Your opinion of Hillary Clinton's first trip abroad as Secretary of State? Post it here.

[Stinky The Clown]

How did it strike you?

Do you think she did okay or not?

Did you see any freelancing or was she doing the straight company line?

Based on this trip, what do you see as her future chances for success? Or at least her ability to influence world events?


Anything at all ...... what do you think ....... ?

[scarletwoman]

1. This wasn't exactly a high stakes trip. Pretty pro forma, if you ask me.

Reassure Japan. Scold North Korea. Kissy hug China. The standard Bipartisan Foreign Policy Establishment imperialist schtick.

No reason for her NOT to be good at it; she is, after all, a neo-liberal. Being a spokeswoman for the Globalist Oligarchy is right up her alley.

sw

[geiger]

2. I thought she was great.

period.

[Captain_Nemo]

3. She is typical Hillary: Putting the rights of women and children central to her job and articulate.

I approve! We need more feminists like her in positions of power.

She is making women and children central to her foreign policy. We need this so badly in the world where women make up the majority of the population. I think her words have changed slightly since her famous speech in 1995, but as she said in her confirmaiton hearing in January when asked a question about violence against women around the world by Sen. Boxer:

"I want to pledge to you that as Secretary of State, I view these issues as central to our foreign policy. Not as adjunct or auxiliary, or in any way lesser than all of the other issues we have to confront. I too have followed the stories that are exemplified by the pictures that you held up. I mean, it is heartbreaking beyond words that, you know, young girls are attacked on their way to school by Taliban sympathizers and members who do not want young women to be educated. It’s not complicated! They want to maintain an attitude that keeps women — as I said in my testimony — unhealthy, unfed, uneducated and this is something that results all too often in violence against these young women, both within their families and from the outside."


Here were her words from in Beijing in 1995:

"It is time for us to say here in Beijing, and the world to hear, that it is no longer acceptable to discuss women's rights as separate from human rights," Mrs. Clinton told the Fourth World Conference on Women assembled here.

"It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, or drowned, or suffocated, or their spines broken, simply because they are born girls," Mrs. Clinton said, or "when women and girls are sold into slavery or prostitution for human greed.

"It is a violation of human rights when women are doused with gasoline, set on fire and burned to death because their marriage dowries are deemed too small" she continued, or "when thousands of women are raped in their own communities and when thousands of women are subjected to rape as a tactic or prize of war."

While her comments concerned abuses that have taken place around the world -- the burning of brides occurs in India for example, and rape has most recently been a tactic of war in Bosnia -- her words took on a special resonance here in China, where the Administration has muted its public criticism of human rights abuses and is struggling to patch up frayed political relations." http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=990CEFDF133DF935A3575AC0A963958260

[joeybee12]

5. Yeah for all the bitching about not talking about human rights, do people

realize that women's rights are human rights? She talks about them all the time and makes many profound, symbolic gestures, such as meeting with the Chinese women and so on. For those all pissy about saying she didn't make human rights a concern on this trip, I'd like to know their definition of human rights.

[Captain Hilts]

9. No, they don't think women's rights are human rights. Sad, but true.

The UDHR: Have the senate vote on it!

[Captain_Nemo]

10. I think they see women as a "page" in the book of human rights. These are people who

still see women as subsets of men; i.e. men are the main species and Men are the main category. This warped sexist mindset is just an intellectual version of the Adam and Eve story.

They need to dump it and develop feminist consciousness. We clearly don't have national feminist consciousness in the US. And that goes for the liberals too.

I hope Hillary shows the world that women are more than half the population and if they are persecuted then we all are.

[IDemo]

4. I thought she was outstanding

There were others I had preferred for the SoS job, but after hearing her speak Friday, it's clear that the Condi-Bush age
of non-diplomacy is being replaced with statesmanship. I predict she will take her place among the best Secretaries of State.

[nevergiveup]

6. I have never been a big Hillary fan

but I think she did great. I would have never thought it but do now believe this is her "cup of tea".

[Captain_Nemo]

12. I wish we could refrain from using trite sayings like "cup of tea" for women's accomplishments.

During the primary Barack belittled her accomplishments as a First Lady by saying she just had tea with people. Clearly, he knows that isn't true or he wouldn't have made her SOS. Looking at her lifelong commitment to women and children I could see her importance in the Oval Office (giving priority to women worldwide).
I have to settle for SOS. And I knew she would probably be the greatest SOS we will ever have. She has always done what she said she would do. She follows through. You can hang your hat on her word.
Her vision in the world goes way beyond the patriarchal mindset that suffocates us. She transcends it.

[roody]

7. My rightwingnut dad was mad because she went to a

Shinto shrine. If she makes him mad, I'm happy.

[Captain Hilts]

8. My standards just aren't that high. After Rice, it's ALLLL Goooooood. nt

[Captain_Nemo]

11. Hilary has nothing to do with Rice. Hillary is being Hillary. Her vision is to help women.