Hillary and Wal-Mart
Of all the attacks that have been leveled against Senator Clinton, one of the cheapest shots has to be that leveled at her by Senator Obama in the debate on Monday night. "While I was working on those streets, watching those folks see their jobs shift overseas, you were a corporate lawyer sitting on the board at Wal-Mart," Mr. Obama said.
Mr. Obama has had some inspiring moments in this campaign, but Mrs. Clinton, she did more for the poor by serving on the board of Wal-Mart between 1986 and 1992 than Mr. Obama did as a community organizer in Chicago. Wal-Mart's "Every Day Low Prices," achieved by negotiations with suppliers, economies of scale, and low corporate overhead, let the chain's low-income customers feed and clothe their families for less money.
Wal-Mart has grown from a little-known Arkansas phenomenon to an international retail powerhouse with 1.4 million employees right here in America. If Mr. Obama is going to get elected president, he is going to find a way to attract voters who work and shop at Wal-Mart, not just left-wing elitists and union activists who scorn the company. Mr. Obama may have missed it, but in his home state of Illinois, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce named Wal-Mart its 2007 corporation of the year. Mr. Obama may have missed it, but Wal-Mart was last year named one of the top 50 companies for African American MBAs by Black MBAs magazine. Mrs. Clinton's association with the company is something for which our senator should be not attacked but praised.
