Clinton\'s Experience On World Stage:

Clinton's Experience On World Stage: "Scant Evidence"

Chicago Tribune/CNN   |   March 7, 2008 10:46 AM


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With a debate raging over which presidential candidate has the most experience and best judgment on world affairs, the Chicago Tribune examines Sen. Hillary Clinton's record:

Pressed in a CNN interview this week for specific examples of foreign policy experience that has prepared her for an international crisis, Clinton claimed that she "helped to bring peace" to Northern Ireland and negotiated with Macedonia to open up its border to refugees from Kosovo. She also cited "standing up" to the Chinese government on women's rights and a one-day visit she made to Bosnia following the Dayton peace accords.

Earlier in the campaign, she and her husband claimed that she had advocated on behalf of a U.S. military intervention in Rwanda to stop the genocide there.

But her involvement in the Northern Ireland peace process was primarily to encourage activism among women's groups there, a contribution that the lead U.S. negotiator described as "helpful" but that an Irish historian who has written extensively about the conflict dismissed as "ancillary" to the peace process.

The Macedonian government opened its border to refugees the day before Clinton arrived to meet with government leaders. And her mission to Bosnia was a one-day visit in which she was accompanied by performers Sheryl Crow and Sinbad, as well as her daughter, Chelsea, according to the commanding general who hosted her.

Whatever her private conversations with the president may have been, key foreign policy officials say that a U.S. military intervention in Rwanda was never considered in the Clinton administration's policy deliberations. Despite lengthy memoirs by both Clintons and former Secretary of State and UN Ambassador Madeleine Albright, any advice she gave on Rwanda had not been mentioned until her presidential campaign.

CNN, meanwhile, examined her statements case-by-case:

Northern Ireland

"I helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland," Clinton said on CNN's American Morning on Wednesday. Video Watch more of Clinton's comments on the race ยป

A Washington Post blogger accused Clinton in January of exaggerating her involvement in Northern Ireland.

But former Democratic Senate majority leader George Mitchell, who was a U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland, told CNN that while Clinton was not directly involved in negotiations, she did play a helpful role in bringing in women's groups that made a difference.

Mitchell is a Democratic superdelegate and has not publicly endorsed Clinton or Obama.

Rep. Peter King, a Republican from New York, was also involved in the process. He recalls one late-night meeting with former President Bill Clinton, Sen. Clinton and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.

"There was a discussion of how the IRA would decommission its weapons. And I know that Sen. Clinton was part of that meeting," King said.

Kosovo

"I negotiated open borders to let fleeing refugees into safety from Kosovo," she said on CNN's American Morning.

In May of 1999, she was in Macedonia visiting refugee camps near the Kosovo border and meeting with Macedonia's president and prime minister.

Sources with knowledge of her visit say she discussed the refugees' plight with those leaders. It's not clear how much she helped since CNN reported at the time that Macedonia reopened its border to Kosovar refugees before Clinton's visit.

China

"I've been standing up against, you know, the Chinese government over women's rights and standing up for human rights in many different places," she said on CNN's American Morning.

During a 1995 visit to Beijing, at a time when her husband's administration was trying to press China on human rights, Sen. Clinton made a speech condemning abuses.
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"No one should be forced to remain silent for fear of religious or political persecution, arrest, abuse or torture," she said.

But a former National Security Council official in the Clinton administration says Clinton didn't attend NSC meetings. So while her experience is extensive, she rarely carried an official portfolio.


 
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- CBS I'm a Fan of CBS permalink
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There will be more of this....
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/08/wuspols108.xml
because she can spin and spin and spin herself into some kind of dervish trance hoping the American electorate will follow is ridiculous as a prediction that she is a fighter and will win (her desperate spin.) There are people in the countries she is trying to pad her resume with who will step up and say...yeah, she came, she saw, she had some tea! WTF!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:07 PM on 03/09/2008

Lemme make sure I'm straight on this:
When Hillary cites her foreign policy experience, one main point is she intervened with the Chinese government in support of women's rights in China. And the way she intervened was to MAKE A SPEECH!
Odd behavior for someone who keeps saying speeches don't matter, only action...

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:50 AM on 03/09/2008

I wonder if the newspapers in Pennsylvania picked up the LA Times story (3-8-2008) that said the Canadian Press reported that the Clinton campaign told the Canadian Embassy "not to worry" and take Hillary's remarks about NAFTA "with a grain of salt'.
Why hasn't That made the rounds?

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 03:54 AM on 03/09/2008
- Manx I'm a Fan of Manx permalink

The extent of Clinton's international experience was planning White House dinners and place settings for visiting envoys and ambassadors.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 03:17 AM on 03/09/2008

Has anyone seen Saturday Night Live tonight. After 3 weeks of pro-Hillary Clinton skits, NBC should be considered to have given a substantial In Kind Political Contribution to her campaign.

