Correct The Record Sunday September 21, 2014 Roundup
Correct The Record Sunday September 21, 2014 Roundup:
Headlines:
Los Angeles Times: “Hinting at 2016, Hillary Clinton focuses on humanizing her image”
“With Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2016 presidential run looking like a foregone conclusion, the question now is whether she has a message.”
The Hill: “Five key Hillary Clinton players to watch”
“With the speculation of another Clinton bid for the presidency rising to a boil, The Hill looks at five insiders who promise to play a big role in the would-be campaign.”
The Hill blog: Ballot Box: “Harkin: 2016 'weighing heavily' on Hillary”
“Retiring Sen. Tom Harkin doesn’t know if Hillary Clinton will run for president in 2016.”
CBS News: “Rand Paul not waiting for 2016 to take on Hillary Clinton”
“Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, isn't waiting until the 2016 election to formally kick off to start tearing into Hillary Clinton, the most prominent face among Democrats who might seek the nomination.”
Hindustan Times: “Eye on future? Modi to meet Hillary and Bill Clinton in New York”
“They are scheduled to meet in New York, where Modi will be from September 26 to 29 for the UN general assembly. And the Clintons live in Chappaqua, near New York City.”
CNN: “Bill Clinton on Fareed Zakaria GPS”
[Pres. Clinton, on Sec. Clinton’s argument to arm the Syrian rebels] “It was a - an argument she lost within the administration and she admitted then and acknowledged in her book that she can't know that if her recommendation had been followed, it would have worked.”
Associated Press: “2016 May Loom, But Jeb Bush Is Focused on Business”
“A Republican establishment favorite, Bush is chairman of a Florida-based private equity and business advisory group, and is a managing partner of at least eight other separate companies that dabble in ventures ranging from privatized emergency response to real estate to driverless cars, according to state and federal records.”
Articles:
Los Angeles Times: “Hinting at 2016, Hillary Clinton focuses on humanizing her image”
By Maeve Reston
September 20, 2014, 8:31 p.m. EDT
With Hillary Rodham Clinton's 2016 presidential run looking like a foregone conclusion, the question now is whether she has a message.
Fresh off a visit to Iowa and two events last week in Washington where she sought to reconnect with female voters, Clinton has sounded increasingly like a candidate. She hints at her presidential ambitions with wink-and-a-nod asides like the one in Iowa: "It is true, I'm thinking about it."
Yet in framing what she described Friday as her "long career of fighting for women, and children, and fairness, and equality, and justice," Clinton has nearly mastered the art of avoiding controversy, offering dry speeches and a pitch that seems intended to be inoffensive.
Rather than staking out attention-grabbing positions or wading into policy debates, Clinton seems focused on humanizing an image that has suffered in the past from accusations of brittleness. She rarely misses an opportunity to suggest that her soon-to-arrive grandchild is inspiring her to take another look at politics.
"I've been thinking a lot about family, because, you know, I'm on grandbaby watch," she wryly told a mostly female audience at a Democratic conference Friday.
"We will certainly do everything possible to prepare this child, protect this child. But I want that for everybody's child, and everybody's grandchild." Pivoting into what began to sound like a campaign speech, she added: "I want every one of our children to feel that they are inheriting the best of America ... that this country is on your side; that this country will give you the fighting chance, the fair shot you deserve."
Those sorts of gauzy statements have become Clinton's hallmark this year.
The former secretary of State has said little, for example, about the president's controversial strategy for defeating Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria — or where she might draw the line on the mission of U.S. troops, a fraught issue after her Senate vote authorizing the use of force in Iraq in October 2002 complicated her last presidential campaign.
Her recent speech on energy policy avoided hot-button topics like the Keystone pipeline and was largely devoid of any new policy prescriptions: "Good ideas are everywhere you look," she said in one typical line. "Imagine what we can do as a country if we all roll up our sleeves and get to work."
When confronted by an activist on the rope line in Iowa about whether she agreed with President Obama's decision to delay until after the election his promised executive action on immigration, she deliberately sidestepped the issue before moving on: "I think we need to elect more Democrats," she crisply told the young woman, who identified herself to Clinton as "a Dreamer," brought to the U.S. illegally as a child.
So far, Clinton's lack of specificity has made it difficult to discern what distinct argument she would make for her candidacy. A potential rival from the left, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who recently published her book "A Fighting Chance," cuts a sharp contrast with Clinton in that sense — she is succinct as she rails against banks and Wall Street for "cheating families."
Warren, who so far has insisted she will not run for president, brought cheering activists to their feet in Detroit this summer with an impassioned, populist speech declaring that "the game is rigged" against working Americans: "If we push back against the biggest, strongest, most ruthless lobbying effort in the country," Warren said of big banks, "if we push back hard, we can win."
