Politics

Clinton Faces Promise, Risk of Being Seen as 3rd Obama Term

Published

9 years ago

April 16, 2015

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton, center, speaks during a small business roundtable, Wednesday, April 15, 2015, in Norwalk, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)

LISA LERER, Associated Press
KEN THOMAS, Associated Press

NORWALK, Iowa (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton came to Iowa to give voters an intimate glance of who she’d be as president. What they got instead was a glimpse into the complicated relationship between the current inhabitant of the White House and the woman who hopes to follow in his path.

On a two-day swing through Iowa, the opening act of her 2016 campaign, Clinton embraced two of the most politically fraught planks of President Barack Obama’s legacy: the health care law and the push for an immigration overhaul. But even as she cast herself as continuing the Obama administration’s domestic policies, Clinton carefully drew a subtle contrast between her leadership and that of the president.

“I want to fix our political system. I want to get things done,” she told small business owners, sitting between cardboard fruit cartons at a produce company warehouse in Norwalk. “We have to start breaking down the divisions that have paralyzed our politics.”

The roundtable with small business owners reflected the pull-and-tug that Clinton will face as she attempts to extend Democrats’ control over the White House to three straight terms, should she win the nomination.

It won’t be easy: Historically, Americans have rewarded change after a party controls the presidency for two straight terms — Republicans Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush were the only presidents to maintain control for three terms during the past half-century.

Her success will depend, at least in part, on how she walks the fine line between praising Obama enough to maintain the support of his loyal coalition, particularly the black and millennial voters who overwhelmingly backed his candidacy, and putting enough distance to woo independents frustrated with Washington partisanship.

Just days into her early campaign, that strategy is already on display.

While Clinton’s kickoff video was an upbeat appeal to inherit the diverse coalition that twice elected Obama, at events in Iowa she took a more downbeat tone, describing the middle-class dream as slipping away from many Americans.

“Unfortunately the deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top,” Clinton said on Wednesday. “We need to reshuffle the cards and begin to play a different hand.”

And she’s cast herself as consensus builder, eager to seek political agreement, a gentle rebuke of the harsh partisanship that’s characterized the Obama era. “We’ve learned a lot in the last few years,” she said. “We’re all just going to have to get around the table and get back to work.”

In a remark Tuesday that could have come from a Republican, she said: “We’ve got to figure out in our country how to get back on the right track.” Indeed, her campaign highlighted the comment in a press release later in the day.

Yet, she also vowed to “defend all those important changes” in the health care law and lamented the lack of immigration legislation, saying the U.S. is “turning down people who really want to work” — two key priorities of the Obama administration that Clinton, as secretary of state, had little hand in advocating.

Such comments are catnip for Republicans, who see Obama as the nightmare haunting her presidential dreams.

In polling conducted by CNN last month, 57 percent of Americans said their “perfect candidate” would be someone who changed most policies of the Obama administration. Already, Republicans are stressing the deep ties between the two, describing Clinton’s candidacy as a “third Obama term.” Shortly before Clinton entered the race on Sunday, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush released a video message deriding the “Obama-Clinton foreign policy.”

On foreign policy, Clinton has magnified the differences between her positions and those of the president she served. She expressed public disagreement with the administration’s early position against arming the Syrian opposition. Earlier this month, Clinton voiced cautious support for Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran, though she remarked that the “devil was in the details.” Previously, she said she was skeptical that Iran would abide by any deal struck with the U.S.

So far, the relationship with Obama has loomed far larger in Clinton’s early campaign than an even more intimate tie. Former President Bill Clinton did not appear in her launch video and stayed in New York while his wife embarked on her road trip to Iowa. On Tuesday, he made no mention of her candidacy at a fundraiser for a health organization in New York City.

Obama, too, has kept largely mum about the details of Clinton’s campaign, describing her to reporters simply as someone who would be “an excellent president.”

