Clinton to launch formal campaign with New York rally

NEW YORK, United States - Hillary Clinton on Saturday formally launches her bid to become America's first woman president, holding in New York her first big campaign rally and outlining a promise to fight for the middle class.

Thousands of supporters are expected to throng Roosevelt Island, a tiny slither of land in the East River between Manhattan and Queens, where Clinton is expected to be joined by husband Bill and daughter Chelsea in the family's first joint appearance of the campaign.

Her team sees the rally, on home turf in a state where Clinton served as senator for eight years, as a chance to wrest back momentum from flagging opinion polls and galvanize a friendly crowd.

In a campaign video, released on the eve of the rally, Clinton said she was running for president to fight for the middle class and told viewers that she cared about their problems.

"Everyone deserves a chance to live up to his or her God-given potential. That's the dream we share. That's the fight we must wage," said the 67-year-old former secretary of state.

"My dad, the son of a factory worker, could start a small business, my mom, who never got to go to college, could see her daughter go to college."

The video looked back on Clinton's four-decade career in public service and sought to counter growing concerns that the grandmother with a millionaire lifestyle is out of touch.
Politic
A CNN poll found last week a growing number of Americans say she is not honest and trustworthy (57 percent, up from 49 percent in March).

"Everyday Americans and their families need a champion, a champion who will fight for them every single day and I want to be that champion," Hillary said in the video. "I don't quit."

Her speech is expected to be a break with the past in being deeply personal, drawing heavily on her mother's disadvantaged background to show that she is motivated by a higher calling than naked ambition.

- More Rodham than Clinton -

Dorothy Rodham was abandoned as a child by her parents, sent to live with abusive grandparents and left home to work as a housekeeper aged 14 during the Great Depression.

The speech is expected to be more Rodham than Clinton, taking in women's rights, and will likely paint the Republican Party as out of touch with an increasingly diverse electorate.

The rally signals a new stage in her campaign, ushering in a period when she will expound specific policies and address larger crowds after spending weeks holding small meetings in key states.

Karen Finney, a spokeswoman for the campaign, told CNN that from now on the focus would be what motivates Clinton and her vision.

"It will be personal, you'll hear her talk a lot about her mother, because her mother's experience really had a strong impact on Hillary at a very young age," she explained.

The island named after America's famed World War II and New Deal president, Franklin D. Roosevelt, is also deeply symbolic and offers fabulous views of the United Nations.

She will deliver her speech at Four Freedoms Park, a memorial to Roosevelt which celebrates the freedoms he outlined in 1941: freedom of speech and of worship; freedom from want and from fear.

In April, Clinton defined "four big fights": building the economy, strengthening families and communities, getting unaccountable money out of politics and protecting the country from threats.

Not only is Roosevelt's wife Eleanor a personal hero of Clinton's but in speaking at the memorial, Clinton is "choosing to situate herself in the middle of this enormous legacy," Felicia Wong, the president of the Roosevelt Institute think tank, told AFP.

"I think it shows a lot of vision," she added.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Why Robin wants to campaign for Duterte

MANILA - Actor Robin Padilla on Monday offered to be the campaign manager of Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte if latter decides to run for President in 2016.

"Si Duterte po ang susuportahan ko," Padilla said. "We are a sick nation, we are a sick people, we need a sick leader, itutulak na namin siya."

When asked how he will support Duterte, the actor answered, "kahit ako maging campaign manager niya."

Padilla, who was the lower House to show support for the Bangsamoro Basic Law, said he and Duterte have long talked about the issue.

Duterte earlier said he is considering running for President in 2016 after being fed up with the criticisms being thrown at him.

"This is the first time that I have mentioned the possibility of being the president," Duterte said in an interview. "Then let me also have a taste of how you can handle people when you are in power not to harass but legally."

Duterte said he is praying for "enlightenment"and that he might run for higher office if enough people like Justice Secretary Leila De Lima and former Commission on Human Rights chairwoman Etta Rosales actually campaign against him.

"I've always said that God will somehow enlighten me. I've been asking, I've been praying: 'God, I do not like it. I do not need it. Pag ginusto mo, you give me a cause to do it.' Pero ito ngayon, well I am thinking about it, really. Pinag-iisipan ko na, na kung may sampung, o 100 people like De Lima campaigning for me, and Etta Rosales, (expletive) mananalo ako niyan. Mananalo ako! Etta Rosales and De Lima will provide the edge," he said.

The tough-talking mayor had been consistent about his position not to run for any national post in the 2016 national elections.