Clinton drew a more muted response with her somewhat meandering speech at Iowa Sen. Tom Harkin's annual steak fry last weekend, which seemed to pull threads from her husband's presidential campaigns in 1992 and 1996 — dusting off his signature line about championing Americans who "work hard and play by the rules," and worry that their children will be worse off than they were.
The one area where Clinton has been most visibly passionate — throughout her career and now as she ponders another bid to be the first woman president — has been her advocacy for the rights of women and girls around the world. That subject will be showcased at the Clinton Global Initiative gathering, which begins Sunday night in New York.
When she was introduced this week by Harkin and Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wassermann Schultz, both recalled Clinton's groundbreaking 1995 speech at a women's conference in Beijing, in which she declared, "Let it be that human rights are women's rights, and women's rights are human rights, once and for all."
Clinton closed her 2008 presidential candidacy with a concession speech that played on her historic effort, saying that although she and her team "weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time… it's got about 18 million cracks in it."
As a potential reprise nears, Clinton seems to be attempting to expand that mantra from breaking barriers herself to her desire to create greater security for the middle class through initiatives such as raising the minimum wage, expanding access to childcare and ensuring that women and men are paid equally.
"We talk about a glass ceiling," she said during a panel Thursday at the Center for American Progress. "These women don't even have a secure floor under them."
By the next day, at the Democratic gathering in Washington, she had sharpened the line: "No wonder so many families are hurting today. For too many women, for too many families, they don't just face ceilings on their dreams — it feels to them as though the floor has collapsed beneath their feet."
"These aren't just women's issues, they are family issues," she added. "They are American issues, and they hold back our entire economy."
It seemed to be the seed of a 2016 message.
The Hill: “Five key Hillary Clinton players to watch”
By Amie Parnes
September 21, 2014, 7:00 a.m. EDT
Hillary Clinton is known for having perhaps the most loyal inner circle in politics, sometimes loyal to a fault.
With the speculation of another Clinton bid for the presidency rising to a boil, The Hill looks at five insiders who promise to play a big role in the would-be campaign.
Cheryl Mills
Perhaps the most trusted aide in Hillaryland, Mills served as chief of staff and counselor during Clinton's tenure at the State Department, handling everything from personnel matters to management and operations at Foggy Bottom.
The Stanford University Law graduate is close to both Clintons, having defended the former president during his impeachment trial and remaining close in recent years. But more than anything, Mills is known as a straight shooter, something the former first couple values.
Those familiar with the Clinton operation say that if there's anyone who get the wheels greased in the lead-up to a potential presidential bid for Clinton, it will be Mills.
“She holds the keys the castle,” one former Hillary aide said. “If there's one singular go-to for the Secretary, she's the one.”
Minyon Moore
A senior adviser to Hillary Clinton during her 2008 run, expect Moore to play an even bigger role in a second campaign.
While she now works as a strategist at Dewey Square Group in Washington, she has a constant and direct line of communication with the former secretary of State on both professional and personal matters.
Like Mills, Moore also has long-running ties to the former first couple. She served in the Clinton White House as assistant to the President and director of White House Office of Political Affairs as well as the White House public liaison director.
Moore doesn't have an outsized personality, and prefers to stay behind the scenes more often than not. But those inside the operation say Moore would have a role in piecing together the initial phases of a campaign.
“In terms of inner circle, Minyon easily falls into that pot,” a second former Hillary aide said. “She's always been fiercely loyal to both the president and the secretary. And I wouldn't expect that to change ever.”
Jake Sullivan
A relative newcomer to Hillaryland in 2007, Sullivan helped Clinton prepare for the Democratic primary debates, serving as an adviser for all-things policy.
But when she entered the State Department, the Minnesota native became her all-purpose senior aide where he not only ran Clinton’s Policy and Planning shop, but also dealt with communications and personnel issues.
When Clinton traveled to 112 countries as Secretary of State, Sullivan was constantly at her side. So it only made sense that when Clinton left Foggy Bottom, he was instantly snatched up by the White House, where he served as Vice President Biden's national security adviser.
Sullivan left the White House recently to teach at Yale Law School this fall. But, Clinton insiders expect him to return if a Clinton campaign begins.
Hillary Clinton thinks Sullivan has chops for his own White House run one day, as she told a crowd in 2012.
“I told my husband about this incredibly bright rising star — Rhodes Scholar, Yale Law School — and my husband said, ‘Well, if he ever learns to play the saxophone, watch out,’” she said.
Maura Pally
When Hillary Clinton officially joined the Clinton Foundation in 2013, one of her first hires was Pally, who would serve as the executive director for her office at the Clinton Foundation.
Since then, Pally has run many of Clinton's initiatives and projects including 'No Ceilings,' focused on Women and Girls, and Too Small to Fail, an initiative helping the health of young children.
