Hillary: Experienced??? (1 Viewer)

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A fact check on Clinton's foreign policy claims

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton, fresh off crucial wins in Tuesday's primaries, has been playing the experience card heavily, particularly in regard to her role in foreign policy.

Clinton said it's her 35 years of experience that make her the best candidate to take on presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain in November.

After losing primaries in Ohio and Texas, Sen. Barack Obama argued the media has not held Clinton's feet to the fire on foreign policy.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/06/clinton.foreign.fact/



Nobel winner: Hillary Clinton's "silly" Irish peace claims

Hillary Clinton had no direct role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland and is a "wee bit silly" for exaggerating the part she played, according to Lord Trimble of Lisnagarvey, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and former First Minister of the province.

"I don’t know there was much she did apart from accompanying Bill [Clinton] going around," he said. Her recent statements about being deeply involved were merely "the sort of thing people put in their canvassing leaflets" during elections. "She visited when things were happening, saw what was going on, she can certainly say it was part of her experience. I don’t want to rain on the thing for her but being a cheerleader for something is slightly different from being a principal player."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/08/wuspols108.xml
 
I sat behind the Sac Kings bench one game and got to hear everything coach Rick Adelman said to his team. I'm claiming NBA head coaching experience.
 
Her being the lady behind the real politician is her claim to experience (minus the past 4-5 years she's been a Senator) all along. Kind of hard for her to attack Obama on his inexperience when most of hers is gained through pillow talk.
 
I've gotten to the point where it's hard for me to listen to or read anything that Clinton says. I don't mind a candidate pointing contrasting views or experience. I even expect a little embellishment. But she is throwing flat out lies in my view. Every time she makes a statement, it forces me to run and do research to find out what, if any of what she is saying is true. Her claim of 35 years of experience doesn't add up. She did support NAFTA, despite her denials. Clinton has no experience answering a 3 AM call in a crisis and the list goes on. Unfortunately the majority of mainstream media has gone from news reporting to fight promoting. They're quick to report on any punch thrown by a candidate, but don't report on whether or not the statements are accurate.
 
"I don’t want to rain on the thing for her but being a cheerleader for something is slightly different from being a principal player."

HAHAHAHAHAHA
 
I had the same reaction. Obama (or a Republican, God forbid she get that far) could really run some great ads just from that article on her experience in Ireland.


McCain is licking his chops already.......
 
Her being the lady behind the real politician is her claim to experience (minus the past 4-5 years she's been a Senator) all along. Kind of hard for her to attack Obama on his inexperience when most of hers is gained through pillow talk.

This tells me just how much effort you put into research and educating yourself on the facts. C'mon, you can do better, and don't you think you owe it to yourself?

She's now on her 8th year as a US Senator, and that followed 8 years in the West Wing (not pillow talk). A simple google search should provide enough reading on her experience to fill your weekend. Of course, if all you're really interested in is reveling in a fantasy, that's fine too.
 
Of course, if all you're really interested in is reveling in a fantasy, that's fine too.

Whatever, Hillary is running around the country saying that she "helped bring peace to Northern Ireland" when in fact she met with a handful of Protestant and Catholic ladies at a seafood restaurant. Talk about reveling in a fantasy.
 
Whatever, Hillary is running around the country saying that she "helped bring peace to Northern Ireland" when in fact she met with a handful of Protestant and Catholic ladies at a seafood restaurant. Talk about reveling in a fantasy.

How is saying that she helped bring peace to Northern Ireland incorrect? Did you even try to research this?

This from the same reporter in your link with more that was "too late to get it in the actual story":

Lord Trimble of Lisnagarvey (formerly David Trimble), joint winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and former Northern Ireland First Minister was pretty withering, saying her claims were a “wee bit silly”. And the Clinton campaign was very quick to react – sending me a statement from John Hume (former SDLP leader, who won the Nobel Prize with Trimble) and putting me in touch with Congressman Peter King, a Republican of the American as well as the Irish variety, who was unstinting in his praise of her. I spoke to him too late to get it into the actual story but here’s what he said plus some more pointers on whether Hillary’s claims hold water.

