Carey Roberts
Hillary Clinton, feminist-at-large
By Carey Roberts
Remember Whack-a-Mole? The theme park game that features insouciant plastic rodents popping out of the hole — Whack! Here comes another one — WHACK!
That's the image that comes to mind as I ponder Hillary Clinton's controversial career: Staunch defender of a wayward Commander-in-Chief. Achievement-free senator from New York. Once-inevitable presidential candidate.
And just when you think the drama has thankfully drawn to a close, the curtain rises on yet another act.
In the current scene, Mrs. Clinton is nominated to serve as the Secretary of State. You wonder, exactly what qualifies her to serve as America's ambassador to the world? During Hillary's eight years in the White House, she didn't attend any National Security Council meetings. She didn't receive the president's daily briefings. She didn't even have a security clearance.
These facts prompted candidate Barack Obama to jeer, "What exactly is [her] foreign policy expertise?" Incoming White House counsel Greg Craig proffered this blunt response: "There is no reason to believe...she was a key player in foreign policy at any time during the Clinton Administration."
Not only is Hillary Clinton over-hyped and under-qualified, many of the claims in her foreign relations brief are simply false.
"I was deeply involved in the Irish peace process," Clinton once boasted on the campaign trail. I "pulled together in Belfast, in the town hall," a group of Catholic and Protestant women so "the hard work of peacemaking could go forward."
That claim triggered this rebuke by Nobel Peace Prize winner David Trimbell, who was present at the time: "Hillary Clinton had no direct role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland and is a 'wee bit silly' for exaggerating the part she played."
During a 1996 Bosnia outing, a hail of sniper fire at the airport forced Clinton's entourage to run "with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base" — at least that's what she said during a speech at George Washington University.
But then CBS replayed the videotape showing a cadre of Bosnian schoolgirls happily chatting with Mrs. Clinton and Chelsea on the tarmac — but no whizzing bullets.
During a March 8 CNN interview, Clinton claimed, "I negotiated open borders to let fleeing refugees into safety from Kosovo."
But Congressional Quarterly's PolitiFact.com throws cold water on the boast. The group concludes, "We don't find evidence to support that" and ridicules her claim as "Barely True."
During another interview, Hillary claimed she had advocated for military intervention in Rwanda. But no one else remembers it that way.
"Whatever her private conversations with the president may have been, key foreign policy officials say that a U.S. military intervention in Rwanda was never considered in the Clinton administration's policy deliberations," counters National Security Council insider Gail Smith.
I have no doubt that Mrs. Clinton fully appreciates the difference between a French fry and a Belgian waffle. But the stubborn question remains, what are Senator Clinton's qualifications to serve as Secretary of State?
The truth is, Hillary does have extensive experience working in other countries — but not in the way most Americans would expect. During the Clinton administration, she was Bill's goodwill ambassador, traveling to the four corners of the globe as a high-profile advocate of the feminist agenda.
Inevitably the abortion issue came under the glare of the media spotlight.
At the 1994 World Conference on Population Development in Egypt, Hillary worked behind the scenes to establish a universal right to abortion on demand. That brought her into conflict not only with Mother Teresa, but also with the Pontiff.
The following year she led the U.S. delegation to China to attend the Fourth World Conference on Women. She delivered the meeting's keynote speech, making the wrongful assertion that "Women are 70% of the world's poor." Clinton narcissistically concluded, "Women's rights are human rights and human rights are women's rights."
Three years later she appeared at a meeting of First Ladies held in El Salvador. This time she made the bizarre claim that "Women have always been the primary victims of war."
Hillary Clinton was also behind her husband's 1996 selection of women's rights advocate Madeline Albright as Secretary of State. Bill was reportedly leaning to George Mitchell, but once again Hillary had the last word.
There is little doubt that as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton will attach highest priority to advancing the global feminist agenda, particularly the right to kill the innocent unborn. Pro-life lobbyist Jeanne Head predicts, "Hillary would promote her husband's agenda at the United Nations to make abortion a fundamental human right worldwide."
We'll need to keep a close eye on this woman.
