Sunday: Breaking News…Holy Sh!t Thank Goddess It’s #Hillary2016 {Finally and about damn time too, open thread.}

Hot Damn & Yes Yes Yes!!!!!!

And the Lady is about to make it official.

From the Guardian:

Clinton: ‘I’m running for president’

I’ve got the https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton set on Twitter to notify, so when Hillary tweets, my cell phone will start screaming like a banshee!

The social links are as follows:

Tweets by @HillaryClinton

Her website:

 It just went live!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hillaryclinton.com

The Ready for Hillary Super PAC:

Ready For Hillary Clinton for President 2016

Ready For Hillary | Facebook

President Bill Clinton Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/billclinton

Chelsea’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/chelseaclinton

Live video feed of the announcement can be seen here:** I will put the link and/or feed here when it is available.

Live updates: Hillary Clinton to announce 2016 presidential campaign – live updates | US news | The Guardian

I thought we’d have a live blog of this tremendous occasion. My daughter is so proud that she is going to be able to cast her first vote evah for Hillary. I am fucking proud that I have raised a daughter who realizes the importance and significance that vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton really means.

Now for some links…

Updates can also be found here of course, Still4Hill | HILLARY CLINTON: MAKING FEMININITY PRESIDENTIAL!

Stories that hit the web last night and this morning:

President Obama: Hillary Clinton Would be an “Excellent President”

President Barack Obama on Saturday said Hillary Clinton would be “an excellent president” who would “have some strong messages to deliver” if she decides to run for the White House.

Obama made the comments a day before Clinton is expected to announce a presidential bid.

“She was a formidable candidate in 2008, she was a great supporter of mine in the general election, she was an outstanding secretary of state, she is my friend,” Obama said. “I think she would be an excellent president.”

Clinton lost the Democratic nomination to Obama in 2008. Obama made the comments on Saturday after a summit in Panama.

“The one thing I can say is, she’s going to be able to handle herself very well in any conversation or debates around foreign policy,” Obama said. “And her track record with respect to domestic policies is I think one that cares about working families.”

“If she decides to run and she makes an announcement, she’s going to have some strong messages to deliver,” Obama said.

A memo sent to Clinton’s staff by her soon-to-be campaign manager, Robby Mook, said her message will be “about the everyday Americans who are trying to build a better life for themselves and their families.”

Former Boss Gives Hillary Clinton a Good Reference – First Draft. Political News, Now. – NYTimes.com

Whether Mrs. Clinton would embrace Mr. Obama, whose approval rating is around 50 percent, or try to distance herself from him has been a persistent question as she been building her campaign apparatus. Republicans are hoping voters will choose a new direction.

Mrs. Clinton’s advisers say that she intends to praise the Obama administration for its economic progress while also promising a “new chapter” with policies aimed at stagnant wages and a squeezed middle class.

Hillary Clinton to Announce 2016 Run for President on Sunday – NYTimes.com

The prolonged prologue to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s second run for the White House will reach its suspenseless conclusion on Sunday: The former secretary of state, senator and first lady is to announce that she will indeed seek the Democratic nomination for president.

[…]

A fresh epilogue to Mrs. Clinton’s 2014 memoir, “Hard Choices,” posted on The Huffington Post Friday morning, signaled a number of elements of what is very likely to be a familiar feature of her campaign message: evoking her new status as a grandmother to talk about creating opportunities for all Americans.

“I’m more convinced than ever that our future in the 21st century depends on our ability to ensure that a child born in the hills of Appalachia or the Mississippi Delta or the Rio Grande Valley grows up with the same shot at success that Charlotte will,” Mrs. Clinton wrote, referring to her new granddaughter.

Mrs. Clinton will begin testing that and other themes in earnest beginning on Sunday and stretching through next week when she travels to Iowa and later this month to New Hampshire for a series of small-scale events where she can field questions and address the concerns of the voters her campaign calls “everyday Americans,” people made aware of her plans said.

