July 25, 2016

I'm not someone who watches 60 Minutes every week. I find their heartwarming stories about sick children (ending with the announcement that the child died six months ago) to be cheap and manipulative. But Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine were on last night and it wasn't a half-bad interview. Above is a clip but if you want to watch the whole thing it's at CBS.com, as is the transcript from which the below is taken:

Scott Pelley: What do you care most about accomplishing as president?

Hillary Clinton: Well, I care most about getting the economy working for everybody. Not just those at the top. I care deeply about rebuilding the ladders of opportunity that have been battered, and broken, and knocked over, so that people can get an education that'll equip them for the future, that they can afford to go to college, that we can help them pay down their debt to get it off their backs. I care deeply about health care, something that has motivated me for many years. And how we defend the Affordable Care Act, fix it, make it work better, take on mental health, prescription drug costs, addiction that are just ripping the soul out of people, families, and communities. And I care deeply about the issues of race and discrimination, the kinds of systemic racism that we are still struggling with and that we have to deal with. And the whole suite of issues that I've talked about through this campaign, that I've worked on are ones that we're going to tackle from immigration reform to gun safety.

That's quite a concise and thorough answer; I'll bet she doesn't speak for 75 minutes on Thursday.

Then her answers show clearly where Bernie Sanders has influenced her policy:

Scott Pelley: Who gets a tax increase? Who gets a tax cut?

Hillary Clinton: The middle class will not get a tax increase. That has been my pledge.

Scott Pelley: What does middle class mean?

Hillary Clinton: Well, we say below $250,000. Because here's what we want to do. We want to go where the money is. Most of the wealth increase, the increase in income, both active and passive, has gone to the very top of the income scale. So I'm with Warren Buffett, who says, "We need the Buffett rule." If you make a million dollars, you should pay a 30 percent rate because you should not be paying a lower rate than your secretary. We need a surcharge on incomes 5 million and up because I have said I will pay for everything I am proposing. I feel strongly about that. And it is in stark contrast to the terrible plans that Trump has been proposing which would soak the middle class, hurt working people, and give huge tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires.

Scott Pelley: Last one. What will be accomplished if you are elected the first woman president of the United States?

Hillary Clinton: I think it would be a great moment for our country because every little boy and every little girl should be given the chance to go as far as his or her hard work and talent might take them. I see it in the eyes of little girls who come to my events. They're so excited and they're so proud because maybe they just discovered we haven't had any girl presidents. And to accept that nomination on Thursday night, I'll be thinking about all the women who came before, all the women who went to Seneca Falls and, for the first time in history, talked about women's equality and women's rights, the suffragettes, the women who knocked their heads against all kinds of barriers and broke through in everything from, you know, space to politics. And I hope that it gives other women and girls the feeling that whatever their dreams might be, they can achieve them in this country.

Tim Kaine: And, you know, if you think about the history of our nation, we stated that all are equal, right, in 1776, but it took 144 years before we said, "And that means women can vote; not just men." So we said we were going to do one thing, but it took 144 years. And then it's taken--

Scott Pelley: Not to mention African Americans?

Tim Kaine: And we can march down the story the-- that that equality promise, which was like a North Star that we'll never reach, but we've been on a journey. And then it took another 100 years-- I mean, we're nearly 100 years later, in 2020, with no woman president. The next President of the United States will be the president that will celebrate 100 years of women having the right to vote. I mean, I think having a woman president lead that celebration would be, you know, one of these instances of history really working out right in a poetic and beautiful way. And part of this journey that we've been on, because then, we'll tackle the next imperfection we have. But this is something that is really, really exciting.

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