SNL's efforts are clearly politically motivated as they also went so far as to smear Barack Obama tonight.

I am thoroughly disgusted by SNL as they were supposed to be a neutral comedy show. As a result, I will organize a boycott of every SNL sponsor!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 11:59 PM on 03/08/2008

Some experience trumps no experience. What the Obama's folks don't recognize is those of us who do want a President who has some experience in the world stage and national stage who won't behave as GW Bush did on 9/11 - really do mean it when we say we want an experienced candidate and Obama has none.

This means if Clinton doesn't get the Democratic nomination, Clinton supporters will simply move to McCain's camp.

White males, now supporting Obama because they might hate women more than Black men, will also move to McCain's camp.

White women who are being dished on daily by Obama's surragates will also move the McCain's camp.

Hispanics have zero reasons to vote for Obama and many negative reasons to support anyone except Obama. McCain has a better record dealing with immigration issues than the majority of Democrats.

Union members who were snided for supporting Edwards also have zero reason to support Obama.

Obama's supporters are Blacks and anti-authority youths. That's it. He will not win the November election with a minority of the population supporting him. Especially, he has no chance of being a "uniter" when his racial supportors and anti-authority youth supporters threaten violence or walk-outs if he is not the nominee. One more reason civil minded Democrats will switch to McCain. Threats of race riots and student lead violent demonstrations are one more reason to switch to McCain.

If Obama is the nominee through threats, vote tampering and suppression of 50% of the Democrats who voted in the primaries, McCain will win with a landslide and the only hope for the Democratic party for decades will be the creation of a 3rd party that truly represents the labor movement. The Obama wing of the Democratic party represents just African Americans and anti-authority extremists, and feel free to violate every angle of the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act to get Obama nominated. If Obama is nominated, say goodbye to the Democratic Party - it is history.

Because of the suicide cult of the Obama movement, McCain may just usher in another Republican revolution for another 20 years or longer.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 08:49 PM on 03/08/2008

You must be a baby boomer because your remarks are so 1930's. Only followers of the Clintonsta's say things like that. It won't be any longer when you time comes go on in life. Your are afraid of change and afraid of people different than you.


YES WE CAN, OBAMA 2008

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 09:51 PM on 03/10/2008

Add the job "slimer" to HRC's qualifying credentials.

HRC was talking in Cheyenne today about the summer of '69 gutting salmon in a fishery in Valdez, Alaska. Fisheries have 2 jobs -- packers and slimers. HRC was a slimer -- ripping out the bloody guts after the roe has been removed.

This confirming quote from her book, "Living History": "Of all the jobs I've had, sliming fish was pretty good preparation for life in Washington."

Ok....now we get it. Obama hasn't crossed that theshhold either

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 07:25 PM on 03/08/2008

Hey, don't denigrate Hillary's 8 years of tea and chit chat with the wives of the world's leaders. Obama has never done that.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 07:17 PM on 03/08/2008

Re: Experience

From today's "Head of State"
http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-obama-can-win.html

"Saturday, March 08, 2008
How Obama Can Win

Obama, as many recognize, now seems to be in a box of his own making.

By declaring himself the candidate of the new politics, putting the politics of Rove et al. aside for a politics of honesty, straight-forward decency, and strength, he has putatively left the field open for Clinton et al. to lob innuendo after innuendo. If he responds, he is in violation of his commitment to the new; if he continues with his current path of non-response, he will be taken down by a series of attacks, that however false or fantastic, will eventually raises doubts in the mind of the electorate as to the validity of his new politics, and will, in the great viscera of the electorate, so responsive and so easily changed, appear "weak."

If he attacks, it is said, he betrays himself; if he continues on the same path, he is whittled down by rumor and insinuation.

Clinton's current strength is her ability to attack, however true the nature and content of the attacks. Obama must turn this very behavior into its own negative. To do so, Obama must relentlessly name what she is doing and anchor it--calling for an "end to the era of 'kitchen sink' politics, i.e.:

"It's about time that we left the era of "kitchen sink" politics, of distortion and insinuation, behind us. We have all seen it before this--a period where it was often difficult to tell falsehood, rumor, and misinformation from truth. It was this type of politics that contributed to a war in which we have lost the best of our national treasure, our nation's men and women. It is this type of politics that our opponents not so long ago decried. And it is this type of politics that, more than anything else, signals weakness--the inability to base one's statements and actions on the firm ground of truth, on our collective and honest dedication to the construction of a new and positive future--and instead, on a retreat into the politics of personal destruction.

It's time to take out the dirty dishes; It's time to empty the kitchen sink. After an era where it was often difficult to distinguish fantasy from truth, it's time to put that era behind us, to base our future efforts on strong and honest desire to build a new and better future."

