Clinton harkens back to Roosevelt

Touts liberal credentials over foreign policy in key speech

NEW YORK— To make the case that she is a candidate of the future, Hillary Clinton linked herself Saturday to two figures of the past: Franklin Delano Roosevelt and her mom.

In the first big speech of her second campaign for president, at a park on New York City’s tiny Roosevelt Island, Clinton positioned herself as an unabashedly liberal ideological descendent of the president who used aggressive government action to tackle poverty and inequality.

She said her late mother’s experience — abandoned at 14, helped to succeed by people who believed in her — taught her that “everybody needs a chance and a champion.” She vowed to champion a long list of causes dear to the left: preschool and child care for all, paid family leave, cheaper college education, a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.

“I’m running to make our economy work for you and for every American. For the successful and the struggling,” Clinton said. About those four years . . .

Clinton boasted of her childhood babysitting for the children of Mexican farm workers, her advocacy for those farm workers as a law student, her work for the disabled at the Children’s Defense Fund and her work for the poor as chair of the Legal Services Corporation.

Only much later — 37 minutes into a 45-minute speech — did she discuss her tenure as America’s secretary of state. Briefly.

Republican candidates appear to believe the campaign will be won and lost on foreign policy. Clinton, the candidate with the most foreign policy experience, wants to talk domestic policy — partly because of her mixed legacy as a hawkish senator and diplomat, partly because she believes voters care more about wages and benefits than problems overseas.

She crammed Israel and Russia into the same 12-word sentence. She mentioned the Islamic State once. So yesterday

Every major Republican candidate is younger than Clinton, a 67-yearold, and they have taken turns unsubtly suggesting she is old and stale.

“Yesterday’s news,” said first-term senator Rand Paul. “A leader from yesterday,” said first-term senator Marco Rubio.

Clinton attempted Saturday to reclaim the word for herself. The Republicans, she said, are the real antiques in the race, pushing only the failed policies of yore: tax cuts, free rein for big banks, climate change denial, “shame and blame” for women whose reproductive decisions they dislike.

“There may be some new voices in the presidential Republican choir. But they’re all singing the same old song. A song called ‘Yesterday.’”

For comic effect, she proceeded to read some of Paul McCartney’s lyrics. Later, she made a more powerful argument that was not in her prepared text: how can she be yesterday’s news if nobody like her has ever run the country?

“I may not be the youngest candidate in this race,” she said. “But I’ll be the youngest woman president in the history of the United States!” Higher taxes for my son-in-law

Clinton’s top rival, socialist Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, is trying to challenge her from the left on economic policy. This is harder to do when she sounds exactly like him.

Sanders on Twitter on Saturday morning: “We have a situation where hedge fund managers pay an effective tax rate lower than a truck driver or a nurse. Isn’t it time for a change?”

Clinton two hours later: “While many of you are working multiple jobs to make ends meet, you see the top 25 hedge fund managers making more than all of America’s kindergarten teachers combined. And often paying a lower tax rate.”

Sanders has a far longer history of elites-bashing. And he has a second key advantage in the populism contest: he isn’t a rich guy connected to rich guys. After the speech, Clinton, a multimillionaire, brought her family to the stage: ex-president Bill, daughter Chelsea, and Chelsea’s husband Marc Mezvinsky — a hedge fund manager.