From the Centre
columnist: Mathew Hulbert

Topic: Hillary Clinton
THE LESSONS CLINTON SHOULD TAKE FROM GORDON BROWN

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Britain's Prime Minister has brought a lot of baggage with him to his job, and is paying the price...would the same happen to a second President Clinton?

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by Mathew Hulbert
(Liberal)
Monday, May 5, 2008

THIS WEEK, here in Britain, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's Labour Party suffered an historic defeat in our country's local elections.

They lost hundreds of Borough and City Councillors.

These are people who, though their roles might not be as dramatic or serious as that of MP's, make a lot of important decisions about local planning, the environment etc.

With this defeat has come muttering amongst the political classes that Mr Brown's time as U.K. Premier might be up, before it has barely even begun.

The trouble for him is that despite many of his policies being good and much needed, he brings with him such a lot of personal baggage (after ten years as Britain's Chancellor) that his protestations about him being 'the change' needed after the years of Tony Blair ring very hollow.

He needs to go back to first principals and remember what the British Labour Party was set up for, more than a century ago: to represent the poor, those who need an enabling Government to help give them a break, a step up, a boost in tough times.

Too much worrying about the 'middle class' and pandering to the right wing press with talk of being 'tough on terror' and' cutting taxes' is what has led people here to think that, if those issues now dominate the agenda, they might as well vote in the British Conservatives who have always put them as priorities.

These lessons need to be heeded by Hillary Clinton as well...she also brings lots of baggage, from her years as the power behind the throne of the last Clinton White House.

Some would say there's too much baggage for her to win the Presidency.

I'm not sure about that but I do know that both her and Brown need to accept and admit to what they've done wrong in the past, return to their guiding principles of helping those who need helping; the poor, hard pressed families, etc and say to the electorate 'This is what I believe, This is what I can do for this country, Back Me and I'll make your lives better and our country a fairer, more decent place.'

If they both continue to try and present themselves as something they're not, they'll both end up out of office.

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2008 Mathew Hulbert, all rights reserved.
Published: Monday, May 5, 2008
Last modified: Monday, May 5, 2008

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