Hillary

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Clinton outlines plan to help middle class
By Edward Luce in Washington
Financial Times
Updated: 3:12 a.m. CT Feb 1, 2007
Hillary Clinton, the Democratic 2008 presidential frontrunner, on Wednesday delivered an impassioned call for Americans to move beyond partisanship and embrace a "new bargain" that would address the growing economic insecurities of the country's middle class.

Delivering one of her most confident and self-deprecating speeches so far, Mrs Clinton berated the administration of George. W. Bush for allegedly refusing to tackle the US's biggest problems which, she said, included lack of universal healthcare, median wage stagnation and the rising cost of higher education.

Since announcing the formation of a presidential exploratory committee two weeks ago, Mrs Clinton's sizeable lead over Barack Obama, her closest rival for the Democratic nomination, has widened. According to most polls, Mrs Clinton leads Mr Obama by 20 percentage points or more among registered Democratic voters.

Some attribute Mrs Clinton's increasing sureness of tone to the galvanising effect that Mr Obama, the first term senator from Illinois, had when he entered the presidential race, to great fanfare, a few days before she did. Last weekend, the former first lady made her first trip since 2003 to the state of Iowa, which will hold a critical presidential caucus vote early in 2008.

Both Mr Obama and John Edwards, the former vice-presidential candidate, who is trailing third in the polls, have visited Iowa several times.

"The growth in Hillary Clinton's self-confidence has been really staggering over the last two weeks which we saw in Iowa and on visits to other states," said Joe Trippi, who was campaign manager to Howard Dean in 2004. "Since declaring her candidacy, Hillary has really emerged from the shadows."

Speaking to the New America Foundation, a centrist Washington-based think-tank, Mrs Clinton on Wednesday set out the outlines of what is expected to be her platform for tackling the economic angst of the middle classes.

In a cutting reference to the Bush administration's alleged refusal to consult people with different viewpoints, Mrs Clinton promised to restore "evidence-based" policy making. She said compromise in politics should be a goal, not "a dirty word".

"I grew up in the middle class in the middle of America in the middle of the last century – so, by definition, I am middle of the road," she said. "I don't think Americans are looking for some kind of group-hug bipartisanship – I think they're looking for leaders who can get back to reality-based ­policymaking."

Mrs Clinton, whose speech, unusually, included a number of jokes at her own expense, said the middle class was the traditional foundation of the US but that Mr Bush had been pursuing a policy of "hollowing out the middle" of the US economy. She said that productivity had grown by 17.5 per cent since 2000, whereas median household income had fallen marginally. Likewise, average family healthcare costs had risen by 81 per cent since 2000 and education fees by 50 per cent.

"There's a troubling sense of fatalism in a lot of our debate – particularly over the last six years: 'Why can't we deal with our energy crisis? It would wreck our economy' – end of debate. 'Why can't we deal with health care? 'Well look what happened to Hillary Clinton. Nobody wants to walk into that swamp-land again'...As a society we have always been focused on the future. I want us to get there again."

Mrs Clinton's address touched upon Mr Edward's central campaign theme of middle class insecurity and Mr Obama's signature promise to move the US beyond the "bitter and partisan" politics that had become "so gummed up by money and influence".

Last month, Mrs Clinton also shed some of her notorious caution over Iraq when she proposed a Senate resolution to freeze the number of US troops at January levels. The New York senator has resisted pressure to recant her 2002 vote authorising Mr Bush to go to war.

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