IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
By Ed Hoffman
This week, Hillary Clinton became the first woman to be nominated for President by either party. I hear we are supposed to be celebrating this, but I wonder if there would be the same kind of celebration for another woman – say, Carly Fiorina? Doubtful!
As a result, Hillary is making womanhood her campaign mantra from now until November. You think it’s only this week? No way. For the next five months, she’ll have nothing else to fall back on. She can’t run on her record as a Secretary of State, because that whole thing has pretty much blown up in her face. If she relies on it too much, that opens the door for more questions on Benghazi and that pesky email server. She knows that to make these things go away, she needs to stop reminding people she was once fourth in line to the presidency, a position she blew big time. She can’t remind people she was a Senator either, because she didn’t do much there and she won that seat on the woman card, too. In fact, she’ll even have to stop talking about her time as First Lady because she knows when she starts debating Donald Trump one-on-one, he’ll be more than happy to bring up what went on duringthat time. All of it.
So all Hillary has left is the woman card, and she’s playing it hard this week. Even Bernie Sanders is over it, telling a reporter how ridiculous it would be for him to step aside now just so the first female nominee for President can run unencumbered. For once, I agree with him.
Shifting gears to the down ticket candidates we voted on this week: Should we ever expect our fellow Californians to make the right decisions anymore? Definitely not when it comes to the people who will represent our state on Capitol Hill. We just gave Kamala Harris, the daughter of two activists from Berkeley, the opportunity to compete for what may as well be a lifetime appointment in the United States Senate. And who’s she competing against? Loretta Sanchez, who doesn’t mind insulting minority groups like Native Americans but does mind building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Sanchez’s immigration record in Congress is bad, and if elected to the Senate it would only be worse because everyone is amping up their immigration positions to take a symbolic stand against Trump. Obviously, Harris would do the same. Tom Del Beccaro wouldn’t have done that; it’s just too bad people don’t bother to research candidates before going into the booth.
The good news for those of us in the 41st District is that Republican challenger Doug Shepherd will go to a runoff against Democrat incumbent Mark Takano in November. If you’re in Riverside, Moreno Valley, Perris or Jurupa Valley, you finally have the chance to elect a conservative to Congress while also voting for Donald Trump. We have to find good news wherever we can.
Ed Hoffman is host of The Main Event on AM590, which airs Saturday 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM and Sunday 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM. Follow him on Twitter @EdHoffman, and like him on Facebook by searching The Main Event 590.