Here’s Representative King’s take: “She was actively involved. It was George Mitchell who was negotiating and Bill Clinton who was calling a lot of the shots but Hillary, first of all she had access to the President on I think it was three trips to Northern Ireland. She knew all of the players on a first-name basis….She was certainly more than just someone along for the ride. She spoke with some authority. I consider her to be a serious player. I say that as someone who supports John McCain and wants Hillary Clinton defeated in November. But fair is fair.”

He then spoke about a meeting about arms decommissioning in December 1998. “That was right after Trimble and Hume were given the Nobel Peace Prize. There was a big dinner in Washington for all the players in the peace process. I was just there in the audience and President Clinton was speaking. I got a notification that the President wanted to speak to me after the dinner and so I go behind the stage and there was a small room and when I went in the door there was President Clinton and Gerry Adams and Hillary Clinton and they were talking about decommissioning – that was still the issue, who would go first and how it would be done. Hillary was part of that conversation.”
Last Updated: 30/01/2008 01:23
'Irish Voice' backs Hillary Clinton The Irish-American newspaper Irish Voice endorsed Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton today, saying no other candidate matches her "sterling record" on Irish issues.
The New York-based newspaper said the former First Lady, whose main rival Barack Obama was endorsed by Senator Ted Kennedy this week, supported the peace process and was a strong advocate for immigration reform.
It also said it was a pity "that both come along in the same election" as there were "many extraordinary attributes in both candidates".
The endorsement read: "Her record on issues of importance to the Irish American community is crystal clear.
"She was with her husband every step of the way during his intervention in the Irish peace process, without which there would never have been the successful resolution that we're currently witnessing in Northern Ireland.
"In her own right she played a significant role, visiting Ireland seven times and creating cross community goodwill which lasted long after her trips were over......
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/breaking/2008/0130/breaking2.htm
 
Additionally, her WH papers are impounded as per precedent. The tax records and consequent funding sources are also off limits. The NYT three months ago investigated the experience claim and found nothing. She did not even hold a security clearance.

Everything attending this family is a lie. Peggy Noonan's WSJ column today recounts the sheer doggedness and ugliness of her campaign.
 
As for her claims of working to change attitudes there and other efforts:

"I am quite surprised that anyone would suggest that Hillary Clinton did not perform important foreign policy work as first lady. I can state from firsthand experience that she played a positive role for over a decade in helping to bring peace to Northern Ireland," said former SDLP leader and Nobel laureate John Hume is a statement responding to critical press reports. "She visited Northern Ireland, met with very many people and gave very decisive support to the peace process. In private she made countless calls and contacts, speaking to leaders and opinion makers on all sides, urging them to keep moving forward," said Hume.

This would appear to be an important point. Press-based criticism of Senator Clinton has been based on the public record, and what has been recorded by both Clintons in their respective autobiographies. Hillary, some would certainly argue, knows more than what has been made public thus far about what went on behind the scenes as the peace process gathered steam. "Anyone criticizing her foreign policy involvement should look at her very active and positive approach to Northern Ireland and speak with the people of Northern Ireland who have the highest regard for her and are very grateful for her very active support for our peace process," Hume concluded in his defense of Hillary's Irish legacy.
In a series of statements compiled by labor and fair employment advocate Inez McCormack, Clinton was lauded for her "decade-long support" of the peace process. "We believe it is important for others to know the pivotal role Mrs. Clinton played in helping us in Northern Ireland at critical junctures in the peace process. She supported us over many years and we will always be grateful to her," said McCormack. "Hillary Clinton took risks for peace in asking me and others to bring women and communities from both traditions to affirm their capacity to work for common purpose," McCormack said. "She used her immense influence to give women like me space to develop this work and validated it every step of the way. This approach is now taken for granted but it wasn't then. She told us that if we take risks for peace, she would stay with us on that journey. In my experience, it took hard work, attention to detail and a commitment of time and energy which she delivered steadily and where needed over the last decade," McCormack added.

Similar testimonies have been forthcoming from other women, Protestant and Catholic. They include prominent community worker Elaine Crozier, Baroness May Blood, a member of the British House of Lords, Geraldine McAteer, chief executive of the West Belfast Partnership Board, Avila Kilmurray, head of the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland, Patricia Lewsley, former member of the Northern Ireland Assembly and currently Commissioner for Children and Young People, and Joanna McVey, former CEO of the Fermanagh-published Impartial Reporter newspaper and chair of the Fermanagh Trust.

