I have to admit, I’m skeptical about Hillary as a presidential candidate. Why? Well, she kind of rubs me the wrong way, and I’m eager to have a Democrat in office, and I fear that the bad guys (ie Rove) will make mincemeat of her when it comes time to really get down to brass tacks.
But while at Davos I had dinner with a good friend of hers (I can’t name names as I don’t have permission to do so), and she encouraged me to be open minded. OK, I’ll be open minded. So then, I saw this. The original Wired News story:
The issue of digital-era privacy did not make it to the top of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s legislative to-do list at the Saturday launch of her presidential campaign. But for those who look, the New York Democrat has clearly staked out her positions on the esoteric subject, and they’re sending electronic civil libertarians’ hearts a twitter.
Clinton, the presidential front-runner among Democrats in way-early polling, addressed electronic privacy issues at a constitutional law conference in Washington, D.C. last June. There she unveiled a proposed “Privacy Bill of Rights” that would, among other things, give Americans the right to know what’s being done with their personal information, and offer consumers an unprecedented level of control over how that data is used.
Now, those of you who keep track of my rants, know that this is a big issue for me. Huh. I’m listening now…
It will certainly be a long political battle through the 2008 election, but as I mentioned on my own blog a few times, the more I learn about Hillary, the more I like her. She is a very impressive, intelligent, well-studied woman. I naively hope that this election cycle we can see the candidates’ opinions on the issues trump silly name-calling and attack ads, regardless of who wins out.
Give it up, John. Whether or not Hillary Clinton’s elected will not depend significantly upon her position on digital privacy issues. It will turn on people’s readiness to elect, in order of importance [IMHO]
a Democrat
a woman
the wife of the former president who had [kinda] sex with an intern in the oval office [this really matters to some people] and
someone who will get American soldiers the hell outa Iraq.
If you really feel strongly about digital privacy issues, you are better off trying to get Hillary elected and convincing her through the force of your arguments to change her position. She is more likely than most to give you a hearing; certainly more so than Republicans.
Granted, she has ideals – but can she get them implemented – here is more from that WIRED story….
All this talk about your Davos trip is ridiculous. It’s making not want to read your posts. No one cares about Davos.
Come on John, just be honest. No one buys your “gosh, I’m not really interested in Hillary” stick. Why do you always use candy ass qualifying remarks when you talk politics? Everyone knows you are a solid leftist. You really don’t need to pretend you are objective, after all, you are not writing for the old media.
Out of place political comments are old news for those of use on the right. Just don’t insult us by dancing around in your loafers when you do it—go for it dude!
I think HRC is going to surprise a lot of people with her tenacity and ability to reverse her negatives. She already is ahead in opinion polls over McCain and Giuliani in Ohio, the ultimate swing state.
Once people see her side by side with Obama, Edwards, et al, they will see clear as day how much more impressive she is as a candidate.
My prediction: Clinton/Webb ’08!
That grad school weed did affect you. An Hillary ad on SearchBlog? Who’da thought?