Clinton’s address to NALEO: What might have been

Maybe instead of “Ready for Hillary,” the slogan should be, “Yeah, I guess.”

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a workmanlike, Readers Digest-version of her stump speech on Thursday at the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials annual convention. And while she said all the right things, she could have said so much more.

Clinton rightly praised the hotel-casino workers who make the city run. “Las Vegas wouldn’t exist without the cooks and dishwashers who stand on their feet all day,” she said. “Make no mistake, this is a city that runs on hard work, on grit as well as glitz.”

She could have added, “…and a huge part of the reason these folks have such a good, middle-class life is organized labor, particularly the Culinary Local 226. And wouldn’t it be great if more workers across the country insisted their work be valued by joining unions? Let’s not let hard-working people such as teachers and construction workers and agriculture workers be denigrated by anti-labor politicians any longer!”

Clinton recounted how she campaigned in Las Vegas in 2007, when homeowners were facing foreclosure in light of the Great Recession. “We’re standing again, but we’re not running, the way America should run,” she said.

She could have added, “…and despite the fact that recklessness and greed led directly to the Great Recession, not a single executive at a single bank has ever faced a criminal jury, and if I’m elected, we’ll see what we can do about changing that! Wall Street banks are still too big to fail, and that means our economic system still faces unacceptable risks. If you elect me, we’ll make sure we’re no longer at risk of having to write another bailout check ever again!”

She rightly said that we should not be putting more barriers in front of voters in America, and repeated her call for expanded early voting and universal voter registration.

But she could have added a call to aggressively enforce voting rights, including re-authorizing the Voting Rights Act in a way that would keep states with a penchant for voter suppression under scrutiny but also pass muster with the U.S. Supreme Court. State legislatures are vested with the power to prescribe rules for elections under the Constitution, but we cannot let any state abuse that power to prevent anyone from voting, Clinton (didn’t) add.

She joined President Barack Obama’s call for free community college for two years, to help people learn new skills and rejoin the workforce, as well as helping students graduate from four-year schools without so much college debt.

She could have joined Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders’ call to make four-year public college education free for students who meet entrance requirements.

She said that when she hears hateful rhetoric, she wonders about the motives behind it. And she said she wanted to continue to build on the promise of America — “if you do your part, you can get ahead and stay ahead.”

She could have said that it’s because that promise of America is so often not true for so many people, that there’s so much hate out there, and that demagogues both political and racial use it to distract people from the true reasons the American dream has stalled for so many. As working people work harder and get less, fewer and fewer people believe the old meme that hard work, drive and passion will ultimately lead to success.

Don’t be misled — there were plenty of things Clinton got right in her speech, from the need and effectiveness of early childhood education for all kids to paid sick days and family leave, to making preschool and child care available in every community in the country, to enacting comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship. She’s clearly a candidate unafraid of complexity and comfortable with policy details.

It’s just that she could have said so much more than she did.

Steve Sebelius is a Las Vegas Review-Journal political columnist who blogs at SlashPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter (@SteveSebelius) or reach him at 702-387-5276 or ssebelius@reviewjournal.com.