Hillary Clinton's left-speak

By Richard K. Barry

Don't you sometimes wonder how much Hillary Clinton is really enjoying having to share even a small part of the stage with "darling-of-the-left" Sen. Elizabeth Warren?

Oh, sure, in the latest edition of Time magazine, Clinton was asked to contribute a short piece on her BFF Elizabeth in a feature on the world's 100 most influential people, and no doubt gladly complied. 

"She never hesitates to hold powerful people's feet to the fire: bankers, lobbyists, senior government officials and, yes, even presidential aspirants," Clinton, the clear front-runner to win the Democratic nomination for president, wrote in an apparent wink to herself.

"Elizabeth Warren never lets us forget that the work of taming Wall Street's irresponsible risk taking and reforming our financial system is far from finished," Clinton wrote in Time after the magazine named Warren, a former Harvard law professor and a senator for Massachusetts, one of the world's 100 most influential people.

Though Clinton has talked about fighting growing income inequality, we know virtually nothing about what specific policies she might propose or how, for example, she might increase Wall Street regulation.

But there she is, making the right noises.

One of the more foolish things said in politics concerns the potential danger of pissing off a significant flank of a given party such as the far left of the Democrats or far right of the Republicans. Some say it doesn't matter because "where are they going to go?", meaning they aren't going to vote for the other party.

No, but they could stay home, forget to vote, forget to volunteer, or forget to give money.

The left-wing of the Democratic Party is increasingly vocal and active. They know Hillary is not really their cup of tea, but if she at least makes an effort to say a few things to placate them, it could help her immeasurably.

And if she has to do it by smiling through gritted teeth while embracing Senator Warren, that's okay.