Just how does being First Lady qualify Hillary on Day One for the 3a.m. phone call? Let's look at the First Lady's archives.
Really. First Ladies throw parties. Buy flowers. Pick china patterns. Completely screw up health care reform initiatives. And hire the pastry chef. How is being First Lady a qualification?
“I think that since we now know Sen. (John) McCain will be the nominee for the Republican Party, national security will be front and center in this election. We all know that. And I think it’s imperative that each of us be able to demonstrate we can cross the commander-in-chief threshold,” the New York senator told reporters crowded into an infant’s bedroom-sized hotel conference room in Washington.
“I believe that I’ve done that. Certainly, Sen. McCain has done that and you’ll have to ask Sen. Obama with respect to his candidacy,” she said.
Calling McCain, the presumptive GOP nominee a good friend and a “distinguished man with a great history of service to our country,” Clinton said, “Both of us will be on that stage having crossed that threshold. That is a critical criterion for the next Democratic nominee to deal with.”
Well, pretty soon we'll be able to tell a little bit about how the position of Napkin Folder In Chief prepares one for those 3 a.m. phone calls which Hillary never actually has taken, ever, not once, in her entire life. The National Archives are preparing to release some of the archives from the First Lady's office by the end of March. Some of them.
"The library would require a stay of at least one to two years before which it will begin processing the remaining records as the request arises in the queue structure," the Archives said in a motion filed in federal court in Washington.
Clinton has faced criticism from fellow Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Republicans over the number of White House documents from her husband's administration that have not been made public. A year's delay would keep them from public view until after the Nov. 4 presidential election.
Note who filed the FOIA request for these records. Judicial Watch. Yes, that one, the wingnut conservative outfit that has hounded the Clintons since Day One of their last tour in the White House. Guess who's ready to hound them from Hillary's Day One....are you ready on Day One for that, fellow Democrats?
that baking cookies was not on her agenda. Tim, do you actually remember anything about the Clinton years? She lived with the President and was involved in policy discussions. I don't expect you to understand how that translates into experience, but she spent 8 years closer to the center of power than Obama has ever been, and she knows the ropes.
No, that's not all.
Yes, I think she needs to provide the information that people are asking for.
I think it's fair for Obama to detail his qualifications as well. The word "judgment" needs a little more fleshing out. Unless you thinking being Commander in Chief is all about voting on resolutions. Oh wait, Presdents don't vote, they are executives, not legislators.
Maybe more salient but not receiving much attention is that Clinton was the only Senator who was invited by the Joint Forces Command to serve on the Transformation Advisory Group tasked with reforming the Pentagon. Check out their command mission and strategic goals.
Think she doesn't know her stuff? Listen. (or read)
Why can't you express your preference for Obama without being so hateful to Clinton? Do you think Obama can really "unite" the country with a flock of Clinton haters?
after being humiliated in the face of Bill's "thinking" with the wrong head.
I can't tell you how many women I know who think less of her for not divorcing her husband.
People are hateful to Clinton because she inspires it in them.
Three months ago, before she started all her bullshit, I and many others would have been just fine with her candidacy. She was never my pick, but times have changed and she deserves all the credit.
Our self-proclaimed "late decider" apparently made up her mind based on gender, and any truth-telling or examination of the facts about HRC is now dismissed as "misogynist."
Please.
If HRC claims "35 years of experience" and claims she's ready to be Commander-in-Chief on "Day one," then her record of "experience" deserves scrutiny, since the Repubs will surely peel the bark off that canard that she has foisted, largely unchallenged until now.
are you kidding me?
the clintons have engaged in the worst kind of racially, ethnically, and religiously divisive campaign i've ever seen a democrat wage on another democrat. if you think it's being "nasty" to ask just what being first lady has to do with answering a 3 a.m. phone call, whatever.
Clinton's role in Nafta-gate
A storm of reports in the Canadian media say that the Nafta-gate flap last week involving Barack Obama was started by a key aide to Canada's prime minister - who told journalists that Hillary Clinton's campaign - not Obama's - had contacted the Canadian government to play down its Nafta-bashing.
The Canadian Press wire service - the equivalent to AP - reports that Ian Brodie, chief of staff to Stephen Harper, was talking to journalists last week: "Brodie was asked about remarks aimed by the Democratic candidates at Ohio's anti-Nafta voters that carried economic implications for Canada." It quotes a witness who reported Brodie's remarks:
http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/usa/2008/03/clintons_role_in_naftagate.html
"let's find out what being First Lady has to do with answering the 3 a.m. phone call."
