The case for VP Elizabeth Warren

No matter how much money they raise, every political campaign is strapped for cash. Even Hillary Clinton’s campaign. So here’s my tip on how the Clinton campaign can save a lot of money: for Secretary Clinton to turn off the spigot. Tell her vice-presidential selection team to go home. Stop vetting anybody else – and just name Elizabeth Warren as her running mate.

There’s only one reason to pick Warren, and it’s not what most pundits say: not because Clinton needs Warren on the ticket to win over Bernie Sanders supporters. Despite all the fears expressed by Clinton staffers during the campaign, that’s not a problem. The latest Washington Post/ABC News poll, released this week, shows that 81 percent of Sanders supporters already say they’ll vote for Clinton. Only 8 percent of them support Donald Trump.

To put that in perspective, in 2008, according to the Washington Post, Clinton supporters were much slower to embrace Barack Obama. In June 2008, immediately after the primaries, 20 percent of Clinton supporters said they’d never vote for Obama. In July, their number rose to 22 percent; by October, they leveled off at 14 percent. In other words, Clinton’s already won over a greater percentage of Sanders supporters than Obama ever won among Clinton supporters. So that’s not why Clinton needs Warren.

No, the one reason for choosing Warren is that she’s simply the best, period. Best candidate. Best public speaker. Best in revving up a crowd. Best on her feet. And best on the issues. On the progressive agenda, there’s little daylight between Sanders and Warren. In the campaign and in the White House, she’ll play the same role Sanders did during the primary: pushing Clinton to the left on issues like trade, climate change, campaign reform, fracking, minimum wage and cracking down on Wall Street.

Warren has one other advantage: More than anybody else, she knows how to get under Donald Trump’s thin skin. He gets totally flustered when trying to respond to her taunts, falling back on childish name-calling, like “Pocahontas,” “sell-out,” or even “goofy.” To which Warren deliciously responds: “You want to see goofy? Look at him in that hat.” She also sums up best who Donald Trump really is: “a small, insecure money-grubber.”

The case for Elizabeth Warren becomes stronger the longer you look at the weak arguments against her.

One. She has little foreign policy experience. How much did Barack Obama have? Or George W. Bush? Plus, she’d be running with someone who probably has more foreign policy experience than any presidential candidate since Thomas Jefferson.

Two. If she wins, Democrats would lose her Senate seat for the next six years. Not necessarily true. Under Massachusetts law, the governor nominates someone to fill a Senate vacancy, but only temporarily — until a special election, held three months later. So even if Republican Gov. Charlie Baker named a Republican replacement for Warren, Democrats would still have a chance to recapture the seat in three months.

Three. But Wall Street doesn’t like her. Exactly! That’s why she’s perfect. Because Americans don’t like Wall Street, either. With Elizabeth Warren alongside Hillary Clinton in the White House, Americans would know there was someone fighting for Main Street, protecting consumers by keeping financial institutions in check and preventing them from playing the same funny-money games that crashed the economy in 2008.

Fourth and final argument against Elizabeth Warren – don’t you love this one? – “America’s not ready for two women on the ticket.” Nonsense. That reminds me of 1992 in California when everybody said California would never elect two women, two Jews, or two candidates from the San Francisco Bay Area to the U.S. Senate. Guess what? Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer are still there.

Let’s face it, the United States lags behind Israel, England, Indonesia, Germany, Ireland, Latvia and many other countries in electing a female leader. There’s no doubt a woman can do the job as well as, if not better, than a man. Indeed, men have messed things up for so long, it’s time to give a woman a chance. And the only thing better than one woman in the White House is two.

Of course, there will be those who advise Clinton to play it safe and go with a boring white male – advice she should simply ignore. This is the time for bold, not cautious, leadership. If you’re going to make history, make it big.

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A travel agent for guilt trips

Dear Dave,

My parents left their six-figure jobs to enter the ministry when I was in high school. That was 10 years ago, and my mom still regularly asks me to share my money with them. I don’t mind helping out once in a while, but this has been going on for a long time, and I’ve started feeling bitterness about the requests and their bad financial decisions. My mom also tries to make me feel bad sometimes if I can’t afford to give them as much as they want. She constantly references their calling, and that I should want to help with that. How can I stop this pattern?

Renee


Dear Renee,

This is not a healthy situation for anyone involved. By consistently giving or loaning your parents money, you’ve lost respect for them in the process. The relationship has become strained, and that’s a tough thing for anyone to deal with – especially in a parent-child situation. On top of all that, your mom sounds like a travel agent for guilt trips. It seems like she’s working you over while implying it’s all really for God. That’s toxic.

Going into the ministry is an admirable thing. However, I remember a guy in the Bible named Paul who made tents while he conducted his ministry. I’m paraphrasing, of course, but his line was something like, “If you don’t work, you don’t eat.” He had a job, remember? So, suggesting that someone work outside the ministry while trying to do God’s work isn’t mean or unfair.

No one should do this to their child, and it’s going to be hard to unravel it all and turn it into a respectable situation. I hope everyone will consider sitting down with a mature third party and developing a situation where you’re no longer giving or lending them money.

In the meantime, read a book called “Boundaries” by Dr. Henry Cloud. After that and some objective intervention, I think this situation will become a lot healthier for everyone.

