Ill happily take 2nd place!

Great analysis

please add to the narrative any information you have. I am using these talking points to spread the word about HRC here in SC. The SC primary is 2/27, and my friends and I are aiming to educate as many people as possible about the real HRC.

She's got money, name recognition and endorsements, but people are amnestic about how nasty the Clinton campaign was toward Obama in 2008, and apparently take her at her word about her activism on their behalf. Now, it's more important than ever since the minority vote here is HUGE and the HRC surrogates and embedded media are trying to lay waste to Bernie's record on Civil Rights,

I don't concur with belittling her for being a woman "riding" men's "coattails."

That said, after hearing her tout her accomplishments as if they're greater than Bernie's, I've started asking people, ok, yeah, please tell me her accomplishments? I'm not being sarcastic; I'd genuinely like to know them.

The only answer I've gotten so far is the Clinton Foundation's work in Haiti . . . which isn't actually going very well, esp. considering the amount of money spent.

for that, but the truth is she has talked about her long record of leadership and experience and getting things done when 20 years of that was ONLY because she was the Governor's wife and the President's wife. She may at one time have thought of being a quasi Eleanor Roosevelt, and I would have lauded her (and perhaps been able to support her) if she truly had used her Bill-derived positions for Eleanor Roosevelt-like work. But that is not the case. It was and is about power for HER.

Another way to look at it is that I am making the distinction between a woman like Hillary and women who truly achieved their positions on their own: Elizabeth Warren, Barbara Jordan, Ann Richards... and used their positions for others.

I think I understand, and feel the same way to some degree. It's just that

1) lot of people of all sexes have ridden others' coat tails in whole or part; few people are 100% self-made;
2) that phrase HAS in the past been used ad nauseum in order to unfairly belittle and delegitimize women's accomplishments, much more so than men; and
3) especially for women in Hillary's generation, when discrimination was significantly more blatant than now, there were often darn few means other than coat tails for women to even access the opportunity to do anything of public importance.

And I think the overall question about Hillary's accomplishments can be made without leaning so heavily on the "coat tails" aspect.

No offense intended.

Let me just re-emphasize that I agree with the general question in that, regardless of how she came by her opportunities, what did she actually accomplish with them?

The things that make me respect Hillary the most are that she did manage some kind of legal career starting back when women lawyers were still almost as rare as hen's teeth, and the fact that she did fight for health care reform back when Bill was Pres.

That leaves open questions about her judgment as well as her effectiveness, however. Because if the main thing she tried to do that I like was something assigned to her by Bill, well, not only did she not accomplish it, but I'm not sure how much credit she should even get for good intentions.

And to the extent she has actually gotten anything DONE, I wonder how often it was what T.P.T.B. wanted done anyway? I.e., if while she was NY Senator, she got things done that Wall St. wanted, well, that's not like she had to actually win over meaningful opposition from the powerful; she was basically just their "water boy."

In short, in order for her boast about getting things done to carry any water for me, I need examples of what she's accomplished that was AGAINST the wishes of the 1%.

BTW, terrific post.

Great post!!!

I am black and female and almost as old as HRC, so I remember the "bad old days" with the double whammy of race and gender. So, I have been called all kinds of things and really don't care about accusations of sexism.

I just want to inform people, spread the word about HRC, and maximize a Bernie turnout here in SC on 2/27.

And every word is true.

Bravo! Or Brava. Whatever the case may be!

In 1978 and 1979, lawyer and First Lady of Arkansas Hillary Rodham engaged in a series of trades of cattle futures contracts. Her initial $1,000 investment had generated nearly $100,000 when she stopped trading after ten months. In 1994, after Hillary Rodham Clinton had become First Lady of the United States, the trading became the subject of considerable controversy regarding the likelihood of such a spectacular rate of return, possible conflict of interest, and allegations of disguised bribery,[1] allegations that Clinton strongly denied. There were no official investigations of the trading and Clinton was never charged with any wrongdoing.


$14,600 IRS tax and penalty :

Hillary later wrote that she educated herself about the market and followed it closely, winning and losing money.[3] By January 1979, she was up $26,000;[4] but later, she would lose $16,000 in a single trade.[4] At one point she owed in excess of $100,000 to Refco as part of covering losses, but no margin calls were made by Refco against her.[4] Near the end of the trading, Blair correctly sold short and gave her a $40,000 gain in one afternoon.[4] In July 1979,[1] once she became pregnant with Chelsea Clinton, "I lost my nerve for gambling [and] walked away from the table $100,000 ahead."[3] She briefly traded sugar futures contracts and other non-cattle commodities in October 1979, but more conservatively, through Stephens Inc.[4][7] During this period she made about $6,500 in gains (which she failed to pay taxes on at the time, consequently later paying some $14,600 in federal and state tax penalties in the 1990s).[7][8] Once her daughter was born in February 1980, she moved all her commodities gains into U.S. Treasury Bonds.[4]


As it happened, during the period of Rodham's trading, Refco was under investigation by the Mercantile Exchange for systematic violations of its margin trading rules and reporting requirements regarding cattle trading.[7][12] In December 1979, the exchange issued a three-year suspension to Bone and a $250,000 fine of Refco (at the time, the largest such penalty imposed by the exchange).[7][12]



These results are quite remarkable. Two-thirds of her trades showed a profit by the end of the day she made them and 80 percent were ultimately profitable. Many of her trades took place at or near the best prices of the day.
Only four explanations can account for these remarkable results. Blair may have been an exceptionally good trader. Hillary Clinton may have been exceptionally lucky. Blair may have been front-running other orders. Or Blair may have arranged to have a broker fraudulently assign trades to benefit Clinton's account.[17]



In a Fall 1994 paper for the Journal of Economics and Finance, economists from the University of North Florida and Auburn University investigated the odds of gaining a hundred-fold return in the cattle futures market during the period in question. Using a model that was stated to give the hypothetical investor the benefit of the doubt, they concluded that the odds of such a return happening were at best 1 in 31 trillion.[14]


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Rodham_cattle_futures_controversy

Thanks for this... Again, money and power is all HRC is about. I had forgotten about questionable and extraordinarily remarkable market gains!