Why Hillary Clinton Will Restore America's Standing in the World
The authors argue that Senator Obama is the best candidate to restore America's standing and authority based on his "transformative personality, personal history and appeal."
Here's why they are wrong.
While personal appeal and oratorical skill are certainly helpful in building diplomatic ties and conveying goodwill, they aren't a substitute for strong relationships and demonstrated leadership on the international stage. And as valuable as Senator Obama's Kenyan roots and childhood in Indonesia are, these experiences are not, in fact, indicators of diplomatic skill or the knowledge of global affairs needed to navigate international relations in our treacherous world.
By contrast, Hillary Clinton has been practicing public diplomacy for years and is widely respected around the world for her longtime commitment to international development, human rights and America's global leadership.
During the years that Hillary Clinton served as first lady, she became a symbol of America's human face and the values we cherish as a people. In an unprecedented role, she traveled to more than eighty countries to highlight the importance of investing in people. She gave voice to those living on the margins of society, particularly women and children, but also the poor. She put a spotlight on US development programs that offered solutions to pressing problems like infectious diseases, illiteracy, and economic marginalization. She advanced important causes -- from microcredit to global health initiatives -- with an array of foreign leaders, international organizations, and grass roots activists. And she also talked to Americans about why these investments were critical to expanding our influence and enhancing our own security.
Hillary Clinton traveled to places no first lady had ever gone, and where presidents can't go. Visits to some of the most troubled places around the world certainly offered her a measure of exposure and acculturation that she would carry with her to the presidency.
While her oratory may not be as soaring as Senator Obama's, her words helped galvanize a global women's rights movement. Her now famous speech in Beijing at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995 -- which declared that "human rights are women's rights and women's rights are human rights" -- became a call to action to millions of women who joined together in a common purpose - the struggle for women's rights and human rights on a global scale.
Given her status as one of the world's most visible champions of these causes, it's not surprising that thousands waited through the night to hear her speak in the Philippines; that men and women stood ten deep along the streets in Mongolia to salute her when she traveled there; that the residents of Soweto danced in the streets awaiting her visit to their township.
Indeed, Hillary is today a familiar and beloved presence in many parts of the world. A street in a housing project where she helped squatters in South Africa was named after her. So was a clinic in Eritrea, a village in Bangladesh, and a school in Romania. When she arrived in Nicaragua after a devastating hurricane had hit, women held up a banner in Spanish that said: "Welcome to Hillary, the ambassador to the poor."
Perhaps as relevant today is her stature in the Muslim world. Having traveled extensively in the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia, she conducted vigorous outreach to diverse religious groups and convened leaders of different faiths to work together on religious tolerance and ways to combat extremism.
In 1999, a plaque was dedicated at the US Agency for International Development to recognize Hillary's leadership on global issues.
It said, "May all who pass through these portals recognize the invaluable contributions to worldwide development made by the First Lady of the US, Hillary Clinton." The Bush Administration had the plaque removed. Plaque or not, her legacy around the world endures in the hearts and minds of millions of people for whom she was an embodiment of America at its very best. That is what Hillary Clinton would bring to the presidency.
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Well I'm sold OBAMA for President
HILLARY for Good Will Ambassador !!!!!
Count me in !!!
Hillary = NAFTA, a disaster for labor and the environment worldwide
Hillary = the Peru Free Trade Agreement, a replay of NAFTA
Hillary is getting campaign money from investment bankers and multinational corporation CEOs to buy the advertising that will allow her to buy down the concerns of soon-to-be-unemployed factory workers and soon-to-be-landless farmers.
Hillary is a warmonger who defended Israel's unprovoked attacks on Syria in 2007.
Vote for Cynthia McKinney if you want a real leader who truly represents the principles and ideals that America used to represent.
I WOULD MUCH PREFER TO SEE HILLARY RESTORE DEMOCRACY'S STANDING IN AMERICA
Is this post some kind of joke?
Did you two pull the short straw in the "Somebody write SOMETHING!" panic session?
You are embarrassing yourselves.
International diplomacy is the art and practice of conducting negotiations between representatives of groups or states.
Effective international diplomacy is getting good results from such negotiations.
Neither Clinton NOR Obama has done this, as far as we know, and your post certainly gives no such evidence for Clinton.
Being a good will ambassador - which is valuable - is very far from effective international diplomacy, and you two should know that.
You just don't think WE do.
We do.
ALERT:
These two authors needed to be identified by The Huffington Post as campaign advisors for the Hillary campaign.
