Hillary Clinton's campaign is going to be a huge slog for Democrats (hand a libtard a tissue alert)

The Week ^ | April 27, 2015 | Michael Brendan Dougherty

[Zakeet]

The Clintons are going to wear us all out.

Even the patience of Democrats is already beginning to wear thin. As Bill Clinton denies that a certain meeting ever happened — a meeting that resulted in income to the family's foundation that wasn't claimed on their taxes, a dodge that certainly wasn't recorded in emails Hillary Clinton deliberately destroyed — you get the sense that support for the Clintons is beginning to crack.

The best Democrats can do is throw up their hands. What difference does it make if all of the above are violations of the ethics and transparency policies of the Obama administration? We've got an inevitable candidate here.

Liberals are slowly realizing how little fun they are going to have in the next few years.

[Snip]

[D]efending Hillary Clinton is going to be just that: defending Hillary Clinton. It will require constant mental effort to say that thus-and-so only looks bad, or to note that others engage in pay-to-play graft, too. It's going to be exhausting and demoralizing. And all that energy on behalf of a candidate who has all the approval ratings she needs, but none of the trust or love that Democrats want to give their standard-bearer.

[GOPJ]

Good catch....

[okie01]

...the candidate who wasn't liberal or ethical enough to win in 2008, has used the last eight years to collect even more semi-scandals before becoming your champion.

Semi-scandals. SEMI-scandals? SEMIscandals???!!!

[GOPJ]

Semi-scandals. SEMI-scandals? SEMIscandals???!!!

Our side couldn't make this stuff up...

[presidio9]

And then yesterday we had the Clinton Foundation CEO Maura Palley, released a long statement admitting “mistakes” that she insisted were "mostly minor clerical errors."

As I have said, I don't expect public attention to force a resolution on any of this. Hillary will run, and she will be the nominee. There's no one else, and roughly 45% of all voters could be counted on to vote for her even if she killed someone. Or someone else besides Vince Foster, I suppose.

Where it is going to be most effective is at the Republican National Convention, when most voters will finally be listening.

All of the scandals will do the most damage when presented in a laundry list speech, as was performed by Zell Miller in 2008 and Joe Lieberman in 2008. Or Clint Eastwood in 2012. These are the speeches undecided voters remember most from these respective conventions. The important thing is that it be given not by a Republican insider, but by a Democrat fed up with the Clinton family. Or, preferably by an actor, who might include ironic humor: Give voters permission to accept Hillary Clinton for who she truly is, and then laugh at her. Make them understand that she is toxic, and by no means inevitable.

I sincerely hope that whoever moves Reince Priebus' puppet strings is already giving this matter thought.

[GOPJ]

http://www.vox.com/2015/4/28/8501643/Clinton-foundation-donors-State

from link:

The size and scope of the symbiotic relationship between the Clintons and their donors is striking. At least 181 companies, individuals, and foreign governments that have given to the Clinton Foundation also lobbied the State Department when Hillary Clinton ran the place, according to a Vox analysis of foundation records and federal lobbying disclosures.

The following chart shows entities that donated to the foundation and lobbied the State Department during Hillary Clinton’s tenure. The totals include funding from both the corporate and charitable arms of listed companies (the Gates and Walton foundations are named to illustrate that point). The chart does not account for contributions made by executives, and it may omit some companies who made contributions or lobbied through subsidiaries.

