How Hillary Clinton might avoid Scott Walker’s fate

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Dear Friends,

I love the richness of our descriptors for gatherings of various life forms. A few of my favorites:
– A pride of lions
– A murder of crows
– A host of sparrows
– A field of presidential candidates

Ok, that last one’s not official. But we use it a lot, and as the field of Republican presidential candidates thins, it seems like a fitting metaphor.

This week, we saw the surprising and sudden exit of Scott Walker. Expect more of that. I predict a Republican field that shrinks to ten candidates, or less.

On the Democratic side? It’s just a matter of time before Lincoln Chafee and Jim Webb call it quits. No surprise there. But what about Hillary Clinton? The trajectory of her campaign is very similar to Walker’s, who once led the Republican field by a substantial margin. And when Joe Biden jumps in and eats-up a chunk of Clinton’s dwindling support, she’ll be under a lot of pressure to step aside.

Something big, different and defining needs to happen to revive Clinton’s campaign. Here’s a thought: None of the candidates have prioritized climate change like the crisis it is. The door to that visionary stance is wide open. Clinton could be the first to sign the Pledge to Mobilize, calling for an emergency response to the climate crisis “carried out on the scale of the American World War II home front mobilization.”

We’ve heard that language before, from  . . . Hillary Clinton! In a speech delivered on November 5, 2007, in Cedar Rapids, Clinton said, “For this generation of Americans, climate change is our Space Race. It is our home-front mobilization during World War II and it is our response to the Great Depression.”

If Clinton were to beat Biden, Bernie Sanders and Martin O’Malley to the punch and distinguish herself as the first candidate to commit to an ambitious, full-scale emergency response to the climate crisis, that would be huge. Would it be enough to send her poll numbers in the other direction? Hard to say. But I, for one, would love to find out.

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A hearty thank you to all who participated in this weekend’s “Rosie the Riveter” action at the Republican candidate forum, and to Rodger Routh for this video: Climate Activists Confront Presidential Candidates in Iowa.

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Check out podcasts from this week’s Fallon Forum:
– The Pearl Project (with Kelly Boon
)
– Lee Camp on Jeremy Corbyn, Bernie Sanders and the FERC fasters
– Water wars and the Iowa Environmental Council’s 20th anniversary (with Katy Heggen
)
– Caucus Buzz: Blown-off by Ted Cruz
 (with Pat Bertroche)
– California fires could be climate’s Pearl Harbor moment

Join us live every Monday from 11:00-12:00 noon CDT on KDLF 1260 AM (Des Moines) and online. Call (515) 528-8122 to add your voice to the conversation. The program re-broadcasts Wednesday on KHOI 89.1 FM (Ames) at 4:00 p.m. and Wednesday on KPVL 89.1 FM (Postville) at 7:00 p.m.

Thanks! – Ed Fallon

2 Replies to “How Hillary Clinton might avoid Scott Walker’s fate”

  1. Nancy Ramacitti

    Ed,
    I am puzzled as to why you are focused on championing Hillary to ask her for a pledge for Climate Change. Clinton still frustrates greens and refuses to comment on the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, the long and ongoing approval process for which she oversaw at the State Department. She missed the vote for the first major cap-and-trade bill considered by the Senate on June 6, 2008, but it could not overcome a Republican filibuster and failed. She is running her campaign with big corporate money who all have a stake at keeping politics as usual and no advancement in climate change…. That means not one thing will change for the future of our country and all of the dedicated efforts you have done and will continue to do will go unnoticed.
    Bernie Sanders record on climate change has been hailed as one of the best. Bernie isn’t taking any PAC money nor corporate interest money. His campaign is coming from the grassroots such as your dedication to your cause is. Maybe you haven’t had time to do the research for Bernie Sanders and what he stands for Please reconsider Bernie’s plan for a healthy planet.
    KEY ACTIONS
    Introduced the gold standard for climate change legislation with Sen. Barbara Boxer to tax carbon and methane emissions.
    Led the opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline.
    Secured $3.2 billion in the economic stimulus package for grants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, in a program that has funded upgrades for more than 86,000 buildings and installed more than 9,500 solar energy systems.
    http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/05/bernie-sanders-greenest-presidential-candidate