The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Hillary

  • Hillary: I hope Trump ‘ll be a successful president

    Hillary: I hope Trump ‘ll be a successful president

    Thank you so very much for being here. I love you all, too. Last night I congratulated Donald Trump and offered to work with him on behalf of our country.

    I hope that he will be a successful president for all Americans. This is not the outcome we wanted or we worked so hard for, and I’m sorry we did not win this election for the values we share and the vision we hold for our country.

    But I feel pride and gratitude for this wonderful campaign that we built together. This vast, diverse, creative, unruly, energized campaign. You represent the best of America, and being your candidate has been one of the greatest honors of my life.

    I know how disappointed you feel, because I feel it too. And so do tens of millions of Americans who invested their hopes and dreams in this effort. This is painful, and it will be for a long time. But I want you to remember this.

    Our campaign was never about one person, or even one election. It was about the country we love and building an America that is hopeful, inclusive, and big-hearted. We have seen that our nation is more deeply divided than we thought. But I still believe in America, and I always will. And if you do, then we must accept this result and then look to the future. Donald Trump is going to be our president. We owe him an open mind and the chance to lead. Our constitutional democracy enshrines the peaceful transfer of power.

    We don’t just respect that. We cherish it. It also enshrines the rule of law; the principle we are all equal in rights and dignity; freedom of worship and expression. We respect and cherish these values, too, and we must defend them.

    Let me add: Our constitutional democracy demands our participation, not just every four years, but all the time. So let’s do all we can to keep advancing the causes and values we all hold dear. Making our economy work for everyone, not just those at the top, protecting our country and protecting our planet.

    And breaking down all the barriers that hold any American back from achieving their dreams. We spent a year and a half bringing together millions of people from every corner of our country to say with one voice that we believe that the American dream is big enough for everyone.

    For people of all races, and religions, for men and women, for immigrants, for LGBT people, and people with disabilities. For everyone.

    I am so grateful to stand with all of you. I want to thank Tim Kaine and Anne Holton for being our partners on this journey.

    It has been a joy get to go know them better and gives me great hope and comfort to know that Tim will remain on the front lines of our democracy representing Virginia in the Senate.

    To Barack and Michelle Obama, our country owes you an enormous debt of gratitude.

    We thank you for your graceful, determined leadership that has meant so much to so many Americans and people across the world. And to Bill and Chelsea, Mark, Charlotte, Aidan, our brothers and our entire family, my love for you means more than I can ever express.

    You crisscrossed this country, even 4-month-old Aidan, who traveled with his mom. I will always be grateful to the talented, dedicated men and women at our headquarters in Brooklyn and across our country.

    You poured your hearts into this campaign. To some of you who are veterans, it was a campaign after you had done other campaigns. Some of you, it was your first campaign. I want each of you to know that you were the best campaign anybody could have ever expected or wanted.

    And to the millions of volunteers, community leaders, activists and union organizers who knocked on doors, talked to their neighbors, posted on Facebook — even in secret private Facebook sites.

    I want everybody coming out from behind that and make sure your voices are heard going forward.

    To anyone that sent contributions, even as small as $5, that kept us going, thank you. To all of us, and to the young people in particular, I hope you will hear this — I have, as Tim said, I have spent my entire life fighting for what I believe in.

    I’ve had successes and setbacks and sometimes painful ones. Many of you are at the beginning of your professional, public, and political careers — you will have successes and setbacks too.

    This loss hurts, but please never stop believing that fighting for what’s right is worth it.

    It is, it is worth it.

    And so we need — we need you to keep up these fights now and for the rest of your lives. And to all the women, and especially the young women, who put their faith in this campaign and in me: I want you to know that nothing has made me prouder than to be your champion.

    Now, I know we have still not shattered that highest and hardest glass ceiling, but someday someone will — and hopefully sooner than we might think right now.

    And to all of the little girls who are watching this, never doubt that you are valuable and powerful and deserving of every chance and opportunity in the world to pursue and achieve your own dreams.

    Finally, finally, I am so grateful for our country and for all it has given to me.

    I count my blessings every single day that I am an American, and I still believe, as deeply as I ever have, that if we stand together and work together with respect for our differences, strengthen our convictions, and love for this nation, our best days are still ahead of us.

    Because, you know, I believe we are stronger together and we will go forward together. And you should never, ever regret fighting for that. You know, scripture tells us, let us not grow weary of doing good, for in good season we shall reap. My friends, let us have faith in each other, let us not grow weary and lose heart, for there are more seasons to come and there is more work to do.

