Hillary’s Final Pitch

It’s a tiny space in one of the company’s office/work rooms and there were nearly as many journalists as actual voters, who numbered about 50. But this is the kind of intimate event–timed on the heels of President Bush’s economic stimulus package announcement–designed to get onto the afternoon and evening news, not to sway undecided voters.

Clinton has been going heavy on the economic talk for the last few days, holding events specifically about the economy both here and in California (where she launched her first Golden State TV ad yesterday).

She kept up the economic talk here, in a personable and impressive manner. She praised small businesses and warned of economic storms ahead. She talked about the foreclosure crisis in Nevada. (There are so many foreclosed and vacant homes in the Vegas area that a local paper recently reported on a case of squatters taking over a middle-class suburban house.) Clinton stressed her plan to put a 90-day moratorium on foreclosures and a cap on adjustable interest rates because, she said, “A lot of the people . . . were subject to fraudulent, predatory [mortgage] practices.” She made a bit of class warfare fun, too, saying that while “The economy’s not working for most Americans. It’s working fine for people who are CEOs of Countrywide.”

Clinton also gently criticized the new Bush plan, saying that it “leaves out 50 million Americans.” The nub of her economic pitch boiled down to a contention that for middle-class families, the standard of living is in danger of slipping backwards from the previous generation. She noted that over the last few years, “The average American family has lost $1,000 in income.”

Finally, she went after Obama. “My leading opponent the other day said that he thought the Republicans had better ideas than Democrats the last 10 to 15 years,” she said. “Well that’s not the way I remember the last 10 to 15 years. I don’t think it’s a better idea to privatize Social Security. I don’t think it’s a better idea to try to eliminate the minimum wage. . . . I don’t think it’s a better idea to shut down the government; to drive us into debt.” The campaign evidently thinks this moment of heresy from Obama is a big deal–they even hosted a conference call on the subject with Barney Frank this morning.

After speaking for 15 minutes, Clinton took questions from the gathering. She was reasonably tough on the question of illegal immigration, stressing border security, fines, the payment of back taxes, and the teaching of English to illegal immigrants who wanted citizenship. She stressed that she was not in favor of providing government health insurance to undocumented workers. In a question about healthcare, she also said that she wanted to explore alternatives to malpractice suits, which she said were a large problem.

Clinton mentioned foreign policy only twice. The first was by way of saying that the ending of the Iraq war would free up money to be spent domestically. The second was when she was asked, “In what role do you see former president Clinton being most effective in your administration?”

“I’m excited about the role my husband can play in repairing [our reputation abroad]” she said. “I think that my husband is incredibly popular around the world and his going there” would be very helpful. Translation: I’m going to get him out of Washington as often as possible.

All in all, Clinton gave a very good performance. She was actually quite commanding–demonstrating both a wonkish grasp of policy detail and an ability to explain her proposals with clarity.

We’ll see how much any of that matters in this Wild West caucus tomorrow afternoon.

Jonathan V. Last is a staff writer at The Weekly Standard.