Clinton Foundation donor Gave between this much* And this much*
Microsoft/Gates Foundation $26,000,000 No limit reported
Walmart/Walton Foundation $2,250,000 $10,500,000
Coca-Cola $5,000,000 $10,000,000
State of Qatar and related entities $1,375,000 $5,800,000
Goldman Sachs $1,250,000 $5,500,000
Dow Chemical $1,025,000 $5,050,000
Pfizer $1,010,000 $5,025,000
Duke Energy Corporation $1,002,000 $5,010,000
ExxonMobil $1,001,000 $5,005,000
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa $1,000,000 $5,000,000
Hewlett-Packard $1,000,000 $5,000,000
Nima Taghavi $1,000,000 $5,000,000
NRG Energy $1,000,000 $5,000,000
Open Society Institute $1,000,000 $5,000,000
Procter & Gamble $1,000,000 $5,000,000
Boeing $1,000,000 $5,000,000
OCP $1,000,000 $5,000,000
Nike $512,000 $1,035,000
Google $511,000 $1,030,000
Daimler $510,000 $1,025,000
Monsanto $501,250 $1,006,000
Arizona State University $500,000 $1,000,000
Chevron $500,000 $1,000,000
General Electric $500,000 $1,000,000
Morgan Stanley $360,000 $775,000
Intel $252,000 $510,000
Noble Energy $250,000 $500,000
Sony $175,000 $400,000
AstraZeneca $150,000 $350,000
Bloomberg and Bloomberg Philanthropies $150,000 $350,000
Salesforce.com $125,000 $300,000
Verizon $118,000 $300,000
Yahoo $125,000 $300,000
Lockheed Martin $111,000 $280,000
Qualcomm $103,000 $265,000
TIAA-CREF $103,000 $265,000
JP Morgan $102,000 $260,000
Accenture $100,000 $250,000
American Cancer Society $100,000 $250,000
Applied Materials $100,000 $250,000
CH2M Hill $100,000 $250,000
Corning $100,000 $250,000
FedEx $100,000 $250,000
Gap $100,000 $250,000
Gilead $100,000 $250,000
Hess Corporation $100,000 $250,000
Humanity United $100,000 $250,000
Hyundai $100,000 $250,000
Int’l Brotherhood of Electrical Workers $100,000 $250,000
Johnson Controls $100,000 $250,000
Lions Clubs International $100,000 $250,000
Mylan $100,000 $250,000
Pepsi $100,000 $250,000
Sanofi-Aventis $100,000 $250,000
Starwood Hotels $100,000 $250,000
United States Pharmacopeial Convention $100,000 $250,000
UPS $100,000 $250,000
Washington University, St. Louis $100,000 $250,000
Time Warner $75,000 $150,000
Hunt Alternatives $60,000 $125,000
Ericsson $51,000 $105,000
Abbott Laboratories $50,000 $100,000
Anadarko $50,000 $100,000
BT Group $50,000 $100,000
Discovery Communications $50,000 $100,000
Earth Networks $50,000 $100,000
Feed the Children $50,000 $100,000
General Motors $50,000 $100,000
Hilton $50,000 $100,000
Marriott $50,000 $100,000
NextEra Energy $50,000 $100,000
NOUR USA $50,000 $100,000
Novozymes $50,000 $100,000
Oceana $50,000 $100,000
Starbucks $50,000 $100,000
Teck Resources $50,000 $100,000
The American Institute of Architects $50,000 $100,000
Nature Conservancy $50,000 $100,000
Trilogy International Partners $50,000 $100,000
Unilever $50,000 $100,000
World Vision $50,000 $100,000
S.C. Johnson & Son $50,000 $100,000
Motorola $35,000 $75,000
Enel $35,000 $75,000
JCPenney $27,000 $60,000
Target $27,000 $60,000
Novartis $26,000 $55,000
Prudential $26,000 $55,000
3M $25,000 $50,000
AAR $25,000 $50,000
AFL-CIO $25,000 $50,000
APCO Worldwide $25,000 $50,000
AREVA $25,000 $50,000
Bayer $20,000 $50,000
Capstone Turbine $25,000 $50,000
Cemex $25,000 $50,000
CHF International $25,000 $50,000
Eli Lilly $25,000 $50,000
Georgetown University $25,000 $50,000
HBO $25,000 $50,000
Honeywell $25,000 $50,000
Mars, Inc. $25,000 $50,000
McGraw-Hill Financial $25,000 $50,000
MWH Global $25,000 $50,000
New Venture Fund $25,000 $50,000
Partners HealthCare $25,000 $50,000
Rotary Foundation $25,000 $50,000
Shell $25,000 $50,000
Special Olympics $25,000 $50,000
Brink’s $25,000 $50,000
United Technologies Corporation $25,000 $50,000
Viacom $25,000 $50,000
Wildlife Conservation Society $25,000 $50,000
Ze-gen $25,000 $50,000
AT&T $11,000 $30,000
BP $11,000 $30,000
SAP America $10,250 $26,000
Actavis $10,000 $25,000
ALFA $10,000 $25,000
American Iron and Steel Institute $10,000 $25,000
Amgen $10,000 $25,000
Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. $10,000 $25,000
BHP Billiton Limited $10,000 $25,000
Chesapeake Energy Corporation $10,000 $25,000
ConocoPhillips $10,000 $25,000
Danfoss $10,000 $25,000
Delphi Financial Group $10,000 $25,000
Digital Globe $10,000 $25,000
Dow Corning $10,000 $25,000
EMD Serono $10,000 $25,000
Entertainment Software Association $10,000 $25,000
Herbalife $10,000 $25,000
Hermitage Capital Management $10,000 $25,000
InnoVida Holdings $10,000 $25,000
Levi Strauss & Co. $10,000 $25,000
Life Technologies $10,000 $25,000
Motion Picture Association of America $10,000 $25,000
Nokia $10,000 $25,000
Occidental Petroleum $10,000 $25,000
Sesame Workshop $10,000 $25,000
Siemens $10,000 $25,000
SNCF $10,000 $25,000
Symantec $10,000 $25,000
Tamares Management $10,000 $25,000
Telefonica International $10,000 $25,000
Hershey $10,000 $25,000
NASDAQ OMX Group $10,000 $25,000
The Pew Charitable Trusts $10,000 $25,000
TV Azteca, S.A. DE C.V. $10,000 $25,000
US Chamber of Commerce $10,000 $25,000
Whirlpool $10,000 $25,000
Oneida Indian Nation $10,000 $25,000
American Public Health Association $5,000 $10,000
EOS Foundation $5,000 $10,000
Florida International University $5,000 $10,000
Girl Scouts of the USA $5,000 $10,000
Gonzalo Tirado $5,000 $10,000
NBC Universal $5,000 $10,000
Santa Monica College $5,000 $10,000
Sensis $5,000 $10,000
Adobe Systems $1,000 $5,000
Boston Scientific Corporation $1,000 $5,000
Bristol-Myers Squibb $1,000 $5,000
Cablevision Systems Corporation $1,000 $5,000
Caterpillar $1,000 $5,000
Chicanos Por La Causa $1,000 $5,000
Deere & Company $1,000 $5,000
Dell $1,000 $5,000
Edison Electric Institute $1,000 $5,000
Eligio Cedeno $1,000 $5,000
Festo Corporation $1,000 $5,000
George Mason University $1,000 $5,000
Laborers Int’l Union of North America $1,000 $5,000
Nestle $1,000 $5,000
Northrop Grumman Corporation $1,000 $5,000
American Legion $1,000 $5,000
Association for Manufacturing Technology $1,000 $5,000
Tohono O’odham Nation $1,000 $5,000
Hara Software $1,000 $5,000
Oracle (matching grant program) $250 $1,000
Nova Southeastern University $250 $1,000