    I am incredibly honored and grateful to have had this chance to represent all of you in this consequential election. May God bless you and may God bless the United States of America.

    • Text of Clinton’s concession speech  
  • Crunch line: Hillary will yet win

    Crunch line: Hillary will yet win

    In less than 48 hours, it would’ve been determined. The cliffhanger suspense over the United States presidential election would have tipped – throwing up either Hillary Clinton of the Democratic Party or rambunctious Donald Trump from the Republicans. Early voting that has been underway for a couple of weeks now will climax with Election Day tomorrow, and the final outcome conventionally shapes out once ballots are tallied in respective county, municipal and state centre. Losers typically concede defeat even before the final tally is called, but it is a toss if that would happen in this particular election that has been rated perhaps the nastiest in America’s modern electoral history.

    The presidential race in the final week before the November 8 poll was dead heated between the two major contenders. Hillary’s steady lead in opinion polls in preceding months rapidly gassed out, no thanks to an intervention by FBI Director James Comey who announced to congressional leaders upper weekend that the Bureau was scrutinizing more Clinton emails in a resurrected probe into her use of a private server when she was Secretary of State. The emails were uncovered as part of a separate probe of former Congress member Anthony Weiner, estranged husband of top Clinton aide Huma Abedin, who has come under security scrutiny for sending ‘sext’ messages to a 15-year-old girl. Abedin reportedly stored throngs of emails – from indications, including Clinton mails – on Weiner’s computer that was seized by the FBI after the ex-Congressman allegedly sent the illicit messages.

    The FBI had only in July pulled the curtain on its probe of Hillary’s emails, ruling that she broke no law even though she was reckless in her use of a private server as Secretary of State. Hence, Comey’s announcement penultimate Friday was a jolt, at best, or a downright ambush. And when you consider it, that announcement was quite curious: Comey notified Congress of the action before the FBI had even obtained a warrant to look at Abedin’s emails. The warrant was reportedly secured only after-the-fact over the weekend. Besides, Comey publicly commented on evidence in what many considered an ongoing inquiry, and that, just 11 days before the presidential election; whereas in October he had declined naming Russia as meddling in the U.S. election and investigating a potential link between Russia and the Trump campaign because he felt it was too close to Election Day.

    There are hints that Comey, who was appointed Deputy U.S. Attorney-General in 2003 by Republican President George W. Bush but named to the FBI directorship by Democrat President Barak Obama, is himself under the microscope for potentially violating a law that prohibits employees of the Executive arm from engaging in political activity. And it is difficult seeing his intervention, which ended up sending the presidential race to the wire, as anything otherwise. Just consider the effect: against the consistent run of the recent months, the meltdown of Trump’s candidacy was halted and literally rolled back. Opinion polls are reliably scientific indices of likely voting trends in American elections, and in an ABC/Washington Post poll last Tuesday, Trump rebounded to post a one-point lead over Clinton. The Democratic flagbearer also lost her edge in most other polls as the race tightened. The national average by mid-last week though still put her 1.9 points ahead, at 46.7 percent to her Republican rival’s 44.8 percent; but compared to her commanding lead over many weeks past, that was sheer pinpoint balance.

    The seismic potential of Comey’s intervention was by no means lost on anyone, least of all Mr. Trump. The Republican torchbearer, who had recently acknowledged the likelihood of a loss even though he threatened to unconventionally withhold conceding defeat, smelt blood in Clinton’s candidacy and sprinted in for the kill. On campaign trail, he drew a similarity between the Clinton mail probe and the sleaziest tide of American electoral history, the Watergate scandal. “Hillary Clinton’s corruption is on a scale we have never (seen before). We must not let her take her criminal scheme into the Oval Office…The news this morning is – this is bigger than Watergate,” he told supporters. Even Trump’s wife, Melania, who had dropped out of view for some while, hastened back to the hustings to join the ‘IndictHillary’ battle cry.

    On the other hand, the Clinton campaign was blindsided, sapped and left gasping for breath. The Democratic candidate accused the FBI boss of double standard, compared to his disposition only last month in a potential Russia-Trump campaign connection probe. “It’s pretty strange to put something like that out with such little information right before an election. In fact – in fact, it’s not just strange, it’s unprecedented. And it is deeply troubling, because voters deserve to get full and complete facts. And so, we’ve called on Director Comey to explain everything right away, put it all out on the table, right?,” she said.