Dave


Are you sick of being in bondage to debt? Get free with Dave’s book “Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness”


Life’s calling

Dear Dave,

My husband and I make $180,000 a year combined, and we have a net worth of about $1.6 million. We’ve been blessed financially, and lots of times motivated by a survival point of view, but what do you do when you’re not motivated by that kind of thing anymore? How do you find and live out God’s purpose for your life?

Lisa


Dear Lisa,

Congratulations on your success! You guys really have been blessed, and it sounds like you’ve worked hard for your wealth.

If you’ve ever studied psychology a little bit, you may remember Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Basically, once you get physiological and safety needs met, you feel a need to find other things to motivate you. It sounds like you’re a performance-oriented person. So am I. People like us get our relaxation and even fulfillment away from work in different ways than most people.

My suggestion would be to start thinking about ways you can serve and help other people or causes you care about. This could even mean becoming a stay-at-home mom for a while and really pouring into your kids, if you have them. If it’s something else, that’s OK, too. How about this? You’ve obviously been thinking about this stuff for a while. Take a day all to yourself, away from everything and everybody, and bring along nothing but some food and drink, a bunch of notepads and pencils, and a Bible. Open up your mind and your heart to the things you care about and all the possibilities. You have to have a goal that is worthy in your mind, and you don’t have that right now.

I can’t tell you what your calling is, Lisa, but I can say this. There’s tons of joy and fulfillment to be found when you’re working in a way to serve the people and things that matter most in your life!

Dave

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IRS to return $30K seized from Maryland dairy farmers

(Daily Signal) After more than four years, two congressional hearings, and countless pleas to the IRS and Justice Department, Randy Sowers’ fight with the federal government is finally coming to a close.

The Internal Revenue Service is returning the $29,500 it took from the Frederick County, Maryland, dairy farmer, ending his long journey through the civil asset forfeiture system.

“When you’re in kindergarten, you learn that if you’ve taken something that doesn’t belong to you, you have to give it back,” Rob Johnson, a lawyer with the Institute for Justice who represented Sowers, told The Daily Signal. “In this case, the IRS has taken money that didn’t belong to them. We asked the IRS to do the right thing and give the money back, and now they have.”

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Majority of Democrats want 3rd term for Obama

(The Hill) A strong majority of Democrats would cancel the 2016 presidential election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump if it meant President Obama could serve another term, a new poll found.

Data provided to The Hill by the conservative polling outlet WPA Research found that 67 percent of Democrats would take a third term for Obama over a potential Clinton administration.

Only 28 percent said they’re ready to move on from the Obama White House, while 6 percent are undecided.

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White House defends Lynch from Clinton-meeting fallout

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(TheHill) The White House on Thursday defended Attorney General Loretta Lynch from criticism over her private meeting with former President Clinton.

The meeting took place in the midst of a federal investigation into his wife, Hillary Clinton, and her private email server during her tenure as secretary of State, but White House press secretary Josh Earnest said both Lynch and President Obama are committed to conducting a fair investigation.

“I think the bottom line is simply that both the president and the attorney general understand how important it is for the Department of Justice to conduct investigations that are free of political interference,” he told reporters.

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Dow, S&P post 3rd-straight quarterly gain

(CNBC) U.S. stocks closed higher Thursday, the last day of the quarter, in their third-straight day of recovery from the post-Brexit sell-off.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose nearly 1.4 percent for the quarter, while the S&P 500 rose 1.9 percent for their third-straight quarter of gains.

The Dow closed about 235 points higher with 3M, IBM and Goldman Sachs the top contributors to gains as all constituents except Visa rose. Consumer staples rose 2.2 percent to lead all 10 S&P 500 sectors higher.

“I think it’s a continuation of trying to sort out what Brexit means and what’s important to investors,” said Bruce McCain, chief investment strategist at Key Private Bank. “Whether they decide it means nothing, … were going to have to wait and see.”

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Dow, S&P post 3rd-straight quarterly gain

(CNBC) U.S. stocks closed higher Thursday, the last day of the quarter, in their third-straight day of recovery from the post-Brexit sell-off.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose nearly 1.4 percent for the quarter, while the S&P 500 rose 1.9 percent for their third-straight quarter of gains.

The Dow closed about 235 points higher with 3M, IBM and Goldman Sachs the top contributors to gains as all constituents except Visa rose. Consumer staples rose 2.2 percent to lead all 10 S&P 500 sectors higher.

“I think it’s a continuation of trying to sort out what Brexit means and what’s important to investors,” said Bruce McCain, chief investment strategist at Key Private Bank. “Whether they decide it means nothing, … were going to have to wait and see.”

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Dow, S&P post 3rd-straight quarterly gain

(CNBC) U.S. stocks closed higher Thursday, the last day of the quarter, in their third-straight day of recovery from the post-Brexit sell-off.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose nearly 1.4 percent for the quarter, while the S&P 500 rose 1.9 percent for their third-straight quarter of gains.

The Dow closed about 235 points higher with 3M, IBM and Goldman Sachs the top contributors to gains as all constituents except Visa rose. Consumer staples rose 2.2 percent to lead all 10 S&P 500 sectors higher.

“I think it’s a continuation of trying to sort out what Brexit means and what’s important to investors,” said Bruce McCain, chief investment strategist at Key Private Bank. “Whether they decide it means nothing, … were going to have to wait and see.”

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Poll explores whether Americans know enough to pass citizenship test

Survey tests more than 2,000 respondents on questions included on the exam immigrants must pass as part of the process of gaining citizenshi…

     

 

 

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