Dave Begley: Live from Council Bluffs

Our occasional correspondent Dave Begley was on hand when Senator Kirsten Gillibrand brought her campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination to Iowa on Thursday (thumbnail photo courtesy of Dave). Dave is a Nebraska attorney practicing elder law and estate planning in Omaha. Dave posed an unfriendly question to her from the crowd and escaped to file this report:

Kirsten Gillibrand is a type. She’s a fast-talking, big law firm East Coast lawyer of the feminine persuasion. What she lacks in charm she makes up for in ambition. Remind you of anyone?

I put the question to her directly:

DDB: Senator, some people say that you remind them of Hillary Clinton.

KG: Is it the blonde hair? [Laughs.]

DDB: Maybe that. You’ve won elections in New York. Some of these same people say that you are not very likable. What would you say to those people? [Laughs.]

KG: Okay, I’ll ask everyone here. Raise your hand if you find me likable tonight. Raise your hands. [Crowd cheers and raises hands.]

KG: Unfair question. Let me say something I believe about Hillary Clinton. She’s been a role model for more women and girls globally than any woman in America. She’s somebody that people look up to. [Crowd cheers wildly.] Hillary won the popular vote. [Cheers.] … She’s someone I’ve always looked up to. We are very different people. We have very different stories…. I’m an expert on dairy farming. … But I really respect her greatly. I’m so grateful that she tried so hard to represent this country and try to do what’s right. [Wild cheers.]

I’ve got to give her credit. The Dartmouth alum thought fast and turned the crowd in her favor. She’s trying to step into Crooked Hillary’s shoes and inherit her voters.

Presenting Hillary Clinton as a role model, Gillibrand left out a few items we have all come to know despite the Dems’ best efforts to keep them concealed. She commissioned a dossier composed by a former British spy full of false information to boost herself in the 2016 election. Trump nevertheless won. After her unexpected defeat, the sore loser and her allies used it to promote the now discredited collusion narrative. Hillary Clinton is no role model unless you want your daughters to be crooked.

In her speech Gillibrand asserted “Trump is a coward.” She claims she is brave and that she will “crush Trump in 2020.” Gillibrand is a tough woman, according to Gillibrand. She’s Trump’s Kryptonite.

On all the issues, she a standard progressive Dem. Massive federal money to local schools is one thing she favors that Obama didn’t do. Climate change is our “greatest challenge” and the United States must lead. We have to defeat China in creating Green jobs. She rolled out the ridiculous analogy that the Green New Deal is like JFK’s goal to put a man on the moon. Among other things, the Green Leap Forward would be a colossal waste of our money to solve a problem that doesn’t exist. The Chinese, on the other hand, have real air pollution. Let them fix their own problems.

Senator Gillibrand announced that she will be touring Iowa this summer in an RV with her husband and two sons. She’s ambitious, but I seriously doubt that she’ll be going anywhere.

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