pbrinton
02-24-2016, 03:42 PM
Hillary Clinton, on being challenged to release transcripts of her paid speeches to Wall Street institutions, says she will do so if the same standard is applied to everyone, including Republican candidates. This argument is a red herring. She is running for the Democratic nomination against Bernie Sanders, not in a general election against a Republican. She can only demand that the standard be applied to anyone she is directly running against, not people involved in a completely separate contest.
In any case, there is nothing untoward or questionable about Republicans making paid speeches to the people who support them financially, and whose interests they mostly support. The reason she is being asked to reveal what she said is that she is the only candidate on either side who accepts money from people she claims to be willing to oppose when elected. This raises a reasonable suspicion of at the least hypocrisy, if not downright double-dealing.
Sanders has made no such paid speeches to any groups whose interests he claims to oppose, and so has nothing to reveal. Republican candidates who have made such speeches have no conflict between this and their professed beliefs. Therefore the reason Clinton is being singled out is because she has put herself in a unique category by her voluntary behavior. She is being doubted because of something she has done, not because of something she is. She is not being singled out because she is a woman, or because she is a Clinton, but because her actions do not appear to match her professed beliefs.
In any case, there is nothing untoward or questionable about Republicans making paid speeches to the people who support them financially, and whose interests they mostly support. The reason she is being asked to reveal what she said is that she is the only candidate on either side who accepts money from people she claims to be willing to oppose when elected. This raises a reasonable suspicion of at the least hypocrisy, if not downright double-dealing.
Sanders has made no such paid speeches to any groups whose interests he claims to oppose, and so has nothing to reveal. Republican candidates who have made such speeches have no conflict between this and their professed beliefs. Therefore the reason Clinton is being singled out is because she has put herself in a unique category by her voluntary behavior. She is being doubted because of something she has done, not because of something she is. She is not being singled out because she is a woman, or because she is a Clinton, but because her actions do not appear to match her professed beliefs.