Hillary Clinton seeks to woo Wall St.

[IDemo]

By Ben White in New York
Updated: 8:12 p.m. ET July 9, 2006

Hillary Clinton has been cosying up to Wall Street in recent weeks with a series of meetings with top executives that could help her follow the path blazed by her husband ahead of his first presidential run.

People familiar with the meetings said they appeared intended to help Wall Street figures get to know the New York senator better as she coasts through an easy 2006 re-election campaign and paves the way for a possible Democratic presidential run in 2008. Bill Clinton's early forays to Wall Street helped advance his bid for the Democratic nomination in 1992.

Some events, such as a recent gathering at Morgan Stanley that included chief executive John Mack, a big Republican donor, have been fundraisers for the Senate campaign. Others, including a chat with executives at Lehman Brothers, are more policy-oriented. Mrs Clinton is said to be planning meetings at Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse, among others.

Ann Lewis, a senior adviser to Mrs Clinton, said the meetings were focused on 2006.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13787675/from/RS.4/

[rfranklin]

1. A real woman of the people...

reassuring the Wall Street types that she will not rock the boat.

[Maccagirl]

2. Maybe she should woo the people she's

elected to represent. What a concept! Damn that hippie radical! I bet she still has her love beads in her jewelry box.

[Tyrone Slothrop]

37. Wall St. is in NYC (part of NY state) last I checked

And considering my office is about 5 blocks away, I'm pretty sure it hasn't moved.

[cosmicdot]

43. isn't a lot of "Wall Street" incorporated in Delaware?

Maybe she should ask Joe Biden to tag along. He represents Delaware.

... with satellite offices around the country and globe?
I suspect some of her human/citizen contacts at these meetings live in Connecticut or New Jersey.
Maybe she should include Lautenberg and/or Dodd.

... the politburo-style organizations of corporate america represented on Wall Street ... the stock ownership society ... and members of the Boards of Directors ...
they probably reside in all 50 states (and, in other countries, too) ...
Maybe she should invite all of us "Democrats" to sit in on these sessions. We want to know how we're being represented.

We the People have something to say, too.


The sooner we change the financing the election of our country's governance the better off we the people shall be.

[u2spirit]

3. Doing everything she can

to not woo the base. Sometimes the Hillary bashing gets old, but godammit it's accurate.

[Totally Committed]

4. It's articles like this

that make me weep for my country, and for the poorest Americans who will never matter more to Mrs. Clinton than her prescious corporations' bottom lines.

What do we do when our (arguably) most unelectable candidate is the one with the most money, the most corporate support, and therefore, is the most likely to be nominated anyway?

TC

[Robbien]

16. Yes. The main problem is that the big corporations now run US policy

There will be no change in the downhill slide of the common good if the politico who leads the country caters to global corporates. Whether a Dem or a GOP, a politico bought by big business is bad news.

[Mz Pip]

5. What's the problem here?

85% of NYC went for Kerry. I'm sure he did some woooing. There are lots of rich and powerful Dems and until we have publicly financed elections the only way a candidate can comepete with the big money GOP is to meet and reassure the moneyed folks that you're not planning on screwing up the economy.

I am not a huge Hillary 2008 fan but I can really fault her for this.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[papau]

8. The Hillary haters like to pretend you do not need money to run - and that

if you get money from someone other than your mother or your trust fund, you have sold out your principles.

Like you said - it is hard to fault her for trying to find like minded folks that also have money - and to try to calm those not so like minded by showing you are responsible and not a tear down all government and corporations and confiscate all assets person that might motivate those who are neutral to your positions to go out and give money to your opposition.

It does seem that there are a few folks with little experience, and perhaps too little thought spent on how to finance a campaign when there is not a federal campaign financing only law with free air time in the US.

[Terran1212]

14. She has sold out EVERY principle

Of course you may need to have a few ill bedfellows in politics, but she doesn't even seem the least bit interested in being with decent people and politics.

She's Hilary CLINTON. She does not need that much money to run; everyone knows her and she's extremely well connected.

[papau]

17. We will need to agree to disagree - Her nuanced positions seem correct

to me on abortion, etc.

I only fault her on her IWR vote lack of a current statement that had she known what she knows today she would not have voted yes.

The Murdoch hosting a business gathering for her (but not contributing himself he said) and the rest of the claimed evil do not seem to me to be evil.

But that is just my opinion.

[Terran1212]

18. I'm just saying she doesn't seem to have a single progressive position

Some womens' rights stuff that's about circa 1970 and a few things about a tiny minimum wage increase.