Pally, like other Hillarylanders, began in the Clinton White House serving as a special assistant in the counsel’s office. She would go on to serve as deputy counsel during Hillary’s 2008 presidential run.
“She is probably one of the most capable people on staff,” said one Clinton insider. “There is nothing Maura can't do. I think the secretary is well aware of that.”
Dan Schwerin
Among the youngest staffers on Team Clinton, Schwerin, an early thirty-something, got his start in Hillary's Senate office, serving as a press aide.
He went on to work on the 2008 presidential campaign before landing at the State Department as a speechwriter to Clinton.
But Schwerin, who has inarguably spent more time with Clinton than any other aide this year, had perhaps his biggest task ahead of him when he helped Clinton pen her tome Hard Choices, which was released earlier this summer.
Clinton insiders expect that will be just the beginning of Schwerin's trajectory up the Clinton ladder.
The Hill blog: Ballot Box: “Harkin: 2016 'weighing heavily' on Hillary”
By Scott Wong
September 20, 2014, 12:48 p.m. EDT
Retiring Sen. Tom Harkin doesn’t know if Hillary Clinton will run for president in 2016.
The Iowa Democrat said the decision is “weighing heavily" on Clinton, who has “more chapters” to write in her book.
His remarks Friday during an interview with Iowa Public Television, come nearly a week after Bill and Hillary Clinton headlined his final steak fry in Indianola, Iowa, fueling presidential talk in the first-in-the-nation caucus state.
Before taking the stage at the event — Harkin, who’s spent nearly 40 years in Congress, — said Hillary's eyes lit up when she watched him play with his grandchildren. The longtime senator asked Clinton, a soon-to-be grandmother, to take a photograph with his entire clan in a shed at the annual event.
“And she just wistfully said to me, ‘It just looks so wonderful,’ she said, ‘because now I'm going to have grandchildren,’” Harkin explained.
“And I've got to think it weighs heavy,” he continued. “I mean, she has been first lady of Arkansas, first lady of the United States, U.S. senator, secretary of State, that's a lot of public service. And if you're going to run for President that's a ten year commitment.”
Harkin, who lost to Bill Clinton in the 1992 Democratic presidential primary, said he doesn’t believe Hillary has already decided to run.
“People say, ‘Oh, she has already made the decision.’ I don't think so,” Harkin said. “I think this is weighing heavily on her. I wouldn't be surprised if she went one way or the other.”
Bill and Hillary Clinton’s only daughter, Chelsea, announced her pregnancy last spring and is due to give birth sometime in the fall.
CBS News: “Rand Paul not waiting for 2016 to take on Hillary Clinton”
By Rebecca Kaplan
September 21, 2014, 10:16 a.m. EDT
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, isn't waiting until the 2016 election to formally kick off to start tearing into Hillary Clinton, the most prominent face among Democrats who might seek the nomination.
Referencing a 2008 primary ad in which Clinton suggested then-candidate Barack Obama will not prepared to handle a major overnight crisis as president, Paul suggested the former secretary of state had proven herself incapable of doing so either.
"I think she had a 3 a.m. moment. She didn't answer the phone, and I think it absolutely should preclude her from being [president]," he said at the California Republican convention, where he was speaking Saturday, according to the L.A. Times. Paul had just described Clinton's actions in the lead up to the 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi, Libya, which Paul offered as proof of her failure.
Paul also lit into President Obama, an unsurprising choice of target given the president's low approval ratings which threatens to drag down Democrats during the midterm elections.
The Kentucky Republican pointed to the Affordable Care Act and Mr. Obama's initial plans to take unilateral action on immigration (which was ultimately delayed until after the November elections) to argue that he was running roughshod over the Constitution.
"It is a terrible tragedy, it is a danger to us as a country, and we need to do everything we can to stop him from abusing our laws," Paul said. Later, he added, "We have a president who basically has created a lawless atmosphere in Washington."
Though the midterm elections are less than two months away, Paul did not use the speech to fire up California Republicans about this year's candidates. Instead he focused mostly on laying out his own priorities for the GOP.
"When our party looks like America -- with earrings and without earrings, with ponytails and without ponytails, with tattoos and without tattoos -- when we look like the rest of America -- white, black, brown -- we're going to win again," Paul said as he argued that his party needs to expand its appeal to win in places like California again after decades of losing. "We've got to go out and we've got to broaden our party, and when we do, we'll be a national party again. We will win again."
Hindustan Times: “Eye on future? Modi to meet Hillary and Bill Clinton in New York”
By Yashwant Raj
September 21, 2014, 18:22 IST
Among Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s many meetings during his coming visit to the US, the one with the most profound implications for the future will be with the Clintons.