You can read the whole epilogue here, but I’ve pick out a few paragraphs:

A New Chapter | Hillary Clinton

I was delighted to find that Charlotte’s birth seemed to strike a chord with a lot of Americans. Chelsea and I received letters and gifts from moms and grandmothers across the country – stuffed animals, tiny sweaters, hand-knitted socks and hats, even some baby-sized sports jerseys from various teams. One gift we treasured was “Charlotte’s Web,” the classic children’s book by E.B. White. As I’ve recently rediscovered, it’s a wonderful read. At one point, when the wise family doctor is asked what he makes of the mysterious messages in the spider web, he observes, “When the words appeared, everyone said they were a miracle. But nobody pointed out that the web itself is a miracle.” That’s how I’ve come to think about Charlotte (our Charlotte, not the spider.) Every day with a new child is a miracle. Her smallest gestures sweep me off my feet. And while I am completely convinced that Charlotte is far and away the most beautiful, smart, and accomplished infant anywhere, I also understand that the true miracle here is universal. That’s why so many other grandmothers have reached out to me. They all feel the same way I do. They’re just as proud of their little ones and they have just as many dreams for their futures.

I have always believed that every child should have the chance to live up to his or her God-given potential. That principle has animated my entire career, from my earliest days as a young attorney with the Children’s Defense Fund straight through to my service in the Senate and as Secretary of State. Now that I’m a grandmother, I believe it even more passionately. Unfortunately, too few of the children born in the United States and around the world today will grow up with the same opportunities as Charlotte. You shouldn’t have to be the granddaughter of a President or a Secretary of State to receive excellent health care, education, enrichment, and all the support and advantages that will one day lead to a good job and a successful life. That’s what we want for all our kids. And this isn’t just idealism. It’s a recipe for broadly-shared prosperity and a healthy democracy. The notion of equal opportunity has been at the heart of the American experiment since the very beginning. It’s part of what made the United States exceptional and it attracted generations of immigrants determined to work hard and provide their families with that same chance at success. I’m more convinced than ever that our future in the 21st century depends on our ability to ensure that a child born in the hills of Appalachia or the Mississippi Delta or the Rio Grande Valley grows up with the same shot at success that Charlotte will.

Becoming a grandmother has made me think deeply about the responsibility we all share as stewards of the world we inherit and will one day pass on. Rather than make me want to slow down, it has spurred me to speed up. As Margaret Mead said, children keep our imaginations fresh and our hearts young, and they drive us to work for a better future. I’ve also returned again and again to this question of universality – how much we all have in common even if the circumstances of our lives may be different. As you’ve seen throughout this book, one of the defining themes of my time as Secretary of State was our increasing global interdependence. Despite all the division and discord in the world, which sometimes can seem overwhelming, the basic fact of the 21st century is that we’re more connected than ever. If the United States continues to lead the world in the years ahead, as I believe it can and must, it will be because we have learned how to define the terms of our interdependence to promote more cooperation and shared prosperity and less conflict and inequality. As we’ve seen since the first edition of this book was published in June 2014, the negative side of interdependence remains potent — whether it was the spread of virulent new strands of extremism in the Middle East or old-style nationalism in Europe or a deadly epidemic in Africa. Our job is to build up the positive side. The United States and the other great democracies have to redouble our efforts to empower moderates and marginalize extremists everywhere, and to stand firmly and united in pursuit of a more just, free, and peaceful world. That’s the world I want for Charlotte and for all our kids.

Geez, I love this woman.

Clinton campaign memo: No drama this time – Annie Karni – POLITICO

During an hour-long meeting where bagels were served, Robby Mook, who will serve as campaign manager, distributed a mission statement to all aides in which he detailed the core values the campaign organization will be based on: diversity, discipline and humbleness, according to a Democratic operative who attended the meeting.

The memo can be seen as an attempt by Mook and senior staffers to set the campaign off on the right collaborative note — last time, Clinton’s operation was crippled by infighting and disagreement among the top aides.

“We are a team: we are committed to helping each other succeed to deliver on our core purpose,” the memo states. “We are a diverse, talented family: we work together, empower and respect each other, and have each other’s backs, especially our volunteers.”

Mook encouraged the group, many of whom arrived dressed in jeans on the first real Spring day of the year, to keep a copy of the bullet-pointed sheet on their desks, and pin it to their walls. The memo also reveals what appears to be the name of Clinton’s official committee: the title of the document obtained by POLITICO is “We are Hillary for America.”