I like how eight years on the Senate Armed Services Committee and eight years on the Readiness and Management Subcommittee and Emerging Threats and Capabilities Subcommittee are totally overlooked because she was once First Lady. The only First Lady to ever have an office in the West Wing. The most-traveled, most active First Lady in history. I like how that voids her distinguished career representing the third largest state in the country. The one that was attacked on 9/11. That's good. That's fair.
9/11 huh?
So you are comfortable with a candidate who is willing to frame debates around national security in the same sort way Bush/Rove did? Emotional appeals meant to short-circuit rational discourse. Do you really think the boogey-man is coming to get your children in the middle of the night? I didn't buy this notion 7 years ago that the country was facing an existential threat, and I am more sure of that now than ever. This over-reaction to a perceived danger is what enabled years of Bush military missteps. I can't say forcefully enough how tired I am of that.
I want a leader who is cool and calm and whose governing style reflects that.
The Clinton campaign proves Obama's point that at best, Hillary is nothing more McCain Lite.
Hillary McClone.
On the most important vote of her short Senate career she was willingly duped by Bush, failed to read the intelligence report and voted us into a never-ending war, just so she can prove she had the 'nads to be President.
That underscores the fact that she, like John McCain, lacks the judgment and vision to be commander-in-chief in
Obama doesn't have anything even close to what I cited in this comment
and what held up in this CNN fact check.
She will answer in bed, roll over and hand it to Bill and say it's for you.
By the way, how many world leaders now in office were in office when Hillary was last cohabiting with the power?
Changes I can call up include Cuba, Russia. Germany, Great Britain, France, Spain and on and on
Oh well there is always Mugabe in Zimbabwe
Notice Hillary's choice of committee assignment: Armed forces.
I can see why Hillary would choose this as she wanted to appear tough.
Obama chose Foreign Relations. There are better ways to relate to other nations than with armed forces.
Of course, Obama majored in Political science with a concentration in Foreign Relations so he has background in this area.
Don't be ridiculous.
She is campaigning by using fear and I think it is unjustified just as I did when Bush/Rove did it. My question to you was did you think it was ok then? Or is it only ok now that she is doing it? Have you forgotten the kind of political climate that led to the war in Iraq? I see you avoided answering.
And what kind of non-point about getting cash from the government is this? Do you honestly expect us to believe Hillary swooped into Washington like some caped crusader to draw blood from a rock. I mean everyone just knows how notoriously careful Washington has been with earmarks this past 8 years. Any senator would have got that cash. Washington (and the country in general) was falling all over itself to come to the rescue.
"Republicans don't need black voters, but they want them. Democrats don't want black voters, but they need them" - Rev. Jesse Jackson
I'm not sure people realize what a huge job the presidency is, but this comment on Larry's Johnson's blog was pretty insightful:
People tend at these times to focus on national security by it, probably due to the times we now live, but it is far more reaching than that!
Here is what I mean by that, 3AM in Washington means:
4PM in Hong Kong and China - they had a run on their stock markets that day, in 6 hours the US could awaken to a stock market meltdown unless the President gets into action with Europe to calm the situation before US markets open!
3PM in Australia and a major earthquake hits, major assistance is needed to care for the devistation there!
8AM in London and there has been a subway bombing during rush hours!
9AM in Paris and there is a nuclear power plant meltdown in France!
10AM in west Africa and there is a major outbreak of West Nile virus!
9AM in Jeruslum and the Prime Minister has been assassinated!
2AM in New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina hits shore causing mass flooding and deaths to hundreds of residence trapped there, opps that already occurred under Bush’s watch and he continued his vacation!
The White House some think is a place for someone to preach from and make everyone feel good! They are wrong, it is an office and it demands a full time work horse in it, determined, calculating, driven and with the ability to navigate around Washington to get the job doneLarry Johnson is a total hack.
What kind of retarded, Hollywood notion of the presidency does this fool have that the President could somehow prevent a "meltdown" of the stockmarkets due to a foreign market -- let's leave aside the remote probability of that happening in the FIRST place. Jesus Christ what a cartoonish fantasy. What's he/she gonna do exactly? Call his/her President buddies and ...what? Give a speech? Earth to Larry Johnson, that's not how the economy works. People are free to buy and sell, and when the market looks bad, lots of people tend to sell.
