Tough piece in the Washington Post on Hillary's long resume with little to show for it.
But something surprising has emerged in public opinion about the former first lady, senator and secretary of state. Asked to name something tangible that Clinton has actually accomplished, many voters come up blank.
Some Democrats say that they have only a vague sense of Clinton’s actual accomplishments. Liberal activist Arnie Arnesen was the Democratic nominee for New Hampshire governor in 1992, and she often crossed paths with the Clintons as Bill Clinton made his first bid for the White House. But all these years later, Arnesen said: “I don’t really know Hillary. I know Hillary under Clinton. I know Hillary under Obama. And in the Senate she was a workhorse, not a show horse. What does that mean? It means she didn’t take a leadership role.”
Clinton’s tenure as first lady is remembered most for her politically disastrous effort to transform the health-care system. In the Senate, she was a relatively junior member with few legislative victories that bear her name. And as secretary of state, she was carrying out President Obama’s agenda in an administration where diplomatic policymaking was tightly controlled by the White House.
When her campaign and her PAC responded to this article, neither one of them listed her actual accomplishments. That is just malpractice on their part. They should be able to rattle off a list of her accomplishments at the top of their head. I can certainly do that for O'Malley and I am just a supporter not a staffer.
There is no doubt she was a major player in the Iran Sanctions that were put into place to get everyone to the table for Kerry and the rest of the team to get a successful nuclear deal with Iran. Why her campaign didn't respond with that as her major accomplishment is beyond me.
Her campaign ads have highlighted two pieces of legislation she takes credit for - SCHIP and 9/11 bill. Hillary introduced the 9/11 bill on 9/13 to expedite payment of benefits to public workers who were killed or injured on 9/11. The bill passed on 9/18.
As for SCHIP, this is an issue that came up in the 2008 campaign. Hillary claimed credit for standing up alone for SCHIP but the leaders of that bill were Ted Kennedy and Orin Hatch. Kennedy has stated that Hillary played a pivotal role in getting the WH onboard with SCHIP. Her claim was rated 1/2 true by a fact checker in 2008, with the Boston Globe being more negative towards her claim.
In 2007-08, Hillary also took credit for FMLA Act.
She took credit for the FMLA Act, when in reality:
Seriously though, a bigger story supposedly “uncovered” in the First Lady papers is that Hillary never held or attended any meetings on the Family Medical Leave Act, which was the first piece of legislation President Bill Clinton signed, 10 days after entering office. Having just written a piece about the FMLA for the upcoming print issue of the Prospect, I can tell you that anyone familiar with the law should have already realized Hillary’s very limited involvement. The non-profit organization the National Partnership for Women and Families originally drafted the bill, which was then championed in the House by former Colorado Congresswoman Pat Schroeder and in the Senate by Chris Dodd and Ted Kennedy. These three were at work trying to pass the FMLA from the late-1980s on, while the Clintons were in Arkansas and running a national campaign.
The bill reached its final form in 1991, passing both houses of Congress only to be vetoed by Bush, who said the bill would tie the hands of businesses. An attempt to override the veto failed, but Congress re-introduced and passed the bin without any major changes in 1992, at the height of the presidential campaign, knowing Bush would veto the bill again and leave himself open to charges that he was “anti-family.”
After decades in the public eye as First Lady, Senator and Secretary of State, it shouldn't be this hard for anyone to put together a list of Hillary's accomplishments that she led on. It is worrisome that Hillary's own campaign is struggling with this issue.