Irish Laugh at Hillary's Political Experience

rocketsjudoka · Mar 11, 2008

MadMax said:

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.
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This was posted earlier in the thread

John Hume, the Catholic leader who shared the 1998 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the peace accord, credits Clinton for playing a "pivotal role" in the peace process.
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rocketsjudoka · Mar 11, 2008

bnb said:

In related news, the leprechaun from lucky charms has also endorsed Obama.
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I heard him on Rush claiming the Clinton's had Vince Foster steal his Lucky Charms.

rhino17 said:

Mine is from Kilkenny
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I've dranken so much Guiness that I'm probably part Irish by now.

Apollo Creed · Mar 11, 2008

Major said:

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.'"

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LMAO, his quotes are pretty funny.

Where the heck has Sinbad been? I didn't even know he was alive.

He should definitely make a comeback.

Cohen · Mar 11, 2008

Major said:

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.'"

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ROFL!

Thanks Major!

Cohen · Mar 11, 2008

MadMax said:

i'd like to try.
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Join Clinton's Staff, they'll take ya.

baller4life315 · Mar 11, 2008

I attended a Clinton rally today out of mere curiousity (not often the former President comes to your backyard) and believe me when I tell you that one of the key points Bill made for Hillary today was in regards to her experience, in particular her efforts to bring peace to Northern Ireland.

thumbs · Mar 11, 2008

baller4life315 said:

I attended a Clinton rally today out of mere curiousity (not often the former President comes to your backyard) and believe me when I tell you that one of the key points Bill made for Hillary today was in regards to her experience, in particular her efforts to bring peace to Northern Ireland.
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Tell a lie often enough and some people may begin to believe it. Tell it once too often and the liar begins to believe it.

Cohen · Mar 11, 2008

thumbs said:

Tell a lie often enough and some people may begin to believe it. Tell it once too often and the liar begins to believe it.
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You ain't lyin ... or are you? I'm confused.

Cohen · Mar 11, 2008

baller4life315 said:

I attended a Clinton rally today out of mere curiousity ..
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Sure... uh huh ... fess up!

baller4life315 · Mar 12, 2008

thumbs said:

Tell a lie often enough and some people may begin to believe it. Tell it once too often and the liar begins to believe it.
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Haha....Trust me, i'm no Democrat. "Curiosity" is the perfect word to use. I'm relatively young and had never attended a political rally before. You hear the former President is coming to speak 10 minutes from home? Sure, why not.....

It was an interesting experience, I must say. Not only to hear what the former President had to say and to get a taste of what a political rally was like, but also to see the opposition as well. Everything from the guys with the abortion signs to the people holding up photos of Monica Lewinsky. It was definitely an interesting experience for me.

rocket3forlife2 · Mar 12, 2008

the abortion signs to the people holding up photos of Monica Lewinsky.
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lol I should have went!

rocketsjudoka · Mar 12, 2008

I just heard a report on NPR on Hillary Clinton's foreign policy experience as first lady. They will post the audio later but here is the textual summary:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88154000

All Things Considered, March 12, 2008 · On the presidential campaign trail, the Democratic candidates have been going back-and-forth over what New York Sen. Hillary Clinton accomplished as a first lady, and whether she gained valuable foreign policy experience that makes her ready to be president.

Clinton told NPR that she has played a major role in foreign policy decisions. "I represented our government and our country in more than 80 countries, and I know that people are nit-picking and that's fair – it's in a campaign. But compare my experience, even after the nitpicking, with Sen. Obama's. I mean, let's look at this objectively here, and I think my experience is much more preparatory for the job that awaits," she said.

Clinton's opponent, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, has expressed doubts about whether serving as first lady offered Clinton any real foreign policy experience.

At issue are a few key moments in Macedonia and Northern Ireland, where Clinton has talked about bolstering her foreign policy chops. She does not suggest that she ordered troops anywhere or dealt with a crisis, but still, she says these travels as a first lady were important.

Dealing with Refugees in Macedonia

In 1999, for example, she went to Macedonia as the NATO bombing campaign was underway and hitting Yugoslav targets in Kosovo. Refugees flowed across the border by train. Clinton stopped at a refugee camp to speak to aid workers.