The New Republic outs them here in this January 25, 2008 article:
"Others are longtime Hillarylanders who had been unofficially pinch-hitting for the campaign all along, including Melanne Verveer (now helping with faith outreach), Lissa Muscatine (speechwriting), Lisa Caputo (surrogate management), Jen Klein (a policy expert lending an occasional hand with speechwriting), and the formidable Evelyn Lieberman . . . "
http://www.tnr.com/toc/story.html?id=75e41edb-784d-4f9a-ba6e-08cab93d09ae
It's reassuring to see passionate posters for all our Dem candidates. Just be sure you're able to commit your passion to the ultimate choice and not allow minor differences to become major wedges. The Repub candidates are pathetic, but the Repub machine is waiting to grind up their opposition. Be glad we have some jousting going on now because in the general election the swifties, liars, fearmongers, sexists and racists will be out in force. If asked, the dem candidates can genuinely pledge support for whomever wins the primaries, so we should be mature enough to do the same. In general the 30%ers won't vote for any dem; sexists won't vote for any woman, racists won't vote for any minority. Sane people need to remain sane. I like all our dem candidates, even the ones who dropped out.
this from the leading liberal newspaper... the nation:
bill and hillarys dangerous game
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080204/howl2
Although I am loath to support any of John McCain's Neocon beliefs, I trust him more than Hillary to at least provide some level of Constitutional protections. Given the capitulation of the Dems and Repubs on the Constitution we are faced with a Hobson's Choice. A review of the Clinton's willingness to use whatever power available to squash however small a voice leaves me terrified of the consequences of Hillary as President. (Note, the use of the IRS to attack the young girl who posed the question to Gore about Clinton and Bonita Broderick during the 2000 election.)
Hillary Clinton would certainly unite our country.It's great to have such a positive article on Hillary, she needs to be elected as President.She has the brains,leadership qualities and toughness that we need. Actually, Obama appears to be a young nice guy, but it scares me when I think he would be in the White House with his inexperience.Perhaps he would grow in the next eight years and gain more experience and then run for office.By the way,Bill Clinton was a great President.
I am not familiar with these two writer's here, but I think they better come up with a better reason, than visiting 80 Countries as First Lady and defending Women's right, a qualification to restore our image as President.
Bill gave us Nafta, which has destroyed economies in several Countries including ours. Hillary's has received several huge campaign donations from, Insurance Companies, AIPAC, Weapons & Oil Companies, and lets not forget Rupert Murdoch. Her PR man Mark Penn works for the same company that is representing Blackwater USA.
She voted for the War in Iraq, "use of force" is a vote for War. Then gave the excuse, if I knew then, what I know now, I wouldn't have voted for it. She recently voted for the IRG as a terrorist organization, giving Bush another way to go to War with Iran.
I liked Bill Clinton allot, I think he was overall a good President, we must remember he had a majority of Republicans in office then and a Republican Conspiracy to get him out.
It is time for them and our Country to move on, without them. There Public display of attacking Obama has caused division in the Party. We don't need to give the Republicans this advantage and that is exactly what it has done.
The only thing ever, that I give credit to Reagan for, is don't attack fellow Party members, the Democrats could use that advise wisely.
The best thing Hillary and Bill could do to restore our image in the World, would be to concentrate on Bill's Global Intiative Project and get out of the race.
Clinton as a woman and Bill as a master diplomat would restore trust in the world.
What will the rest of the world think of us if America elects John McCain or Romney? Will they forgive us for putting another Republican back into the Oval office?
Scary to think about.
Ms. Muscatine and Ms. Verveer could not be more incorrect about the relative value of having the United States represented by Hillary vs. Senator Obama.
She voted for the Iraq war, including a stunning failure to read the NIE. In stark contrast, Senator Obama spoke out loudly and clearly against the invasion.
No other candidate will have the immense credibility and respect around the world that Obama will have.
As somebody who actually works with foreigners on public diplomacy programs I can say that this essay is basically wrong. I deal with people from all over the world and while the foreigners I deal with respect Hillary they are positively fascinated by Obama. I frequently get e-mails from people (female as well as male) telling me that they are rooting for Obama. Obama's life story is for a lot of people overseas the embodiment of "the American Dream" -- what people think is best about America. This is not to say that Hillary can't do a good job on public diplomacy, but the contention that somehow Obama's upbringing overseas and his international roots are inconsequential is ludicrous. They are very very consequential. The fact that he had a Moslem step-father and has a familiarity with Islam makes him less suspect in the eyes of many. One can debate whether that should really be the case, but it is in fact how it is.
Why Lorna Brett Howard, former President of Chicago NOW, switched from Clinton to Obama:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVuMYKs8iJs&feature=related
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