“Contributions are made because the Foundation’s programs improve the lives of millions of people around the globe.”
The foundation does improve lives. But so do a lot of other charities. Why did Algeria or ExxonMobil choose to give this money here? Are the pictures in the annual reports, and at the meetings of the Clinton Global Initiative, more wrenching than in the marketing materials of any other charity, to the point of softening the King of Saudi Arabia’s heart? The Clintons might at least concede the personality-driven nature of the transaction.
.. As John Cassidy recently wrote, much of the foundation’s work involves not direct programs (although, along with its affiliates, it does those, too): “Instead, it identifies specific challenges somewhere in the world, solicits commitments from governments and nongovernmental organizations to meet them, finds corporate sponsors willing to finance the projects, and undertakes to help out with expertise, contacts, and encouragement.” This means that a lot of its charitable work consists of making and maintaining connections
.. All this seems terribly unnecessary. The foundation does a lot of good, and can do more; so can the Clintons, with all their fine talents and intentions, in and out of office. Why push for the marginal, possibly questionable donation or favor, particularly given the scrutiny of a potential campaign? But then, that has always been the mystery of the Clintons.
Unscripted Hillary Clinton Still Feels Scripted
On the basis of what little we’ve seen thus far, Hillary Clinton’s opening gambit is to persuade voters that a candidate of wealth and privilege, who has received fat checks for speaking to Goldman Sachs and will have a projected $2.5 billion campaign war chest, is as simple and down-home and as jus’ folks as the Iowa farmers in Grant Wood’s American Gothic.
Clinton, Bush and the 2016 Presidential Election
As Peter Beinart observed in a National Journal appraisal last year, “She’s terrific at developing and executing a well-defined plan. She’s less adept at realizing that a well-defined plan is not working and improvising something new.” He was previewing a Clinton presidency, but his assessment is equally germane to a Clinton candidacy.