Team Clinton Rising

Team Clinton Rising updated

“A Mother’s Strength, a Candidate’s Ambition” VIDEO: Clinton on “Meet the Press”

Last Monday when Clinton
unveiled her health care proposal, besides hearing the speech from Iowa,
I participated in a
briefing session afterwards. One of the people in that briefing was Laurie
Rubiner. It’s been a long time unveiling, but as Clinton prepares to hit the Sunday talk show circuit, it’s becoming increasingly obvious that “team Clinton” is ready for their collective close up. We know the formidable co-chair, who just happens to be a former two-term Democratic president (the first since F.D.R.), but what about the woman who helps run Clinton’s policy shop? Laurie Rubiner used to
run the health
care policy shop for The New America Foundation, working with Steve Clemons. But now she’s latched herself to the most formidable political apparatus since Bill Clinton burst out of the land of the Ozarks. No doubt some will reel from Rubiner’s bi-partisan roots, but it’s not only her independence that has me interested in her relationship with the woman who wants to be president. Via Steve
Clemons:

The fundamental, underlying problem that exists in America’s health care sector is getting people with financial means who elect not to get health care to do so. If a mandate were generated that everyone needed to be in health care, not only would the nation as a whole become healthier but the costs of subsidizing those in real need or without financial means declines on a relative basis. I hope John Fund and other critics of Hillary Clinton’s new proposal don’t believe that the less well off should just stay that way and should get nothing at all from America’s health care system. Clinton’s (and Rubiner’s) proposal maintains a vibrant private sector backbone for the provision of health services; there is no “socialization” of providers and no single payer requirement. (snip) Kudos to Hillary Clinton for having the confidence of self to allow a “Senate staffer” in her employ to get some of the media credit for her proposal. This alone says something about Clinton that I haven’t noted before. Staffers aren’t supposed to get credit, and they certainly can’t angle for it. Rubiner is getting credit not because she wanted any of this — but because to connect the dots in the political history of what is the most likely universal health care plan to come into being — one must tell the story of Laurie Rubiner.

The New York Times just profiled
Rubiner as well, no doubt because of Clinton’s health care roll out. But
check out her House Ways and Means subcommittee testimony in 2001 on welfare
and marriage issues, which is quite interesting. However, it’s the obvious that brought her to camp Clinton.

IN February 2005, Mrs. Clinton, in searching for a health policy expert, invited her to interview for the spot, which involved moving the family back to Washington. Ms. Rubiner reversed her decision to stay away from Capitol Hill almost immediately; they had barely made it through the conventional pleasantries before Mrs. Clinton fixated on the red Latico satchel on her arm. They are both hopeless handbag addicts as well as hopeful health care policymakers. “I had vowed never to go back into government,” Ms. Rubiner admitted, “but she’s a very special case. It seemed historic to me: this is not your mother’s senator. And I’d be a liar if I said it didn’t cross my mind that if I joined her team I might get to help her get elected this country’s first woman president.” Finding Her Passion on Capitol Hill

There’s a lot of slamming of Clinton’s health care proposal, with wingnuts freely labeling it once again as “Hillary-care”, as well as
cute shots from Edwards about Clinton copying his health care plan. But seriously, why not unveil your health care plan when people are paying attention instead of at the beginning of the primary season when no one is listening? Besides, it’s not as if Clinton can’t talk health care anytime, any place. But talk about a policy role out. Culminating with Clinton on all five Sunday shows today, no one can say team Clinton didn’t get this one right. It’s a marketing blitz that no one else came close to matching. It’s presidential planning with a president on top, with Bill Clinton’s “Giving” book launched the same week. Democratic double teaming at its finest, complete with the Big Dog talking to Jon Stewart. Even if you’re a Clinton hater you have to admire it. But everyone has to understand the attacks coming at Clinton from her closest contenders, still a mile away, who are vying for a shot, because the facts on the ground
are now incontrovertible. Wake up and smell the momentum.

But Mr. Axelrod, pointing to what he saw as Mrs. Clinton’s foremost vulnerability, said: “The question is ultimately, Is she credible — whether people buy her as an agent of change in Washington. If they do, she’ll do well.” A senior adviser to Mr. Edwards, Joe Trippi, said: “You used to be able to say the front-runners — her and Obama — but I don’t think that’s the case anymore. It’s pretty clear that she has sort of pulled away.” … .. Clinton Solidifies Edge as Rivals Take a Tougher Line

Do well? Mr. Axelrod continues to be a man of understated ignorance.

For a whole lot of people, the possibility to elect the first woman president
in United States history is the very definition of change. As for the “dynasty” issue, in John Wayne’s America, if we’re ever going to elect a woman president it just might take a Clinton to help the job get done.