Tom Vilsack Endorses Hillary Clinton

I like Tom Vilsack. His speaking style is a bit dull but if you listen closely to what he's actually saying, he gets it. I'm to the left of him somewhat, but he's a principle moderate and we need more like him. I'm sorry he dropped out of the race.

Vilsack and his wife have had a friendship with the Clintons for some time so it's not surprising that Tom Vilsack is endorsing Hillary Clinton. Reuters has the story:

Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, who dropped his brief presidential bid last month, endorsed Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's candidacy for the White House on Monday.

"This is the person to be the next president of the United States," Vilsack said at a news conference with Clinton. "She is tried, she is tested and she is ready."

Vilsack said the endorsement was in part a result of the former first lady's fund-raising efforts on his behalf during his first campaign for governor in 1998.

"In politics, loyalty is a commodity that is rare," Vilsack said.

I appreciate what Vilsack is saying but given how dysfunctional loyalty in the Republican Party has become, I wish he had found a better way to talk about loyalty. There's also concern that Hillary Clinton can sometimes be more loyal to her campaign contributors than to her Democratic supporters. If Hillary Clinton wins the nomination, I will work for her and work hard but I hope she doesn't take people like me for granted.

Actually, my loyalty is reasonably easy to buy. All a candidate has to do is put the American people first, work hard for the average American, take on the growing new problems of the 21st century and take on the issues that have been ignored for the last twenty-five years. In defense of Bill Clinton, he was obstructed on some issues by an obstinate Republican Congress but he had his weak areas. Bill Clinton didn't push very hard on the environment or on a decent energy policy. And in his first term, foreign policy at times was not on the front burner. Hillary Clinton needs to give us some strong assurances that she'll do better than her husband did on some of these critical issues.