Reply #20: Yes please, check. People shouldn't be afraid to do their own research [View All]

[Tom Rinaldo]

This too is lame.

I left high school and went to work as director of a San Francisco homeless youth shelter. Ooops, maybe I left a few things out in between.

Her Walmart Board seat was one chapter in her very complex career and it certainly is open to debate. But start out at least with an understanding that Walmart was based in Little Rock and was probably the most important firm to the Arkansas economy at a time when the Clintons were working to hard to turn around a dismal economy in Arkansas. Here is the Wikipedia report:

"Clinton served on the boards of the Arkansas Children's Hospital Legal Services (1988–1992)<91> and the Children's Defense Fund (as chair, 1986–1992).<92><10> In addition to her positions with non-profit organizations, she also held positions on the corporate board of directors of TCBY (1985–1992),<93> Wal-Mart Stores (1986–1992)<94> and Lafarge (1990–1992).<95> TCBY and Wal-Mart were Arkansas-based companies that were also clients of Rose Law.<74><96> Clinton was the first female member on Wal-Mart's board, added when chairman Sam Walton was pressured to name one;<96> once there, she pushed successfully for the chain to adopt more environmentally-friendly practices,<96> pushed largely unsuccessfully for more women to be added to the company's management,<96> and was silent about the company's famously anti-labor union practices.<96><94>"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hillary_Clinton


The only thing at all damning in that summary is the last sentence of course. But Walton hand picked his Board and he was fiercely anti-Union at Walmart. There was zero chance that Hillary could have modified his stance toward unionization while sitting on Walmart's Board if she tried. She would have been a lone internal voice of protest and completely marginalized in regard to her effectiveness dealing with any other company policies. She picked her fights and it is fair to find fault with her choices if one is so inclined. But I think it is worth noting that Hillary and Bill Clinton have both long enjoyed strong support from both Union members and local and international Unions, both before, during and after her days sitting on Walmart's Board. And don't think for a second that's because the Union movement in America is unaware that Hillary had that position once.