Give this Nate Silver article a read, Clinton Begins The 2016 Campaign, And It’s A Toss-up | FiveThirtyEight

There’s already plenty of bad punditry regarding the chances of Hillary Clinton, who is expected to officially announce her candidacy on Sunday, to become the 45th president. You can find Democrats boasting about their “blue wall” in the Electoral College and how hard this will make it for any Republican to win. Or Republicans warning that the Democratic Party rarely wins three elections in a row.

Most of this analysis is flimsy. So is the commentary about the ups-and-downs in early swing state polls. And when you see some pundit declaring a minor misstep to be a “game changer,” find someone else to follow on Twitter.

The truth is that a general election with Clinton on the ballot — she’s very likely to become the Democratic nominee — is roughly a 50/50 proposition. And we’re not likely to learn a lot over the rest of 2015 to change that. Here’s why:

Silver is not predicting doom and gloom…at least. Interesting.

Why does Hillary Rodham Clinton want to be president? – The Washington Post

When Hillary Rodham Clinton arrives in Iowa next week as a candidate for president in 2016, every statement, gesture, laugh, outfit, facial expression and interaction with voters will be put under a microscope the likes of which few, if any, previous candidates have experienced.

Her every step will be analyzed for signs of change or continuity. Has she learned from her loss to then-candidate Barack Obama in the 2008 primaries? If so, what? Does she act entitled or hungry? Has she shifted on foreign policy issues since she was Obama’s secretary of state? Are her economic views the same as Obama’s or Bill Clinton’s or Elizabeth Warren’s? Does she appear to like campaigning or see it as a necessary duty to reach her ultimate goal? Is she rusty or sharp, chilly or warm? The list is endless.

[…]

Where Clinton’s candidacy is likely to rise or fall is on how the American people respond to her personally. She is a divisive and polarizing figure — not just because of her own history but because that is the nature of politics in this period of history. She can’t completely erase that, but her task will be to offer reassurances to voters who are at least open to her candidacy but who nonetheless have questions or reservations about who she really is.

This demands more than a biographical reintroduction for someone described as the least-known well-known woman in the world. She talked regularly in her first campaign about her own biography, her Midwestern roots, her mother and father and life in the Chicago suburbs and beyond.

She may do that again, but the questions voters have about her go beyond where she came from. Her initial trips will be watched for what she says and how she says it. Another measuring stick should be how well she listens and what she learns from the voters. Can she identify what people really want to know about her as a possible president and supply answers they find credible? That is the challenge as she starts the campaign.

The Twenty-Year Hillary Clinton Humanization Project – BuzzFeed News

….one summer morning in 1999, in upstate Elmira, N.Y., Carl and Cindy Hayden served their houseguest a light breakfast and a cup of Earl Grey tea — and asked if she’d mind participating in the family’s “little ritual,” marking her height on the kitchen wall, just as the Haydens’ children had done years ago.

Hillary Clinton, their overnight company, readily agreed.

When Cindy joked that Clinton was “cheating” by wearing heels, the couple couldn’t believe it as they watched the first lady, in their kitchen, laugh and kick off her shoes. And when Cindy went on, asking if her guest’s hair might also provide an extra inch or two, Clinton instantly patted it down flat.

“There were few of the trappings of royalty that one would assume would accompany a first lady,” said Carl Hayden, 74, who still remembers every detail from the night that Clinton stayed as their guest while campaigning for U.S. Senate.

The overnight stay was one of about an estimated 15 or 20 such visits with local Democrats, most of them in upstate New York, according to a former aide. The idea was straightforward: introduce those counties to Clinton, in a setting that best suited to her — with word spreading by mouth of the visit from neighbor to neighbor.

Hosts would typically receive a visit two days early from the Secret Service, who would vet the house — and on the afternoon of the overnight, Clinton would arrive, with just one or two aides who would stay over, too. (The Haydens put Clinton up in their bedroom, while they slept in his son’s twin bed.) Secret Service typically stayed in a hotel nearby, taking shifts outside the house and or in nearby parked cars.