Modi will meet former president Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, who is expected to run for the White House in 2016, and win, according to polls.
They are scheduled to meet in New York, where Modi will be from September 26 to 29 for the UN general assembly. And the Clintons live in Chappaqua, near New York city.
No other details were available of the meeting except, according to multiple sources in New York and New Delhi, that the prime ministe will receive the couple in his hotel.
From all accounts, Modi has never met either of the Clintons before, despite the fact that they travel to India frequently — Hillary Clinton was there just this past July.
So was the former president, separately, in connection with a project run by his foundation in Jaipur. He has been a regular, since his first visit as president in 2000.
And they have both said they have been impressed by Modi, for their own reasons. The former president, who is something of a policy wonk, liked the prime minister’s economic policies.
And the former secretary of state has said she was impressed — no prizes for guessing — by Modi’s foreign policy savvy in inviting SAARC leaders to his inauguration.
To put their meeting in perspective, Modi doesn’t have any other past presidents on his schedule — and there are three, George H Bush, Jimmy Carter and George W Bush — so far.
But he is certainly meeting another Presidential hopeful, vice president Joe Biden, who is hosting a state lunch for the visiting prime minister in Washington DC.
It couldn’t be confirmed if the prime minister was meeting any of the Republicans contemplating a run for the White House — it’s a crowded and unclear field right now.
In September 2000, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was in New York for the UN general assembly, spoke with then Republican candidate George W Bush over phone.
The meeting with the Clintons will be special thus.
President Clinton is widely credited with setting the foundation for new relations between the two countries, which were largely on opposite sides during much of the Cold War.
He intervened during the Kargil War by forcing Pakistan to back off, and followed it up with a successful visit to India in 2000, with a rockstar reception in Parliament.
But key to this meeting, said sources, will be Secretary Clinton, who has not announced she is running, but she will most likely, according to her supporters, rivals and most political hacks.
They felt further convinced recently when she and her husband attended a Democratic party event in Iowa, where Barack Obama beat her in the 2008 primaries and turned the race.
CNN: “Bill Clinton on Fareed Zakaria GPS”
[No Writer Mentioned]
September 21, 2014, 11:10 a.m. EDT
CNN’s FAREED ZAKARIA GPS features an interview with Bill Clinton. As former U.S. President Bill Clinton prepares for the 2014 annual meetings of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City, Fareed Zakaria spoke with him about the recent plans announced by President Barack Obama on the U.S. contributions to the Ebola outbreak in Africa, and what he feels the U.S. should do about the terrorist group ISIS.
TEXT EXCERPT
Clinton on Syria: “I supported two years ago the proposal that Hillary and Secretary Panetta and then CIA director, General Petraeus, made to give more robust armed support to the Syrians. But I well understood why the president was reluctant to do it because, as you see in Libya, there’s still lots of militia groups there who like America.”
Clinton on the fight against ISIS in Iraq: "the Iraqi government is now more inclusive than it has been since the fall of Saddam Hussein. And that seems to be awakening, if you will, the willingness of the Sunni tribal leaders to participate in fighting. We know the Kurds and the Peshmerga are willing to fight. If we can help them and support them, I think the larger fight against ISIS can continue as it should – as a local struggle for the freedom and liberty of the people"
Clinton on Russian expansion into Ukraine: "President Yeltsin, in return for Ukraine getting rid of all of its nuclear weapons and sending them to Russia, signed an agreement with me and the then president of Ukraine saying that Russia would always respect Ukraine's territorial integrity. President Putin said it was an agreement, not a treaty, therefore I'm not bound by it. I just think it's a bum rap that expanding NATO caused all this. You know, that - you made me invade Georgia and you made me invade Ukraine because they were the only two countries on my border that weren't part of NATO? I mean come on, it just - it's not a credible thing."
A full transcript of the interview is available after the jump.
FULL INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED
FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST, CNN GPS: On Friday, I sat down with Bill Clinton at his offices in Harlem. He's in an interesting place in life. Almost 14 years after leaving the White House, he has settled in to a new way of effecting change around the world. His Clinton Global Initiative will hold its 10th annual meeting next week. The organization claims that in those 10 years they have improved the lives of 430 million people in 180 countries. He's also set to soon become a grandfather. We'll get to all of those matters later in the show, but first I wanted to ask him about the stories that are atop the news.
ZAKARIA: President Clinton thank you so much for joining us.
BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Glad to do it.
ZAKARIA: So I've got to ask you about ISIS. I saw you on "The Daily Show" say that you thought we had to respond to these brutal executions of Americans. But I want to press you. Isn't that what ISIS wants? Isn't –wasn’t the purpose of the executions to bait us?