* The Clinton Foundation reports contributions in ranges.

That’s not illegal, but it is scandalous.

There’s a household name at the nexus of the foundation and the State Department for every letter of the alphabet but “X” (often more than one): Anheuser-Busch, Boeing, Chevron, (John) Deere, Eli Lilly, FedEx, Goldman Sachs, HBO, Intel, JP Morgan, Lockheed Martin, Monsanto, NBC Universal, Oracle, Procter & Gamble, Qualcomm, Rotary International, Siemens, Target, Unilever, Verizon, Walmart, Yahoo, and Ze-gen.

The set includes oil, defense, drug, tech, and news companies, as well as labor unions and foreign interests. It includes organizations as innocuous as the Girl Scouts and those as in need of brand-burnishing as Nike, which was once forced to vow that it would end the use of child labor in foreign sweatshops. This list of donors to the Clinton foundation who lobbied State matters because it gives a sense of just how common it was for influence-seekers to give to the Clinton Foundation, and exactly which ones did.

Author Peter Schweizer, whose book Clinton Cash is due out May 5, took his best shot but couldn’t prove — or even assert — that Hillary Clinton took any official action because of contributions to the Clinton Foundation. I haven’t read the book, but even Schweizer concedes that what he’s identified is a “pattern of behavior,” not hard evidence of corruption.

Still, the Clintons have shown they can’t police themselves.

“”We made mistakes, as many organizations of our size do””

The foundation’s acting CEO, Maura Pally, acknowledged problems with reporting on federal 990 tax forms in a statement issued Sunday, in which she contended that information about donors was available but not appropriately listed in filings with the government.

Before working for the foundation, she was a deputy assistant secretary under Hillary Clinton at State.