Can Hillary Clinton Turn Her Uber Problem Into an Opportunity?

For the 20-some among us eyeing the presidency in 2016, Uber has become a sort of proxy for economic policy, a crucible. Earlier this month in San Francisco, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush took an Uber car to get from point A to point B, all to point a finger at Hillary Clinton from the passenger seat. Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, Bush’s rival in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, got in on the action. “Services like Uber, Airbnb, and Lyft stimulate our economy and work towards lower prices,” Paul tweeted. “How is this bad @HillaryClinton?”

Uber has become a synecdoche for American innovation—opposing it is like opposing the future, never a comfortable place for a politician. In a recent speech on economic policy, Clinton said, by way of preface, that the “on-demand or so-called ‘gig’ economy is creating exciting opportunities and unleashing innovation.” And then came the killjoy: Clinton spoke of “wage theft,” and of misclassification of workers as contractors. This seemed directed at Uber—in June, Uber lost a case before the California Labor Commissioner, who ruled that a driver who used the company’s app to connect with customers must be considered an employee, not an independent contractor—but she never mentioned Uber by name.