CLINTON: No. But there's a difference in, for example, using targeted drones and airstrikes as we did against al Qaeda effectively for years to try to take down their leadership and infrastructure and let them know they can't just decapitate people for the cheap thrill of the global media response and horrifying people and get away with it and getting bogged down in the kind of war they would like us to get bogged down in that would cost us a lot of lives and a lot of treasure and inevitably lead to greater civilian casualties, which is why I think the president's strategy has a chance of succeeding, because the Iraqi government is now more inclusive than it has been since the fall of Saddam Hussein and that seems to be awakening, if you will, the willingness of the Sunni tribal leaders to participate in fighting. We know the Kurds and the Peshmerga are willing to fight. If we can help them and support them, I think the larger fight against ISIS can continue as it should as a local struggle for the freedom and liberty of the people.
ZAKARIA: You talked about the Iraq part of the strategy, which strikes - you're right, it's - it's viable. There's an Iraqi Army that could be better - made more effective if there were fewer loyalists and more professional officers in it and more inclusive. There are the Kurdish forces. The Syria part is the real puzzle.
CLINTON: It's much harder.
ZAKARIA: This is fierce civil war in which the stakes are very high. Generally moderates don’t do well in those circumstances. Turks have been trying to stand up moderate Syrians for a long time. How do you think we should handle it?
CLINTON: Well, I support giving the forces that we most closely identify with greater capacity to fight ISIS. The whole question about the Syrian government is really academic, between the Iranians and the Russians and others, they'll give them enough money and military capacity to do what they have to do.
ZAKARIA: So do you think Assad is going to stay?
CLINTON: I don't know. But I think that the worst enemy right now is ISIS. And I don't think we should be in a position of directly coordinating with or cooperating with Assad, but I think we all recognize what would happen if ISIS had like a monster like state that included most of Syria and Iraq. And - but I don't - I think, therefore, that when the president said we'd cooperate with the moderate Syrian forces, they're the only people we have to try to empower there, to do their part in this struggle.
ZAKARIA: Do you agree with the former secretary of State, who said that perhaps if we had helped them three years earlier, it might have been - it might have had or would this - would those funds and arms have ended up with ISIS?
CLINTON: I agree with her and I would have taken the chance. I also agree with her when she said we can't know whether it would have worked or not. And that's why you have to be careful when you make these commitments, because you can't know. But since ISIS has plenty of money, is one of the great bank robbers in human history, among other things, they were going to get their weapons one way or the other. So I would risk it. And besides, when we were talking about doing it, there was no ISIS. However, it was a - an argument she lost within the administration and she admitted then and acknowledged in her book that she can't know that if her recommendation had been followed, it would have worked. That's one of those things you can't know. This - that's why all of these decisions are hard.
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ZAKARIA: Next on GPS, much more with Bill Clinton. Russia, Ukraine and the West, and much more.
ZAKARIA: Back now on this special edition of GPS, more of my interview with Bill Clinton.
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ZAKARIA: Ukrainian officials - high Ukrainian officials have said that Russia, in effect, invaded Ukraine over the last month, that somewhere between 3,000 and 10,000 Russian soldiers crossed the border. Do you think we should call this an invasion and act in a way, in a sense appropriately?
CLINTON: Well, really, there's no question they invaded Ukraine. And there's no question what Mr. Putin has tried to do. They've also armed the Eastern Ukrainians, as they've done all those things. But I think Ukraine elected a very prudent and strong president. He's trying to negotiate an end to this that enables them to have a relationship with Russia without paralyzing their turn to Europe and their attempt to reap the economic and political benefits that would entail. And I think the United States should support building Ukraine's capacity to defend itself, but even more importantly, we should be doing what we can, including groups like our Global Initiative, to help them succeed economically, to reward their choice to be free and independent. I think it's very important that the world not buy the propaganda that is going over the Russian media that Ukrainians wanted to have an adversarial relationship with Russia. That's simply not true. All they wanted to do was to have a good relationship with Russia and a good relationship with Europe and the West and be a bridge between the two. Why he doesn't want that remains something of a mystery to me. I mean I think he's got an outdated view of how to get more influence and accumulate more wealth. But the - he's in these negotiations now and I think those of us who are outside it should not complicate his job by saying too much until we see what he can negotiate.
ZAKARIA: You know, a lot of Russians, including Mr. Putin, blame you, in a sense. They say NATO expanded, we were told NATO wouldn't expand, they expanded very close to our borders. Then the Clinton administration, intervened in Kosovo, over our objections. So they argue that you pushed out so now don't be surprised that you get a backlash.
