Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seems to have backpedaled from her previous claim that "businesses don't make jobs," which was criticized extensively by Republicans as well as others on social networking sites like Twitter.
During a speech Friday in support of Massachusetts Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Martha Coakley, Clinton had said: "Don't let anybody, don't let anybody tell you that, ah, you know, it's corporations and businesses that create jobs. You know that old theory, trickle-down economics. That has been tried, that has failed. It has failed rather spectacularly."
Republicans seized the chance and went ahead and created an anti-Hillary Clinton campaign ad. The main anti-Clinton super-PAC, America Rising, featured her comment on the header of its website.
Three days later, at a rally for Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney, she took the opportunity to clarify her previous comment on trickle-down economics. She explained that she had "shorthanded this point the other day," CNN reports.
The Wall Street Journal compared Senator Clinton's gaffe with President Obama's 2012 comment, "If you've got a business -- you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen." Entrepreneurs and businessmen had taken the statement otherwise and Obama was widely criticized.
Clinton, who is expected to contest for the 2016 presidential run, clarified Monday, "...let me be absolutely clear about what I've been saying for a couple of decades. Our economy grows when businesses and entrepreneurs create good-paying jobs here in an America where workers and families are empowered to build from the bottom up and the middle out - not when we hand out tax breaks for corporations that outsource jobs or stash their profits overseas."
Even though her clarification seems convincing, she needs to maintain her distance from Wall Street and the business community if she wants to run for President in 2016.
