Hillary Clinton: The Time is Now

 

Life in the Boomer Lane is always grateful for her readers for consistently adding tremendous value to her blog.  The following is a guest post from Pat Read.

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Many of my friends and family say that they for voting for Hillary out of their commitment to defeat Donald Trump. I’d like to say that for me personally, however, that is the weakest argument for why we should vote for Hillary Clinton. I’m voting for her because as Barack Obama said in his nominating speech at the Democratic Convention. “I can say with confidence there has never been a man or a woman — not me, not Bill, nobody — more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as president of the United States of America.”

This year’s campaigns have taught a powerful and terrifying lesson: if you repeat the same thing over and over again it will begin to gather mass and plausibility.

Case 1: One year ago the notion that Donald Trump could be the GOP Presidential Candidate (and was a viable choice to be the leader of the most powerful country on the planet) was literally a joke. (See late night television, media coverage, etc.) Today he is the GOP candidate.

Case 2: Statements that Hillary Clinton is “a liar” and “corrupt” are just slurs which Republicans have repeated over and over and over until it seems that there must be truth there. I do not deny that she made a mistake with her email on her personal server…and she does not deny that it was a mistake. But it was not criminal or immoral. And after dozens of hours and millions of dollars spent on the investigation into Benghazi there has never been shown any causal relationship between Hillary Clinton’s leadership and that tragic, deadly overrun of our Libyan compound.

Yet this characterization of Hillary’s being “untrustworthy” is now the loudest opposition conversation in the country today, despite her service to children and family throughout her adult life and her demonstrated commitment to service for the public good.

Now I heard that phrase (“service to children and family throughout her adult life”) throughout the campaign, but didn’t really understand the reference until Bill Clinton did his speech at the Democratic Convention. He describes her actions and choices from when they met in law school to the present. Of course it’s his point of view of history, but the evidence for what her life has always been about is incontrovertible.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RchVnIn_-Y

I was already a fan. My late sister-in-law, Meg, had known Hillary when they both lived in Little Rock when Bill was the governor of Arkansas. Over the years Meg often said things to me like “she’s the one who should be President” or “she is the REALLY smart one”. Ever since then, and especially after all of Hillary’s accomplishments in the Senate and as Secretary of State, I’ve been committed to Hillary being our first woman President. Some of those accomplishments:

Senator (Democrat Leader) Harry Reid said:

American foreign policy was stronger when Hillary Clinton left the State Department than when she arrived. She took the reins from a Bush administration that had left America’s reputation deeply damaged and planted the seeds for the foreign policy successes we see today. From the agreement to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, to the landmark normalization of relations with Cuba, nearly every foreign policy victory of President Obama’s second term has Secretary Clinton’s fingerprints on it.

Her accomplishments extend to health care, as well. As First Lady, she helped create and guide through Congress Children’s Health Insurance Program, a key program that brought health care coverage to millions of children. As a Senator, she worked across the aisle to provide full military health benefits to reservists and National Guard members.

Secretary Clinton was also an outspoken champion for women around the world. She set records for travel while leading the State Department and used every trip to empower the women of the 112 countries she visited. She made gender equality a priority of U.S. foreign policy. And she created the ambassador at large for global women’s issues, a post charged with integrating gender throughout the State Department.

Senator Chuck Schumer (D, NY) said: As Secretary of State, Secretary Clinton was not only an inspirational figure for billions of women around the globe, she also did much to restore the shattered credibility of the United States, which had lost so much influence following the failed foreign policies of the previous administration. She negotiated the cease-fire in Gaza that stopped the Hamas from firing rocket after rocket into Israel. She helped secure the START treaty’s ratification, and has advanced women’s rights in countries around the globe.

Just as when we lost the Senate majority in 2010 mid-term elections, this is our election to lose. I refuse to look back in November after a Trump victory and wonder if there were something else I could do. It is time now to speak about this, to share our dreams and hopes and inspiration and passion with others. Who says Hillary can’t raise up passion like Bernie did? Who is more passionate than women about their homes and families?

I say it’s time. This woman’s place is in the White House.