CLINTON: If you can find one Polish citizen who agrees, I'll be glad to take that seriously. I mean, look, first of all, I never told them NATO wouldn't expand. I ran for president advocating the expansion of NATO in 1992. And I had a conversation with Boris Yeltsin, whom I respected very much and who was a much better president than he got credit for, as we all now see. And I said, look, I don't think you're going to invade Eastern Europe, but you're not going to be there forever. President Yeltsin, in return for Ukraine getting rid of all of its nuclear weapons and sending them to Russia, signed an agreement with me and the then president of Ukraine saying that Russia would always respect Ukraine's territorial integrity. President Putin said it was an agreement, not a treaty, therefore I'm not bound by it. I just think it's a bum rap that expanding NATO caused all this. You know, that - you made me invade Georgia and you made me invade Ukraine because they were the only two countries on my border that weren't part of NATO? I mean come on, it just - it's not a credible thing
ZAKARIA: Coming up in a moment, more Bill Clinton. If Hillary Clinton were to run and win, what would life be like as the "first man"? I'll ask him to consider.
ZAKARIA: Welcome back to GPS. Here's more of my interview with Bill Clinton, 42nd president of the United States and Founder of the Clinton Foundation. One of the foundation's main projects is the Clinton Global Initiative which brings together world leaders, business leaders, philanthropists and non-profits, to work on solving what it calls "the world's most pressing challenges". Next week, the power-packed group will hold its 10th annual meeting.
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ZAKARIA: Let me start with something that really affects The Clinton Foundation and The Clinton Global Initiative. You worked a lot on issues like disease and disease prevention. What lesson do you think we should draw from this outbreak of Ebola and the speed and kind of pace with which its spread? When you look at it, what is it that you - you can tell us about maybe the potential for pandemics or - or anything?
CLINTON: Well, first, like anybody else who's involved, we have a big presence in Liberia and three of our people, our top people, have stayed in Liberia to help organize the response. So we've all got to figure out, you know, how to coordinate it better. We're going to have a special session on it at CGI. But the lesson we should draw, the lessons are twofold. One is we have to do a much better job in building the health care infrastructure in these countries. We have to increase their capacity, including the capacity to have community health workers go out in these villages and have credibility with people. You know, this tragic story of the health workers being killed in Guinea, it's just terrible. But if we have more capacity, we can deal with it quicker. So that’s the first thing. The second thing is we're going to have to get quicker and nimbler at developing biomedical responses, you know, the vaccines or whatever or cures. And the third thing is the wealthy countries have got to reexamine how we fund the World Health Organization, because I think they do a marvelous job. But increasingly, as development ministries get more expertise in given areas, they want to fund specific projects in specific countries. And it's clear that the World Health Organization needs a pot of money that can be mobilized in a hurry for emergencies while we wait for the inevitable time delay when America and the U.K. and France and Scandinavia, we all kick in money.
ZAKARIA: I've got to ask you about some politics, are the Democrats going to hold the senate?
CLINTON: I think so, but it's going to be close. And it depends frankly on whether we can continue to match the money provided by all these outside groups. I think the Koch brothers are going to spend about $300 million in the last couple of months. And it depends on who turns out. We have got somehow, sooner or later, to convince the people that vote in presidential elections for our side they have to vote in the Congressional elections. And if they don't, they can't complain when they lose governorships, state legislators and members of Congress and the senators who happen to be up in that year. We've got a lot more senators up this year than the Republicans do. And we have them up in states that President Obama did not carry in 2012. But they're running great campaigns and we seem to be doing reasonably well. But it - if you look at all these polls, which are all over the place, they're all accurate - that is the real question in polling today is the sample you pick based on who you think will vote. And the question - the answer to that is, no one knows. So if we can get our turnout up, we'll be fine and they'll hold the Senate.
ZAKARIA: Along those lines, when I talk to Democratic grassroots activists, the one person who energizes them is Elizabeth Warren. Do you think she's the future of the Democratic Party?
CLINTON: I think she's an important part of it. And I think the American people are - the Democrats, at least - are worried about people having an equal shot at prosperity. And, you know, when I was president, I’ve told you this before - one of the things I was most proud of is we moved 100 times as many people from poverty into the middle class as moved under President Reagan. The bottom 20 percent (INAUDIBLE) increased 23.6 percent, the top 20 percent increased 20.5 percent. And everybody else in the middle did better than they did in the Reagan years. You had to have more broad-based prosperity. So I think anybody who's arguing for that is going to find a receptive ear in the American electorate, not just among Democrats. I mean we - we're going to have a vote in my native state of Arkansas in raising the minimum wage and I'll be surprised if we don't get a majority of Republicans to vote for it, even though their politicians are, by and large, against it.
ZAKARIA: There are certain circumstances in - in the next presidential election that might produce a very unusual outcome. And I'm wondering have you given any thought to what it would be like to be back in the White House in a different role?