    And it wasn’t as if Hillary was alone in taking issue with Comey’s intervention. A bipartisan group of former federal prosecutors were reported to have written an open letter in which they said, among others: “Many of us have worked with Director Comey; all of us respect him. But his unprecedented decision to publicly comment on evidence in what may be an ongoing inquiry, just eleven days before a presidential election, leaves us both astonished and perplexed.” Some notable Republicans also openly faulted the FBI chief. A former White House ethics lawyer under President George W. Bush, Richard Painter, wrote early last week in The New York Times: “I never thought that the FBI could be dragged into a political circus surrounding one of its investigations. Until this week.”

    From the way America’s democracy reputedly works, even if Comey is proven down the line to have violated a law or service ethic by his intervention, the immediate effect of that intervention on the country’s electorate could well determine the outcome of the presidential race tomorrow. And it seems apparent enough that the global community, in rare unanimity, frets at the prospects of a Trump win. With his xenophobic bullying and arrogant swagger, there is little doubt he will upset the delicate balance of international relations if he makes it to the White House. Given the commanding role of the United States in global affairs therefore, the world – Nigeria not exempt – can’t be indifferent to how the American presidential race pans out.

    I hazarded saying in my column last week that the Republican candidate was headed for his waterloo. Even though the piece outed last Monday, it was penned a few hours before Comey butted in to dislocate the prevailing trend that informed such conclusion. Still, I dare say even now that it is far from being an open path home for a Trump victory.

    Informed commentaries on the race last week, following Comey’s meddling, showed that Hillary, though shaken up, remained on track to nail down the 270 electoral votes needed to win the race. And neither were her chances for popular votes badly dimmed. Actually, not a few pundits argued that while Clinton has multiple paths to victory, with wide manoeuvre room for misses, Trump must hit perfectly home on all projections to turn the turn the table. And things hardly work that way, particularly with the toss-up states. For instance, Clinton looks good for the presidency once she takes Florida, where she is dead heated with Trump. The same is likely for Ohio and North Carolina, but she could still win if she loses both states and instead takes Pennsylvania and one other state, like New Hampshire – two places where she has led the polls since July. Trump simply has no such manoeuvring room.

    Take my word, take a bet on it if you dare: Hillary Clinton will win the White House.

  • How next U.S. president will emerge

    How next U.S. president will emerge

    Many democracies across the world are fashioned to reflect the United States (U.S.) presidential model. How many of those democracies have constitutional technicalities that almost made the U.S. presidential system a flawless model?

    Presidents and Vice Presidents are elected by popular votes in a presidential system. But, the U.S. model is complex. According to the U.S. Constitution, America’s presidents and vice presidents are not elected by citizens’ votes alone. After the popular votes, the contenders for the U.S. presidency will need to go for another election at the Electoral College.

    Electoral College, as the name may have implied, is not an institution, but a group of representatives (electorals) from all the federating states. America’s founding fathers ostensibly foresaw a situation where an unpopular candidate may find his way into the White House. “American founding fathers feared the rule of the mob and feared about democracy,” John Zogby, a renowned pollster, said of the Electoral College.

    Zogby, senior partner at John Zogby Strategies, said the purpose behind Electoral College as is to give every constituency an opportunity to have input in the selection of who becomes occupant of the White House. He said it is a form of check and balance in the electoral process to prevent election of a “dangerous candidate”.

    In the U.S., there is a total 538 Electoral College votes. This number is determined according to constituencies represented in the Congress. The representatives of these constituencies may automatically become the electorals or each party may nominate loyal members as electorals.

    Each state has two senators. Membership of the House of Representatives is varied, because it is based on population and size of a constituency.

    For any candidate to be elected president or vice president, he must garner 270 majority out of 538 Electoral College vote.

    Does that mean the popular vote is meaningless?

    Winning popular votes during the presidential election is not enough to declare a candidate as winner, but it puts such candidate in a position to win the Electoral College votes of the state. For a candidate to win electoral votes in a state, he has to win the state during presidential election.

    In his analysis, Zogby said: “New York State, for instance has 29 Electoral College votes. A candidate does not have to win the majority of the popular votes to win New York; if that person just wins the total votes cast, that person gets the full 29 electoral votes. It is the same way in almost every state. There are couples of states that are different, such as Nebraska and Maine. It is because they are very small states.”

    How Electoral College works

    Traditionally, Republican and Democratic parties put together a slate of electorals in each state. These are loyal members and people that could be counted on to support their candidates. According to the U.S. Constitution, one month after the presidential election is held, the electorals of the winning party in each state go to the state capital to cast their Electoral College votes for the president and vice president.

    Each electorals will cast ballots for the president and do the same for the vice president. This is regarded as the official election to the U.S. presidency.