She later talked about this experience, comparing what she saw to scenes from Holocaust movies such as "Schindler's List" or "Sophie's Choice."

"Think about what that means, to be driving people from their homes, separating families, loading them into trains, at the end of this violent century that we should have learned something from," she said.

Clinton's presidential campaign says Macedonia had an inconsistent policy towards refugees before the first lady arrived. Macedonia's ambassador to the U.S. at the time Ljubica Acesvka was Macedonia's ambassador to the US at the time disagrees, saying her government always had a policy to allow in refugees.

She says Clinton did deliver an important message that the U.S. would help Macedonia, but the ambassador characterized Clinton's message as a supporting one. "I would have to characterize that visit as more of a visit where she was there to say that, 'We support you. We will continue to provide the support, but all the borders should be open and all the refugees should be able to come in.'"

Clinton visited Macedonia at a time when many members of Congress and officials from across Europe were arriving to pressure the government to accept refugees. Some news organizations, including NPR, covered the first lady's trip. But her visit to Macedonia may be making more headlines today during the presidential campaign than it did at the time.

Dejan Anastevic is a Time magazine journalist in Belgrade, who was covering the region in 1999. He says Clinton's visit was not unusual. "It was a war time with a lot of stuff going on and an endless stream of chiefs-of-state."

Brokering Peace in Northern Ireland

Clinton has also highlighted the time she spent as first lady, as she puts it, helping bring peace to Northern Ireland. Her husband received much credit for helping to end the troubles there.

Mark Devenport is Northern Ireland political editor for the BBC, who covered Bill Clinton's visits to Belfast and who remembers Hillary Clinton being there as well.

"She visited a fish and chips shop in South Belfast and met with working class women, who were trying to build bridges across the sectarian barriers between that divide Protestant and Catholic barriers within Belfast."

But, he ultimately described the event as an "artificial occasion" that was "brought in to capture the moment." Although it was well-received by the public, the event's highlight was the first lady sitting down with women," he said.

Brice Morrison, Connecticut congressman who worked for years for peace in Northern Ireland and who was a law school classmate of Bill and Hillary Clinton, says the first lady's efforts were more than well-received. Much of Hillary Clinton's work, he said, was behind-the-scenes, meeting women in grassroots community groups, whose support for a peace agreement was essential.

"Hillary's role was not being a negotiator," he said. "Her role was giving these women a voice and helping these women have a voice and giving them advice and to go over and be the keynoter to bring people together," he said.

Clinton Compared to Other First Ladies

Being a high-profile resource for women around the world has been a priority of other American first ladies, according to Myra Gutin, a scholar and historian at Rider University in New Jersey. Gutin has written a book called "The President's Partner: The First Lady in the Twentieth Century."

Gutin says that meeting with women around the world is par for the course for first ladies, but she says Clinton did set herself apart in some key ways: by crafting health care legislation and by traveling to more than 80 countries, which showed a greater commitment to making diplomatic connection.

But, she says there are limits to what even the most active first lady can do. "The first lady is not the commander-in-chief. The president is. She is next to the power rather than wielding power."

Proximity to power means a first lady is not dealing with the biggest crises. Lissa Muscatine was Hillary Clinton's speechwriter in the 1990s and acknowledges the first lady was never confronted with a military decision or terrorist attack. But a first lady, she said, can be tough.

Muscatine pointed to when Clinton landed in Beijing in 1995, and during a United Nations Conference on Women, challenged the Chinese government.

"No one should be forced to remain silent for fear of religious or political persecution, arrest, abuse or torture. I believe that now, on the eve of a new millennium, it is time to break the silence. It is time for us to say, here in Beijing, and for the world to hear, that it is no longer acceptable to discuss women's rights as separate from human rights," Clinton said.

Muscatine wrote that speech, and she says it galvanized attention for women around the globe.

"I can tell you that for years after that everywhere we went, people would clutch speech," she said. "They would run up holding a copy. It was as if it empowered a lot of women and gave voice to their aspirations."
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So while it doesn't paint a picture of her as being a key foriegn policy negotiator it does show that she was involved in several foreign policy campaigns and represented US interests including not just delivering feel good messages of goodwill as was usually expected of First Lady but taking other governments to task on issues.

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