HILLARY CLINTON IS NOT "OUT OF TOUCH," BUT IS MORE "IN TOUCH" WITH AMERICANS THAN JUST ABOUT ANYBODY ELSE

    

Stop already!  Stop!  Stop!  Stop!  Hillary Clinton is not "out of touch" - to use the venomous words being spewed by Republicans, by some Democrats, by some in the media and by others across America.  It irritates and disgusts me that people in our country always seem to spin a subject, spin an issue, spin a sound byte or spin a single phrase or word to make a competitor - or merely another person - look bad when, in fact, there is no justification for it.

     Hillary Clinton does not deserve the heat she has been receiving.  First of all, the former Secretary of State never said she and former President Bill Clinton ARE "dead broke."  Mr. and Mrs. Clinton never said they HAVE no money.  Neither one of them ever stated that they ARE...or WERE...poor.  However, in a June 5th, 2014 interview 

with Diane Sawyer of ABC News, which aired in a primetime special on ABC on Monday, June 9th, Secretary Clinton stated a fact.  That's right.  She stated...a FACT.  The former First Lady noted that, "We came out of The White House not only dead broke, but in debt."  Afterwards, President Clinton - in an interview with David Gregory for the Sunday, June 29th broadcast of Meet The Press also confirmed that when his Presidency came to a close on January 20th, 2001..."It is factually true that we were several million dollars in debt.  Everybody now assumes that what happened in the intervening years was automatic.  I'm shocked that it's happened.  I'm shocked that people still want me to come give talks.  So I'm grateful."  And President Clinton went on to say about his wife, "She's not out of touch.  And she advocated and worked as a Senator for things that were good for ordinary people.  And before that...all her life."  The former President continued by asking..."The real issue is - if you've been fortunate enough to be successful...are you now out of touch and insensitive to the agonizing struggles that other people are facing?  That's the real issue."  Hillary Clinton has always been IN TOUCH.

     Why think Hillary Clinton is "out of touch"...because NOW...today...more than 13 years after the Clintons left The White House...they have money?  When did it become bad...when did it become wrong...for people in politics - or anybody else for that matter - to have money?  Why should anybody think that rich people...wealthy people...no longer have a clue as to how the middle-class...or the poor...live?

     Few people in the United States are BORN rich.  Most everyone starts out in life the way most people remain throughout their life - in the middle-class...or unfortunately...worse.  It's tragic that there are poor Americans... and Americans who live below the poverty line.  It's sad.  Very sad.  And that needs to be changed.  The middle-class is not really the middle-class.  Many Americans who earn what is considered to be a "middle-class income" make an amount of money that is much lower than the middle.  According to published reports - depending on the class model used, the middle-class constitutes between 25 percent and 66 percent of U.S. households.  But just because Hillary Clinton isn't a part of the middle-class...and certainly she is not poor or living in poverty...she is still "in touch" with Americans who are.

     Hillary Clinton was not born with a silver spoon in her mouth.  Few people are.  Republicans and others need to remember that, as a child, Hillary Diane Rodham's father managed a small, albeit successful business in the textile industry.  Her mother was a homemaker.  They were not rich.  And when young Hillary married young Bill on October 11th, 1975...the wedding ceremony took place in the living room of their Fayetteville, Arkansas home...not in some fancy hotel.  And following then-Governor Clinton's 1979 inauguration as chief executive of "The Natural State"...he appointed Mrs. Clinton as the chairperson of the Rural Health Advisory Committee...where the Arkansas First Lady secured funds to expand medical facilities for the poorest areas of the state without it affecting doctors' fees.

     If there were no suspicions whatsoever that Hillary Clinton may run for President in 2016...the "dead broke" comment would never have made the news...and nobody - a month later - would still be discussing it.  And if Secretary Clinton does decide to seek the Democratic nomination for President, the "dead broke" remark should not in any way be relevant.

     When did earning money - even lots of money - make it bad to be President?  It is a fact - according to The Washington Post - that from January 2001 - when President Clinton left office - to January 2013...Mr. Clinton made 542 paid speeches and he received 104.9 million dollars.  So what?  That's right.  So what?  And I'm sure he's made more money than that from giving more speeches through 2013 and in to 2014.  And Mrs. Clinton's standard speaking fee is reportedly 200,000 dollars and up.  So what?  Why should her earnings - and the money her husband has earned - raise complications for a potential run for The White House in 2016 - something the former United States Senator has not yet declared?  Neither President Clinton or Secretary Clinton have done anything wrong by being paid to make speeches.  People want to hear them speak.  

     More than 13 years after leaving office...groups, organizations, businesses, even other countries are willing to pay Bill Clinton huge sums of money for his remarks, his views, his opinions and his everyday thoughts on everyday life.  So what?  He's not stealing the money.  Both he and Mrs. Clinton are paid a fee by people who want to hear them speak.

