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Vetting Clinton: On the Sidelines of History

3/19/08, 6:16 pm EST

Clinton a long way from the White House at key foreign policy moments | guardian.co.uk

The [newly released] documents from [Hillary Clinton's] office in the White House threaten to undermine her claim to have played a major role in Clinton’s foreign policy decisions.

For instance, Clinton has said she helped negotiate the April 1998 Good Friday agreement between warring factions in Northern Ireland. But while Catholic and Protestant figures hashed out last-minute details of a power-sharing agreement in Belfast, Clinton was at the National Press Club in Washington at a party honouring Bella Abzug, a congresswoman from New York City who had died recently. While President Clinton phoned major participants in the peace talks, she met with Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel and joined a farewell party for Democratic operative Karen Finney. On the day the agreement was actually signed, she met with Philippine first lady Amelita Ramos.

When Nato launched air strikes against Serbia in an attempt to punish Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic for the country’s onslaught against ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo, Clinton toured ancient Egyptian ruins, including King Tut’s tomb and the temple of Hatshepsut. She dined at the Temple of Luxor, and stayed overnight at the Sofitel Winter Palace Hotel there.

On August 20, 1998, Bill Clinton ordered US missile strikes on suspected terrorist sites in Sudan and Afghanistan. The president and Hillary Clinton were on holiday on Martha’s Vineyard, a posh island vacation spot off the coast of Massachusetts. After announcing the attack, Clinton cut short his break and returned to Washington to confer with his national security team; Hillary Clinton remained on the Vineyard until August 30, her records show.


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Comments

CC | 3/19/2008, 6:36 pm EST

Is it a surprise that HRC was puffing?

Anonymous | 3/19/2008, 9:54 pm EST

It’s a bit like nitpicking A?

I guess the real way to gauge her involvement would be to peruse the records of the preceding weeks to see her meetings with the parties involved. It is possible she was taking a behind the scenes approach so that the Republicant’s wouldn’t use it as fodder in Gingrich’s ‘Smear the Clintons’ campaign.
But understanding these people’s cult of personality, it begs the question as to why she wouldn’t take the credit for her efforts, particularly since she’s had her eye on the high seat all the time.

NItpicking | 3/20/2008, 1:15 am EST

No, these are the specific instances she gave when arguing her foreign policy experience.

DirtyDennis | 3/20/2008, 10:38 am EST

The only people who care about these things are the “I Hate Hil” club members looking for anything with which to pillory hillory. They should be readying their defenses when the Cons start asking about BHO speaking out against NAFT then having a rep tell Canada it’s just politiking. Then saying he’s going to pull troops home at such and such a pace and having another rep telling the Iraqi gov’t that he’s just politiking, not to worry.

If you want perfection, you should NOT be witnessing an election.

John Locke | 3/20/2008, 1:30 pm EST

HRC will need to go see Jacob

Anonymous | 3/20/2008, 1:40 pm EST

(Jed Clampett)

Of course.
The ones who are deluded will accept her word to tell them she has this or that experience regarless of what true qualifications her curriculum vitae actually has.

Most whites are merely afraid that if a black man takes the power seat, he will use it to seek vengeance for all the past transgressions perpetrated upon his race. Or perhaps he isn’t qualified and will make a mess of things… as if he didn’t understand the importance of being the first black president and wouldn’t work three times as hard, as he’s had to do all his life, as any white person to make it work and make sure his legacy doesn’t destroy the opportunities for other men of color.

DirtyDennis | 3/20/2008, 2:56 pm EST

Most whites are afraid? Thats a bit extreme stereotyping, isn’t it? Let’s make sure we’ve got this right, it’s “whites,” not Americans or White Americans, right? Are you counting European Whites too? And how about the Asians? How do you think they feel about it? I think they vote as well. And the Latinos?

You seem to be manifesting some distinct signs of bigotry yourself. Them we can speculate about, yours is fairly difinitive.

Anonymous | 3/20/2008, 3:43 pm EST

are we feigning ignorance now? clutching at straws aren’t you old friend?

DirtyDennis | 3/20/2008, 4:07 pm EST

I’ll give you that a LOT of whites have questions in their minds about the black race. For many, myself included, it/they is/are an enigma. But to extend that to say that MOST whites FEAR a black man (which Obama is definitely NOT) as Prez ’cause “payback’s a bitch,” doesn’t come across as the height of reasoned thought.

Anonymous | 3/20/2008, 5:24 pm EST

I’ve never thought bigotry was part of reasoned thought anyway. In fact, quite the contrary. It is reactionary, pigheaded and usually driven by fear, whether it be the unknown or a perceived reality.

DirtyDennis | 3/20/2008, 6:00 pm EST

Well, help me out. Isn’t “most whites” a bigotted term?

Anonymous | 3/20/2008, 6:41 pm EST

If that’s the way you want to read it, regardless of what you know of me to now, then yea, make it so and wallow in it for fun.

DirtyDennis | 3/21/2008, 8:55 pm EST

Since January, 68K voters have changed affiliation to one of the major parties. (That’s not new registers.) The Dem affiliation changes outpace the GOP 3 – 1.

Matthew Garville | 3/23/2008, 12:03 am EST

This is showing what many have believed for some time now. Just because you were loosely married to the President does not mean his qualifications and experience are automatically transfered over to you.

Did Bill Clinton have any foreign policy experience prior to living in the White House as Governor of Arkansas? No, he did not. This is a widely known fact that the Clinton campaign can’t simply sweep under rug.

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