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

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 »

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

Story continues below

advertisement

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.
advertisement

"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.

Comments

[sculptor]

Neither of them have any chief executive experience but at least Obama has the honesty of not trying to pretend he does. While I'm talking about not having any experience, it's clear that McOldguy has no economics chops so if he gets elected it will be the same old Neocon crap applied as a festering poultice to our wounded economy.

[Windsor]

not to take anything away from those fine gentleman but how does playing around the edges of foreign policy have to do with being able to make THE DECISION when it counts. Senator Clinton reminds me of the crazy parent that watches their child score a TD in the City Championship game and reminds everyone for twenty years afterward about how great that moment was, like they scored the TD? Quit living through Bill we're tired of hearing about it!

[JiminNC]

I don't, I once watched chest surgery in the OR. I could probably do it. Any takers?

[Windsor]

You might as well elect Bob Geldof or Bono on their foreign policy experience.

[michael538]

That's it! I am voting for Chance, from the movie Being There. All this talk about experience is a bit frightening. Experience at what? Gutter politics, innuendo, lies, catering to special interests. I DON'T WANT any of their experience any more. If someone has moral compass and some viagra, they should perform well inside the Beltway- the less experience the better. I want someone that has experience in Economics 101, ie understands what a 9 trillion dollar debt means. But my ideas are generally not accepted. For example, my solution to the immigratio­n/foreclos­ure problem.
Since most of our new homes were built by an illegal workforce, make them buy up all the foreclosed properties. And since the finance industry was so greedy in doling out sub-prime loans, make them carry the notes. And since our government was so diligent in protecting our borders, make them cradle these workers in the arms of citizenship. Tell the illegals: You no longer have a choice, you have to stay. We are making you citizens, selling you homes, and lending you the money, whether you like it or not. I think it would send out a very clear signal that you can't come here and just kick around the big U.S. of A. This is the land of the free after all. The quicker we can saddle you with debt and obligation, the quicker you can savor that freedom just like us. One thing for sure, this would solve the foreclosure problem, or delay the next one for a while.
But no one listens to me- I guess I am alittle short on experience.

[riverhouse]

Look, we all can agree that Hillary can and has had tea with the other wives of important men all over the world, as has Mrs. Carter, Mrs. Reagan, Mrs. Ford, Mrs. Bush, and the other Mrs. Bush. So, is our requirement for presidential candidates going to be their ability to drink tea and make social chit chat through interpreters in foreign nations while the husbands negiotate the treaties and make the deals? Do we need to have Obama vetted on his tea time social skills in order for him to be competitive in the primary system against Mrs. Clinton? Are First Ladies called to tea at three o'clock in the morning?

[TheRagingModerate]

This is all so disturbing -- I used to be a HUGE supporter of the Clintons, back when they were primarily the victims of ugly, unethical scorched earth politics in the '90s. Now it's the Clintons who look like rabid dogs on the hunt for victory at any cost.

Hillary is cutting the Democratic Party's nose to spite its face. The only way she can possibly win this primary is to fight dirty and no-holds-barred, and then rely on party insiders (superdelegates) to upend the popular vote and the pledged delegate score. In doing so, she hands the White House (and probably even my vote) to McCain and the Republicans.

Think about it: She can't win the nomination without destroying her chances of winning the general election. There are two main reasons:

(1) By taking this absurd position that she should be nominated over Obama because of her experience, she has virtually conceded that voters in the general election would be wise to put their trust in McCain instead of her (since he has more experience in government than HRC and Obama combined). In essence, she's telling the primary voters of today that they should vote for her because she's more like McCain than Obama is. What will she tell the voters in the fall? Well, I gues Senator I-Don't-Ne­ed-a-Post-­SuperTuesd­ay-Plan figures she'll cross that bridge if and when she comes to it. (Sounds like the kind of strategery made infamous by a certain incompetent president I know).

Plus, given that she cannot -- unlike Obama -- effectively distance herself from the ill-considered decision to invade Iraq, she will have to rely entirely upon her opposition to the surge if she wants to use the Iraq War in the election. That, of course, leaves her in the awkward position of having to root for the surge to fail, and there is some reason right now to believe that it may be working. (Well, most people would find this to be an awkward position; it may be just another political calculation to Senator Clinton.) If the surge continues to show even minimal signs of progress, the Iraq War becomes almost a non-issue in a Clinton-McCain matchup. In an Obama-McCain matchup, on the other hand, Obama will always be able to go back to the initial decision to invade and ask the American people to imagine where we would be as a country right now if we had never made that bone-headed mistake.

