This will be the third time I have posted this. Originally it was a longer response to an Op-Ed by Jennifer Rubin criticizing Hillary’s legacy at the State Department. Because it remains a pretty impressive (I will not say complete) collection of Hillary’s accomplishments as Secretary of State, I am reposting – this time in response to Carly Fiorina’s remarks claiming Hillary accomplished nothing in her travels as top diplomat. Shame on you, Ms. Fiorina!
(N.B. This time I left out almost all of the argument against Rubin’s pathetic critique. You can follow the link to the original to see that if you wish.)
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About Hillary Clinton’s Legacy
Russia: Hillary Clinton and Sergei Lavrov worked exceedingly well together and achieved the very crucial New START treaty. This was immense, a great victory for both diplomats and both countries. Their relationship remained solid throughout her tenure.
>For the first time in its history she completely overhauled the State Department , USAID, and interagency cooperation with her Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR).
>For the first time in history she called all of the chiefs of mission together at the State Department for annual conferences.
>She instituted an Office of Global Women’s Issues.
>In June 2009 she provided benefits to domestic partners of foreign service diplomats for the first time.
>She brought previously neglected countries back to the table with numerous memoranda of understanding and countless business initiatives.
>She kept the alliance between Afghanistan and Pakistan stable despite enormous challenges.
>She reopened the vital supply route from Pakistan into Afghanistan.
>She ensured U.S. access to the vital Manas airstip in Kyrgystan.
>She Salvaged the Turkey-Armenia accords which she was supposed to simply witness when they suddenly nearly fell apart.
>She brought issues like human trafficking as well as violence against women and LGBT communities to the international table.
These are simply a few things that come to mind, and I probably have left out some important events. Hillary Clinton has left an indelible mark on the State Department and has brought its operations into the 21st century with her integration of social networking into our outreach to the world. She has been a tremendously effective Secretary of State and a hero to many, our own troops at war among them. We can be appreciative of her selfless service and proud of the job she has done.
Thanks for this (though I like the original Rubin rant better).
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It’s still there at the link. When I heard what Fiorina said I was sick to my stomach. I just had to get something up and his is always handy,
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Yes, I was sickened by Fiorina’s remarks as well. What she said and how she said it was beyond partisan campaign rhetoric. It’s downright catty. I can’t imagine that Fiorina actually believes this is helping her potential campaign.
Carly trivia: Fiorina gave the commencement address at Stanford U for Chelsea Clinton’s graduating class.
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Poor Chelsea. Listening to her is punishment. Torture. Violates the Geneva Conventions.
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Ha!
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Why did HP Board of Directors make her resign??? I think she was fired!!!!!
Fiorina is not going anywhere.
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The Republicans have conveniently forgotten how the George W. Bush administration managed to tick off so many of our allies. Has there ever been any other time when an incoming Secretary Of State had to mend fences with FRANCE??? That’s what Hillary had to do.
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Not to mention the “apology tour” after the Manning email leak. An additional challenge that should not have been necessary.
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In addition to your excellent response on Crossfire Begala handeled this question well and correct the record links it.
http://correctrecord.org/freezing-out-the-right-wing-with-cold-hard-facts/
And correct the record also has this on State: http://correctrecord.org/the-points/attack-hillary-clinton-had-few-achievements-as-secretary-of-state/
If she never was our SOS she’d still have more experience than all of them.
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Thanks for this!
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Thanks for posting. Seems like a certain group of folks need to be reminded time & time again.
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If there’s a special place in hell for women who do not support other women as Madeleine Albright says, where do women like Fiorina go after gratuitously attacking a great woman just to please a bunch of men? Because let’s face it, this person is NOT going to be GOP nominee.
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Still, a comment from last night is still in moderation. I put two links again, sorry.
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Two newspapers (both are ones I would never link to) have “insider sources” claiming De Blasio is going to run for President on the Working Families Party. That will make for fascinating debates and the need to mop the floor after she is done with him.
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Ahhhhhhh… All becomes clear! Will pop the corn while we all watch!
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What the heck is the Working Families Party? I never even heard of it. If this is true, notice that he’s not running as a Dem, where he’d actually have to FACE Hillary, lol.
This would be career suicide for DiBlasio, although he’s not a popular mayor anyway. He’d be a pariah in the Democratic Party for decades.
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I have memory from back during Andrew Cuomo’s gubernatorial campaign when he launched the Women’s Equality Party (that Hillary joined) that the Working Families Party complained that WEP would draw members off WFP.
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I just saw the day in Keene NH will be at a family business – a children’s furniture and toy store. Makes me think she will be bringing home purchases to baby Charlotte as well as charming the town of Keene. I am glad she has Concord and Keene to herself the next two days. There was enough hot air and loud noise in the state this weekend.
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A page I have used often at Correct the Record is about “Hard Choices” not being popular. That is woefully ignorant and wrong. It beat all the statistics by a country mile and that book deserved it. But the RW talking points constantly said her book was a failure. NOT.
http://correctrecord.org/the-points/attack-hard-choices-is-underperforming/
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New Hillary video. Who is cutting onions in here, my eyes are leaking?
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whooooo hoooooo. CNN poll shows big old bump for our girl. WaPo does a better job of explaining (graphs) than CNN on their own poll. Republicans seem to be tanking not only on their own against themselves but also in a head-to-head with her. And the other dems are already considered “others” since they do not break the surface.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/04/20/no-one-is-dominating-the-republican-field-in-cnns-poll-except-hillary-clinton/
Republicans, keep it up, your attacks are working for us. Thanks!
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That’s great news. The idea to do a “soft” launch was a good one. Also, i think once Hillary declared, it was a green light for Dems and Hillary-leaners to get offically excited, lol.
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I don’t want to get overconfident so I take polls at this point with a large grain of salt. However, I think Republicans have a huge problem. All they have are niche candidates. Each is the leader of a distinct faction, but it’s hard to see any breaking through to unite all the factions into a ccoherent, unified party. I think it may be worse than 2012 when for all his flaws, Romney was always a credible fall back candidate when everyone was done flirting with the likes of Gingrich and Herman Cain. Who’s the fallback candidate here? Certainly NOT Jeb Bush.
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That’s just it, there is no stand out at all. The ones in the GOP with little voter recognition have not tanked as much but the ones they know well have lost most. Walker is not ready for prime-time and will be eviscerated.
They would have been better off to not give the cold shoulder to Romney and the party should have encouraged him to run again. At least he had the structure in place for a national run and support and lack of the “lunatic” issue that most of their candidates had in each of the last three election cycles.
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Plus, Hillary isn’t taking anything for granted. As Bill has often said, you need to run like you’re 20 points behind.
I agree with you about the GOP candidates, too. And there’s no way they can run on the issues and win, because their party is so out of touch.
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[…] Att: Carly Fiorina Subj: It was much more than just air miles […]
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[…] Is there an Americans who has not heard Donald Trump claim that Hillary Clinton was the worst secretary of state … ever? Burnett played that remark for Hillary’s loving husband who nearly spewed the water he was sipping and launched into a litany of Hillary’s accomplishments (a host of which are listed here addressed to Carly Fiorina). […]
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[…] And the attacks from the Republicans began. Carly Fiorina was the first to launch a shot over the bow. We retaliated here. […]
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