© Carey Roberts
December 16, 2008
Remember Whack-a-Mole? The theme park game that features insouciant plastic rodents popping out of the hole — Whack! Here comes another one — WHACK!
That's the image that comes to mind as I ponder Hillary Clinton's controversial career: Staunch defender of a wayward Commander-in-Chief. Achievement-free senator from New York. Once-inevitable presidential candidate.
And just when you think the drama has thankfully drawn to a close, the curtain rises on yet another act.
In the current scene, Mrs. Clinton is nominated to serve as the Secretary of State. You wonder, exactly what qualifies her to serve as America's ambassador to the world? During Hillary's eight years in the White House, she didn't attend any National Security Council meetings. She didn't receive the president's daily briefings. She didn't even have a security clearance.
These facts prompted candidate Barack Obama to jeer, "What exactly is [her] foreign policy expertise?" Incoming White House counsel Greg Craig proffered this blunt response: "There is no reason to believe...she was a key player in foreign policy at any time during the Clinton Administration."
Not only is Hillary Clinton over-hyped and under-qualified, many of the claims in her foreign relations brief are simply false.
"I was deeply involved in the Irish peace process," Clinton once boasted on the campaign trail. I "pulled together in Belfast, in the town hall," a group of Catholic and Protestant women so "the hard work of peacemaking could go forward."
That claim triggered this rebuke by Nobel Peace Prize winner David Trimbell, who was present at the time: "Hillary Clinton had no direct role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland and is a 'wee bit silly' for exaggerating the part she played."
During a 1996 Bosnia outing, a hail of sniper fire at the airport forced Clinton's entourage to run "with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base" — at least that's what she said during a speech at George Washington University.
But then CBS replayed the videotape showing a cadre of Bosnian schoolgirls happily chatting with Mrs. Clinton and Chelsea on the tarmac — but no whizzing bullets.
During a March 8 CNN interview, Clinton claimed, "I negotiated open borders to let fleeing refugees into safety from Kosovo."
But Congressional Quarterly's PolitiFact.com throws cold water on the boast. The group concludes, "We don't find evidence to support that" and ridicules her claim as "Barely True."
During another interview, Hillary claimed she had advocated for military intervention in Rwanda. But no one else remembers it that way.
"Whatever her private conversations with the president may have been, key foreign policy officials say that a U.S. military intervention in Rwanda was never considered in the Clinton administration's policy deliberations," counters National Security Council insider Gail Smith.
I have no doubt that Mrs. Clinton fully appreciates the difference between a French fry and a Belgian waffle. But the stubborn question remains, what are Senator Clinton's qualifications to serve as Secretary of State?
The truth is, Hillary does have extensive experience working in other countries — but not in the way most Americans would expect. During the Clinton administration, she was Bill's goodwill ambassador, traveling to the four corners of the globe as a high-profile advocate of the feminist agenda.
Inevitably the abortion issue came under the glare of the media spotlight.
At the 1994 World Conference on Population Development in Egypt, Hillary worked behind the scenes to establish a universal right to abortion on demand. That brought her into conflict not only with Mother Teresa, but also with the Pontiff.
The following year she led the U.S. delegation to China to attend the Fourth World Conference on Women. She delivered the meeting's keynote speech, making the wrongful assertion that "Women are 70% of the world's poor." Clinton narcissistically concluded, "Women's rights are human rights and human rights are women's rights."
Three years later she appeared at a meeting of First Ladies held in El Salvador. This time she made the bizarre claim that "Women have always been the primary victims of war."
Hillary Clinton was also behind her husband's 1996 selection of women's rights advocate Madeline Albright as Secretary of State. Bill was reportedly leaning to George Mitchell, but once again Hillary had the last word.
There is little doubt that as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton will attach highest priority to advancing the global feminist agenda, particularly the right to kill the innocent unborn. Pro-life lobbyist Jeanne Head predicts, "Hillary would promote her husband's agenda at the United Nations to make abortion a fundamental human right worldwide."
We'll need to keep a close eye on this woman.
© Carey Roberts
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