    Can any electoral change his mind?

    There is possibility an electoral may change his mind and vote against the party’s directive. Although, the electorals are chosen on the basis of long time loyalty to the party and trust, but America’s founding fathers wanted in the system to run a final check and ensure Americans did not elect somebody too dangerous.

    The electorals are deemed as responsible people and can ultimately make the decision on behalf of their constituencies.

    Zogby said: “It is impossible that electorals may go to the state capital to cancel out that state’s votes. This has not happened, but individual electorals vote according to their conscience. When people cast popular votes on election day, they vote for candidates in each party as a single ticket.

    “But, electorals, technically, will cast two different ballots. It is technically possible to elect the president from one party and vice president from another party. It depends on who each party chooses as electorals in the first place.”

  • Take a leaf from Hillary

    Take a leaf from Hillary

    In the past two months I have had three different prospective clients, in three different industries, approach my team with the same objective in min d. The first prospect, a division of one of the major multinational oil companies, wanted us to facilitate a session on accountability at their staff retreat. Specifically they identified challenges with shared-accountability and a culture where “someone’s head must roll” when things go awry. The second, a fast moving consumer goods company, wanted to hold an annual conference themed “Personal Accountability”. They wanted their staff to be motivated to do whatever it took to achieve their individual targets. The belief is that if every member of the team can go the extra mile every day, to sell an extra unit, the entire organization would not only achieve its target, it would exceed it. The third prospect was a community healthcare provider. Their middle management team wanted to incorporate a session on “Personal Effectiveness” into the agenda for their annual strategy retreat. After a ninety minute meeting with them, it became apparent that the underlying issue they wanted to address was the lack of proper accounting of resources, specifically time and funds by members of the organization.

    Across the globe, in Syria, Europe, India, United States and Africa, accountability seems to be a burning issue. This past week I was opportune to watch Hillary Clinton on CNN, as she testified at the Senate Hearing on the Bengali tragedy which happened in the later part of 2012. This was the first time I heard the terminology Accountability Review Board (ARB) and it not only struck me, it stuck with me. Apparently an ARB is not a new phenomenon in the US, and one was set up at the insistence of Hillary to look into the events that led to the attack on the United States (US) Embassy in Libya which resulted in the death of four US citizens, including the ambassador. What was most amazing to me was the fact that, between 11 September 2012 and 23 January 2013, a thorough review of the incident had taken place, a comprehensive report had been issued and thoroughly scrutinized, and now the US Secretary of State was appearing before the US Senate to “Give Account”, “Give Answers”, “Identify Lessons Learned” and “Proffer Solutions”. It was a demonstration of what I call the four pillars of accountability, namely Responsibility, Answerability, Transparency and Control.

    Several moments stood out during the hearing, for me. The first was when Hillary angrily rebuked a senator for focusing on the alleged misrepresentation by the white House, of the cause of the attack as a protest turned violent instead of a terrorist attack, rather than on the important task of making the perpetrators “answer” for their crimes against the United States. The second moment was when Hillary took accountability for the incident. It did not matter that her subordinates did not pass on to her what now seems to be very important communication about the poor state of security in Libya, nor the fact that the senate had cut the budget that funded US embassy security across the world. She accepted responsibility not necessarily because she was at fault, but rather because someone has to put an end to the “buck passing” and take on the responsibility of making “course-corrections” going forward.

    As I pondered on the system of accountability in US governance and how Hillary gracefully and confidently handled herself, I felt an admiration for her and it all finally made sense to me. Leadership is Accountability, and Accountability is Leadership. I have often written and spoken about the two, but never has it been clearer to me that one cannot exist without the other. Without accountability there can be no effective leadership, whether it is “Personal Leadership” i.e. leading your “self” to achieve objectives or “People Leadership” i.e. leading others to accomplish common goals. Without leadership there can be no accountability. Someone must take ultimate responsibility for creating a vision, fostering harmony and development, making the right decisions and achieving desired results, whether for themselves or for others.

    If you take nothing else away from this article, let this one thing stay with you. You will not be a leader in the achievement of the objectives and goals you set for 2013 if you do not play the game of accountability. Take a leaf from Hillary Clinton’s book. To be a great leader, whether of yourself or others, you must submit yourself to your objectives, take active responsibility for getting things done, readily give answers (not excuses) for the outcomes that are realized (both intended and unintended), maintain transparency in everything that you do, and be ready to make decisions, not only about what you must do, but also about what you must not do in 2013.

    From me to you, all the best in the achievement of your 2013 objectives! May fortune favour your preparedness!!