This week, Duterte landed in the headlines after admitting links with the "Davao Death Squad", the group allegedly responsible for summary executions of criminals in his city.

The mayor later retracted his admission and said he was referring to the Davao Development System.

Human Rights Watch earlier denounced the more than 1,000 killings committed by the Davao Death Squad since the late 1990s. Police and local government officials were reported to be involved in the targeted killings of alleged drug dealers and petty criminals, street children and others.

De Lima said Duterte must be held criminally liable for admitting his links with the notorious vigilante group. "Killing is killing, no matter what; and therefore, if ina-admit niya na he is responsible for these killings, then he should be held criminally liable," she said.

Meanwhile, former CHR chairperson Etta Rosales criticized Duterte's statements and warned the public against voting for Duterte in 2016.

"If the guy believes what he says, he's gonna bring us back to martial law days, do we want that?" she asked in an ANC interview.

She added: "Mayor Duterte do you not believe in the Edsa revolution? In democracy and justice? You answer me that. If you do not believe, and you intend to do with your extra-judicial killings, then I think we should campaign against you."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

With tough words for Wall St, O'Malley launches White House bid

BALTIMORE, Maryland - Former Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley blasted social injustice and Wall Street excesses as he launched a White House bid on Saturday, casting himself as a younger, more liberal alternative to Democratic Party frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

"Powerful, wealthy special interests here at home have used our government to create, in our own country, an economy that is leaving a majority of our people behind," said O'Malley, opening his 2016 presidential campaign with a rally at a waterfront park in downtown Baltimore.

O'Malley, who has aggressively courted his party's liberal wing, began his political career in Baltimore, first as a member of city council and then as mayor.

Decrying big banks as having been behind the financial crisis of 2008, O'Malley singled out Goldman Sachs for particular criticism. He said Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein recently told his employees that "he'd be just fine" with either Republican Jeb Bush or Hillary Clinton as president after the November 2016 election.

"Well, I've got news for the bullies of Wall Street," O'Malley said. "The presidency is not a crown to be passed back and forth by you between two royal families."

Hillary Clinton is the wife of former President Bill Clinton while Jeb Bush, who has not yet formally announced his candidacy but is already considered a leading contender among Republican hopefuls, is son and brother of former Presidents George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.

Signs at O'Malley's rally promised he would provide "new leadership," but in fact he faces an uphill battle against former secretary of state Clinton, who consistently tops opinion polls to be the party's nominee, and who enjoys national name recognition.

Beth Whitmer, a 62-year-old Baltimore resident who called herself a social liberal, said she felt she knows Clinton's stances better than O'Malley's.

"I would've liked it to have been a little fuller," she said of the speech.

O'Malley now goes on to campaign in Iowa and New Hampshire, the states holding the earliest party nominating contests.

O'Malley, 52, joins a short list of candidates for the Democratic nomination. Alongside Clinton, 67, only Vermont's independent Senator Bernie Sanders has entered the race, and he is viewed as having a marginal shot at success.

So far, eight Republicans are officially competing for their party's nomination, with more likely candidates waiting in the wings.

"Welcome to the race, Gov. O'Malley. Looking forward to discussing strong families and communities. -H," Clinton tweeted soon after the rally.

CAMPAIGN LAUNCH IN TROUBLED CITY

O'Malley launched his campaign at an uneasy time for Baltimore, which was rocked by riots last month over the death of Freddie Gray, a young black man, from injuries sustained while in police custody. Many residents have said the former mayor's "zero tolerance" crime policies led to increased police brutality.

O'Malley cast the violence in economic terms, saying rioting "was not only about race, not only about policing in America."

"Conditions of extreme and growing poverty, create conditions for extreme violence," he said.

Progressive Change Campaign Committee, a group trying to push Democratic candidates to the left, praised his speech, saying he was so far "the only candidate to be outspoken about accountability for Wall Street bankers who committed crimes and crashed our economy."

O'Malley honed his liberal credentials over two four-year terms as governor of a state with a long history of voting for Democratic presidential nominees.

He signed legislation that raised Maryland's minimum wage, repealed the death penalty for future offenders, legalized same-sex marriage, and granted in-state tuition rates for undocumented immigrants attending Maryland's universities.

He was born in Washington, D.C., and raised there and in Maryland. He attended the Catholic University of America in Washington and received his law degree from the University of Maryland. He lives in Maryland with his wife, a judge, and their four children.

(Reporting by Amanda Becker; Writing by Lisa Lambert; Editing by Crispian Balmer and Frances Kerry)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com