To both Hillary and Bernie supporters: What makes Hillary's candidacy attractive to Charles Koch?

[NobodyInParticular]

Yes, I concede, it is not an unqualified attraction, but what do you think is at its basis?

[Fresh_Start]

1. To be honest...he said she was better than the republican candidates

which is a fairly low bar and can't really be considered as an endorsement.

[BirdieSanders]

21. He said she might be better, IF & ONLY IF, once in office, her actions do not match her rhetoric

...Which Is, Coincidentally, Bernie & Co.'s #1 Concern About Her

[CorporatistNation]

37. Simple: Hillary Is A Proven and Reliable POL Who Will "Play Ball" For Anyone or ANY Entity That...

Pays... her "going rate!" As a congressional candidate in 2006, I was offered all the contributions that I need if I was willing to "Play Ball" with the Pharmaceutical Industry! There ya have it... I made a different decision than Hillary has made serially throughout her political "career."

Bernie likewise "plays ball" with the people rather than the Corporatist Oligarchy... unlike his less than ethical... front running opponent that her blinder aided supporters who ignore all manner of hypocrisy and self serving behavior as well as the ever present FBI investigation continue to support in spite of her proven incompetence.

[riderinthestorm]

2. Her policies support the oligarchy from fracking to war for resources and $$, she's for greed nt

[NobodyInParticular]

9. Whatever else might be said,

I seriously doubt that Koch does not know what he wants...

[RandySF]

3. They praised Bernie a couple months ago

Republicans do this all the time. They praised Hillary in 2008 and Tsongas in 1992. Trump just called on Vernue to run third party.

[Blanks]

4. He is against government growth...

The government grew 2-1/2 times as much during the Bush administration than it did during the Clinton administration.

That's what he said in the interview.

[Gwhittey]

16. Not ture about " He is against government growth"

He is only against it like 99.9% of the other Republicans in that they want big government just their polices. Like Koch brothers have love Federal dollars going to oil companies as corporate welfare. Giving federal money to feed a poor family not so much. Koch are for Koch because the 60 billion dollars they already have are not enough because they could only buy 70% of countries on earth.

[Blanks]

27. I'm just repeating what he said...

Of course they want federal dollars going to them. Just like young people want someone to pay for college. Just like I want to see infrastructure improvements. We all want the government to work for us.

He didn't like the government growth under Dubya and he said as much. He preferred the government rate of growth under Clinton. Hardly an endorsement of Clinton, more of a statement about how he feels about government growth.

[blm]

5. Unvarnished truth? Market stability. For all their bitching and lying about Dems, they also

know that another moron (even a bigger moron than W) Republican administration will tank the stock market.

Kochs expected to have a Republican they were in full control of: Rand, Walker, Cruz, Rubio, et al….

[Ash_F]

6. She's not going to hurt his money. Trump might.

[RKP5637]

11. Yep, I think that's what's behind it! n/t

[elehhhhna]

7. He knows who can be bought and who can't. She's for sale and doesn't hide it.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

8. She's not insane?

[emulatorloo]

10. Scott Walker was a disaster. He's not "attracted" to HRC, he's just giving up on GE

Kochs wanted Walker.

He's smart enough to know Trump and Cruz are unelectable.

So they aren't going to spend money on the presidential election.



The Kochs will instead spend their money to elect wingnut senators and reps. And states and city councils.

[Fumesucker]

12. Hillary is someone Charles can do bidness with, they understand one another perfectly

[bjo59]

13. Maintaining and enhancing the economic status quo that the financial elites depend upon.

[LuvLoogie]

14. The inability for the GOP to govern. The economy does better

with a Democratic agenda.

She is a good person.

She's the smartest in class.

He wants to see a woman as President in his lifetime.

Anyone voting for Hillary could have any number of reasons.

[Demsrule86]

15. He is just trying to cause trouble

In February, he wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post praising Bernie...they do want Bernie you know ...very disappointing to them that Hillary has won.

http://www.newser.com/story/220840/surprise-koch-brother-praises-sanders-in-op-ed.html

[NobodyInParticular]

17. Could it be that all in all aside from Koch's deficiency in good human qualities,

he is a good judge of character when it comes to someone's political stances?

[Attorney in Texas]

18. Her economic policy: status quo; foreign policy: neocon; social policy: Christian but tolerant

What part of that platform would Charles Koch not get behind?

If I made billions of dollars under Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama, I would not be pessimistic that adding another Clinton on the tail of Bush-Clinton-Bush-Obama-Clinton wouldn't be such a bad bet for my continued profitability.

