EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN

I gather from my Twitter timeline that a lot of people think this is a clever and novel, if calculated, move:

Hillary Clinton is kicking off her second bid for the White House with a road trip, riding from New York to her first campaign stop on Tuesday in Iowa. She was spotted on Sunday evening chatting with people at a gas station in Pennsylvania.

Chris Learn, a 19-year-old student at Penn State Altoona, told CNN that he ran into Clinton at a Pilot gas station. He said she greeted him and asked him questions. He also said she was traveling with a group of people in a small caravan.

"I knew it was her immediately," Learn said. "I just saw her and I was like, there's no way that's her!"

He added: "She didn't really say why she was there, but I was guessing it was for presidential stuff." ...​

Hmmm ... what does this remind me of? Oh, right:

Clinton-Gore bus tour draws enthusiastic crowds

July 20, 1992|By John Fairhall | John Fairhall,Staff Writer

Since they began their eight-state bus tour Friday, Bill Clinton and Albert Gore Jr. have tossed a football, worn blue jeans, played miniature golf, hugged their wives and spoken twice in front of likenesses of John F. Kennedy....

The candidates were enthusiastically welcomed yesterday by an overflow crowd at a community center in Weirton, W.Va. And later, hundreds of people lined the street outside the Stone Presbyterian Church in Wheeling where Mr. Clinton changed from jeans into a suit and appeared on an interfaith religious television cable network program.

Their itinerary also included a visit to an employee-owned steel mill in Weirton, W.Va., and a potluck dinner with farmers in Utica, Ohio, the half-way point of the candidates' 1,000-mile journey to St. Louis....

Hey, but I'm an old guy. I remember that. If you don't remember it, I guess it seems like a fresh approach. So maybe it was smart of Hillary to take it out of mothballs and tweak it a little bit.

Meanwhile, I think this got misattributed:

Just in case you didn't think Elizabeth Warren (and what she stands for) is on the minds of those in Clinton-world, check out this line from Hillary Clinton's just-happened announcement.

"The deck is still stacked in favor of those at the top. Everyday Americans need a champion." Clinton says announcing 2016 candidacy.

— Amy Chozick (@amychozick) April 12, 2015

It's not quite "the system is rigged" -- Warren's most well-known slogan -- but the sentiment is almost identical, and there's no way it's a coincidence.

Well, Bill Clinton had a version of that way back in '92. This is from a speech he gave after that year's California primary:

For too long Washington has rigged our system for the benefit of the few, the quick buck, the gimmick, and the short run. For the first time since the twenties, one percent of the American people control more wealth than the bottom ninety percent.

For this we were promised jobs, but instead we got pink slips and insecurity, worries about health care and education and safe streets. We have tried it that way and now we have to change. I am tired of seeing the people who work hard and play by the rules get the shaft.

You can draw your own conclusions about whether they walk the walk, but the Clintons have been talking that talk for a long time. It'd be nice if Chelsea doesn't need to say it when she runs for president, because it's no longer true. I'm not optimistic. But at least keeping the GOP out of the White House could prevent inequality from getting much, much worse, by design.