Hillary Clinton jabs Christie, Paul with vaccine tweet
Hillary Clinton voiced her support for vaccinations tweeting "The earth is round, the sky is blue, and "#vaccineswork." Chris Christie and Rand Paul also both recently joined the debate, saying...
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Hillary Clinton jabs Christie, Paul with vaccine tweet - Video
"I'm in it to win it," she said in a YouTube video posted on January 21, 2007.
But even though a second Hillary Clinton for president campaign is all but certain, she and those close to her are debating when she should jump in the race, potentially delaying her entry by months.
There is no waiting for Republicans, who are engaged in a furious behind-the-scenes scramble for advisers and donors. Mitt Romney, Republicans' nominee in 2012, announced Friday he would bow out after just three weeks on the presidential speculation treadmill. Three Republican senators, two current governors and one former governor have all made active moves toward campaigns.
There could be ten or more Republican candidates by this summer. That might be when Hillary Clinton gets around to officially moving toward a campaign, if she heeds some confidantes, who are privately arguing for an announcement in July to coincide with the start of the third fundraising quarter. Delaying until the summer is an idea that is said to be gaining momentum against those who want to stick to the plan for an April start date.
The possibility of the delay is very real but still unsettled.
"I would say it's 40 percent," in the direction of those arguing for a delay, said one Democrat who supports a spring debut for Clinton's presidential campaign. Another Democrat who saw merits in both time lines put the odds of a delay at 50 percent.
Democrats on both sides of the debate spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity so they could make their case without upsetting Clinton or those close to her for talking openly about internal deliberations.
Some Clinton loyalists worry that as the increasingly crowded Republican race heats up, the attacks on her could begin to stick without an apparatus in place to answer them.
The liberal superPAC American Bridge has been countering Republican attacks on Clinton's behalf but many Democrats think it's no substitute for a campaign messaging operation.
"They're doing terrific research," said one, "but they don't know what her specific policy agenda is going to be. She should get in and start putting together a substantive policy agenda so the attacks that are going to begin to come from every single Republican who is jumping in to the race can be answered."
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Clinton advisers are split on when Hillary Clinton should ...
Hillary Clinton is embracing her inner grandma.
After Republican 2016 hopefuls spent a day struggling to finesse the vaccination debate, the 67-year-old Clinton weighed in roughly an hour before midnight: The science is clear, she tweeted late Monday. The earth is round, the sky is blue, and #vaccineswork. Lets protect all our kids. #GrandmothersKnowBest.
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It was just 127 characters, but it struck a chord especially her new hashtag. By Tuesday evening the tweet had garnered roughly 24,000 retweets reaching millions of Twitter followers and making it her most-shared tweet since she jabbed Fox during February 2014s Super Bowl.
The Monday night tweet was just her sixth in 2015, but some of her backers felt it might shed new light on her candidacy.
The message offered a look at how Clinton might approach her likely 2016 campaign for the White House and how she might combat Republican attacks on her age.
While Clinton allies and detractors uniformly cautioned that too much of her strategy should not be inferred from a single late-night tweet, her backers also said the post demonstrated her intention to use her family specifically, her 4-month-old granddaughter, Charlotte as an important strand of her campaign message. It also hinted at how she intends to try to garner positive press and present herself as the adult in the room as the crowded Republican field dukes it out.
It does tap into something that is potentially really powerful for her in terms of how she connects, and how she communicates, said Chris Lehane, a Democratic strategist and alum of President Bill Clintons White House. When she offers a theory of government and connects it to her biography, in particular being a mom and a grandma, and talking about intergenerational equity issues and the possibility to do right by your kids the combination there is a really, really powerful way to communicate.
Clinton first trotted out her granddaughter as a character in her 2014 stump speech while campaigning for Democrats across the country, using the infant Charlotte as a justification for her continued investment in the countrys future. The 4-month-old Charlotte has been featured in more than a dozen of Clintons public appearances, making her a staple.
When you have this little baby, you spend a lot of time just staring at her. You really resolve, as her parents and grandparents [to] do whatever we can to make sure she has the opportunities she deserves to have, Clinton said in New Hampshire in November.
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Hillary Clinton, grandma-in-chief
TIME Politics New York Suburb Seeks to Host Hillary Clinton 2016 Campaign Spencer PlattGetty Images Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at the Cookstoves Future Summit on November 21, 2014 in New York City. Westchester notables are lobbying Clinton for a suburban headquarters if she runs for president
Local luminaries in a suburb of New York City are calling on Hillary Clinton to place her campaign headquarters in White Plainsa small city close to Clintons home in Westchester Countydespite the draw of the nearby metropolis.
