and no, obama isn't having it both ways, she was appointed by bill on healthcare, we know that, now she's trying to claim some experience out of the blue which she has now been called out on by people who were there.
I wonder if Laura Bush would be a good President. She'll have eight years as the wife of a president and four years as the daughter-in-law of a president. That is 12 Clinton-credible years of foreign policy experience. Maybe Obama can offer Secretary of State to Socks the cat.
And you don't think Bill Clinton had a say in sending her to foreign missions or consulted with her? I fully agree she is overplaying her role but no one is denying she had a role or was there in an official capacity.
hillary's time as first lady is a double edged sword for her. she can say she was there, she can say world leaders know her and she knows them, but the one thing we know she was in charged of failed miserably. talk about having it both ways, she is lucky she could get this far, she became senator of ny on her "experience" as first lady. just like obama gets examined on his "experience" she is getting examined on hers. there is nothing unfair about this
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As a member of the Senate Foreign relations committee he's done a bit of traveling and diplomacy That's not bad, and it is travel to some of the most important areas of the world where foreign policy will be needed.
The best defense Hillary's supporters have is "hey, everybody else does it!" It is Hillary herself who has asserted that she is qualified for COC and Obama is not... but the only qualification she has is that she was married to Bill. There was ZERO actual personal experience. Is it so harsh to hold her up to her own standards, her own words? It's not like Obama's camp is randomly jumping out of nowhere throwing out attacks. Hillary is the one who is using this as a wedge to differentiate herself from Obama, and she has no ground to stand on.
I agree, but it's easy in hindsight. Remember, at the time, the red phone thing seemed pretty silly to anyone who was actually following the race and knows the candidates. It was part of the overall "kitchen sink" strategy which involved numerous attacks of all kinds. "shame on you!" "heavenly choirs!" "It's 3:00 am an your children are asleep!" They threw a ton of ***** out there in one week, and in hindsight, analysts are thinking that it's the fear-mongering red-phone ad that got 2/3rds of voters who decided in the last three days before voting. The Obama camp reacted quickly and made a matching ad asserting that Clinton failed her red-phone moment on Iraq. It wasn't enough, apparently. After throwing the kitchen sink, it's "red phone" that stuck and that is exactly why Clinton has continued on the offensive touting the line as best COC.
The guy who got coffee and walked into the room was there too. He is far more qualified than Obama to be president. We have no idea how involved, if at all, Hillary was in these peace negotiations that actually lasted for years. She states that she is more qualified than him on foreign policy issues...but can't substantiate it with anything substantive.
I think when Lord Trimble of Lisnagarvey calls you a wee bit silly....you've effectively been PWONED! In related news, the leprechaun from lucky charms has also endorsed Obama.
Sinbad joins the fray: http://blog.washingtonpost.com/sleuth/2008/03/sinbad_unloads_on_hillary_clin.html Snippet: Sinbad, along with singer Sheryl Crow, was on that 1996 trip to Bosnia that Clinton has described as a harrowing international experience that makes her tested and ready to answer a 3 a.m. phone call at the White House on day one, a claim for which she's taking much grief on the campaign trail. Harrowing? Not that Sinbad recalls. He just remembers it being a USO tour to buck up the troops amid a much worse situation than he had imagined between the Bosnians and Serbs. In an interview with the Sleuth Monday, he said the "scariest" part of the trip was wondering where he'd eat next. "I think the only 'red-phone' moment was: 'Do we eat here or at the next place.'" Clinton, during a late December campaign appearance in Iowa, described a hair-raising corkscrew landing in war-torn Bosnia, a trip she took with her then-teenage daughter, Chelsea. "They said there might be sniper fire," Clinton said. Threat of bullets? Sinbad doesn't remember that, either. "I never felt that I was in a dangerous position. I never felt being in a sense of peril, or 'Oh, God, I hope I'm going to be OK when I get out of this helicopter or when I get out of his tank.'" In her Iowa stump speech, Clinton also said, "We used to say in the White House that if a place is too dangerous, too small or too poor, send the First Lady." Say what? As Sinbad put it: "What kind of president would say, 'Hey, man, I can't go 'cause I might get shot so I'm going to send my wife...oh, and take a guitar player and a comedian with you.'"
I totally agree her record as First Lady should be looked at and I think it is the right thing for Obama to call for a release of records. At the sametime though if you are going to criticize her for the major role she played in the Whitehouse and her mistakes then don't claim she was only there for window dressing. For better or worse Hillary Clinton's tenure was unlike any other First Lady's.
She was more than just married to Bill she was also officially tasked as a senior advisor on health care and prior to Bill Clinton's own political career was a junior lawyer working on the Watergate committee. Ironically coming into the 1992 election Hillary Clinton had more Beltway experience than Bill. Anyway as I said before you can't have it both ways. If you think all she was was Bill's wife then the attacks on her role in the first Clinton Admin. don't matter.