What Obama can create is his own "There you go again" moment--one that will both define Clinton (someone, after all, has to do it), and places the Clinton camp in their very own box, of their own making: Where any attack will be immediately associated be in the voter's mind, and accompanied by a roll of the voter's eyes, as another example of Clinton's "kitchen sink" politics--of the chaotic, inconsistent, contradictory and frantic willingness to say or do anything to be elected--be it the changing of one's personality, tone, degree of honesty--or one's degree of tolerance or gusto for the politics of personal destruction.

Without attack, this demonstrates the nature of the Clinton camp: when attacked, and in danger of loss, rather than respond with strength, principle and authority, they throw the "kitchen sink", abandoning principles and frantically strewing innuendo as they do so.

With moral force, it names exactly what the Clinton camp is doing, and anchors it both to the politics of the past Administration, and to the very political tactics that Clinton herself has denounced and disavowed. It provides direct evidence--thus far, the only direct evidence, of how a Clinton Administration would likely govern in times of chaos, crisis, and other "3 a.m. moments", thus disempowering her already factually shaky appeals to foreign policy superiority--with a "kitchen sink" approach of tumultuous, changing, disorganized and contradictory attack--rather than with consistent purpose and moral authority.

Obama must persistently name what the Clinton camp is doing rather than complain--and he must then link it to the very essence of an old politics that has been lived through by all of us, and denigrated by most, over the past 8 years.

Thus named, and thus defined, Obama can then invite Clinton up to the higher ground--to a debate based on policy and principle--or she can choose to stay in the box that she and her camp have created.

Cite:
Head of State
http://headofstate.blogspot.com/2008/03/how-obama-can-win.html

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 06:20 PM on 03/08/2008

Her experience from the White House is at tea time. She and the other wives of the powerful world leaders sipped tea and chit chatted while the leaders did the business of negotiating treaties, determining stances, making peace or war. No one phoned her at three o'clock in the morning unless it was some old girlfriend of Bill's looking for him. She had no security clearance so she never saw NIEs or engaged in policy decisions. She's just another padded resume and. you know, when you pad your resume and are found out, you don't get the job.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 05:11 PM on 03/08/2008

Hillary Cinton is a Republican at heart, she does pratically all the evil ,misleading stuffs the Republican says or do to get the vote of by using a fear mongering tactic ,because they know that the American people wiill fall for it .I hope the American people will see this and vote for a President that will repair the image of American's aboard.I was so furious when she was comparing Obama to John Macain.Hillary is so desperate , that Bill Clinton went to Rush limbaugh radio show to campaign for his wife the same person that have been using sexiet slurs aganist Hillary and kone that he is trying use against Obama.Why trying to deal with , Hillary Clinton's desperation, she gives news conference every now and then like the party nominee.I hope that that the mainstream media will do there job by been balance and not taking sides.they should also check the fact of the , hillary has been claming that she has expericence , I dont think that because you travel with your husband for presidiential vists to countries abroad qualifies you to be the President , in actual fact she goes there to eat biscuit and tea.At the begining of the campaign, I was Hillary Clinton supporter , later on I discover that she not the kind of presidential material American's needs at these moment.this notion that Obama will not win the big state Democratic have to win in the general election is a ridiculous statement . she always want the democratic party to dance to her tune . Obama has to look for good surrogate that will sell his candidacy accurately and effectively. she whine almost as about everything .the media should stop showing her like she is the victim ,because she is not.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 03:05 PM on 03/08/2008

All Hillary was doing during those 8 years in a foreign policy role was having tea with the other wives of the powers of the world who were negotiating treaties, determining policy, and holding peace talks. She can drink tea with the best of them, I'm sure. But she did not take any 3 o'clock in the morning phone calls inviting her to tea. She's a blooming liar if she claims otherwise and Obama should call her out on it, as should the press.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 01:19 PM on 03/08/2008

There's an old saying; "If ya wanna run with the big dog, ya gotta shit with the big dog". Clinton and/or her minions have run with distortion, personal attacks, demeaning comments, smear inuendo, and generally used Rovian/Swiftboat tactics so often against Obama that now when it is ( just ) beginning to come back to bite her on the ass, it is just sweet karma. This creatures claims ( or delusions ) of self-importance and "experience", while at the same time deriding another's experience and integrity to are an affront to every honest voter and divide us rather than empower us. I am astonished by the number of women who take her part solely because she is "a woman" and look no further into the issues or who's policies would be better for either them or their families future.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:34 PM on 03/08/2008

I'm amazed that there is not one post from a Hillary Backer! It's funny... All of her backers are screaming that she has more experience, but with there is something that one of them should read about her, there is not one in site!

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 12:20 PM on 03/08/2008

Dear hillary,

You are such a god damn liar my dear.

    Favorite    Flag as abusive Posted 10:53 AM on 03/08/2008
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