"She turned empathy into action. Her iconic address to the first Vital Voices conference in Belfast in 1998 was truly inspirational and her ongoing support for women's role in peace building and the transformation of economic and political life in the North was manifested through other initiatives and her own personal involvement," stated McVey in her statement. That 1998 visit to the North was just one of seven undertaken by Clinton between 1995 and 2004, both with president Clinton and on her own. In addition, Clinton has hosted numerous visitors from both communities in the North on American soil.
http://www.irishecho.com/newspaper/story.cfm?id=18626
 
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A precise accounting of Clinton's visits to Ireland and her work for Irish peace forms the basis for a book being published later this year by Stella O'Leary, Washington. D.C.-based president of the Irish American Democrats lobby group. O'Leary has been one of Hillary Clinton's most fervent backers over the years and in a statement to the Echo took particular exception to a critical column penned by Dick Morris and Eileen McGann that took issue with recent campaign statements made by Clinton about her peace process initiatives. The column, headlined "Hillary Had No Role in Irish Peace," characterized the statement as being tantamount to Walter Mitty-like dreams. Anything but, countered O'Leary "It will come as a huge surprise to the Irish, North and South, to hear Dick Morris and Eileen McGann's claim that Senator Hillary Clinton played no role in the Irish peace process," said O'Leary. "Starting with the Christmas visit to Belfast in 1995, Hillary Clinton recognized that the participation of women was critical in bringing about an end to the conflict, and she set about inspiring women to become politically involved," O'Leary said.

"The meeting with Mrs. (Joyce) McCartan was a prelude to Senator Clinton opening a larger dialogue with women leaders on both sides of the border. At her prompting, the White House arranged for a delegation of American women leaders to meet in Belfast with their Irish counterparts and the outcome of that meeting was the Vital Voices Conference in 1998. "As a result of that conference, Northern Ireland women became much more involved in running for elective office and when the time came, the Women's Party were full participants with George Mitchell in the peace negotiations. "Morris and McGann do not carry a single quote from any leader in Ireland on Senator Clinton's contribution to the solution of the Irish conflict. Nor do they carry a quote from Senator Mitchell. I challenge them to find one political leader, of any significance in Ireland, who does not agree that Senator Clinton's involvement with the women of Northern Ireland, and her advocacy for children damaged by the conflict, played a crucial role in bringing about the Good Friday Agreement," O'Leary said. "Morris and McGann mention a few of the people Senator Clinton met on her visits to Ireland and scoff at the importance of those meetings."

O'Leary said that in her forthcoming book she would be including tributes to Clinton for her role in the peace process from individuals including Bertie Ahern, Cherie Blair, Gerry Adams, Bono and John Hume. "Based on the tributes I received, the people of Ireland are profoundly grateful to Senator Clinton for taking an interest and giving her time to inspire us to pull together and build a better life for the people of Northern Ireland. "If Morris and McGann are truly interested in knowing whether Senator Clinton?s involvement made a difference in Ireland, then I suggest that they consult some Irish people. The response will be an outpouring of gratitude, admiration, respect and love and, most of all, a heartfelt wish that Senator Clinton become the next President of the United States," O'Leary concluded ........
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http://www.irishecho.com/newspaper/story.cfm?id=18626
 
This tells me just how much effort you put into research and educating yourself on the facts. C'mon, you can do better, and don't you think you owe it to yourself?

She's now on her 8th year as a US Senator, and that followed 8 years in the West Wing (not pillow talk). A simple google search should provide enough reading on her experience to fill your weekend. Of course, if all you're really interested in is reveling in a fantasy, that's fine too.

The 8 years of the "West Wing" as you put it gives zero credence to hang her hat on.

Your idea of experience is different from mine. Using your theorem of experience, Laura Bush is experienced enough to run for President too.

As far as educating myself, minus my goof about the 8 versus 5, I know just enough to know that I would NEVER EVER vote for her. However, I am not impressed with any of the candidates so we are in a lose-lose situation.
 

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