Hillary's Boasts Not Backed Up By Records

[tekisui]

Hillary Clinton's boasts that she gained major foreign policy experience as First Lady were undermined yesterday when 11,046 pages of White House schedules provided scant evidence to back her claims.

The documents were made public after pressure from Barack Obama, her rival for the Democrat presidential nomination, and freedom-of-information groups.

But many details were edited at the request of lawyers acting for her husband, Bill, the former president, citing privacy and national security concerns.

Mrs Clinton's staff insisted that the schedules illustrated her "extensive and exhaustive work", but not the extent of her role as First Lady.

But details of her visits to Northern Ireland indicated that she went little beyond the traditional role of a president's wife, attending social events, meeting women's groups and greeting children.

Despite Mrs Clinton's claim last week that she was "instrumental'' in bringing peace to Northern Ireland, the schedules do not record her attending a single policy meeting.

While her husband was in the White House, she accompanied him to Northern Ireland three times and made two visits on her own. During the first trip in November 1995, the only separate items on her schedule were a visit to a women's centre and two business parks.

Two years later, on a solo visit lasting just over six hours, she gave a lecture and had an hour-long discussion at a youth conference.

Her visit in September 1998 was overshadowed by the Monica Lewinsky scandal. But she was by her husband's side as he visited Omagh, the scene of a Real IRA bombing that killed 29 people a month earlier.

In Belfast, she gave an address to the Vital Voices women's conference, spent 30 minutes at a reception at the City Hall and visited the PlayBoard children's project.

Her schedule records that she and Cherie Blair released balloons with children, and visited the Royal Victoria Hospital before heading to Omagh.

more at link: http://www.independent.ie/world-news/north-america/hillarys--boasts-not--backed-up-by-records-1322000.html

35 years, no a lifetime of experience! :eyes: She wasn't as involved as she claims, she wasn't even around to watch how Bill developed policy.

[tekisui]

1. k

[pdxmom]

2. Has there been even one word about these records in the news? I'm

especially talking about the NAFTA issue, where it's obvious to me that she lied about her stance during her time in the White House.

[tekisui]

3. From what I've seen, the news has only mentioned Monica

in relation to the papers.

[polpilot]

7. Hillary, as prez, in the same room (Romper Room) where Bill & Moanica played is such a bad idea!!

The red phone rings and suddenly half the world explodes in a hail of destruction!! Just nbot a good idea.

[Vinca]

4. Just what I suspected. For the most part she was performing

the duties of First Lady, not POTUS Jr. If we want to elect a person with a knack for decorating large Christmas trees, Hillary's the candidate.

[tekisui]

5. And releasing balloons!

[formercia]

6. Without a Security Clearance

You don't have access.

If you're not cleared for weird, you don't know shit.

[KittyWampus]

8. so she really was the equivalent of Laura

[tabasco]

9. There's a reason Hillary continues to hide most of her records.

They will reveal her lies and corruption.

[Voice for Peace]

10. this just sounds too-awfully-familiar

"many details were edited at the request of lawyers acting for her husband, Bill, the former president, citing privacy and national security concerns."

[bigtree]

11. but this outline of her schedule that's revealed in these records isn't the totality of her work

And you know well that there are myriads of other accounts of her work and involvement on these issues than is revealed in these records, which, by the way, do not include her personal schedule, only her official one.


On Ireland:


The Times Tribune on Hillary and Northern Ireland

3/17/2008 9:25:34 AM

With Democratic Presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton accused of exaggerating her role in the Northern Ireland peace process, Ireland Prime Minister Bertie Ahern offered his two cents.

Mr. Ahern called Mrs. Clinton “hugely helpful” in the process both as first lady and as a U.S. senator, and suggested some of the criticism of her are unfair.

After marching in Scranton’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade Saturday, Mrs. Clinton released a Northern Ireland position paper, citing it as evidence of foreign policy experience she has and that her opponent, Barack Obama, does not. In a National Public Radio interview earlier this month, she described her role as “instrumental.”

