Posted on 10/16/2007 12:30:54 PM PDT by MNJohnnie
MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) - Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton courted female voters on Tuesday with a plan to expand paid family leave, boost child-care funding and fight workplace discrimination against pregnant women.
In a speech peppered with anecdotes from raising her 27-year-old daughter Chelsea, the former first lady who would be America's first woman president said her plan would cost $1.75 billion a year and be paid for by shutting down certain kinds of tax shelters without expanding the deficit.
"The struggle to balance family and work can be simply overwhelming," the New York senator told a gathering of about 250 people at the Young Women's Christian Association offices in Manchester, New Hampshire.
At the heart of her plan is a $1 billion a year federal grant to encourage states to introduce a paid family leave program by 2016. It also called for an expansion of the Family Medical Leave Act to cover an additional 13 million workers.
"We've got to get back to fiscal responsibility but we have got to get back to family responsibility as well," she said.
The initiative is the centerpiece of Clinton's intensifying focus on the female demographic this week in a series of events under the theme of "Women changing America" -- a bid to attract enough women voters to prevail in both the Democratic presidential nomination and the November 2008 election.
Her chief strategist, Mark Penn, released a memo on Monday that said women will be the deciding force in 2008 and their internal polling shows 94 percent of women under 35 say they would be more likely to vote in the November election if the first woman nominee is on the ballot.
On Monday, Clinton showed up on ABC's female-centered talk show "The View," followed by a luncheon where she reminded the audience she faced similar questions in 2000 over whether New York was ready to elect a women senator.
PERSONAL ANECDOTES
Her six-page policy brief includes plans to encourage workplace flexibility, an awards system for "model workplaces" and plans to promote working from home at federal agencies. It also called for more child-care funding and tougher discrimination laws to protect pregnant women.
"I remember one time when I had to be in court as a young lawyer," she said in one of several personal references to raising Chelsea with former President Bill Clinton.
"Chelsea was sick. The baby sitter wasn't there," she said. "It was just a gut-wrenching feeling and I was lucky enough to have a friend who could come over and watch Chelsea as I ran to court and then ran back home."
Clinton's stories as a working mother struck a chord with some of the mostly female audience.
"I found myself identifying with a lot of the circumstances that she described in her personal life," said Robin Cain, 52, a New Hampshire mother of two who has yet to decide which candidate to back.
"I support the whole Democratic field. I haven't winnowed my choice down," she said.
“In a speech peppered with anecdotes from raising her 27-year-old daughter Chelsea, the former first lady who would be America’s first woman president said her plan would cost $1.75 billion a year and be paid for by shutting down certain kinds of tax shelters without expanding the deficit.”
And here I thought she was going to be vague about how it was to paid for.
I thought this was about Bill.
Something tells me that could apply to either Bill or Hillary in their personal lives.
don’t be fooled...none of this is to court the Rat women..it’s to court the Repub & Indep. women, where her thighness gets clobbered.
She is such a liar.
And, I won’t even be voting for the Communist with fat legs.
What she’s not telling you is they want you to work; so they can get more money from you and destroy the family. It’s all about control.
You would have to be a fool to buy into this fraud.
I swear to god, what happend to ‘ask not what your country can do for you...’ ?
Darn socialists are promising to give away everything... sheesh. All to be paid for by taxing those that work and create value in the economy.
That morp is downright scary.
How dare you!
Never mind, I know how.
Where is her old pal today ????
“Baby sitter”, surely Hillary meant to say “female State Trooper”. The Clinton’s paid for nothing.
“What she’s not telling you is they want you to work; so they can get more money from you and destroy the family. It’s all about control.
You would have to be a fool to buy into this fraud.”
Precisely. If women would stay home and raise their own children, Hillary wouldn’t have a chance of getting elected.
She has to keep it general, never specific. There is no trail of witnesses wherever they've been, and she can claim whatever fits the audience. She is a masterful panderer, and with the intelligence of the fools that support her, she doesn't need to be bothered with facts.
Common sense is never allowed in the screened audiences that she photo-ops with, and when a common sense question comes (as happened in Iowa when the man was slapped down as a "Republican Plant", and he called her a liar)....she doesn't want THAT to happen again.
I really agree with your post.
Every day she trots out a new entitlement program... where does she think all the money is going to come from? Socialist witch.... and yet some voters eat this up with a spoon!
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