CNN Fact Check On Hillary's Foreign Policy Experience: They Conclude, It's Minimal.

[malik flavors]

It basically boils down to a late night discussion with her husband, and a speech she made.


WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton, fresh off crucial wins in Tuesday's primaries, has been playing the experience card heavily, particularly in regard to her role in foreign policy.

Clinton said it's her 35 years of experience that make her the best candidate to take on presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain in November.

After losing primaries in Ohio and Texas, Sen. Barack Obama argued the media has not held Clinton's feet to the fire on foreign policy.

"Was she negotiating treaties or agreements, or was she handling crises during this period of time? My sense is the answer is no," Obama said Wednesday.

So how do Clinton's claims stack up?

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/03/06/clinton.foreign.fact/index.html

[SoFlaJet]

1. Wait you mean she's a LIAR??????

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Sen. Hillary Clinton, fresh off crucial wins in Tuesday's primaries, has been playing the experience card heavily, particularly in regard to her role in foreign policy.


Sen. Hillary Clinton delivered a foreign policy speech at George Washington University in February.

Clinton said it's her 35 years of experience that make her the best candidate to take on presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain in November.

After losing primaries in Ohio and Texas, Sen. Barack Obama argued the media has not held Clinton's feet to the fire on foreign policy.

"Was she negotiating treaties or agreements, or was she handling crises during this period of time? My sense is the answer is no," Obama said Wednesday.

So how do Clinton's claims stack up?

In some cases, CNN found a lack of clarity on her real involvement in foreign policy affairs. But in other cases, her claims do seem to check out fairly well.

Northern Ireland

"I helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland," Clinton said on CNN's American Morning on Wednesday. Watch more of Clinton's comments on the race »

A Washington Post blogger accused Clinton in January of exaggerating her involvement in Northern Ireland.

But former Democratic Senate majority leader George Mitchell, who was a U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland, told CNN that while Clinton was not directly involved in negotiations, she did play a helpful role in bringing in women's groups that made a difference.

Mitchell is a Democratic superdelegate and has not publicly endorsed Clinton or Obama.

Rep. Peter King, a Republican from New York, was also involved in the process. He recalls one late-night meeting with former President Bill Clinton, Sen. Clinton and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.

"There was a discussion of how the IRA would decommission its weapons. And I know that Sen. Clinton was part of that meeting," King said.

Kosovo

"I negotiated open borders to let fleeing refugees into safety from Kosovo," she said on CNN's American Morning.

In May of 1999, she was in Macedonia visiting refugee camps near the Kosovo border and meeting with Macedonia's president and prime minister.

Sources with knowledge of her visit say she discussed the refugees' plight with those leaders. It's not clear how much she helped since CNN reported at the time that Macedonia reopened its border to Kosovar refugees before Clinton's visit.

China

"I've been standing up against, you know, the Chinese government over women's rights and standing up for human rights in many different places," she said on CNN's American Morning.

During a 1995 visit to Beijing, at a time when her husband's administration was trying to press China on human rights, Sen. Clinton made a speech condemning abuses.


"No one should be forced to remain silent for fear of religious or political persecution, arrest, abuse or torture," she said.

But a former National Security Council official in the Clinton administration says Clinton didn't attend NSC meetings. So while her experience is extensive, she rarely carried an official portfolio.

[hedgehog]

3. Well, at least she's not a monster.

As far as I know.

[SoFlaJet]

5. she devil

not a monster

[Whisp]

9. Hilliar is a monster. true. nt

[Rageneau]

10. The only liar is the OP. The CNN article says no such thing!

CNN never goes out of its way to make Hillary's record look better than it is. Therefore when they say her foreign policy record is substantial and verifiable -- as this article does -- their opinion should be viewed as trustworthy. Which is more than I can say about the OP.

Contrary to the OP's deliberately incorrect assessment, here's what CNN says about Hillary's record early in the story:

In some cases, CNN found a lack of clarity on her real involvement in foreign policy affairs. But in other cases, her claims do seem to check out fairly well.

A "lack of clarity" is not an absence of involvement. Otherwise, CNN says Hillary's claims "check out fairly well."

In other words, CNN AGREES with Hillary's assessment of her substantial foreign policy credentials.

To say otherwise is, in kids' language, a big, fat lie!

[Metric System]

2. Minimal? You must have missed this part: "her experience is extensive"

[malik flavors]

8. Extensive compared to what? By these standards, Obama's Experience is extensive as well.

[thereismore]

4. Minimal? You mean she has any??? I am so outraged by her claims I think she is a lying monster. nt

[thereismore]

6. Macedonia reopened its border...before Clinton's visit. Well well.

"Sources with knowledge of her visit say she discussed the refugees' plight with those leaders. It's not clear how much she helped since CNN reported at the time that Macedonia reopened its border to Kosovar refugees before Clinton's visit."

[thevoiceofreason]

7. What has she done in Africa? The middle east?

Asia,(except for China -- she gets her due for that one segment there).

Hell, Barack was knee deep in the Kenya matter DURING THE IOWA CAUCUSES!

[starroute]

11. It's more that she was involved only in "soft" issues

Human rights. The plight of refugees. Women's groups.

Praiseworthy involvements for any first lady, especially compared to the one we've got currently. But hardly commander-in-chief stuff. Hardly life-and-death crisis management.

CNN is being generous to her, I think, by describing the cases in which her claims do check out and never referring directly to those which don't. But even that generous account makes it clear that her involvement was all on the humanitarian side and does nothing to support the McCain-lite image she is attempting to project.

[Unbowed]

12. She has name recognition. People who think that is experience are deluded.

And when they start to remember why she has name recognition, there will be a whole lot of negative associations that will also be recalled.

As I've said before, being married to isn't the same as is.

Hillary's foreign policy experience is pretty much nil, her judgment is questionable (Iraq, cluster bombs, Kyl-Lieberman) and she has shown little ability to compromise or admit when she's wrong. The combination along with her erratic temperament (honored to be here with Obama, shame on you Obama, etc.) and demonstrated lack of integrity or party unity really should exclude her from consideration for the nomination.

Hillary Clinton simply does not have the right stuff to be President of the United States. Period.