Other than that her big agendas seem to be going after violent video games and making flag burning illegal (but not unconstitutional).

[papau]

19. Flag burning in connection to a hate crime, and video labeling are

small time I agree. I was not aware that Hillary's minimum wage proposal was extremely low although I am aware that she has not signed onto the "living wage" minimum wage concept.

But in 93 Hillary was the only person pushing single payer national health - and Bill was influenced by Insurance company promises of cooperation under an alternative HMO buying co-op concept and told her to drop the idea - so that by the time her task force was allowed to start single player national health was off the table.

She is very much a progressive (my employers were part of the group that included the health insurance companies that lied to Bill re health insurance company cooperation).

[Terran1212]

20. She isn't progressive at all -- one of those is challenging her in the

primaries, though.

Someone who is openly living wage, antiwar, progay, proenvironment, and not in bed with every huge business interest in mankinds history has just gotten enough signatures to be in the primary -- I expect all DU NYers to get out and vote EN MASSE for this

I'm not sure if this is 100% accurate, but it's on Tasini's website:

http://www.tasinifornewyork.org/node/575


If you want someone who is truly representative of workers and doesn't just pay lip service.

And btw Hilary has not "pushed single payer healthcare"; even in her autobiography she admits she never liked that option.

[papau]

23. Yasini was on Air America saying he was on the ballot - and he is indeed

a gold plated progressive!

I have not read Hillary's autobio - but I was there in the pits in 93 - at the center of the action we thought at the time - and she was said to be the only one pushing single payer national health. Now she may have given it up easily because "she never liked that option" but at the time the insurance industry lobbyists CEO/senior staff meetings that planned the Harry and Louise destruction of the HMO concept while at the same time they sold it to Bill, were also crediting the selling of cooperation to Bill with the stopping of what was called Hillary's National Health.

The lobbyists may have been fooling themselves or their employers - but that was what was being said at the time.

That she would say "she never liked that option" is upsetting to me. The battle against her that we thought we were fighting in 93 is the basis of much of my good feeling toward her. If her Goldwater days trust in corporations still exists, I will have to work hard to defeat her.

I will need to read the exact wording in the autobio.

But her work on families, the poor, race, women's rights, and children's rights still mark her as a progressive.

[bling bling]

36. Back up your assertions, please. Or lose your credibility.

Show me your sources on the tiny minimum wage increase.

"Senator Clinton is a strong advocate of increasing the minimum wage. Senator Clinton is an original cosponsor of legislation introduced by Senator Kennedy that would increase the federal minimum wage to $7.25 per hour over a two-year period."

http://clinton.senate.gov/news/statements/details.cfm?id=257945&&
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2006/5/11/101252.shtml

Clinton was CO-SPONSOR of bill to increase minimum wage. She wants to forbid congress from giving themselves another raise until they raise the minimum wage.

Your ball.

[pokercat999]

26. Maybe not. My hope is that Ms. Clinton is a good old

fashioned liar. That she is reassuring the "powers that be" only till elected then her actual progressive ideas will come to the surface and we'll have a truly progressive society with real justice, and pigs will fly.:sarcasm:
Every day I get more cynical but I just can't keep up with reality.

[papau]

28. LOL-Lily Tomlin-No matter how cynical you get, it is impossible to keep up

Hillary's a midwest moderate liberal - not a DU dream candidate.

But I like the Lily Tomlin thought!

[natrat]

45. she's a sellout fraud and her own party hates her nt

[JI7]

27. the 85 percent that Kerry won in NYC were mostly lower income residents

the wall street big money people mostly voted for Bush and most of them live outside of NYC. they just do business there.

[union_maid]

30. Not entirely

Wall Street, maybe. But NYC is full of wealthy residents in November. The poor are being driven out and the middle class has been gone for years, for all intents and purposes. New Yorkers living outside tend to live in Westchester or on Long Island. I can't tell you how Westchester voted, but on Long Island, the areas where lower income people and/or minorities mostly live went for Kerry, but so did the wealthiest areas, where the million and billionaires reside. It's the middle class that voted more to the right. That's a typical blue state voting pattern.

[leveymg]

6. Hedging their bets and stacking the deck to make sure the GOP wins again

They aren't dummies. They know she's unelectable - that's why Wall Street is giving her as much money as she needs to get nominated.

We'll see a very expensive, sophisticated effort to silence those in the Blogosphere who recognize what she is, and oppose her. In fact, I think that's already started, Then, they'll cut her loose and pour tens of millions into McCain's coffers.

