Sen. Clinton decries leadership lacking resolve, inspiration
By Nirvi Shah
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 24, 2005
WEST PALM BEACH Ñ — America's leaders don't have a vision, and the economy may be on the brink of collapse, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday.
The chance to invest in a national energy policy may be lost because President Bush is looking the other way, and flaws in the American health-care system are going unaddressed, Clinton said.
But somehow, she manages to be hopeful.
Clinton, D-N.Y., spoke at the Kravis Center before a gathering of Brandeis University alumni and the public, charming the crowd with her views on a Bush administration whose strategy, she says, is to turn a blind eye when it doesn't have an answer to a serious question.
"I don't see that thoughtful, visionary direction that got us where we are today," she told the crowd of hundreds. "The history of America is... to make sacrifices today for a better tomorrow. The progress that then occurred moved everyone forward.
"That progress is at risk today," she said.
President Dwight D. Eisenhower left a legacy of highways, John F. Kennedy the excitement over space exploration, and Lyndon B. Johnson created the legal framework for civil rights, Clinton said. "What are we investing in today?"
"I believe that on both political and substantive grounds, my husband did it just right," she said, referring to former President Clinton. "The deficit reduction act didn't get one single Republican vote. He took on the gun lobby with the Brady Bill. He took on health care. He took on hard issues that we pay a president for. Frankly, it is not that hard cutting people's taxes."
Among her goals: a plan to extend the life and health of social security, a budget with discipline and health-care reform.
"I think the economy is standing on a trap door, and I don't know that we necessarily hold the levers," she said, astonishing the crowd with the fact that the United States borrows $50 million each month from other countries.
Outside, a man holding a giant poster didn't need to hear Clinton to be charmed by her.
"Hillary 2008" read his sign, which was complete with a border of red and white bumper stickers announcing the same message.
When a member of the audience asked Clinton what her role in the 2008 election would be, she didn't answer, but remarked that the Democratic Party has a lot of work to do.
"I think there are a lot of very capable people on the horizon." |