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Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024

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2 days ago

April 26, 2024

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MAYOR BREED ANNOUNCES $53 MILLION FEDERAL GRANT FOR SAN FRANCISCO’S HOMELESS PROGRAMS

San Francisco, CA – Mayor London N. Breed today announced that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded the city a $53.7 million grant to support efforts to renew and expand critical services and housing for people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco.

Published

1 week ago

April 20, 2024

Oakland Post

Mayor London Breed

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Contact: Mayor’s Office of Communications, mayorspressoffice@sfgov.org

***PRESS RELEASE***

MAYOR BREED ANNOUNCES $53 MILLION FEDERAL GRANT FOR SAN FRANCISCO’S HOMELESS PROGRAMS

HUD’s Continuum of Care grant will support the City’s range of critical services and programs, including permanent supportive housing, rapid re-housing, and improved access to housing for survivors of domestic violence

San Francisco, CA – Mayor London N. Breed today announced that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded the city a $53.7 million grant to support efforts to renew and expand critical services and housing for people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco.

HUD’s Continuum of Care (CoC) program is designed to support local programs with the goal of ending homelessness for individuals, families, and Transitional Age Youth.

This funding supports the city’s ongoing efforts that have helped more than 15,000 people exit homelessness since 2018 through City programs including direct housing placements and relocation assistance. During that time San Francisco has also increased housing slots by 50%. San Francisco has the most permanent supportive housing of any county in the Bay Area, and the second most slots per capita than any city in the country.

“In San Francisco, we have worked aggressively to increase housing, shelter, and services for people experiencing homelessness, and we are building on these efforts every day,” said Mayor London Breed. “Every day our encampment outreach workers are going out to bring people indoors and our City workers are connecting people to housing and shelter. This support from the federal government is critical and will allow us to serve people in need and address encampments in our neighborhoods.”

The funding towards supporting the renewal projects in San Francisco include financial support for a mix of permanent supportive housing, rapid re-housing, and transitional housing projects. In addition, the CoC award will support Coordinated Entry projects to centralize the City’s various efforts to address homelessness. This includes $2.1 million in funding for the Coordinated Entry system to improve access to housing for youth and survivors of domestic violence.

“This is a good day for San Francisco,” said Shireen McSpadden, executive director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. “HUD’s Continuum of Care funding provides vital resources to a diversity of programs and projects that have helped people to stabilize in our community. This funding is a testament to our work and the work of our nonprofit partners.”

The 2024 Continuum of Care Renewal Awards Include:

$42.2 million for 29 renewal PSH projects that serve chronically homeless, veterans, and youth
$318,000 for one new PSH project, which will provide 98 affordable homes for low-income seniors in the Richmond District
$445,00 for one Transitional Housing (TH) project serving youth
$6.4 million dedicated to four Rapid Rehousing (RRH) projects that serve families, youth, and survivors of domestic violence
$750,00 for two Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) projects
$2.1 million for three Coordinated Entry projects that serve families, youth, chronically homeless, and survivors of domestic violence

In addition, the 2023 CoC Planning Grant, now increased to $1,500,000 from $1,250,000, was also approved. Planning grants are submitted non-competitively and may be used to carry out the duties of operating a CoC, such as system evaluation and planning, monitoring, project and system performance improvement, providing trainings, partner collaborations, and conducting the PIT Count.

“We are very appreciative of HUD’s support in fulfilling our funding request for these critically important projects for San Francisco that help so many people trying to exit homelessness,” said Del Seymour, co-chair of the Local Homeless Coordinating Board. “This funding will make a real difference to people seeking services and support in their journey out of homelessness.”

In comparison to last year’s competition, this represents a $770,000 increase in funding, due to a new PSH project that was funded, an increase in some unit type Fair Market Rents (FMRs) and the larger CoC Planning Grant. In a year where more projects had to compete nationally against other communities, this represents a significant increase.

Nationally, HUD awarded nearly $3.16 billion for over 7,000 local homeless housing and service programs including new projects and renewals across the United States.