The rest of his examples aren't much better. Presidents are surrounded by a vast support staff meant to assist with this sort of thing, and are we supposed to believe this is somehow a typical day? I don't see anything here that any of the candidates couldn't either handle or need to directly handle.
Embarassing that people buy this kind of rhetoric.
Larry Johnson didn't write that. It was a comment on his blog that provided an off the cuff example of the breadth of crisis situations a president might have to deal with. Situations that aren't passed off to assistants. I'm not sure you understand the job description of President of the United States.
And Larry Johnson is not what I would call a "hack" except perhaps in the sense that he makes no secret of his partisan leanings now that he is no longer in government service. You might acquaint yourself with his background and areas of expertise before you shoot of your mouth in the future.
I've read Larry Johnson. He is a hack for precisely the reason that he can't see past his partisan support.
I missed the part that what you posted was a comment.
You still haven't explained to me how you justify the idiotic notion that a President can prevent a stock market crash after being prompted by a 3am type phone call. I don't blame you for avoiding the question. I would too in your shoes. Is this how you really think the Presidency works or should work? Hillary isn't a superhero.
The Presidency is a 24/7 job that requires a champion WORKHORSE. You think when a crisis occurs somewhere in the world, they ought to hold off on giving the Big Cheese a heads up so he or she can get some zzzz's?
Can the President prevent a stock market crash? I don't know. Seems like a question of leadership. I would hope he or she would leave no stone unturned to try to quell panic. The Presidency is a powerful position with many resources to tap, many levers to manipulate. In a crisis, to do nothing is not an option. To know what your options are when awakened at 3 am is a requirement of the job.
Here was the most relevant part of your post: "I don't know."
You are being swung on hyperbole.
If you actually believe that any President would not be informed of some crisis then you are in lala land. If you think any President can do much to change the immediate course of most events that happen in life in the immediate hours after occurring you're in lala land. If you think Hillary isn't playing to John McCain's strength with this bogus and utterly cartoonish vision of the Presidency then you are, again, in lala land.
I may have missed something here, Hillary will have better advisors on foreign policy because Bill was President???????
Bill did some great domestic things while he was President, and I know it's not the most P.C. thing to point out but Bill and his advisors were mediocre at best in regards to Foreign policy. There was some good in Ireland, and the eventual end of genocide in Solomia, and other things that the Clinton's can always point to as successes.
But there was also many failures as well especially in regards to not fighting terrorism because he was too busy defending himself for cheating on his wife. Bill and G.W. Bush have the same track record in regards to a middle east peace accord - they've gotten the two sides to sit down and agree that "yup, they still hate each other."
The truth is this country has some very good people in regards to foreign policy, and some mediocre ones as well. The staff Hillary would put together would be happy to work for Obama and Vice versa.
Foreign policy is all about putting people that work well TOGETHER and hearing all the sides to an issue, and then sitting back and setting a course of action. Judging by how well his staff has been put together on this campaign, and what I remember of the bickering in the newspapers of the Clinton years from his staffers and her staffers this campaign, I think this is something Obama will actually do better than Hillary...
But no matter who you support it is a mistake to think one will have better advisors than the other - guys like Wes Clark, Bill Richardson, Joe Biden, the CFR and other organizations will be there to support either Barack or Hillary.
Power told newspaper rival candidate stooping to low tactics LONDON - A Barack Obama adviser resigned Friday after calling rival Hillary Rodham Clinton "a monster." Samantha Power, an unpaid foreign policy adviser and Harvard professor, announced her resignation in a statement provided by the Obama campaign in which she expressed "deep regret." "Last Monday, I made inexcusable remarks that are at marked variance from my oft-stated admiration for Senator Clinton and from the spirit, tenor, and purpose of the Obama campaign," she said. "And I extend my deepest apologies to Senator Clinton, Senator Obama and the remarkable team I have worked with over these long 14 months."
HOW COULD HE HAVE WORSE ADVISERS? They are constantly putting their foot in their mouths. (His wife too!) This is why people don't trust OBAMA's judgment, he picks these blue blood, Pulitzer Prize, Harvard Professors THAT DON'T KNOW simple things like, EVERYTHING YOU SAY TO A MEMBER OF THE PRESS IS ON THE RECORD!
