Biden Hits Hillary Over Pakistan Gaffe ... Clinton Camp Defends

ABC News:

The Clinton campaign says Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., did not make a mistake when she talked about Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf as a presidential candidate, in a recent interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos.

"Well, his party is on the ballot," said communications director Howard Wolfson, in an interview at Clinton headquarters in Des Moines, Tuesday, suggesting that the senator knew the difference between the man and the party being up for election, but was using shorthand. "And I don't think anybody questions that Sen. Clinton has a vast and deep knowledge about foreign policy."

The reaction came after fellow Democrat and presidential candidate, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., accused the only female candidate in the race of making an elementary error.

Read the whole story: ABC News

Comments

[VOTER]

02:45 PM on 01/02/2008

Senator Biden's wife and his son are currently on

C-Span (Road to the White House). Tape from last Tues..

Not sure how much longer they will be on but so

far it has been an intelligent Q&A session.

Wish Biden wasn't such a long shot.

[GV97]

12:01 PM on 01/02/2008

Biden is a good man and would make a terrific Sec. of State.
Sem. Obama was quick to defend Joe Biden in a recent debate which showed great character.
The country is crying out for CHANGE with the way "business" has been conducted in Wash.D.C.
Nobody can dispute "experience" when you think of a person like Dick Cheney and look at wnat kind of a mess we're in ! Change....great judgment..
exceptional intelligence... the skill to be able to talk & LISTEN to opposing views is a gift...
charisma and excitement follows the man that can draw Independents and disenchanted Republicans and terrific support from his own party...the most logical choice is Sen. Barack Obama who will handle all the slime that the Republicans will throw at him QUICKLY and SMARTLY.
This will be a welcomed historic vote for our country.... AND for the world !!

[Nutcase]

11:25 AM on 01/02/2008

"And I don't think anybody questions that Sen. Clinton has a vast and deep knowledge about foreign policy."

WRONG.

Going to funerals and parties with first ladies of other countries is not "vast and deep knowledge."

Having graduate degrees in International relations and having expeience in two intelligence agenices plus some other pertinent experience, I am still at a loss to discover her knowledge, experience or understanding. Less than a dozen gaffs on the subject so far is hardly encouraging.

Hillary's claim of expertise is ludicrous.

[ajax2]

10:56 AM on 01/02/2008

Biden's last position before the assassination was that military dictator Gen. Musharraf should share power.

[rwe]

10:12 AM on 01/02/2008

by Wolfsons logic that the party is on the ballot then we can say that BILL Clinton is a candidate, which we all know he really is. But again Hillary is still getting bashed unabashedly

[Justtellthetruth]

10:00 AM on 01/02/2008

She got Iraq Wrong, and wants to go even further in the wrong direction by keeping a large number of troops on bases there.

She Got Iran wrong. REALLY wrong.

She got Lebanon wrong.

She flip flopped on Pakistan, first chiding Obama for suggesting that we should consider going after bin Laden in that countrys tribal region, then, after her vilification's and war mongering opportunities blew away like the dust they were made of after the inter-agency intelligence report correctly cast Iran as a non Nuclear nation that has not attacked another county for about 250 years, turning around and saying that Pakistan is the greatest threat we face today. Certainly, it will make for less exciting AIPAC speeches for her, because she used to really whip up the bloodlust
at those meetings when she could blather on about keeping "Noting off the table" when considering war agaisnt Iran, including Nuclear War.

Too bad for her, SO good for the rest of us normal people in the US and for Iran.

She sure as hell is not going to send her daughter to fight and die in the wars she would like to start.

If Biden would get serious about forcing israel to quit the occupation and settlements in order to finally put an end to the engine that has driven the majority of middle eastern terrorist recruitment and funding fo the last four decades, I would vote for him in a heartbeat.

[Bulbul]

09:33 AM on 01/02/2008

Listening and watching you Joe Biden..

[CSE]

09:29 AM on 01/02/2008

Even when pointing out Hillary's faux pas - Biden plays nicey-nice. Maybe he doesn't want to burn bridges so he might participate in a future administration? Can't escape that feeling.

The problem is that we need a leader - not a politician.

[Mr.Fitz]

07:44 AM on 01/02/2008

Every picture of Biden that I see on this site shows him as some angry guy with a scowling face. Clinton, however, is never angry, and is always happy.

[VOTER]

06:51 AM on 01/02/2008

Senator Clinton made an error.

