THE SEAN HANNITY SHOW

It's Official: Hillary Is In Hillary Clinton has officially tossed her hat into the presidential ring. Will it be a coronation for her as the Democratic nominee? With a digital rollout, Hillary announced over the weekend that she will seek the Democratic nomination for president. In her her video announcement, she proclaimed that she wanted to be the champion of “everyday Americans” and that the economy is “still stacked in favor of those at the top.” She's one to talk! Hillary has tried to play it off as though she is an everyday American with everyday struggles. Remember when she claimed that she and Bill were “dead broke” when leaving the White House? But the fact is that she is a multi-millionaire who hasn't driven a car since 1996. Her life couldn't be more different from the average Americans she wants to champion. In fact, she is a quintessential example of that America which she claims to despise; the one stacked in favor the rich and powerful. Anyway, now she has set off from New York in a van, making her way to Iowa in what her campaign describes as a “listening tour.” The strategy is to help Hillary appear more likeable. According to her advisors: “At large rallies Mrs. Clinton has trouble charming the audience and can seem distant and unapproachable. Put her in a room with a small number of people and it’s a different story, Team Clinton says. In more intimate settings, they say, she displays an ease and warmth that is crucial to earning the trust of voters—and not always evident when she is reading from the teleprompter.” This is nothing new. You can read more here in the Wall Street Journal about the struggles the Bill Clinton White House went through to make her more likeable as the First Lady. Her likeability issues certainly aren't helped by the myriad of scandals plaguing her past and her present. Will the media dig into these issues and ask Hillary the tough questions? I most certainly wouldn't count on it. She is likely to get the same offensive treatment that the media gave to Barack Obama before the 2008 election, insulating him from controversy and refusing to even acknowledge, much less ask about, his questionable past associations. But not everyone seems to agree with the media about Hillary's coronation. According to a new Bloomberg Politics national poll, “Nearly three-quarters of Democrats and independents in the survey said it would be a good thing for the Democratic Party if she were to face a 'serious' challenger for the nomination. Democrats and independents hold the same view, with 72 percent of both groups saying her party would be best served by a robust primary.” There are some serious people who could possibly challenge her, like former Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley. Still, you'd be hard-pressed to find another Democrat with the name recognition of Hillary Clinton. Good or bad, it still counts for a lot in politics. Her poll numbers have been falling, especially since the email/server scandal broke in the news. And after announcing her bid this weekend, the Twitter hashtag #WhyI'mnotvotingforHillary went viral, trending at #1 for hours. Social media's backlash to her announcement certainly isn't indicative of America as a whole, but it certainly didn't make for the positive digital start her campaign was hoping for. OP-ED: Massacre of Justice: Blackwater's Raven 23 Convictions Today, four members of Blackwater's Tactical Support Team Raven 23 will appear in federal court in Washington, DC.  These decorated veterans will not wear dress blues adorned with medals earned for honorable military service.  Instead, they will wear jumpsuits and shackles, and Judge Royce C. Lamberth will likely sentence them to the rest of their lives in prison.  One of these men is my brother, Nick Slatten, and the others are my friends Paul Slough, Evan Liberty, and Dustin Heard. Like a growing number of servicemen and women, these men fought for freedom, only to sacrifice theirs because of defensive actions taken on foreign soil, in a war zone, under imminent threats to their safety.  With wartime prosecutions at an all-time high, how many more of those who stand in harm’s way in the service of our government must pay this price before we stop to ask whether we are really getting it right? Some people, perhaps most, think that we got it right in the Raven 23 case.  And why wouldn’t they?  After all, in 2014, a Washington, DC, jury found Nick, Paul, Evan, and Dustin guilty of numerous crimes in connection with a 2007 shooting incident that occurred in Baghdad’s Nisur Square—an incident widely reported as a massacre of innocent Iraqi civilians.  However, what the media largely fails to report about the Raven 23 case is a different type of massacre altogether—a massacre of justice that resulted in Nick, Paul, Evan, and Dustin’s convictions for another team member’s admitted crimes despite overwhelming evidence that their personal actions were justified. On September 16, 2007, Raven 23 set up four vehicles along a traffic circle in Nisur Square to secure an exit route for another team that had been attacked by a VBIED.  Shortly after locking down the circle, two things happened almost simultaneously:  A white Kia broke from the stopped traffic and moved toward the convoy (a textbook sign of a car bomb attack), and the convoy began taking incoming small arms fire from AK-47s.  Real-time reports identified the shooters as Iraqi Police...continue reading