David Webb: Clinton vs. the truth

Hillary Clinton will relaunch her campaign on Roosevelt Island in New York City Saturday with her first major public event. Will this be the Barack Obama redux with plays to the base and fearmongering over voter ID laws? 

The former secretary of State last week took to Texas Southern University, a historically black college, to pander to the anti-voter-ID crowd. She preyed upon the fears of uninformed or misinformed blacks and the liberal leftist establishment — the only thing missing was her customary fake black cadence and accent. 

{mosads}The fact is, many local races are won and lost by less than 1,000 votes; many are won or lost by less than 100. The growing number of recounts and reversals demonstrates this. 

Jonathan Capehart on MSNBC gushed all over Clinton, who took the voter ID fearmongering to a new level at her Texas event. “She’s forcing them [Republicans] to defend themselves. She’s forcing them to defend themselves and their states, defend their party. Because it’s the party that’s been doing this all over the country.”

Newsflash, Jonathan and your fellow demagogues: Much like the 70 percent or more of Americans who support voter ID laws, I am not playing defense. Voter ID is about voter verification. I want the vote of every American citizen protected from fraud. One instance of fraud is one too many. 

Voter fraud, even when an obvious example of it occurring exists, doesn’t deter Democrats. It seems to have the opposite effect and emboldens them. 

Melowese Richardson admitted on camera that she voted six times for President Obama in 2012. Federal law makes it a felony to vote more than once for president. She could have faced up to 25 years in prison for her crimes. She was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison on July 7, 2013. All too common, she didn’t serve the full five years but was set free after eight months.

Even Rhode Island passed voter ID laws in 2011, with a heavy Democratic majority in both houses under the then-governorship of Lincoln Chafee, who is now a candidate for the presidential nomination. The bill was co-sponsored by Democrat Gordon D. Fox, who was the House Speaker, Democrat Jon Brien and Republicans Joseph Trillo and Doreen Costa. Will they now attack Chaffee? 

The MSNBC crowd and the far left like Chris Matthews are unrepentant. Their attacks will be ramped up to distract from the current failures of Obama and the past failures and lack of record for Clinton. The win and advancing the leftist agenda is all that matters to them. 

The law is clear: You must be an American citizen to vote and contribute to electoral campaigns (with the exception of green card holders, who can only contribute). By lowering the bar to register to vote via Motor Voter, a Clinton plan from the 1990s, or other ACORN-like means, the voting pool becomes polluted with more illegal voters. The win for those against voter ID efforts and the extreme left of the Democratic Party is that voter rolls are rarely ever effectively cleaned up. 

Fear and demagoguery is a choice by the Clinton campaign, but the truth is vastly different. The simple fact is there is no real competition for Clinton. What can take down her presidential aspirations likely comes out of Benghazi, the email scandal or other investigations into Clinton Foundation wrongdoing. 

I know many will hate to hear this — Clinton is doing the right thing to win for her current and likely supporters. She is playing the Obama 2007 movie redux in full demagoguery HD: divert from real issues facing ordinary Americans, divide the country into antagonistic segments and offer them utopian solutions. 

It’s time for Republicans to produce a bold agenda that shows how they will get the country back on the right track. There are many in the field right now, but after Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, there will likely be between four and six candidates left of consequence. One or more of them must rise to the challenge. Words and speeches are not enough. 

Webb is host of “The David Webb Show” on SiriusXM Patriot 125, a Fox News contributor and has appeared frequently on television as a commentator. Webb co-founded TeaParty365 in New York City and is a spokesman for the National Tea Party Federation. His column appears twice a month in The Hill.