When the campaign first pitched the idea of overnights, Clinton was resistant, two former staffers said. It sounded uncomfortable. Maybe awkward. She didn’t know if people would want her there. But she eventually relented. And after eight years in the White House, she got to be a normal guest: She cleared the table, stripped the bed. “We were all on pins and needles about how it would go,” said one of the aides.

“She loved it.”

[…]

Carl Hayden, Clinton’s host, had no doubt he saw the real Clinton that night in 1999.

“She was very down-home, very natural. You’d be surprised how comfortable the visit was — and how comfortable an individual she was,” said Hayden, who is active in local politics and served at the time as chancellor of the New York State Board of Regents.

Clinton engaged him a lengthy conversation on his porch about policy. “She let me prattle on when it was obvious that she knew about five, or 50 times, more about educational policies than I did.” Later, they went to a neighborhood bar for dinner. (“Nothing shi-shi.”) And at the end of the night, Hayden recalled, an aide carried up some “zonky-looking” equipment to his and Cindy’s bedroom — where Clinton was staying the night — so that before bed, she “was able to have confidential and coded” conversation with her husband, who happened to be in Bosnia at the time.

“When folks connect with her and she with them, it really has an impact,” Begala said.

He recalled a line Clinton used to repeat during the 1992 race about the conversations she’d have with voters: “‘I hear these people and their stories… It’s like a movie that plays in my head.’”

You can read the analysis at the link, I just liked the story.

Robert Reich: To win, Hillary needs to be honest that Wall Street is ‘still out of control’

’s a paradox.

Almost all the economic gains are still going to the top, leaving America’s vast middle class with stagnant wages and little or no job security. Two-thirds of Americans are working paycheck to paycheck.

Meanwhile, big money is taking over our democracy.

If there were ever a time for a bold Democratic voice on behalf of hardworking Americans, it is now.

Yet I don’t recall a time when the Democratic Party’s most prominent office holders sounded as meek. With the exception of Elizabeth Warren, they’re pussycats. If Paul Wellstone, Teddy Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, or Ann Richards were still with us, they’d be hollering.

The fire now is on the right, stoked by the Koch brothers, Rupert Murdoch, and a pocketful of hedge-fund billionaires.

Today’s Republican firebrands, beginning with Ted Cruz, blame the poor, blacks, Latinos, and immigrants for what’s been happening. They avoid any mention of wealth and power.

Which brings me to Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Some wonder about the strength of her values and ideals. I don’t. I’ve known her since she was 19 years old, and have no doubt where her heart is. For her entire career she’s been deeply committed to equal opportunity and upward mobility.

Some worry she’s been too compromised by big money – that the circle of wealthy donors she and her husband have cultivated over the years has dulled her sensitivity to the struggling middle class and poor.

But it’s wrong to assume great wealth, or even a social circle of the wealthy, is incompatible with a deep commitment to reform – as Teddy Roosevelt and his fifth-cousin Franklin clearly demonstrated.

The more relevant concern is Hillary Clinton’s willingness to fight.

Read the rest at the link.

Hillary Clinton faces months of hits from GOP, liberals – NY Daily News

This time she really is the inevitable candidate.

In 2008, Hillary Clinton held big, carefully staged rallies designed to create the impression of a juggernaut to the nomination. It didn’t work out that way.

As she prepares to announce Sunday, Clinton is hitting the reset button on her image and gearing up for the onslaught of ferocious attacks from the GOP.

After a rough month during which she faced bad headlines over her private emails and Clinton Foundation donations from foreign powers, Clinton is planning a carefully controlled rollout with small-scale events in early primary states.

[…]

She has assembled a fresh-faces campaign team — mostly younger staffers without the baggage of her infighting ’08 team.

Democrats believe that bodes well.

“They are very focused on staying focused. She has a team who knows what it takes to win,” said Democratic strategist and Clinton ally Hilary Rosen. “She will make it clear that choosing her over any of the GOP challengers is the best way to keep the country moving forward. In other words, they are going to stay engaged on what matters.”

“We are Hillary for America.”

This is a hells fucking yeah open thread!