This was meant to be the week of the battling Olympic economic relay, with Trump competing on Monday and Hillary on Thursday.

But it didn't work out that way. Trump, showing all the energy of Jeb Bush, swam without any enthusiasm, following the plan written for him by Larry Kudlow and the discredited trickle down crowd in the Republican party. He only showed real excitement when he proposed abolishing estate taxes worth billions for his family. He and those Republican I percenters who yearn for no estate taxes don't seem to be aware of the old Irish maxim that "there is no roof rack on a hearse."

By Tuesday, Trump had thrown off his teleprompter and was back in the Olympic sport he loves best, the 400 meter Freestyle Lying and Incitement to Violence Relay.He dived in with an appeal to gun nuts to deal with Hillary and then jumped off the edge of the pool on Wednesday and Thursday with claims that Obama is the founder of ISIS.

So when Hillary togged out on Thursday, she decided to opt for an even tougher competition, the Economics Marathon, running easily with nearly 40 different proposals, as well as a broadband in every pot.

Hillary asked that voters judge the candidates based on 4 questions:

1, Which candidate has the real plans to create good-paying jobs?

2. Who will restore fairness?

3. Who will go to bat for working families?

4. Who can bring people together?

These are really good questions and in all of them Hillary wins by an Irish mile. My only hope is that she would take one per rally and run less of a marathon, maybe swim 200 meter freestyle races which will help attract more viewers.

Her plans to create over 10 million jobs are so good that they merit special branding and staging as Dennis Sullivan, former editor of MSNBC, proposed this week in a separate article on this platform, Hillary, Make Your Jobs Plan Rock!

Just this Hillary declaration alone should be proclaimed from the rooftops: "Every working American has the right to dignity, pride and decent pay."

On fairness there is no one to compare with Hillary's credible plans on affordable college tuition, relief on student debt and affordable healthcare. Her tax reforms close numerous loopholes on the 1 percent, including Hedge Funds and Private Equity, which will fund the fairness programs. Add to these the Buffett rule for a minimum tax of 30 percent for those who make more than $1million and a 4 percent surcharge on incomes over $5 million.

For working families Hillary proposes retraining programs for new skills, tax credits for companies that have profit sharing plans and a federal minimum wage of $12 an hour. And much more.

Progressives have reason to cheer this speech. Felicia Wong, president of the Roosevelt Institute, a progressive think tank, and Stan Greenberg, co-founder of the Democratic polling firm Democracy Corps, applauded Clinton's remarks in this joint statement: "With this economic speech, Secretary Clinton has made this election a choice about whether our economy works for all, not just the few, and that allows progressive economics to win a mandate in November."

The fourth question on who can bring people together is a tougher one. Clearly, Trump has a gold medal in Freestyle Hate-Mongering, but will a President Clinton be confronted by the same Russian style nyet from Republicans in Congress as weakened Obama's progressive agenda?

Our only hope is that Hillary wins big and that Democrats sweep the House and the Senate, securing the progressive mandate for job creation, fairness and helping working families.

Let's work for that over the next 80 days! All down the ballot! USA! USA!

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August 12, 2016

Addendum: Hillary's Full Speech in Warren MI on August 10, 2016

While not comprehensive, the proposals are realistic, incremental and far better than Donald Trump's vague plan