The New York Times’ John Harwood 
interviewed Hillary Clinton on NPR yesterday and condensed the interview into a 10-questions format for the Times’ Caucus feature.

It’s a substantive discussion about weighty world problems. Not hairdos or house inventory.

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An Arkansas Delta politician once told me there’s a word you always want to put on your campaign push cards (whether you deserve the label or not). That word?

“Qualified.”

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It comes to mind after reading this interview. Doesn’t mean you have to agree with what she says or want her to be president. But she’s done the homework.

The foreign policy commentary dominates, but there was this on Paul Ryan’s supposed game-changing outlook on poverty programs:

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Q.
A couple of things before we run out of time. Paul Ryan’s out with a plan today proposing that states be allowed to take all of the programs for those in need in one revenue stream as a way of finding better ways to make them work. Is that a good idea?

A.
No, not in the current atmosphere. It is not a good idea. All one has to look at is that nearly half the states refuse to expand Medicaid to realize why it’s a bad idea. If states won’t even take what are very generous terms from the federal government to give working people and poor people access to health care, how can we turn over all of the resources that are meant to assist those in need?

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