Yikes! Bill Did NOT Upstage Hillary Again

Can't we all take a moment and rejoice in the return of these two young women without throwing rotten tomatoes at our own Madam Secretary of State? It's bad enough that former UN Ambassador, John Bolton is doing his Nikita Khrushchev imitation banging his shoe on the desk in rage. This was a tremendously delicate situation with North Korea. If it took Bill Clinton showing up to pick up the American journalists, so be it. What matters is the outcome period. The two women were allowed to come home to their lives, and diplomatic channels have been re-opened with North Korea. If for any reason we think that the Secretary of State, the State Department, President Obama, the former Vice President Al Gore and the Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee were not involved, you are delusional.

The take away from this episode in the saga of US foreign relations is that President Obama's calm, methodical teamwork is effective. It got the job done. He brought in the best team and stepped back and let everyone do their job. At long last, there is competence. May we learn from it and move forward. That is the teachable moment.

Comments

[Carrie9501]

If you look at the comments on that original article you saw there was a huge backlash against the the Huffington Post on that tacky headline. I like this website but I lost some respect for it when I first saw that headline yesterday. It's a petty storyline they need to drop if they want to be taken seriously. There are serious matters that need to be addressed and this tabloid gossipy crap when it involves a serious topic such as the two journalists getting released needs to stop. Leave that crap to your gossip section.

[fem56]

Hillary has enough to deal with. It never crossed my mind that she was being upstagged. Why do people want to embarrass her and make Obama look like a jerk.. She is doing a great job and has more than enough to do with out trying to get these reporters out of North Korea. i think it is great that Bill Clinton is finding places where he is uniquely useful.

[Mnemanth]

Sorry, but if HRC was working more diplomacy, rather than puffing out her chest, trading insults, and being arrogant she might have accomplished her job. The Bush Corp. era is over, and our foreign relations people better find some humility. Diplomacy works a lot better when you're not tooting your own horn and playing a bully.

[h0tr0d]

The reality is, this type of effort IS in the Secretary of States job description. As well as this worked out, how can you not ask the question " Why didn't Hillary execute ?"

[Mnemanth]

Good question...but, the answer is something every HRC supporter is trying to ignore.

[offred]

No, these were private citizens, as is Bill Clinton.

Sending the secretary of state would have been inappropriate and immensely complicated; negotiations would have taken years, as well as raising Republican and right-wing ire to outrageous heights.

[eshalom]

hotrod,

In your desperate, repeatedly failed attempts to destroy Hillary Clinton, you remain oblivious to the facts. The North Koreans asked specifically for Bill Clinton to perform the mission because they wanted the global stature of a former president. Al Gore relayed the message from the two journalists. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama got on board. The mission was accomplished by Clinton, Clinton, and Obama. Is that all to difficult for you to understand?

[yliza]

"The take away from this episode in the saga of US foreign relations is that President Obama's calm, methodical teamwork is effective. It got the job done. He brought in the best team and stepped back and let everyone do their job. At long last, there is competence. May we learn from it and move forward. That is the teachable moment."

Well said!

[juhar]

Thank God everyone had the interests of these two women at heart instead of positioning themselves for glory otherwise Laura Ling and Euna Lee would still be in North Korea.

That God the selfishness of the America Culture (Me, me and then me) was not in effect.

Thank you everyone who arranged it (including Hillary) and Bill Clinton for going.

To me, Hillary Clinton is a stand out and stand alone powerful woman. I choose Obama over Hillary and I was a little bitter over the Clinton campaign rhetoric. I didn't think either Hillary or Bill could make a comeback and be supportive in an Obama Administration. Hillary won me back when she became Secretary of State and has stayed on the Obama Administration message. Bill won me back now when he brought these women back to America.

PS - Hillary can't be upstaged, one can only hope to stand beside her as an equal.

[harriscrl3]

Finally a blogger I can say: YOU ARE ON THE MONEY!!!!

Bill Clinton didnt do this alone he had to have been working with others and the way some of these blogs have been written you would think that he did this all by himself. Bill Clinton is a respected man and he able to influence but he doesnt hold any office. TO say he is upstaging his wife who is Secretary of state is just downright si lly.

[Bailey Reynolds]

What I find extremely interesting is the way in which everyone worked together behind the scenes; and that president Obama was perfectly willing to let President Clinton take center stage on the girls' release. One would never have even known Obama was in the mix on this, it was all so stealth. It was a big win for everyone involved and highlights superb teamwork and professionalism. THIS is a perfect example of the excellent leadership we have so sorely lacked for far too long!

Bravo!

[Raster]

Yes he did! Yes he did! He made her look small.

[Merckx]

This is a fools assessment.

[loax]

AMEN!!!

[graceland9]

Thank you for the explanation - that is exactly how I see it.

[Winston Steward]

I'm sorry, everybody, but Bill was being passive-aggressive and was indeed upstaging the wife, and so was the establishment that allowed Bill to achieve the results that Hillary did not. That would include the North Koreans whom, I suspect, were all too eager to paint a picture of Hillary is ineffective, especially after the row between her and Dear Leader not long ago.

Honestly, is it good for America to allow our very competent and capable Secretary of State to be upstage and second-guessed. What will happen next time she most travel to a hot spot and put her foot down, draw the line, and make our position clear in unfriendly territory. That's right. No one will listen. They'll jst be waiting for Obama to send Bill to see if the USA is really serious.

[lynninny]

I respectfully beg to differ.

"If for any reason we think that the Secretary of State, the State Department, President Obama, the former Vice President Al Gore and the Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee were not involved, you are delusional."

Seriously, sometimes real leaders step back and just let the best person for the job do it, even if not everyone will know the real story.

[offred]

Bill, a private citizen, with the help of a lot of other private citizens, negotiated the release of two private citizens.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, undoubtedly working hard in the background, would have been hampered in negotiations because she is the Secretary of State. All of the U.S.'s issues with North Korea, and North Korea's issues with us, would have gotten in the way.

Think.

[EMacdonald]

Thank you for bringing attention to that heinous headline. I couldn't believe that was how HuffPo chose to report on this heartwarming success. I thought that everyone involved handled the situation brilliantly especially in regards to understanding the United States' relationship with North Korea. There should be nothing but applause for everyone involved. I am becoming more displeased with HuffPo's reporting every day and I'm very appreciative that you so articulately called attention to this. Thank you.

[mtnghost]

That is exactly how I felt. It seems like HufffPo continues to look for ways to denigrate certain politicians. It sort of reminds me of the Huffington summation of HRC's best debate performance of the primaries: "All she talked about was online medical records!"

[Shzron1946]

I had the impression that Huffpo was trying to get the article posted really uickly and that they had to use the article they did, word for word--including the the headlines. But I only got that impression later after reading all the fact.

This is a big problem with on-line news. If you read the wrong post first, you are mis-informed and first impressions seem to last really long.

[MurrayAbraham]

Agreed. It seems like many commentators either haven't read the reporting of these events or willfully ignored them.

[Irascible]

I agree. I didn't like that headline either. What ever were they thinking? And why did it remain up so long?