The Chicago Tribune has done a pretty thorough investigation of Senator Clinton's claims of "experience," particularly in the foreign policy and crisis management arenas.
I'd say the short take on it is: Hillary is greatly exaggerating both the scope and importance of what she has actually accomplished. But do read it for yourself.
Excerpt:
The debate over readiness for the global arena is emerging as the flash point in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, crystallized by a dramatic Clinton campaign commercial asking who is best prepared to answer a 3 a.m. phone call to the White House during a crisis.
Clinton says she is the answer, arguing that Obama's major achievement was his early opposition to the Iraq war in 2002. Indeed, Obama doesn't have much in the way of experience managing foreign crises, nor does Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, for that matter. In fact, it is rare for any president to have that kind of experience before coming into office.
(more:)
In Clinton's case, she may well have exercised influence on foreign policy that is hard to document because she had a unique opportunity to offer private counsel to her husband, President Bill Clinton.But while Hillary Clinton represented the U.S. on the world stage at important moments while she was first lady, there is scant evidence that she played a pivotal role in major foreign policy decisions or in managing global crises.
Pressed in a CNN interview this week for specific examples of foreign policy experience that has prepared her for an international crisis, Clinton claimed that she "helped to bring peace" to Northern Ireland and negotiated with Macedonia to open up its border to refugees from Kosovo. She also cited "standing up" to the Chinese government on women's rights and a one-day visit she made to Bosnia following the Dayton peace accords. Earlier in the campaign, she and her husband claimed that she had advocated on behalf of a U.S. military intervention in Rwanda to stop the genocide there.
'Ancillary' to process
But her involvement in the Northern Ireland peace process was primarily to encourage activism among women's groups there, a contribution that the lead U.S. negotiator described as "helpful" but that an Irish historian who has written extensively about the conflict dismissed as "ancillary" to the peace process. The Macedonian government opened its border to refugees the day before Clinton arrived to meet with government leaders. And her mission to Bosnia was a one-day visit in which she was accompanied by performers Sheryl Crow and Sinbad, as well as her daughter, Chelsea, according to the commanding general who hosted her.
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. Despite lengthy memoirs by both Clintons and former Secretary of State and UN Ambassador Madeleine Albright, any advice she gave on Rwanda had not been mentioned until her presidential campaign.
There's a whole lot more in the article.
To be fair, some of the people they quote are on the Obama team, or support Obama. But they're identified as such.
And while it's also fair to give credit where due, it seems that the Clinton camp has not offered a single foreign policy or crisis management example that is not significantly exaggerated or overdramatized by her campaign.
For example, her speech in 1995 at the U.N. Women's Conference in Beijing was a great moment for her, in my opinion. I remember thinking that at the time. But in the end, it was -- oh, irony of ironies -- just one speech. The idea that she stood up to the government of China, as her campaign claims, gives the false impression that she managed a crisis involving Beijing. Not so. She gave an excellent speech, and made an admirable stand on human rights. Then she went home.
As Josh Marshall says, Hillary brought this detailed scrutiny on herself. She's scoffed at Barack Obama for making speeches while she's been handling international crises at 3 AM -- but the narrative is bogus.
She was the wife of the President. Yes, she traveled a lot and met foreign leaders. But so does Laura Bush.
I'm happy to stipulate that as First Lady, she was a lot more involved in the nitty-gritty than Laura Bush. (I.E. the health care push.) And that as a Senator, she's as intelligent and qualified as anyone.
But in the end, she's a Senator at the beginning of her second term, with no experience in elected or executive office before that time. Plus, she was married to a two-term President... just like Laura Bush.
The claims of foreign policy experience and expertise, and the boasts about being more ready as Commander-in-Chief than Barack Obama, are patently false.
Read the article for yourself.
Good night.