2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumWere Hillary folk this upset when she left New Hampshire to go to Flint?
I don't remember it if they were. The timing and her comments did make it seem a little more opportunistic and a little less of a genuine move, but that didn't seem to upset them. There was, of course, the usual passive-aggressive snark that accompanied Hillary on her journey (and there's been no similar insulting snark from Bernie regarding his Vatican trip, as far as I know), but this didn't upset the Hillary folk.
http://gawker.com/unlike-bernie-hillary-went-to-flint-instead-of-snl-be-1757908194
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As she told The LA Times, Occasionally you go off the campaign trail. I know Sen. Sanders went to New York to be on SNL, and Im going to Flint to see if we can help with the kids. Thats part of it. But my commitment to this primary and to this state is absolutely rock solid.
The supposedly off-the-cuff remark sounds an awful lot like a premeditated jab meant to contrast her own, selfless use of human props against visions of Bernie off galavanting in New York City. Except that, if youll recall, Hillary was on SNL herself just over a month ago. A month ago!
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And there was, of course, the not too surprising fact that despite her elevated rhetoric, she had taken the side of industry when it came to banning a fuel additive that was polluting water supplies across the country (and there is no evident contradiction between the subject matter of the Vatican conference and Bernie's interests over the past several decades, as far as I know), but this didn't upset the Hillary folk, either.
http://www.ibtimes.com/political-capital/hillary-clinton-spotlighting-crisis-flint-michigan-voted-against-measure-prevent
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But despite that rhetoric, the issue of clean water may be politically perilous for the leading Democratic candidate, thanks to her vote against banning a possible carcinogen at the center of one of the largest water pollution scandals in recent history.
Facing reports that a controversial fuel additive was contaminating water supplies across America, Clinton as a senator in 2005 opposed a bipartisan measure to ban the chemical even though Bill Clintons Environmental Protection Agency had first proposed such a prohibition. At roughly the same time, one major company producing the chemical also tried to use provisions in a trade deal backed by Hillary Clinton to force local governments in the United States to let it continue selling the toxic compound.
Clintons campaign did not respond to International Business Times questions about her vote.
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So despite the obvious snark and the legislative contradictions, I don't remember the Hillary folk getting bent out of shape and posting thread after thread of criticism about the Flint trip. There were no threads from them like, "I'm taking bets to see if Hillary goes back to Flint after the Michigan primary," etc. What gives? Why is there such a different response to Sanders' trip to the Vatican?
WhiteTara
(29,721 posts)It seems that when one or the other candidate does something off script, the other side has a hay day out of it. I believe the term used for that excursion was "pandering"
Sheepshank
(12,504 posts)With an invitation that was story-fied into a holy moment of wonderfulness
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)The Penguin sent us. No, not that Penguin, the other Penguin.
Sheepshank
(12,504 posts)nichomachus
(12,754 posts)That should be interesting
Vinca
(50,300 posts)Her "leaving the campaign trail" seemed to be more of a photo op and chance to cut a nice political ad than anything else.
2pooped2pop
(5,420 posts)one or the other.
merrily
(45,251 posts)TheBlackAdder
(28,211 posts).
Granted, there is the paradox of being a world fracking promoter and someone complaining about drinking water, but help is help, and attention to the problem and a resolution is paramount. She gives the impression of being disingenuous, but at the same time she helped raise awareness, so it's a wash.
The fracking thing, I can't forgive. As a Food & Water Watch member, I am even more pissed because the plans are to poison our watersheds so that we can EXPORT the LNG to other countries, not even for domestic consumption.
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