Clinton for President

Her credentials and qualifications are stellar. Perfect? No. Exceptionally competent? Yes. As President Obama said in his endorsement speech, “Hillary is the most qualified person to hold this office, including more qualified than me. She’s got the courage, the compassion, and the heart to get the job done.”

We would add, Clinton also has deep and broad personal and professional experience. She is a graduate of Wellesley College and earned a law degree from Yale. She has met with and developed relationships with leaders face-to-face worldwide from at least 112 countries as secretary of state. Internationally respected, she is consistently voted the most respected woman in the world. Clinton has congressional savvy, serving two terms as US New York senator and, of course, two terms as First Lady to the president of the United States. She knows her way around every locked door and barrier. She stands up to every mudslinger and bully that comes down the pike. Clinton has earned our respect for her ability to think strategically, measurably, and on her feet (i.e., 11 hours in front of the bogus Benghazi committee) and to persevere under the most outrageous onslaught of jacked-up accusations—most of us would have promptly shrunk away from.

Clinton has been on the front line of some of the thorniest issues of our time and survived, sometimes scathed. When she’s screwed up, she learns from it and moves on even as the pundits (24-hour media networks owned by six corporations) continue to resurrect old issues—mostly, it would seem, to increase their bottom line. She gets it that politics is not kindergarten, lollipops, and ice cream.

In 1995 at the Fourth World Conference on Women held in Beijing, China, and attended by 30,000, Clinton, as a keynote speaker, said to the world and directly to the Communist Chinese, “Women’s rights are human rights.” Before and since then, she has used her leadership pulpit to speak out for the equality of women, the poor, and children in the US and in every country.

But what swayed us the most happens to be her stand on climate change: she acknowledges that it should not be a political issue and is a moral crisis, one that demands powerful leadership and accountable cooperation worldwide now, not later. Why? Because no matter how critical all the other issues are, if the planet isn’t livable and sustainable, life as we know it will not exist for the next generation.

Trump has called women pigs and sluts. He has exhorted that climate change is a hoax and says he will tear up the Paris agreement. He says he will deport millions of immigrants; thinks countries like Saudi Arabia should get the nuclear bomb, and says he will pack the Supreme Court with right wingers. His hatred and vulgarity divides one neighbor against another, even suggesting violence from the “Second Amendment folks, if Hillary gets to pick judges” or even mocking the most heart-wrenching and powerful speech made by the Muslim father of fallen war hero and army captain Humayun Kahn, a recipient of the Bronze Star and Purple Heart, who said directly to Trump: “You have sacrificed nothing … no one.” Trump has no uplifting unifying vision to make our great country even greater, no plan to make it safer, healthier, cleaner or more civically, culturally, and economically livable. If he has any new plans or policy, they are a secret. Trump is a loud, ignorant, willfully hurtful, dangerous, reckless blowhard and a despicable example of everything this country is not about. Sadly, it appears that those who support Trump will continue to do so no matter what he says or does.

Being the first woman from a major party ever to be nominated for president has already made history. Firsts always demand an unattainable level of perfection. We predict that if Clinton is elected president of the most powerful nation in the world, most young girls and women in our country and all over the world will be surprised how emotionally thrilled they will be and soon will feel empowered simply by the actuality of her presidency. They will realize that all their dreams, aspirations, and ambitions will no longer be blocked because of their gender.

Vermont Woman joyfully and proudly supports Hillary Clinton as the next president of the United States.

Minter, a Waterbury resident, who has lived in Vermont since 1991, is a Harvard graduate, majoring in sociology, and of MIT, earning an MA in urban planning. In 2004, she was elected to the House of Representatives for six years, serving on the Appropriations and Transportation Committees. In January 2011, she was appointed deputy secretary of transportation just prior to Hurricane Irene. She became the chief recovery officer for the following four months, overseeing the state's massive recovery efforts. In January 2015, she was appointed secretary of transportation, with a $600 million budget and 1,300 employees, and served for nine months, leaving in September 2015 to run for governor.

Minter is endorsed by former governors Hoff, Kunin, and Dean and 52 current legislators, pro-choice Emily’s List, and environment activist Bill McKibben.

Sue Minter in her own words. “What drives me is a real belief in our democracy, and it’s been a sign of how successful and accessible our democracy is here in Vermont that people really have a voice and that people can create a better future, and that’s what drives me — a belief that change is possible, that we can overcome obstacles that seem impossible,” she said.

Minter is running against Republican Phil Scott, who lives in Barre. He served as a state senator for five terms and has been lt. governor for the last six years, serving three terms; he has been consistently elected with bipartisan support. He is well liked, owns a construction business, and races cars at Thunder Road. He is only partially pro-choice, supporting limited abortion access. He is against all gun control regulations and will abolish Vermont Health Connect. As of a few months ago (through some readings), he has come to acknowledge that the planet has an impending climate control crisis., Scott has said he will not vote for Trump, nor will he vote for Hillary, which we feel is a cop-out and actually a vote in support of Trump.(19,974 Vermonters voted for Trump in the primary). The consequences of a Trump presidency are so dreadful that we feel it is absolutely critical that everyone who is eligible cast their vote for Clinton.

Vermont Woman is pleased to endorse Sue Minter as the next governor of Vermont.

Vermont Woman endorsements are the results of staff consensus. Endorsements for the November 2016 election are published in this issue, as it is the only publication prior to the election.