FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2016 | MORE COVERAGE AT DAILYASTORIAN.COM
| PRESIDENTIAL RACE
AP Photo
HILLARY
CLINTON
SHOULD BE
OUR NEXT
PRESIDENT
O
n Election Day, Hillary Clinton
should make history by becom-
ing the nation’s fi rst woman
president, and she has our
endorsement for the job.
Republican billionaire Donald Trump is
simply unsuited to be president of the United
States. He is an arrogant bully, a loose cannon
who lacks the judgment, integrity, tempera-
ment and honesty that our country needs at the
helm of the largest democracy in the world.
Two other candidates, Libertarian Gary
Johnson and the Green Party’s Jill Stein, are
also on the ballot. While Johnson has the most
support between those two and has a solid
grip on domestic affairs, he doesn’t have the
full command of global issues the presidency
requires.
Hillary Clinton, by contrast, is fully capable
of leading our country. By becoming president
she would break barriers that shouldn’t exist.
She has prior top-level experience as s ecretary
of s tate and as fi rst lady of the country while
her husband, Bill, was president. She has the
professionalism, temperament and sophisti-
cation to lead this country, as evidenced by
her steady composure during the debates with
Trump where he imploded in front of a world-
wide audience.
She supports overall immigration reform
and wants to improve the Affordable Care Act
rather than shelve it. She also supports equal-
ity and has worked all of her career to improve
the lives of children, women and families. She
ENDORSEMENTS
wants a raise in the federal minimum wage to
$12 an hour, and she says a priority will be to
fi nd fi nancial help for students so they don’t
leave college with enormous debt.
Those are all values we support, but
our endorsement also comes with several
reservations.
Clinton’s programs come with a steep price.
They would greatly increase federal spending
and taxation at a time when the national debt
is continuing to soar.
Polls also show there are deep questions
of trust as a result of her misinformation
during the aftermath of the terrorist attack on
Americans in Libya along with the scandal
of mishandling emails on a private personal
email server that were sensitive to national
security. Her acknowledgment that she made
mistakes, though, shows she has learned from
them and moved forward.
As president, we hope Clinton is far
more transparent and takes a more moder-
ate approach to spending, two elements that
have divided America for nearly a quarter of
a century since her husband was in offi ce. Her
choice of her running mate, U.S. Sen. Tim
Kaine of Virginia, is also a good one. He is
steady and known for his leadership and con-
sensus building, which both he and Clinton
will need when working with a stagnated
Congress and unresponsive federal agencies.
On foreign policy, Clinton is a tena-
cious, skilled diplomat and she has argued for
America’s position with a host of unfriendly
world leaders. Her toughness and coolness
under pressure will be needed when our coun-
try is tested by the likes of North Korea, Iran
and Russia.
And domestically, Clinton is pragmatic and
has a record of bipartisanship. She has a great
opportunity to help the country heal. While
Trump is an unelectable candidate because of
his deep personal fl aws, his candidacy tapped
into the fi erce discontent with governmental
gridlock and of disenfranchised people feel-
ing left behind by the recession that changed
our economy and lifestyles. That discontent
is fi lled with governmental mistrust, and that
needs to be fi xed from the top down. Clinton
needs to make that a top priority, and she will
need to prod Congress to action so Americans
can realize a new era of prosperity.
For that prosperity to have a chance to
occur, voters need to put Hillary Clinton in the
O val O ffi ce.
| U.S. SENATE
Wyden is clear choice
V
oters have an easy choice in
the U.S. Senate race that pits
incumbent Democrat Ron
Wyden against Republican challenger
Mark Callahan. Wyden is clearly the
stronger candidate and is in a far bet-
ter position to further Oregon’s inter-
ests. He should be re-elected.
Wyden’s opponent, Callahan, is
an information technology profes-
sional and has been active in Repub-
lican Party politics in Portland,
Salem and Eugene, but he lacks
the overall experience that Wash-
ington demands to be able to ful-
fill the state’s federal needs. Also on
the ballot are Steven C Reynolds, an
Independent; Eric Navickas, a Green
Party candidate; and Shanti S Lewal-
len, representing Working Families.
Wyden was first elected to the
Senate in 1996, after serving in the
U.S. House of Representatives for
15 years, and holds the Senate seat
once held by his mentor, the late
Wayne Morse.
In the Senate Wyden is well -
known as an inveterate, bipartisan
dealmaker. In a Congress typified
by an absurd standoff, Wyden stands
apart. National publications such as
The Wall Street Journal have noticed
his rare doggedness to find com-
mon ground with Republicans, par-
ticularly in the areas of health care,
technology and natural resources.
If the health care bill that Wyden
authored and was co-sponsored
by Republican Sen. Bob Bennett
of Utah had moved, we would not
be having the problems that afflict
Obamacare.
But
the Obama White
House would not
take
Wyden’s
approach seriously.
Wyden has also
been a dogged skep-
Ron Wyden
tic of the National
Security Agency’s eavesdropping
and surveillance on Americans that
began as part of the war on ter-
rorism. As a member of the Sen-
ate Intelligence Committee, Wyden
was key to changing the terms under
which the NSA operates.
Wyden also serves on the key
committees on Budget, Finance and
Energy and Natural Resources. He is
the ranking member of the Finance
Committee and the leading Senate
Democrat on the Joint Committee
on Taxation.
Importantly, if the Senate went
Democratic, Wyden would be in
position to become chairman of the
Finance Committee. That would be
a significant advantage that our state
has lacked since the days that Mark
Hatfield and Bob Packwood were
committee chairmen.
Wyden is well -respected through-
out Oregon and Washington, D.C.,
and his tenure in the Senate gives
him clout.
Wyden is also well -known for
his accessibility to the public. Every
year, he holds a town meeting in
each of the state’s 36 counties.
He is the clear choice in this race,
and Oregon voters should return him
to Washington.
| U.S. HOUSE
Voters should return
Bonamici to Washington
.S. Rep. Suzanne Bonamici
knows there are challenges the
next Congress must meet and is ready
for the hard work ahead if voters
return her to Washington for another
term. They should do just that.
Bonamici, a Democrat, is opposed
in the race by Republican Brian Hein-
rich, a sales representative at DSU
Peterbilt & GMC in Hillsboro. Like
Bonamici, Heinrich is a hard worker,
but he lacks political experience and
is running for offi ce for the fi rst time.
Bonamici was fi rst elected to the
1st Congressional District seat in Jan-
uary 2012 and has served in Congress
in each term since. Prior to winning the
seat, she served in the Oregon Senate
where she had a reputation of reading
every bill that came to her committees
or to the fl oor. That thoroughness and
persistence remains apparent.
In the House, Bonamici serves on
the Education and Workforce Com-
mittee and on the Science, Space and
Technology Committee. Since she has
never been in the majority party in the
House, she has learned the key roles
that relationships and bipartisanship
play in trying to get things done in a
Congress that has distinguished itself
by inaction. Bonamici knows how
to make deals and how to do busi-
ness with the opposition party, but the
current Republican orthodoxy in the
House hasn’t let that happen often.
Her most notable initiatives in the
House have been on education. That
U
Suzanne Bonamici
stems from what got her into poli-
tics, and she wants to see through the
implementation of the Every Student
Succeeds Act that she has worked
doggedly to help get passed.
She is also working hard on trying
to get the Tsunami Warning, Educa-
tion and Research Act passed into law,
which will greatly help coastal areas.
Despite the size of the congressio-
nal district and the demands of Wash-
ington, D.C., Bonamici is in Clatsop
County frequently. All of us have con-
siderable access to her.
Voters in the district will be well -
served by choosing Bonamici for
another term.