Does Hillary Clinton really have a “Hail Mary” play in the form of an economic plan for solving the credit crisis as suggested by Michael Hirsh over at Newsweek?
So it’s a moment for miracles. And there’s really only one thing Hillary Clinton can do, perhaps, to pull one off. That is to play to her greatest strength–her Clintonian credibility on the economy. The economy, after all, was her husband Bill’s pride and joy during his eight years in office, it is probably her own area of greatest expertise, and now it is the issue of greatest concern to voters. Not surprisingly, the Clinton campaign has spent the last several days discussing how to handle the financial crisis that KO’d Bear Stearns and has dominated the headlines this week. “We’re quite concerned that more action is needed. And we’re spending a lot of time with large numbers of experts on what’s the best framework” for the relief plan, Gene Sperling, her chief economic adviser, told me. Those experts–led by Sperling, former Treasury secretary Robert Rubin, former House majority leader Dick Gephardt, former chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisors Laura Tyson and former deputy secretary of the Treasury Roger Altman–came up with a new $30 billion emergency fund to help states buy foreclosed properties and provide mortgage restructuring. “There will be more in the weeks to come,” Sperling said.
In order to do that Sen. Clinton would need to accomplish several things simultaneously in a perfect veronica. First, she’d need to have a plan. That’s probably the easiest part of the manoeuvre and plays to Sen. Clinton’s policy-wonk strengths although I continue to wonder if she’s ever taken an economics course.
Second, she’d need to convince both Wall Street and Main Street that the plan would work, no mean feat. Not to mention that instilling confidence has not been Sen. Clinton’s strong suit lately.
Finally, she’d need to be able to blame the current situation on the Bush Administration and dodge the charge that the Clinton Adminstration’s policies laid the groundwork for the crisis. That, it seems to me will be the most difficult move. It’s one she hasn’t accomplished with respect to Iraq.
Meanwhile, Hail Mary passes have a low likelihood of completion.
译文:
希拉里的万福马利亚在哪里？
希拉里是否能像赫胥在新闻周刊中描述的那样，以经济政策化解信用危机，从而扭转乾坤呢？
这是等待奇迹出现的时刻。即使是万福马利亚，也只能做一件事情来帮助她获胜。那就是发挥她最大的优势——克林顿主义的经济可信度。毕竟，经济是她丈夫克林顿八年任期的一张王牌。这也很可能是最精通的知识领域。也是选民们目前最关心的问题。不足为奇的是，克林顿竞选团在过去的几天里一直都在讨论如何解决使贝尔斯登公司倒闭金融危机，并于本周引起了各大报纸的关注。“我们十分清楚我们需要采取大量的行动，而且我们已经就如何制订最好的经济缓解政策的问题，邀请许多专家进行了长时间的讨论。”希拉里的首席经济顾问斯珀林向我们透露。这批专家团——由斯珀林领导，其它还有前财政部秘书长罗伯特·鲁宾，前众议院多数党领袖迪克吉哈特，前立法会经济顾问女发言人劳拉泰森和前财政部秘书长代表司罗杰奥特曼。他们筹集起300亿美元的紧急资金，帮助国家购买取消抵押品赎回权并提供抵押贷款结构调整。“在接下来的一周内还会有许多变化”斯珀林说道。
为了做到这一点希拉里将需要在维罗妮卡同时完成的几件事。首先，她需要制订计划。这也许是策略中最容易的部分，然后执行克林顿的计划，虽然，我仍然想知道希拉里是否曾选修过经济学。
第二，她要让华尔街和缅街相信，这个计划会起作用，不是骗人的。更不用说，灌输信心一直都不是希拉里的强项。
最后，她需要就当前的形势，指责布什政府，并规避正是克林顿政府政策才是导致这次危机的根本原因。那在我看来，也是最困难的地方。她还没有解决伊朗问题。
与此同时，万福马利亚也很难帮到忙。