[PATRICK]

7. Something else of future interest

The real power in NY will soon be Spitzer, moreso if his clout is augmented by Congressional Dems. Clinton can woo, Spitzer can discipline. How that dynamic works out may be the important story not the usual rounds most national candidates make. I don't see how the Senator relates to the madness but I do know how Spitzer operates to pound but not radically kill violators. The Governor may learn the real deal of what it takes to restore law and order and pragmatic hope. Presidential candidate or not- this time- Spitzer may more influence than any wall Street magnate.

[billyoc]

9. Quite an uphill climb

for the intrepid former Wal-Mart board member. :eyes:

[amandabeech]

10. Public financing is the way to go.

It will take a Constitutional Amendment, so let's get going now.

[kurth]

11. Government of bankers, by bankers, and for bankers

[Neshanic]

12. Say Hillary, there's a corner on Wall that needs some good ol' capitalism.

If you catch my drift.

[Terran1212]

13. This is the far left liberal woman the media rants about

But of course when the media paints a major corporatist as far left that means anyone to the left of that must just be unreasonable.

I guess that's how they destroy dissent.

[Selatius]

15. Hillary, why don't you walk on Main Street instead of Wall Street?

Is it too much to ask you view the ruined remains of small mom and pop stores destroyed by big business in the name of greater profits? Why don't you tour the Michael Moore's home town of Flint, Michigan, to get a taste of the real America?

[amandabeech]

21. I'd love to see her tour Flint with Michael Moore.

I have a few spots on the other side of the state that should also be on the tour.

I'll bet that when she comes to Michigan, she goes right to the Detroit Economic Club, or whatever its called, where Michael Moore waited for Roger Moore.

Except unlike Moore, she'll be ushered right in then hop out to the limo zip to Metro Airport without even taking a quick look at any of the city itself.

Didn't she start out as a Republican? Maybe she's just returning to her roots.

[bling bling]

38. Errrrrr......

Clinton is the Senator of New York.

You got a problem involving Flint Michigan, I suggest you start by asking the elected reps of Michigan to take a tour of Flint.

BTW, Wall Street happens to be in New York. Or should she just ignore that?
Good thing you're not her campaign advisor.

[amandabeech]

39. Errrr.....

She has done and is in the process of doing everything to run in the presidential primaries in 2008 except formally declare, and she has done little to nothing to dispel those who are now seemingly ready to declare her the Dem candidate.

My comments are directed not to her current status as senator from NY, but only to her probable run for President.

I am well aware of the political process having served as an LA in the House and I worked as an M&A and Securities attorney in NY.

I suggest that you use a little imagination and a lot less smugness when posting here. That's a little advice from your campaign advisor.

[bling bling]

41. Did you read your own original post?

Project much? The whole entire post, literally, was full of nothing but smug, speculative drivel about one of our Democrats. Nothing based in fact, no links, nothing educational, intellectual, or useful, at all. You call that imaginative? If that's the kind of garbage you're going to trash the thread with, don't expect a response to you filled with anything but the same.

And furthermore, if you knew *anything* about the political process at all, I would hope you'd use this forum to teach us something useful. You're b.s. post imagining a scenario played out with Michael Moore is juvenile character assassination against a Dem Senator. How helpful to the cause. With friends like you....

[papau]

22. How do we stop the destruction of main street by big business?

I have seen no real plan beyond zoning and price fixing and regulated sourcing - or the end of the corporate form of being a "citizen" - and I am not sure how well any of these work.

Only the last one is federal and if it works it is a long term solution.

Zoning is up against the cheap price on buying a city councilmen.

price fixing destroys the economy and standard of living

regulated sourcing may actually work as a jobs tool, but it does not save main street.

[Selatius]

24. More social safety nets for the poor

As it stands, too many have fallen through the cracks. Perhaps nothing could be done to salvage Main Street and make it as it once was, but something can be done to combat homelessness, hunger, and poverty in general. To provide more opportunities, I say we should reform the public education system to equip students with the skills needed to survive in this world. We could adapt some of the lessons learned in European countries for an American setting. Better education systems, better health care systems, more safety nets for the needy--that's the general notion I'm aiming at.

[papau]

29. I totally agree n/t

n/t

[oasis]

25. Good. We need a well rounded workaholic in the White House.eom

[LibDemAlways]

31. When Hillary's book came out a couple of years ago

I dragged myself out of bed at an ungodly hour to drive 60 miles and wait in a long line to buy a copy and get it signed. The turnout was pretty large, but not the massive crowd I stood in line with one time at a Jimmy Carter signing. That line snaked around several city blocks. Carter signed books for hours and no one was turned away. Not so with her royal highness.