CLINTON: No. No, I haven't. I think that in general, if you're a spouse, you ought to support. If you're a former president, you ought to do whatever the current president asks you to do, if you can do it in good conscience. But I have given it no thought beyond that. I - this is my life now, this foundation. And I have poured my heart into it for 14 years and this is our tenth annual Clinton Global Initiative. We've raised, you know, $80 billion and helped 400 million people plus in 180 countries. It's my life now. And I do politics at election time if they want me for people I believe in I think I can help. But otherwise, I'm happy doing what I'm doing and if that's what I'm asked to me, I'd be happy as a clam if that were the case, too. I'll do whatever I'm asked to do.
ZAKARIA: And do you have any specific thoughts about being a grandfather?
CLINTON: Yes, I can't wait. And I'm - we're on watch now. I hope by the first of October, I'll be a grandfather. I - I...
ZAKARIA: Do - do you care if it is a boy or a girl?
CLINTON: No. And I don’t know.
ZAKARIA: Do you really not know?
CLINTON: No, no. And there are - my daughter and son-in-law decided not to know. They want to be surprised. So we're all just sitting around waiting.
ZAKARIA: Mr. President, we usually have an end segment where I recommend a book of the week. We are blowing it out all for you, so I'm giving you the last word, which is what book would you recommend? You're a voracious reader. You've read stuff. If you were to tell our readers what should they read?
CLINTON: If you'll give me two.
ZAKARIA: Sure.
CLINTON: First, I'd like readers to read "Abundance," the Peter Diamandis book with his coauthor, because if they did that, they would see that while the headlines are really bad in the world today, the trend lines are pretty good. Extreme poverty is down. The health care is improving dramatically around the world. There are developments now which make me believe we might be able to do what we did in the 90s which is to use technological developments to create more jobs than we lose. For the last few months, for the first time in literally more than a decade, 40 percent of the new jobs have been in higher wage categories. I think people should read this and get some good ideas. The other book is "The Social Conquest of Earth" by E.O. Wilson.
ZAKARIA: Yes.
CLINTON: He's a Nobel Prize winning microbiologist, but he writes as best he can from all the known evidence about the history of life on Earth from single-cells organisms to the present day. The reason I would like them to read that is that he said if you look at all the species that have ever lived on Planet Earth, the most successful were ants, termites, bees and people. Why? Because they're the greatest cooperators. And even - and I saw the other day a story about how there are 25,000 species of spiders on Earth and for reasons nobody understands, a couple of dozen of them have started cooperating and they build stronger, better webs. Cooperation will save the future. And America should lead it. Every time humanity has been in danger of extinguishing itself, our consciousness and our conscience have led us to come together. That's the big issue of the 21st century. That's the great fight of the next 25 years.
ZAKARIA: So Congress should learn from spiders, that - that's…
(LAUGHTER)
CLINTON: They will - I spent a lot of time with spiders in my early life. I just think, you know, the - "The Constitution" could be subtitled, "Let's Make A Deal." The founders understood it. We need to remember it.
ZAKARIA: Bill Clinton, a pleasure to have you on Mr. President.
CLINTON: Thank you.
Associated Press: “2016 May Loom, But Jeb Bush Is Focused on Business”
By Michael J. Mishak and Steve Peoples
September 20, 2014, 10:41 a.m. EDT
CORAL GABLES, Fla. (AP) — While other Republicans considering the 2016 presidential race are openly laying the foundations of potential campaigns, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is busy tending to a growing personal business empire.
It's a break in style from recent candidates who distanced themselves from the sometimes politically risky business of making money before running.
A Republican establishment favorite, Bush is chairman of a Florida-based private equity and business advisory group, and is a managing partner of at least eight other separate companies that dabble in ventures ranging from privatized emergency response to real estate to driverless cars, according to state and federal records.
In the past three years, regulatory filings show that he and his partners at the private equity firm, Britton Hill Holdings, have branched out into nearly a dozen different investment entities and raised at least $66.4 million from domestic and foreign investors. That includes several million this past April from a group that included a privately owned Chinese conglomerate, a deal first reported by Bloomberg.
Bush says he will make a decision about 2016 by year's end. Should he run, this son and brother of the past two Republican presidents will face pressure to disclose years of personal tax returns and details about his private business activity, as well as to unwind his ownership in the business network he began building after leaving office in 2007.
For now, in much the same way he is quietly working to support GOP candidates in the November elections, Bush's business deals are made out of the spotlight. There is no suggestion any are improper. Because they are private enterprises and disclosure laws require only basic information, public documents offer few details about their exact nature.
They are, however, reminiscent of the GOP's last presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, who struggled at times to explain the often complicated and sometimes controversial ways he made a living. Romney, as well as Bush's father and brother, wound down personal business affairs years before running for president.
"It is a legitimate issue to think about," said Ron Kaufman, a former Romney adviser who is close to the Bush family. "In a perfect world, would he be better served if (the presidential race) was four years away? Sure. But it's not."
