Presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton told college Democrats on Saturday she would create a national academy to train public servants.
| Possibly the worst idea I've ever heard, barring calls to convert to Islam, to become a homosexual, or to become a Democrat. |
"I'm going to be asking a new generation to serve," she said. "I think just like our military academies, we need to give a totally all-paid education to young men and women who will serve their country in a public service position."
 I don't think so.
- First, she's equating a civilian government position with military service, which it isn't, unless they've introduced artillery barrages and land mines into their turf wars down at the Department of Water and Sewage. Most of us assume different motivations between the guy who asks his congress critter to help him get into the Marines and the guy who asks the same politician to get him a job as assistant dog catcher.
- Second, she's demanding the public pay for the production of bureaucrats, which is like asking the dog to buy the vet's scissors.
- Third, can you think of a more blatant, easily abused source of patronage? It's free, it's worth thousands, it'll set you up for life, and you gotta have a congressman sponsor you.
- And fourth, can you imagine a better method of politically indoctrinating hordes of impressionable young chasers after personal power? I may spend the rest of the evening shuddering.
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An older woman carrying a sign that said "She doesn't care, all she wants is the power" yelled at Clinton while the New York senator was speaking in a ballroom on the University of South Carolina campus. Students attending the College Democrats of America convention shouted down the woman down and pushed her from the room.
| They're our local equivalent of Lal Masjid. |
"One of the things I love about politics, you never know what the day will bring," Clinton said.
| "But it's surprising how often the day brings brownshirts beating up old ladies and giving them the bum's rush. It's just so inspiring!" |
Several people at the convention said they were inspired by Clinton's speech and her experience in public service after law school. Clinton was an intern with the Children's Defense Fund, which advocates for minority, poor and disabled children. "I loved her personal stories. ... It wasn't her generic speech," said Katelyn Porter, president of the College Democrats chapter at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island.
| "She was named for Sir Edmund Hillary, did you know that?" |
Porter, who is from Boston and works for a nonprofit organization that helps low-income families, said she has not decided which Democratic candidate she will support. "But Hillary is definitely at the top of the list," she said.
| Wouldn't that mean she's decided? |
Clinton spoke about her conversion during college from a born and raised Republican to a Democrat. "I woke up in my dorm one day and I thought, 'Well, I'm not sure I am a Republican,'" she said to enthusiastic cheers. "I was at the time, embarrassingly enough, the president of the Wellesley College young Republicans." Later, in Beaufort, she told supporters she was running for president "because I think we can set big goals again. There is still so much to be done."
| "So many people to be told what to do..." |
She mentioned universal health care, ending dependence on foreign oil, expanding early childhood education and safely withdrawing troops from Iraq. |