     Look at the amount of money that baseball fans pay today to see a Major League game.  When I was a kid...my dad would take me to Yankee Stadium - that is the original Yankee Stadium... "The House That Ruth Built" - to see my all-time favorite baseball player, Mickey Mantle...and the other top players of the 1960s.  A terrific, field level box seat in 1966 - according to the New York Yankees - cost only three dollars and fifty cents.  Or, Dad and I would sometimes sit in the bleachers - where I loved to be - so I could talk to and get autographs from the players in the bullpen.  Those bleacher seats cost just 75 cents each.  Today, the price for a field level box seat ticket at the new Yankee Stadium is between 85 and 300 dollars...and a bleacher seat costs between 18 and 23 dollars.  Now I clearly understand the concept of inflation...but those prices - no pun intended - are way out in left field.  In part, the seats at Yankee Stadium cost more today because of the incomes the Yankees pay to their players...especially the superstars.  The average Major League Baseball player today earns an annual figure just shy of 4 million dollars.  The lowest paid player receives about 500 thousand dollars a year.  Mickey Mantle - one of the greatest baseball players ever to wear the Yankee pinstripes - or any uniform for that matter - towards the end of his career...was only paid 100 thousand dollars each season.  But fans are willing to pay up to hundreds of dollars to see their favorite ball players...and along with advertising and other means of income for Major League Baseball teams...the players of today can be paid millions and millions of dollars.

     The same applies to Bill and Hillary Clinton.  People who love them...or perhaps even those who don't...are willing to pay big money to hear them talk.  So why complain about how much money the Clintons NOW make?  When Secretary Clinton said she and the former President were "dead broke" after their address changed from 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue...they were.  And now Americans are willing to pay both Bill and Hillary Clinton lots and lots of money...to talk.  That's America.

     So I am fed up with petty criticisms of Hillary Clinton by most Republicans...and by even certain others.  Since Mrs. Clinton's comment that she and Mr. Clinton were in debt after moving out of The White House...the former Secretary of State has been accused of being "out of touch" because she has been - for nearly forty years - waited on...driven wherever she needs to go...and had servants to do whatever she needs while being First Lady of Arkansas, First Lady of the United States, a United States Senator from New York and Secretary of State.  But who cares?  Mrs. Clinton - and others who have been or who are in similar positions as her - have earned those perks and - for the most part - deserve them.  That doesn't mean she is "out of touch" with other Americans.

     Hillary Clinton remembers the hungry years.  She may now get paid a couple of hundred thousand dollars or more to make a speech...but Mrs. Clinton surely remembers when then-Governor Bill Clinton's salary was only 35 thousand dollars a year...and she and Mr. Clinton didn't know if they'd ever be able to pay tuition for their then-infant daughter, Chelsea to go to college when she reached that age.  That's being "in touch" with other Americans...ALL Americans.
 

     Today, Bill and Hillary Clinton are two of the most generous...two of the most magnanimous people that the United States proudly calls Americans.  The Clinton Foundation and The Clinton Global Initiative are philanthropic endeavors whereby Mr. and Mrs. Clinton give their money and their time to help others in our country and in nations all around the world.  To say Hillary Clinton is "out of touch" with Americans - especially average or middle-class Americans - is merely political mumbo-jumbo that is unfair to say about a first-class woman who is more "in touch" with Americans than just about anybody else.  The Clintons - both Hillary and Bill - have fought for the middle-class for decades.

     As for running for President in 2016 - which again, Hillary Clinton has not yet said she's doing - let's look back on others who have wanted to be America's Commander-in-Chief.  The closest thing the United States has ever had to European royalty is the Kennedy family - especially when President John F. Kennedy worked out of The Oval Office.  As a boy, President Kennedy enjoyed a privileged childhood of elite private schools, servants 

and summer homes.  President Franklin D. Roosevelt came from an abundance of wealth...an aristocratic family.  His birthplace was a 

stately mansion.  President Ronald Reagan lived the life of a Hollywood movie star - and after being Governor of California for eight years - Mr. Reagan was accustom to the so-called "celebrity good life."  

The Bushes - both President George H. W. Bush and President George W. Bush - have big bank accounts... and did...when each took the oath of office to lead our country.  And the list goes on and on.  And nobody ever criticized them for being rich.

     So having money...being affluent...does not make a person "out of touch" with the rest of America.  It's when someone such as former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney says - as he did in a 2012 Republican Presidential Debate - that

he would bet his challenger, Rick Perry 10-thousand dollars to settle a dispute.  Romney offered Perry ten grand that the Texas governor misquoted Romney's book in claiming that he had earlier supported a mandated approach to healthcare.  A 10-thousand dollar bet?  Now that's being "out of touch."  Hillary Clinton saying that she and President Clinton were "dead broke" AFTER leaving The White House is not.  So let's be fair... and let's get the facts straight.  After all...Hillary Clinton never said she is "dead broke" NOW.

     Hillary Clinton is "in touch" with ALL Americans.  And should she decide to run for President in 2016 - and should she win...which I am confident she would - there is nobody else in the United States today who could seek the Presidency... who would better serve our country after President Barack Obama than Hillary Clinton.

     And that's The Controversy for today.

     I'm Gary B. Duglin.

     "We'll talk again."

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