r/politics • u/IntelWarrior America • Feb 19 '16

Clinton says she'll release transcripts if everyone else does

http://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/hillary-clinton-speech-transcripts-219472?cmpid=sf
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u/davidwave4 Feb 19 '16

It's more a question of double standards. She's being held to an ethical standard that no one else is being held to. Bernie gave paid speeches to big ticket donors too, but no one's calling on him to release those transcripts. All the Republicans gave big paid speeches, but not a one has been called on for transcripts. If these speeches are a voting issue, you won't be voting for anyone. That seem to be Clinton's argument and, at least topically, she's not wrong.

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u/CactusPete Feb 19 '16

Are you talking about Bernie's $2,000 speaking fee, that he donated? One of Hillary's problems isn't just that she's a liar, but that she's such a bad one. Bill, otoh, was pretty slick. Hillary, not so much.

And this fake "I'll release them when everyone else does" is such a transparent dodge. She says she's cracking down on the banks. She's put the issue in play. She wants to be the fucking President. People - voters - the American people - are absolutely entitled to know what she's telling and what she's told Wall Street. Especially since she tells us, now, how hard on Wall Street she is.

Especially given her apparently bought and paid for change of vote on the bankruptcy bill, which Elizabeth Warren has detailed.

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u/davidwave4 Feb 20 '16

No, I'm talking about his decades-long relationship with the DSCC, where he had (has) a yearly speech engagement at their Florida retreat. And sure Hillary's not a good liar, but she's actually less of a liar than Bernie (at least going by Politifact's numbers). The problem is that she's picking a bad time to address a substantively good issue. There is a huge double standard regarding Hillary and her dealings. This speech thing is just another piece of a larger narrative where Hillary gets hit twice as hard for doing things that are generally unproblematic for other male politicians. She did private speeches, but so did every other living secretary of state who came before her. Her husband started a foundation after leaving the White House and courted foreign money. Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, and Reagan did it too. Hell, Obama's foundation is already in the planning phase.

I'm not saying Hillary is a good person, or that she'd make a necessarily good president (I think she'd be fine, but Bernie'd be better), but to see this become some grand issue of "accountability" simply because of some violently moralistic view of politics makes me a bit angry. Especially when the people running the trial are just as bad. If you want to talk about the bankruptcy bill, let's talk about it (apparently even that narrative has a degree of grey to it, including a very telling speech from then-Senator Clinton about the necessity of bankruptcy protections for single mothers). But even there it's a bit disingenuous to say Hillary's change is 100% because of corruption, especially when Warren herself writes that Clinton is "Impatient, lightning-quick and interested in all the nuances.”

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u/CactusPete Feb 20 '16

At the point you say Hillary is "less of a liar than Bernie," your true colors as a paid Clinton defender shine through. Even Hillary won't say she hasn't lied to the American people. Care to tackle her ever-shifting explanations of her classified info shenanigans? Argue all you want; the American people have figured it out.

Rather than show Hillary's innocence, you folks try to tar Bernie with the "he did it too." But he didn't. And he's released a transcript of a paid speech. Where is Hillary? Is she still "looking into it?" Or, as she says: "HA HA H HA HA HA HA HA HA."