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Hillary’s Abysmal Record as Secretary of State Alone Should Disqualify Her from the Presidency
National Review ^ | 06/23/2015 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 06/23/2015 7:04:20 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

There are no sure things in politics, but Hillary Clinton is the closest thing to a sure thing to become the Democrats’ candidate for president in 2016.

This is one of the painful but inescapable signs of our time. There is nothing in her history that would qualify her for the presidency, and much that should disqualify her. What is even more painful is that none of that matters politically. Many people simply want “a woman” to be president, and Hillary is the best-known woman in politics, though by no means the best qualified.

What is Hillary’s history? In the most important job she has ever held — secretary of state — American foreign policy has had one setback after another, punctuated by disasters.

U.S. intervention in Libya and Egypt, undermining governments that were no threat to American interests, led to Islamic extremists’ taking over in Egypt and terrorist chaos in Libya, where the American ambassador was killed, along with three other Americans.

Fortunately, the Egyptian military has gotten rid of that country’s extremist government that was persecuting Christians, threatening Israel, and aligning itself with our enemies. But that was in spite of American foreign policy.

In Europe, as in the Middle East, our foreign policy during Hillary Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state was to undermine our friends and cater to our enemies.

In the most important job she has ever held — secretary of state — American foreign policy has had one setback after another. The famous “reset” in our foreign policy with Russia began with the Obama administration’s reneging on a pre-existing American commitment to supply defensive technology to shield Poland and the Czech Republic from missile attacks. This left both countries vulnerable to pressures and threats from Russia — and left other countries elsewhere wondering how much they could rely on American promises.

Even after Russia invaded Ukraine, the Obama administration refused to let the Ukrainians have weapons with which to defend themselves. This was especially ironic since Barack Obama, when he was in the Senate, was one of those urging Ukraine to not only give up the nuclear weapons it had inherited from its days as a member of the Soviet Union, but to also reduce conventional military arms.

President Obama, like other presidents, has made his own foreign policy. But Hillary Clinton, like other secretaries of state, had the option of resigning if she did not agree with it. In reality, she shared the same flawed vision of the world as Obama’s when they were both in the Senate.

Both of them opposed the military “surge” in Iraq, under General David Petraeus, that defeated the terrorists there. Even after the surge succeeded, Hillary Clinton was among those who fiercely denied initially that it had succeeded, and sought to discredit General Petraeus, though eventually the evidence of the surge’s success became undeniable, even among those who had opposed it.

The truly historic catastrophe of American foreign policy — not only failing to stop Iran from going nuclear, but making it more difficult for Israel to stop them — was also something that happened on Hillary Clinton’s watch as secretary of state.

What the administration’s protracted and repeatedly extended negotiations with Iran accomplished was to allow Iran time to multiply, bury, and reinforce its nuclear facilities, to the point where it was uncertain whether Israel still had the military capacity to destroy those facilities.

There are no offsetting foreign-policy triumphs under Secretary of State Clinton. Syria, China and North Korea are other scenes of similar setbacks.

The fact that many people are still prepared to vote for Hillary Clinton to be president of the United States, in times made incredibly dangerous by the foreign-policy disasters on her watch as secretary of state, raises painful questions about this country.

A president of the United States — any president — has the lives of more than 300 million Americans in his or her hands, and the future of Western civilization. If the debacles and disasters of the Obama administration have still not demonstrated the irresponsibility of choosing a president on the basis of demographic characteristics, it is hard to imagine what could.

With our enemies around the world arming while we are disarming, such self-indulgent choices for president can leave our children and grandchildren a future that will be grim, if not catastrophic.

— Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: hillary; hillary2016; presidency; record; soshillary; sowell; state

1 posted on 06/23/2015 7:04:20 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

her record should “disqualify” her from walking around outside of prison walls...


2 posted on 06/23/2015 7:08:43 AM PDT by NativeSon ( Grease the floor with Crisco when I dance the Disco)
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To: SeekAndFind

True, true and true.


3 posted on 06/23/2015 7:17:12 AM PDT by Georgia Girl 2 (The only purpose o f a pistol is to fight your way back to the rifle you should never have dropped.)
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To: SeekAndFind

save for later


4 posted on 06/23/2015 7:18:51 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (Feelings Are Today's Truth,Truth Is Today's Blasphemy)
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To: SeekAndFind

But it’s Her turn...

And you’re sexist/racist/homophobe.


5 posted on 06/23/2015 7:21:33 AM PDT by Old Sarge (Its the Sixties all over again, but with crappy music...)
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To: SeekAndFind

The “Vagina Voters” and other LIV’s will be her supporters.


6 posted on 06/23/2015 7:23:52 AM PDT by Don Corleone ("Oil the gun..eat the cannoli. Take it to the Mattress.")
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To: SeekAndFind

Crime does pay. Look at the communists criminals, including Hillary, in Washington DC and you see the worst sick bastards in America.


7 posted on 06/23/2015 7:30:02 AM PDT by Logical me
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To: SeekAndFind

“Hillary’s Abysmal Record as Secretary of State Alone Should Disqualify Her from the Presidency”

Who does this author think he IS....introducing LOGIC in this campaign for President? (sarc)


8 posted on 06/23/2015 7:53:20 AM PDT by SMARTY ("What is freedom? To have the will to be responsible for one's self. "M. Stirner)
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To: SeekAndFind
No, the thing that will end Hillary Clinton's campaign is the revelation that the Clinton Foundation was used to funnel bribes on behalf of FIFA when the vote for the sites in 2018 and 2022 FIFA Men's World Cup were made several years ago. That type of money funneling is in violation of national and international tax laws with serious legal consequences.
9 posted on 06/23/2015 8:43:10 AM PDT by RayChuang88 (FairTax: America's economic cure)
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