Posted on 05/04/2003 8:47:17 AM PDT by mountaineer
WASHINGTON - Three years ago, first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton opened her Senate campaign with promises to help lift the flagging upstate New York economy into the 1990s boom enjoyed by the rest of the country. But today, two years after she entered the Senate, upstate is in an even deeper slump. The only difference now is that the rest of New York and the nation have joined upstate in a recession.
At the same time, Clinton has emerged as the Democratic Party's most ferocious critic of President Bush. She received a party leadership post and is mentioned constantly - despite her denials - as a presidential contender, if not for next year, then in 2008.
But her record as a successful advocate of upstate's interests is mixed, and she is nagged by negative job performance ratings in statewide polls, especially soundings in upstate New York.
In her first months as senator, Clinton kept her campaign promises and introduced seven bills designed to help the upstate economy.
But only two became law.
One promoted small-business incubators, and the other fostered regional skills alliances.
The other five bills went to the back burner, never reaching the Senate floor - not even during the 19 months the Democrats controlled the Senate. She has reintroduced two of the lapsed five in this new session of Congress.
Clinton also failed to deliver on two recent high-profile Buffalo-area issues:
• Getting the Bush administration to release $31 million in held-up funds for Women's and Children's Hospital.
• And she - and Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y. - largely left it to the region's House members to obtain federal money for the Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics at the University at Buffalo.
Independent commentators on the left, center and right said Clinton's interest in Western New York seems to have waned.
"She needs to deliver," said UB political scientist James E. Campbell. "She made a lot of promises to help the upstate economy.
"She has absolutely nothing to point to on that front in her tenure in Senate office," said Campbell, a conservative. "She's sort of the senator who's missing in action."
Clinton "has not devoted the attention to this area that we think we are entitled to," said Canisius College political scientist Michael Haselswerdt, who leans Democratic. "That is why she is not wildly popular around here right now."
Recent surveys by Zogby International and the Marist College Poll show voters statewide view her performance negatively.
In the Zogby sample, 60 percent of those surveyed in upstate viewed her work negatively, while only 39 percent thought she is doing a good or excellent job.
Former State Democratic Chairwoman Judith Hope called Clinton "the hardest-working senator I've ever known, more focused on getting the job done than in satisfying political pollsters."
In an interview with The News, Clinton said questions about her performance in view of her campaign promises "are very appropriate."
"I'm two years into my term, and I'm taking stock of the situation," she said.
But Clinton blames Bush's tax cut and deficit policies for New York's inability to emerge from recession.
"I've been thinking very hard over the last couple of months," she said, of how to help the state's economy in the face of the Bush administration's "irresponsible" deficit policies.
One adjustment Clinton cited was going on the Armed Services Committee so she can help revive New York's former prominence in defense procurement.
"I'm immersing myself in the arcane lore" and other folkways of the Defense Department, she said.
Clinton also said she is pursuing, along with legislative remedies, a number of specific projects in Erie County, Corning, Binghamton and elsewhere in the Southern Tier to generate new private-sector jobs.
These efforts, she insisted, "will stand the test of time."
After she defeated a little-known Republican opponent, Long Island Rep. Rick A. Lazio, by a wide margin, largely because of her upstate emphasis, Clinton quickly turned her attention to larger matters.
Under an $8 million deal with Simon & Schuster, she had a June deadline to meet for publication of her memoirs. She also became a major national fund-raiser for the Democrats, creating two special treasuries for that purpose.
On the national scene, Clinton has drawn attention for her interest in women's issues, including sexual harassment at the Air Force Academy.
But it was the destruction of the World Trade Center that turned everyone's eyes toward lower Manhattan, including Clinton's.
Clinton emerged as the leading voice in Congress for ensuring that Bush came through on his promises to send $20 billion in special aid for the reconstruction of ground zero and areas around it.
Since then, Clinton made federal help for New York City's firefighters and police, and homeland security, her special causes.
Her interest in New York City has not gone unrewarded. An April 7 Zogby poll said voters there rated her performance 62 percent positive and 35 percent unfavorable.
However, her performance rating plunges outside the city.
Statewide, those questioned by the Marist College poll rated her performance negatively: 47 percent positive versus 49 percent unfavorable.
In the public's view of her work, a canyon separates Clinton from Democratic Sen. Charles E. Schumer. Marist respondents rated Schumer's performance 52 positive against 35 percent negative statewide.
"She's less visible than she ought to be," said Gerald Benjamin, an expert on state government and politics at New Paltz State College.
(Excerpt) Read more at buffalonews.com ...
She repeated, as she so often has, that she will serve out her Senate term, leaving open the possibility, some say the likelihood, she will run for president in 2008.
Let's hold her to this promise.
Yeah, let's hold a serial liar to her promise.
The pardon stank in 2000; in a post 9/11 world the stench should make her unelectable.
Lots of luck>
I like that!
so she can help revive New York's former prominence in defense procurement.
Sheesh. I guess she should have called her book "It Takes a Village to Build a Bomb". I had no idea she was soooo supportive of the military.
The Shrew never had an interest in Buffalo or the state of New York. If one listens to Schumer, it is obvious that he actually understands what concerns western New Yorkers. The Shrew has always sounded phoney.
Turner (the author of this article) is not a very bright man. His writing (like most News writers) is embarrassing. Oh, and he is a liberal. In other words, the perfect stooge for The Shrew.
I think that not getting into the White House will be more devestating to Hillary than it was for Bill to leave it.
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