 Top
the dems would be smart to listen to my guy bill... he is the BEST by far at gauging the public and how to play em.
Reply #3 Top
IMO, we are not going to win over the people by pretending we are just like the Republicans. You think maybe the close call he had in October might have something to do with his conversion?
Reply #4 Top
Reply #3 By: Citizen whoman69 - 1/20/2005 1:25:14 PM
IMO, we are not going to win over the people by pretending we are just like the Republicans. You think maybe the close call he had in October might have something to do with his conversion?


Ah, but history proves you wrong here...

Bill Clinton won election by co-opting "republican values" and "republican issues". He rode the wave of "contract with America" and got (took, some might say) welfare reform and other republican issues and kept the republicans from being able to claim those issues as their own. He ignored much of the traditional "left" side of his own party, and worked with the moderates from both parties to govern "from the middle".

It won him re-election, and probably election the first time as he appeared to be a centrist candidate when compared to George H.W. Bush, who had served 8 years as Reagan's VP, then went through 4 years of his own governing (which was, if you look back, pretty moderate, but people 'carried over' the idea that Bush was more right-wing and conservative because he'd ben working with Reagan during the previous time and people attached the same values to Bush that they'd attached to his predecessor).

Dick Morris, former adviser to Bill Clinton, has said many times that moving towards the center is what it will take to win the presidency back for the Dems, and he's right. The country really doesn't want radical left or radical right. At least most don't (myself included). We want the happy medium, the reasonable standard. If I look at Hillary Clinton and I see radical left (i.e., Barbara Boxer or Barbara Streisand/Linda Rondstadt/Michael Moore) I run screaming. If I see more reasonable, moderate images, then I'm less stressed and more inclined to go with the flow.

While many on the left keep saying the issue is educating the public, getting out their message, etc., they seem (like you seem to be showing) to miss the idea that their message is wrong, and not what the public wants.

I think Hillary Clinton -- like her husband -- understands that part of the political game, and it's scary to me, as she very well could win by dressing up as a sheep all while hiding the wolf underneath.
Reply #5 Top
I have been saying for months now... that soon shrillery will become the most conservative member of the senate...she has already taken a stance far to the right of republicans on immigration {illegals} than the majority, soon she will be rabid war morgering taxcutting religion espousing member.. watch and see her work the polls.