Chad’s Morning Brief: Hillary Clinton is Running for President, Cruz and Perry Target Clinton, and Other Top Stories
Here is your Morning Brief for April 13, 2015.
Ready for Hillary?
Hillary Clinton announced yesterday that she is indeed running for President. The announcement, which came in the form of a web video, attempted to paint her as a champion of the people. According to the AP, Clinton's campaign is attempting to show that she is not taking the nomination for granted.
"So I'm hitting the road to earn your vote. Because it's your time. And I hope you'll join me on this journey," Clinton said at the end of a video, which features a series of men, women and children describing their aspirations.
This voter-centric approach was picked with a purpose, to show that Clinton is not taking the nomination for granted. Only after about a month of such events will Clinton will give a broader speech outlining more specifics about her rationale for running.
The former secretary of state, senator and first lady enters the race in a strong position to succeed her rival from the 2008 campaign, President Barack Obama.
Her message will focus on strengthening economic security for the middle class and expanding opportunities for working families. The campaign is portraying her as a "tenacious fighter" who can get results and work with Congress, business and world leaders.
Clinton's strategy, described ahead of the announcement by two senior advisers who requested anonymity to discuss her plans, has parallels to the approach Obama took in 2012. He framed his re-election as a choice between Democrats focused on the middle class and Republicans who sought to protect the wealthy and return to policies that led the country into recession.
You can watch Clinton's announcement video on KFYO. It's hard to imagine Clinton not winning the Democratic nomination but that doesn't mean she is without baggage. We will of course talk about her failed foreign policy, and deleted emails, and the circus that is the Clinton's during the show.
How Perry and Cruz Approach Clinton
According to the Texas Tribune, Ted Cruz and Rick Perry have taken different approaches when going after Hillary Clinton.
"Hillary Clinton represents the failed policies of the past and there’s going to be a very clear choice to make in 2016," Cruz said in a statement Sunday following Clinton's announcement. "Does America want a third Obama term or are we ready for strong conservative leadership to make America great again?
There's little daylight between Cruz and Perry on the substance of their arguments against a Clinton presidency. Both have denounced Clinton's time at the State Department as riddled with failures, from her efforts to "reset" the U.S.-Russia relationship to the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi. While Cruz routinely blasts the "Obama-Clinton foreign policy," Perry occasionally amends his diatribes against Obama's "feckless" foreign policy with a mention of Clinton's complicity. To varying degrees, they both have seemed to relish the prospect of Clinton's time at the State Department factoring prominently into the campaign, a tenure Democrats see as an asset and Republicans a liability.
"If she’s planning on running on her foreign policy record, that may be like Jerry Brown running on his economic record," Perry told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt last year, likening Clinton to the California governor who serves as his favorite punching bag.
Not a huge surprise here as Ted Cruz has been someone who doesn't hold back from speaking his mind. Cruz doesn't care what is politically correct, he says what he thinks. While that might not appear to be respectful, many Republican voters are just fine with that. As Patrick Svitek wrote in his piece, Perry's "respect" could come back to haunt him.
Sometimes Perry prefaces his Clinton critique with a note of respect. On multiple occasions, he has expressed admiration for her decades of public service before questioning her foreign policy resume. And in June 2014, he commended her as a "very, very capable public servant, great secretary of state, first lady," according to the Los Angeles Times.
In the heat of a Republican primary, those words could haunt him. Democrats have already made clear they plan to use Perry's past praise for Clinton against him. A book circulated in December by the opposition research group American Bridge flagged a 1993 letter Perry — then Texas' agriculture commissioner — wrote to Clinton calling the first lady's health care reform efforts "most commendable."
At the end of the day, I don't think either Perry or Cruz will have any trouble taking it to Clinton if of them becomes the Republican nominee.
Other Must Read Links:
These and many more topics coming up on today’s edition of The Chad Hasty Show. Tune in mornings 8:30-11am on News/Talk 790 KFYO, streaming online at kfyo.com, and now on your iPhone and Android device with the radioPup App. All guest interviews can be heard on our KFYO YouTube page after the show and online at kfyo.com.
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