After standing in line for five hours and finding myself increasingly farther back because of latecomers who had places "saved" for them by friends, a store representative came out to announce that Hillary would only be signing 300 copies which meant probably only 150 people would actually filter through since each person was allowed to buy two books. If you didn't make the cut of the first 150, you were told to "go home."

That did it for me. You write an autobiography. You want people to buy it. You agree to a book tour. Then you screw hundreds of people with some ridiculous bullshit rules designed to limit your contact with the public. And, you don't announce those rules until people have been standing patiently in line for hours.

I'll bet if all those people were holding big campaign contribution checks, she'd have found the time to greet them all.

[Demeter]

34. Shocking Story--but

typical mishandling of the public that Hillary is getting known for.

[LibDemAlways]

35. Yep, you'd have to go some to find a more effective

way to piss off perhaps 500 people.

[closeupready]

40. Sadly, the unspoken truth is that too many "little people" don't vote.

A potential voter may not have thousands of dollars in checks to give her, but if not, then they are less likely to be someone who feels bothered to get off the couch, turn off the TV and vote. It's just a sad reality of politics in American life, and frankly, I think Democrats are partly to blame for that, because of this triangulation crap that compromises Democratic values and also because no matter who wins, life for the "little people" doesn't change; neither party works for them anymore. Well, the pukes never did, but the Dems really don't anymore, either.

[oasis]

46. I had a different experience in Pasadena, Ca.Hillary signed 1200 books and

graciously greeted well wishers and took pictures with them. She stayed almost 2 hours longer than her announced schedule to accommodate the crowd.

She had a large escort of secret service with her to secure the building and surrounding area.Maybe in your case, the time restraints of the location dictated her actions.

[LibDemAlways]

47. I'm glad you had a better experience.

I would never have gone to the trouble if the particulars had been spelled out in advance. Five hours completely wasted - never mind the drive to and from. The two books per person rule was what really got me. Even with time constraints, she could have signed 300 books for 300 people. Instead, hundreds were rudely turned away and they were upset - to say the least.

[RCinBrooklyn]

32. And if you support me, we'll have more war to profiteer from...

[SOS]

33. She is essentially unopposed in 2006

Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers are paying for her presidential run.
No thanks. These organizations do not represent my interests as a voter. Fortunately there will be other choices on the 2008 primary ballot.

[JackDragna]

42. I understand Clinton will need money..

..but I see this as part of the Democratic party's continued abandonment of labor. The truth is, when the stock market is doing well, labor is usually suffering at the same time. I haven't seen any major political candidate go after the current corporate culture of firing long-term employees and hiring inexperienced novies to do the same work at half the pay, gutting wages and benefits, cutting research and development dollars to boost stock prices, moving jobs overseas or any of the other countless "in" things in the corporate world that are ruining the American middle class.

[cosmicdot]

44. surely she cc'd Howard Dean c/o the DNC on what's she's doing ...

:sarcasm:

how DLC of her to 'woo' Wall Street

but, she needs the money:

2001-2006 Total Receipts: $39,235,742
2001-2006 Total Spent: $19,814,667
Cash on Hand: $19,703,421 <-----------------
Debts: $0
Date of last report: March 31, 2006
First elected: 2000
Next election: 2006

Fundraising by Cycle:
2006: $27,501,536 <---------------

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D-NY)

Top Contributors

1 Goldman Sachs $168,290
2 Metropolitan Life $153,600
3 Citigroup Inc $138,940
4 Corning Inc $133,400
5 Morgan Stanley $105,560
6 Time Warner $96,560
7 Skadden, Arps et al $90,030
8 International Profit Assoc $88,400
9 New York Life Insurance $86,000
10 Ernst & Young $73,775
11 JP Morgan Chase & Co $69,480
12 Akin, Gump et al $64,550
13 Cablevision Systems $54,900
14 Verizon Communications $51,020
15 Cendant Corp $49,940
16 E*TRADE Financial Group $49,600
17 Lehman Brothers $47,490
18 Blank Rome LLP $46,800
19 General Electric $44,955
20 Viacom Inc $43,190



PAC Contribution Breakdown

Business
$713,244
(62.6%) <---------------

Labor
$278,170
(24.4%)

Ideological/Single Issue
$147,648
(13.0%)

http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/summary.asp?CID=N00000019&cycle=2006