Those involved in the Northern Ireland negotiations have been weighing in.

Moderate Catholic leader John Hume credited Mrs. Clinton with speaking to leaders and opinion makers on all sides, making countless phone calls and urging them forward. Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams credits Mrs. Clinton with playing “an important role.”

“She was the first lady of the United States, not a party leader in Northern Ireland,” Mr. Ahern said. “No one would expect her to get into the nitty-gritty of the process.”

“Any fair observation would find that both Hillary and Bill Clinton made peace in Ireland a priority while they were in the White House and after,” he said.

http://www.thetimes-tribune.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19398210&BRD=2185&PAG=461&dept_id=415898&rfi=



The Irish Times on Hillary and Northern Ireland


Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams told The Irish Times that, although he admires all three remaining US presidential candidates and is not endorsing any of them, Mrs. Clinton is justified in claiming a role in the peace process. "David Trimble is reported as saying Senator Hillary Clinton played no part in the Irish peace process. That is not true. Senator Clinton played an important role in the peace process," he said. "I met the senator on many occasions when she was First Lady, and subsequently when she became a senator for New York State. I always found her to be extremely well informed on the issues."

Former SDLP leader John Hume has also come to Mrs. Clinton's defense, expressing surprise that anyone should doubt the importance of her contribution.

"I can state from first-hand experience that she played a positive role for over a decade in helping to bring peace to Northern Ireland," he said in a statement posted on Mrs. Clinton's website.

"There is no doubt that the people of Northern Ireland think very positively of Hillary Clinton's support for our peace process, due to her visits to Northern Ireland and her meetings with so many people. In private she made countless calls and contacts, speaking to leaders and opinion makers on all sides, urging them to keep moving forward."

Mrs. Clinton visited Ireland seven times between 1995 and 2004, both as first lady and as a US senator. The Obama campaign is correct in stating that she played no direct role in the negotiations leading up to the Belfast Agreement in 1998.

She went beyond the traditional, ceremonial duties of first lady, however, particularly in facilitating the engagement of women in the political process by introducing Vital Voices, an international organisation she founded with former secretary of state Madeleine Albright, to the North.

Former senator George Mitchell, who chaired the talks leading up to the 1998 agreement, said this week that he believed that Mrs. Clinton's characterisation of her role was generally accurate. "She was helpful and supportive, very much involved in the issues. She knew all of the delegates," he told CBS News.

"Her greatest focus was on encouraging women in Northern Ireland to get into and stay in the political process and the peace process and as I've said publicly many times and wrote in my book, the role of women in the peace process in Northern Ireland was significant."

article: http://facts.hillaryhub.com/archive/?id=6490



Report: Sen. Obama Acknowledges Hillary's Role In Northern Ireland Peace Process

3/18/2008 6:11:17 PM

Anchor: The Taoiseach has said it would be very unfair for anyone to deny Hilary Clinton credit for her role in the peace process. Speaking in Washington Mr. Ahern said she had played an important role in the process along with her husband.

Reporter: A busy round of official engagements in Washington today finished at Congress with a lunch hosted by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi. The three candidates for the presidency weren’t there, but Mr. Ahern did meet Hillary Clinton and speak on the phone to Barack Obama this morning. The Obama campaign has been questioning Senator Clinton’s involvement in the peace process but Mr. Ahern said she had played a significant and important role.

Ahern: “I have to say in my conversation this morning that was totally acknowledged by Senator Obama. So I’m not getting into the politics of this but I think for anyone to try to question the Clinton’s huge support and start trying to nit-pick.” RTE TV, 3/18/08

http://facts.hillaryhub.com/archive/?id=6602

[gayron]

12. If her records do not back...

Then Obama set the record straight by telling us he was in church when his pastor made far out comments. But before he said he had not heard those things at first.

[Lucinda]

13. I heard, on several stations yesterday, that there was more than enough

to back up her claims. Looks like the article cherry-picked info to me. We have already seen quite a lot of info that says she was a player in Ireland.