Rudy? Well …

I have some intelligent friends, a couple of whom even post comments here, who “don’t like” or “hate” the Clintons, but can’t tell me why.

And a while ago, here, I made a confessional in which I said that I felt the same way for a long time, particularly about Hillary Clinton. Then I had a day of “epiphany.”

It was not only embarrassing to admit to myself that I felt that way because the media had so influenced me but also that the media, along with the rightwing pundits like Limbaugh et al., had seeped into my brain and changed how I thought — without my even consciously realizing what was being done TO ME.

It was a humbling experience.

Larry has had a similar experience / his view of Hillary was changed by having a personal meeting with her. He wrote a great story about that day.

A Universal 401(k) to Promote Ownership, Savings and Bipartisanship:

Progressives and conservatives alike should support serious efforts to increase savings, ownership and wealth creation for typical hardworking families. Yet these goals are achievable without dividing Washington by carving up Social Security into private accounts. The president and progressives could both protect Social Security’s guaranteed benefit and promote ownership with a new Universal 401(k) that offers all Americans a private retirement account on top of Social Security, and uses government funds to match contributions made by middle income and lower-income workers. The Universal 401(k) would spread individual savings and wealth creation to tens of millions of American families currently falling through the cracks by offering all Americans the generous incentives and automatic savings opportunities that the best employer-provided 401(k)’s offer their employees. The components of a Universal 401(k) include:

Generous $2-to-$1 government matching contributions for initial savings of low-income families and $1-to-$1 matches for middle-income families. By targeting new incentives to those families having the hardest time saving, the Universal 401(k) would be designed to leverage new private savings.

A new Flat Tax Incentive of 30 percent for savings done by all workers. In addition to matching contributions, the Universal 401(k) would institute a new flat refundable tax credit for retirement savings. The credit would replace our current upside-down system of incentives for retirement savings through tax deductibility, which offers those in the highest tax brackets the most generous incentives to save and lower- and moderate-income families little or no incentive to save.

cont’d
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2004/01/b289151.html

http://www.americanprogress.org/experts/SperlingGene.html

And I believe the link below is well worth the read.

http://www.cfr.org/publication/6949/senator_clinton_offers_education_plan_for_all_plan.html

However it also seems to me that is doesn’t matter much what Hillary Clinton says or what her position is.

The Clinton hating media as well as the Clinton hating liberal blogosphere will twist any issue and spin any thing she says to her detriment. Just look at what they are doing with the MoveOn Endorsement and with a lie about what Bill Clinton said about global warming and the economy.

The hatred of the Clintons is absolutely Pavlovian. Say the word “Clinton” and the programmed people that have been taught by the media to hate these two people salivate and begin to spew vitriol. I don’t think they can help it. Brain-washing is easy enough to do when you control the information and easier still to do when people don’t have the intellect or the integrity to form their own opinions.