Clinton offers sound plans on economic issues

Here then, here in Raleigh, was a candidate for president of the United States who spoke to an enthusiastic crowd at the N.C. State Fairgrounds on Wednesday with substance – with ideas on helping the middle class, on making college affordable and health care accessible and jobs more plentiful and wages more predictable, starting with a higher minimum wage.

Hillary Rodham Clinton also brought a hefty resume: first lady and adviser to President Bill Clinton, one of the most successful presidents of the 20th century; eight years in the U.S. Senate; four years as secretary of state; and before all that, a lifetime of interest in community service, particularly programs pertaining to children.

In addition, while her proposal for debt-free college education is more conservative than that of her Democratic rival, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, Clinton would pay for her plans with a fairer tax system and more controls on Wall Street.

She was specific and hopeful in one of her best appearances thus far in a campaign marked by the blustering and non-specific rhetoric of Republican Donald Trump, who focuses almost entirely on criticizing Clinton as a “liar,” though he doesn’t back up his accusations and offers vague promises about solving all the country’s ills.

Clinton, by contrast, laid things out in Raleigh: raising the minimum wage, tax breaks for the middle class, debt-free college education, economic oversight to prevent the wild swings that produced the Great Recession, penalties to discourage American firms from moving their jobs overseas, more investment in clean energy and not suppressing unions in collective bargaining.

Clinton also wants to target drug companies that have jacked up the costs of prescription drugs for no reason other than that they can.

Hillary Clinton will continue to be criticized for the Benghazi episode (though she has defended her action successfully) and for her and her husband’s connections to big money and foreign interests in building their Clinton Global Initiative. Those criticisms she will have to answer, but on Wednesday, she noted the Clinton Foundation has provided life-saving vaccinations for children and a host of other benefits for the poor around the world.

The Hillary Clinton who came to Raleigh was a confident, capable, positive and hopeful leader, inclusive in her ideas, specific in her solutions.

This story was originally published June 23, 2016 at 7:42 PM with the headline "Clinton offers sound plans on economic issues."