I still believe she is highly qualified to become President

of the United States BUT NOT AS QUALIFIED AS JOE

BIDEN.

i am hoping for a caucus surprise which will propel

Biden into a more prominent position so his campaign

can continue.

BIDEN FOR PRESIDENT!

[Macready]

06:48 AM on 01/02/2008

Good for Biden . . . hillary repeatedly shows why she is not presidential material and whenever anyone comments it is called "hillary bashing" .. . duh . . . this woman couldn't be bothered to read the intelligence report on Iraq but it's the same old MSM spinmachine that is operation the MSM spin that let the chimp and the big dick and the rest of the neo-cons get away with the illegal invasion of Iraq, etc etc . . . it's time Americans started asking major questions . . . before they have another incompetenet neo-con in the WH . . .this time one pretending to be a democorat and tugging at her husband's coattails

[JimK2]

05:58 AM on 01/02/2008

>CLINTON: Well, I think it will be very difficult to have a real election. You know, >Nawaz Sharif has said he's not going to compete. The PPP is in disarray with >Benazir's assassination. He could be the only person on the ballot. I don't think >that's a real election.

Pakistan Muslim League (Q) party is just a puppet of President Pervez Musharraf and gave him 98% of the parliamentary vote (for president). Using the word "he" verus "his party" is a distinction without a difference.

Nawaz Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League (N).
Benazir Bhutto's Pakistan People's Party
President Pervez Musharraf's Pakistan Muslim League (Q)

If the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) is the winner in the up comming election, who wins, Musharraf does.

With PPP in disarray and was going to boycott the election and Nawaz Sharif has said he's not going to compete and PML(N) was going to boycott the election, indeed, he (President Pervez Musharraf's and his Pakistan Muslim League (Q) could be the only candidates chosen on the ballot.
http://www.pmln.org.pk/

[factanonverba]

03:58 AM on 01/02/2008

Not that the details are insignificant, because they are not but I am sure not too many of you are versed in Pakistani politics for starters. That notwithstanding, Senator Biden is a hard-working policy wonk who is an able diplomat with a talent for flushing out hard political compromises. I know he states that he isn't running for Secretary of State, and mind you, I think he is able a statesman as exists in the US right now, but he certainly sounds like he is aiming for Foggy Bottom not the White House. I haven't heard him articulate much about domestic issues but to be fair, he is so forceful on foreign affairs that he seems to capture attention effortlessly when he speaks. I am impressed.

[Lars42]

02:52 AM on 01/02/2008

Once aain we realize that Mrs. Clinton's foreign policy experience is looking over her husband's shoulder. Senator Biden, as a seasoned professional, who earned his position by hard work and no neprtism, does not need lengthy briefings on rudimentary facts of international affairs. We have had eight years of amateurs elected because of name recognition, it is time we recognize a name who can do the the job. Biden has what it takes, Mrs. Clinton has her husband.

[US55588144]

01:52 AM on 01/02/2008

Clinton errs on Pakistan, Joe Biden is absolutely right.


Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton was praised in the wake of the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto for demonstrating her command of the players and the issues at stake in Pakistan, even as another candidate, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, was criticized for stumbling over details.

But in two confident television appearances, on CNN and ABC, Clinton made an elementary error about Pakistani politics: She described President Pervez Musharraf as a "candidate" who would be "on the ballot."

In fact, Musharraf was reelected to the presidency in October. The upcoming elections are for parliament, and while Musharraf's party will be facing off against opposition parties, the president himself is not a candidate.

"He will NOT be on the ballot," said a Pakistan scholar at Columbia University, Philip Oldenburg, in an e-mail. "These are parliamentary elections, where the contests are for a seat in the national assembly.
The prime ministerial candidate typically fights for victory in a local constituency, as well as lead[ing] the party in a national campaign."

A spokesman for Clinton, Howard Wolfson, said Clinton was referring to Musharraf's party, not the president himself.

And Oldenburg said that "how well the PML-Q, the so-called 'King's Party,' does would in effect be a referendum on Musharraf."

But Clinton's words appear unambiguously to describe Musharraf himself as a candidate.

"If President Musharraf wishes to stand for election, then he should abide by the same rules that every other candidate will have to follow," she told CNN's Wolf Blitzer (.pdf) Dec. 28.

"He could be the only person on the ballot. I don't think that's a real election," she told ABC's George Stephanopolous December 30.

Her error was first noted by a conservative American commentator, Thomas Houlahan.