Even we "pigment challenged" farmer tanned, muscle shirt, hillbillies know that you can't SAY ANYTHING YOU DON'T want to appear in print to a reporter and most of the things you DO want to appear in print you can't say to a reporter.
How can I have spent 1/2 my life on a on a bass boat and know that and Obama's "advisers" don't? Maybe if Obama hired Larry the Cable Guy as an adviser he would have won Ohio. I don't dislike Obama, but does he really understand me?
At least with Hillary, I feel like she does "get me", even if she choses to ignore me or walk over me goose step with jackboots. D.
A comment on this from DU:
Hitler and Stalin are examples of real-life monsters. For someone who is running on judgement rather than the value of experience, it seems that Obama is showing why he shouldn't be President by associating himself with a top foreign policy advisor who doesn't have the judgement to distinguish between Hillary and Hitler. Or a science advisor who can't answer science questions at a science debate and refers reporters to the Obama web site. Or an economic advisor who creates NAFTA-gate. The office of President is not the place for neophytes.
First, see the post above about the real Nafta-gate...
Second, Hillary's campaign is busy comparing Obama to Bush and Rove and comparing herself to John McCain.
give me a break~
And this "experience" business~ She couldn't figure out how to not support Bush's war, how not to support Bill's NAFTA in the first place, without which there could be no "nafta-gate", and anyhow we have learned it was actually the CLINTON campaign that gave the wink and nod about nafta positioning.
She was so plugged in to the President in the 1990's, she says she "was there for the phone calls" etc~ this from a person who wasn't aware that her husband was cheating on her with a 21 year old college kid intern inside the Oval Office itself.
Either she was unaware of that or she knew about it and went about denigrating all the woman accusers. Her husband is so proud and supportive of her, yet he either allowed her to humiliate herself defending him on national TV or maybe he admires her ability to cover up ugly secrets.
But let's get real on the experience question.
It won't be about how many generals and flags you have surrounding you, the whole country is not supposed to be a cult of the mililtary anyhow and it's just a little creepy to trot out all these military guys in such a political way. It's not terribly reassuring regarding her "anti-war" positioning she's adopting... or "flip-flopping" to use the republican attack term to speak in the Cliniton's language.
By the way, IT'S THE ECONOMY STUPID, to quote a phrase. That's what we will be talking about. Not warfare.
Maybe somebody should cry "misogynist" to you.
Similar to your whine to Tim on another thread that justifiably criticized Clinton's smear campaign.
I agree with you. The second I saw that I thought "is this what I'm going to be dealing with for the next 4-8 years?" OMFG. I can't imagine it.
Just to keep with all the fun, Susan, 4 U:
I don't feel Obama has the right stuff to "bomb Pakistan". or Iran or any of the other ones that might deserve it, in our defense. (and why doesn't he know how to pronounce Pak-ees-staun like the rest of us?)
He's like a light beer or a diet pop. Only 1/2 the calories and still doesn't taste that great. He'd drop an H bomb and expect a Wizard of Oz poppy snow to cover our enemies and put them to "Happy" sleep. (Hence "H" bomb)
He reminds me too much of Jimmy Carter. Lets shelve all the bombs and make ice cream! YEA!
D.
1. They're independent people. Why should Obama be held entirely responsible for her comments?
2. So what if it gets repeated by the media. Hopefully you're smart enough to take anything quoted by the media with a grain of salt.
3. Was the comment all that bad? It sounds more like a playground taunt than a horrible epithet. I think the reaction to the comment was a bit extreme.
He should be held responsible because he choses the people that go and shoot their faces off in any direction they chose and expect no reaction for their poor selection of words. Why don't we see some of Obama's "shiny, happy people, holding hand" solutions? Why allow Samantha Power to resign? Why not employ some hand holding to "fix" her comments?
Even the worst boss I ever had allowed me to learn from my mistakes. Obama, obviously isn't allowing her to. Where is his famous leasdership? Don't allow her to resign, fix her mouth.
I don't believe everything I read, but most of the people in the U.S. do allow the news to educate them and surely Obama knows that
If Obama trusts these people, and we learn their not trustworthy then we shouldn't trust Obama.
D.
"Republicans don't need black voters, but they want them. Democrats don't want black voters, but they need them" - Rev. Jesse Jackson
Because that is where all the public assistance is.
D
"Republicans don't need black voters, but they want them. Democrats don't want black voters, but they need them" - Rev. Jesse Jackson