One of the criticisms against Hillary, that often had the most legs, was how she hasn't really taken any definitive stances on important policy issues. Or any, apparently.
Sure, a clever tweet now and then, a smart calling out of GOP foot-in-mouth moments, but one would think a Presidential campaign would be a bit more than that.
Of course, the standard defense has been, "Well, she isn't officially running yet."
OK, so now that she is officially running, isn't it time now for us to start hearing about what her policy issues and stances are?
So here is her official campaign page.
There's links for donations, for volunteering, watching some videos about her campaign, a big giant link that only just brings you back to the same page, a fun continuation of the arrow motif, and a link to Hillary's story.
Most of the American public kinda already knows who she is, though.
Notice anything missing?
Nothing about issues, policies, what she will or won't do.
There have been a lot of great articles about the key moves and hires her campaign is making. Supposedly indicating the potential stance she will take. And clearly, she has learned how to talk the talk, on things like income inequality and economic populism.
But that is still not her political platform. Can we really say that Hillary is finally running for President, when there isn't anything she is actually running on?
In other words, the things people complained about her before she announced, how she doesn't really stand for anything? Seems like she still doesn't.
Just for kicks, I tried www.hillaryclinton.com/issues/.
Just thought I'd give it a shot.
Now, compare her website to her Republican counterparts.
Here is Marco Rubio's Issues page from his official campaign website. Like Hillary, he only recently announced his run. Not exactly all that sophisticated, but at least he's on the board.
Here is Rand Paul's Issues page. Holy cow, if anything, someone should help him streamline that a bit. Learn how to prioritize, buddy.
Here is Ted Cruz's campaign's home page. Oh, wait, it's not a .com? What happened to tedcruz.com?
Hilarious.
Anyways, Cruz's website doesn't seem to delineate issues yet, but there are a few clear ones right there on the landing page. "Constitution, Stronger, Safer America, Life Marriage & Family, and Jobs and Opportunity." Now, I would advise against diving into any of these, but Cruz has clearly identified the key issues of his campaign. Out of all the other pages, I think his does the best at effectively communicating what issues he will focus on and what his policy stances are.
When Hillary announced that she was running, I'm sure it was a good time for the people who already supported her. Perhaps even for the people who already don't support her, yay, another reason to be mad at her. But what about the people that are still on the fence on whether or not we should stand behind her and focus on the real opponents? When are we finally going to hear what her key policy issues will be?
It's also a matter of integrity. Even if I do not agree with her on 100%, or even 50% of the things she stands on. I would support her, so long as I understood who she was as a candidate, as a person. But all of that is predicated on transparency, which there isn't even anything of substance to support.
Look, maybe by Monday, it will all be different, and her big policy stances will be out there for us to see.
But until that finally happens, there is no way to say for sure what it is she definitively will or won't run on.
And it leads to the question: why?