At least one Congresswoman and a major real-estate developer are lobbying Clinton to place her headquarters in Westchester if she runs for president, aiming for the prestige and economic benefits of a large operation. A Clinton campaign would be good for Westchester, and a Clinton Presidency would be great for America, said Congresswoman Nita Lowey, the Democratic representative for much of the county. Lowey has encouraged Clinton directly to place her headquarters in the county if she runs.
Half an hour from Manhattan by train, prosaic White Plains is as functional a campaign headquarters as a pair of Crocs and about as chic. A suburb with plentiful office parks, PepsiCos headquarters and 50,000 residents, the Democratic-leaning New York satellite is also squarely in Hillary heartland. The Clintons have had a home in Chappaqua, a hamlet 15 minutes away, since 1999, and White Plains is within striking distance of the presumptive candidates power base in New York City. Clinton aides hinted last year White Plains is a strong option for a possible headquarters.
But recent lobbying efforts by businesses and local politicians may not be enough to keep Clinton close to home, as the presumptive 2016 candidate reportedly weighs a New York City campaign headquarters. New York is home to a large cadre of Clinton allies and devoted young Democrats that could make up her staff.
Where a candidate decides to locate their headquarters can have an outsized influence on the tenor of a campaign. Obamas decision in 2007 to base his campaign headquarters in Chicago made him a more credible Beltway outsider and may have kept his campaign grounded by keeping it far from the New York and D.C. media bubbles. Clinton and John McCain, on the other hand, both had headquarters in the D.C. suburbs during the 2008 campaign.
Robert Weisz, the CEO of the largest privately-held property owner in Westchester, said he has reached out to Clintons staff, aiming to lease his properties to potential campaign. A Democrat and past Clinton donor, Weisz owns 2.5 million square feet of real estate in the county and plenty of contiguous office space large enough to host a presidential campaign.
During Clintons 2008 bid for president, Weisz hosted an 800-person Clinton event on his property on 1133 Westchester Avenue, a commercial space in White Plains. Now hes among the local real estate firms that are keen on bringing a Clinton campaign to the New York suburb. We reached out to her staff for several reasons: one to rent space, and one to be helpful to her possible campaign, Weisz said.
Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino, the Republican nominee in New Yorks gubernatorial election last year, said he hasnt reached out to Clinton directly to ask her to move her headquarters to the county, but that he likely will. I would love for her to set up shop here, Astorino said.
White Plains has the advantage of relatively cheap office space, compared to New York City. The current average annual rent price per square foot of office space in White Plains is around $25, compared with around $60 in Manhattan and $30-$35 in Brooklyn, according to a 2013 report. That can add up. President Obamas 2012 headquarters occupied 50,000 square feet in Chicagos Prudential building, where rents averaged $22-$25 per square foot annually.
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New York Suburb Seeks to Host Hillary Clinton 2016 Campaign
Story highlights Hillary Clinton compared the anti-vaccine position to questioning whether the sky was blue or the earth was round Some Republican presidential hopefuls have questioned the safety of vaccines and whether they should be required
Clinton is the prohibitive favorite for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016 and the tweet was seemingly aimed Republican presidential hopefuls who have questioned whether vaccinations should be required and whether they are tied to mental disorders.
Clinton ends the tweet with a nod to her granddaughter, Charlotte, who was born late last year. Clinton regularly used her grandmother status as a rhetorical tool while campaigning for Democrats in 2014.
Federal health officials have expressed concern over a recent measles outbreak that has been fueled by skepticism among some parents of infant vaccination schedules. Measles is a disease that children a regularly vaccinated against.
READ: Chris Christie sidesteps vaccine science
The issue has become political, despite the fact that claims like vaccines leading to childhood autism have been debunked by scientific research.
Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky questioned the safety of vaccines when he said he had "heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking, normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines."
"I'm not arguing vaccines are a bad idea. I think they're a good thing. But I think the parents should have some input," he said during an interview on CNBC.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, when asked about the issue, said that he choose to vaccinate his children, but added, "Parents need to have some measure of choice in things as well, so that's the balance that the government has to decide."
Parents: What is your message to parents who don't vaccinate their kids?
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Hillary Clinton trolls GOP on Twitter