Wednesday, April 01, 2015

Hillary Clinton Makes It Hard to Follow the Money

The Atlantic reports:
One way to evaluate presidential candidates is to follow the money. To whom is a politician beholden? To what extent are her personal financial interests at odds with the public interest? Which moneyed groups is he unlikely to flout?

Republicans and Democrats have their respective (if sometimes overlapping) fundraising bases. Very rich individuals sometimes support a given candidate. And then there's Hillary Clinton, whose relationship to money is even more complicated.

Her family's foundation is one complicating factor. "The Clinton Foundation accepted millions of dollars from seven foreign governments during Hillary Rodham Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state, including one donation that violated its ethics agreement with the Obama administration," the Washington Post reported last month.

That conflict of interest was inappropriate for a cabinet secretary. It ought to be intolerable in a president. Foreign governments would obviously attempt to curry favor or avoid wrath by contributing to an organization that is helping to shape her husband's legacy, providing a livelihood for her daughter, and would perhaps constitute her base of power and influence in the years after she left the White House.
It's all about the money, with Hillary.