[NobodyInParticular]

24. Could it also be that Koch knows

that when Hillary takes a newly progressive stance that there is a better than even chance that there will be a reversal at an appropriate moment?

[Attorney in Texas]

31. I'll guess we'll see if she ever takes a progressive stance on anything besides gun control

If nominated and then elected, I'm sure that Hillary would offer gun legislation that is 100% destined to fail in Congress, and then she would shrug her shoulders and say "I tried" before she went back to protecting Wall Street and corporate America from greedy orphans and needy widows.

[choie]

19. Clearly because "she's the most progressive candidate!"

[NCTraveler]

20. Sanders is no longer a viable option.

Seems they were eyeing him for a while.

That is about as real as what you are promoting.

Fact is, this whole thing with Trump is batshit crazy. I bet people like the Kochs are scared shitless and sending every warning shot they can to the Republican Party. Nothing that is happening on our side compares to what they are currently experiencing. Some on their side are in fear.

You and others take the Kochs at their word. I won't. I know enough to know they will be spending well over a billion dollars to defeat Clinton.

[treestar]

22. FCOL

It is apparent that Koch is the devil himself.

I doubt he supports Hillary in any way. I thought the Kochs were libertarians who want the government out of the economy to the point where they think it should do zero regulation. He would think of Hillary as being for big government.

[Ferd Berfel]

28. BS - I"ll see all of teh WS transcripts first

thank you.



SHe doesn't say the same things in public that she says behind closed doors. Guessing he knows something you don't

[NobodyInParticular]

32. " He would think of Hillary as being for big government."

Yes, government just the perfect size to be run by benevolent mega-donors

[Maedhros]

23. Well, clearly because Hillary's agenda matches Koch's more than the other candidates. [n/t]

[Ferd Berfel]

25. She's proven that she can be bought. Trump Dosen't need their $$

THe Oligarchy prefers people they can buy.

I think it's that simple

[Dem2]

26. He's lying because he knows gullible people on the left will believe him

Nobody else is buying it

[Waiting For Everyman]

29. I dunno, one buys power and one sells it?

Is that a trick question?

[NobodyInParticular]

39. great quote by Hunter Thomson

It's a genuine question because it is exploratory and open to surprising answers

[beachbum bob]

30. She's not an idiot like trump or Cruz....

Unlikely to lead US into a nuclear war

[NobodyInParticular]

38. Yes, even though she had the courage

to be exposed to sniper fire when she sat in a plane landing in Iraq, she would (in my modest opinion) most sensibly back off when when it comes to nukes, because, if for no other reason it might negatively impact her and her peers' net worth.

[RobertEarl]

33. He can afford her?

n/t

[stellanoir]

34. Cheney likes her also !!!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/us-politics/8741148/Dick-Cheney-heaps-praise-on-Hillary-Clinton.html

[NobodyInParticular]

41. Interesting, because one of the first major figures of the right

reaching out to Hillary was Rupert Murdoch. Whatever else you might want to say about it, the ability (and perhaps particularly Hillary's ability) to reach across the isle has been acknowledged.

[Lucinda]

35. He hates her slightly less than he hates Trump. n/t

[annavictorious]

36. It wasn't an endorsement

It was an admission that there is no one competent running on the Republican side. It looked to me as though he thought that even a Democrat would be preferable to an egotistical loose cannon like Trump or an obstructionist ideologue like Cruz.

The Onion's file on the Koch brothers is almost as funny as its file on Joe Biden.

http://www.theonion.com/search?q=koch+brothers

http://www.theonion.com/search?q=biden

[JoePhilly]

40. He's trolling Bernie supporters.

[thesquanderer]

42. Hillary may not be their favorite dance partner, but at least she and they know the same steps.

Trump is an unpredictable wild card. Cruz is a zealot.

[anigbrowl]

43. She's competent and stable

Trump is the sort of fellow who could wreck the economy or get us into a major war. I'm not talking about some war like Iraq or Vietnam that had a high human cost but presented little or no existential threat to the US, but one that could permanently damage the country, eg a nuclear exchange with Russia or a civil war. Neither of those scenarios strikes me as especially likely but then Trump didn't strike me as the likely nominee last summer either.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

44. Short answer: Koch doesn't have Trump in his pocket, and can't figure him out

I get the general impression the two don't like one another. They may both be billionaires, but they have different agendas. Trump is not an ideologue (Robert Reich said that -- not just me), while Koch has his Randian agenda.

Notwithstanding anything he says, I think his only attraction to HRC is that she can be reasonably expected to act in a predictable and stable manner. Trump, on the other hand, isn't predictable and won't do Koch's bidding.