(2) If Hillary beats Obama with old fashioned scorched earth politics (and things are certainly headed in that direction) and back room machinations by party insiders (that much is inescapable, since she can't realistically catch up on pleadged delegates), she will totally alienate the huge crowd of new voters (mostly young and/or previously disaffected) who have come out of the woodwork to get behind Obama's unorthodox positivity and his inspiring and unifying oratory. This significant block of voters is motivated principally by its desire to change the ugly tone and deeply partican nature of American politics. There IS NO WAY IN HELL these people are going to vote for Senator Clinton in the general election -- they will be so traumatized by the experience of having their hopes dashed in typically cheap party politics fashion that they will either stay home and lose faith in the possibility of real change for the many, many years to come, or they will vote for McCain -- because the fact of the matter is, McCain may be scary when it comes to his views on foreign policy, but he is a party maverick (in the party that doesn't generally tolerate mavericks, no less) and is much, much more appealing to this block of Obama supporters than Hillary could possibly be (especially once she claws her way to the nomination using every old school trick in the book).

I'm sorry, but it seems to me that, unless McCain has some kind of meltdown or things in Iraq begin moving again dramatically in the wrong direction, Hillary will have nearly ZERO chance of beating McCain if she "wins" the Democratic Primary by relying on her "experience" and by exemplifying everything the new Obama voters HATE about politics. And so far, those have been the pillars of her big comeback.

[ndolomar]

dear lord, clinton supporters, are you reading this? now, the troll posters aside -- please tell me you're at least looking at this before throwing blind support because she's a woman or a clinton by marriage. bill did a great job, but i don't know of any company that would hire someone with such an "embellished" resume as hers. please let penn, wyo and the others get it right.

[snowcat]

"We will have an enforcement mechanism, whether it's that (garnishing wages) or it's some other mechanism through the tax system or automatic enrollment­s." - Hillary Clinton on enforcing socialized medicine.

[Vik]

She's a liar. Why isn't the mainstream press reporting that???

[pansycritter]

You're a liar, why don't they report that?

[richard5]

The only experience Hillary has is listening in on Bill's calls in the White House at 3 oclock in the morning. Unfortunately, she obvioulsy missed Lavinksy calls. She was fast asleep. So much for her foreign policy experience.

[pansycritter]

Who the heck is Lavinsky? One of your relatives? No wonder the call was missed!

So much for her foreign policy? Your relatives foreigners? HUH?

[Hagrid]

The only calss she received at '3AM in the morning'?? is the ones she forwarded to Bill at his bachelor pad

[lungfish]

She is a paper tiger... all fluff and bs. Anyone who has ever reviewed resumes and interviewed people could tell that her "experience" is fantasy at best and more like simple bullshit.

[missmelodius]

If she were a paper tiger she'd release her tax returns and if she were a leader she'd get her white house records processed post haste.

- in the words of Arianna Huffington, "Being the last one to renounce your vote on Iraq is not leadership­."

[olderdem]

Just a few moments ago on CNBC’s “Kudlow and Company”, Robert Reich, Secretary of Labor under Clinton said “I was in the White House when Hillary was there and I can tell you exactly how much foreign policy experience she has . . . zilch!”

[HeadScratcher]

Hillary's claims of a depth of experience in foreign policy is like a city official who cuts the ribbon at a new mall and then claims to be an expert on real estate development.

[Feettotheflame]

Hillary would lie her way into hell if she thought it would get her elected. She would sacrifice all morals to acquire power, which is exactly why she will be denied it by the people of this country who value democracy.

If you value corrupt corporations stealing your tax dollars, vote for Hillary.

If you value the status quo, as in torture and illegal invasions, vote for Hillary.

If you value the destruction of our freedoms, vote Hillary.

She will not fight your fight, she will fight for her lobbyists, she has always been of the corporate world and not of the people.

Obama is our best chance to restore some measure of democracy to our approaching police state.

1776

[pansycritter]

Well at least Obama will blow lots of hot air our way!

[Plank]

This is clearly an attempt to inflate her resume. Little factoids in 1-2 days meetings do not constitute foreign policy experience. Experience means you have devoted years in dealing with all aspects of foreign policy, including diplomacy, accurate assessment of global threats, etc.. Someone like Joe Biden has that experience. Hillary doesn't.

[Evidence]

Well if Biden is so experienced, he would have used that so-called experience to vote against the Iraqi War Resolution like Obama, right?