Bush declined a request for an interview.
Those close to him say that after his two terms as governor, he has worked aggressively to improve his personal finances, a common practice for politicians after public service.
Bush "is not currently a candidate for office. He's a businessman," said his spokeswoman, Kristy Campbell. "If he makes a decision to run for president, he would certainly review his work engagements at that time."
Other Bush confidants caution against reading too much into his business dealings. They believe he is well positioned to wait longer than other candidates to make a call on a campaign because of his political connections and deep fundraising network.
"You don't put your life on hold or call a time out. You move on until you make a decision," said Al Cardenas, a Bush friend and adviser. "He enjoys what he's doing. Investors trust him. So why would you put a stop to that?"
Operatives in both parties said the calculus isn't that simple.
In 2012, Romney was attacked by other Republicans as a "vulture capitalist," which helped create the portrait of job-destroying buyout chief who enjoyed a lower tax rate than most people in the United States.
"It is a target-rich environment for opposition research teams to pour through and begin to build a narrative that you're out of touch," said South Carolina-based Republican operative Hogan Gidley. "It sounds like he's doing everything right, everything above board. But the political reality exists that it still might hurt him."
Cardenas rejects the comparison to Romney, whose Bain Capital held a majority stake in dozens of companies and directly oversaw management decisions. Bush, unlike Romney, will not be defined by his "fairly modest" investments, Cardenas said, adding that comparing the two is "the difference between running a gas station and running Texaco."
Friends and former aides say Bush's behavior is consistent with the way he handled his business affairs while contemplating runs for governor in 1994 and 1998.
"Before he was a candidate, he was a businessman, and he conducted his business sort of not thinking about his next (political) move. He just did it," said Phil Handy, a Florida businessman who was chairman of Bush's gubernatorial campaigns. "I think it reflects his ambivalence about running for office, but I don't think it's at all unusual."
Still, at this point in their political careers, Romney and the previous Bush presidents had all but exited the business world.
Bush's father, former President George H. W. Bush, turned his financial affairs over to a blind trust once he became vice president. Jeb Bush's brother, former President George W. Bush, sold stocks with connections to Mideast oil companies roughly a decade before running. He later put the majority of his assets into treasury notes and a blind trust.
Jeb Bush's business obligations sometimes have conflicted with the political calendar.
When some possible contenders, including New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington this year, Bush declined to appear because of undisclosed business commitments.
But Bush has traveled the country this year raising money for Republicans and continues to work on education issues at his foundation.
He has headlined more than two dozen private fundraisers, including events to help the governors of Iowa, South Carolina and Nevada, three of the first four states to hold presidential primaries. This past week he attended fundraisers for Illinois gubernatorial hopeful Bruce Rauner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.
"He's quietly active. He just doesn't go out and bang the drum," said Mel Sembler, a Florida real estate developer and top Republican fundraiser. "He's doing all the right things, and I think he's going to be a serious contender."
Calendar:
Sec. Clinton's upcoming appearances as reported online. Not an official schedule.
· September 21 – New York, NY: Sec. Clinton attends CGI kickoff (The Hollywood Reporter)
· September 22 – New York, NY: Sec. Clinton at CGI (CGI)
· September 23 – New York, NY: Sec. Clinton at CGI (CGI)
· September 23 – New York, NY: Sec. Clinton headlines the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women CGI Dinner (Twitter)
· September 29 – New York, NY: Sec. Clinton headlines fundraiser for DCCC for NY and NJ candidates (Politico)
· September 29 – New York, NY: Sec. Clinton headlines another fundraiser for DCCC (Politico)
· September 30 – Washington, DC: Sec. Clinton keynotes Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute, Inc., conference (CHCI)
· September 30 – Potomac, MD: Sec. Clinton fundraises for Maryland gubernatorial candidate Anthony Brown (WaPo)
· October 2 – Miami Beach, FL: Sec. Clinton keynotes the CREW Network Convention & Marketplace (CREW Network)
· October 2 – (Miami, FL) Sec. Clinton signs “Hard Choices” at Books and Books [HillaryClintonMemoir.com]
· October 6 – Ottawa, Canada: Sec. Clinton speaks at Canada 2020 event (Ottawa Citizen)
· October 13 – Las Vegas, NV: Sec. Clinton keynotes the UNLV Foundation Annual Dinner (UNLV)
· October 14 – San Francisco, CA: Sec. Clinton keynotes salesforce.com Dreamforce conference (salesforce.com)
· October 28 – San Francisco, CA: Sec. Clinton fundraises for House Democratic women candidates with Nancy Pelosi (Politico)
· December 4 – Boston, MA: Sec. Clinton speaks at the Massachusetts Conference for Women (MCFW)