Ms. Clinton, what are your accomplishments as Secretary of State?

By Tom Quiner

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMWZeLqwllY]
The headline above is a predictable question.
You would think a potential presidential candidate, such as Hillary Clinton, would be prepared to knock such a question out of the park. You would be wrong.
Here was her response to the question in March:

“My accomplishments as Secretary of State? Well, I’m glad you asked! My proudest accomplishment in which I take the most pride, mostly because of the opposition it faced early on, you know… the remnants of prior situations and mindsets that were too narrowly focused in a manner whereby they may have overlooked the bigger picture and we didn’t do that and I’m proud of that. Very proud. I would say that’s a major accomplishment.”

Got that?
You remember George H.W. Bush grappled with that “vision thing?”  Ms. Clinton grapples with that “accomplishment thing.”
Okay. Maybe she was caught off guard. Three weeks passed, giving her plenty of time to get her foot out of her mouth and reframe her answer. Here is her response the next time she was asked:

“Look, I really see my role as Secretary, in fact leadership in general in a democracy, as a relay race. When you run the best race you can run, you hand off the baton. Some of what hasn’t been finished may go on to be finished, so when President Obama asked me to be Secretary of State I agreed.”

Hmmm, no accomplishments listed so far. But she continues …

“We had the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, we had two wars. We had continuing threats from all kinds of corners around the world that we had to deal with. So it was a perilous time frankly. What he said to me was, ‘Look, I have to be dealing with the economic crisis, I want you to go out and represent us around the world.’ And it was a good division of labor because we needed to make it clear to the rest of the world, that we were going to get our house in order. We were going to stimulate, and grow, and get back to positive growth and work with our friends and partners.”

Hmmm, still no accomplishments. A lot of talk about the economy, which has nothing to do with the Secretary of State. But she continues …

“So I think we did that.”

Wait, did what? Stimulate and grow? Obviously that hasn’t happened under Obamanomics, and, again, the Secretary of State has nothing to do with the economy any way.
And the way she worked with our friends and partners produced these results:
√ Russia invaded the Ukraine.
√ 4 Americans, including an ambassador, are slaughtered in an American Embassy because the Secretary of State denied them additional security.
√ Syria crossed the red line and never looked back.
√ Iran contentedly works away at developing the nuclear bomb.
√ China disrupts its neighbors.
√ North Korea threatens South Korea and Japan.
√ Venezuela cracks down on democracy protestors.
√ al Qaeda spreads its reach from Asia to Africa (oh, but at least bin Lauden is dead).
√ We swapped five hardened terrorists for one deserter (okay, this was under Kerry’s watch).
√ Islamic fundamentalism, characterized by ‘death to infidels’, spreads throughout the Mid East.
√ Iraq falls to terrorists (a culmination of foreign policy initiated under Ms. Clinton’s tenure).
Ms. Clinton continues …

“I’m very proud of the stabilization and the really solid leadership that the administration provided that I think now, leads us to be able to deal with problems like Ukraine because we’re not so worried about a massive collapse in Europe and China — trying to figure out to do with all their bond holdings and all the problems we were obsessed with.”

Stabilization? See list above.
She continues …

“I think we really restored American leadership in the best sense. That, once again — people began to rely on us as setting the values, setting the standards. I just don’t want to lose that because we have a dysfunctional political situation in Washington. Then of course, a lot of particulars, but I am finishing my book so you’ll be able to read all about it.”

Ahh, dysfunctional political situation in Washington. Obviously she blames the Republicans for something, as does the current Blamer in Chief. But what is she blaming them for? The string of foreign policy failures as listed above?
No, those belong to President Obama and his Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. And despite what Mrs. Clinton has said on another occasion, all of this failure really does make a difference.
Ms. Clinton has a serious challenge. There are NO accomplishments she can credibly tout.
She could be much more effective with a more honest approach, perhaps something like this:

“What are my accomplishments as Secretary of State? Zilch. Nada. It pains me to say it. But any sentient being who has lived through the past five and a half years can see that the world is falling apart.
I did what I could do to stem the tide, but I just couldn’t get Barack to go along with me, and he is the Commander in Chief.
HE was the one who insisted on an approach of appeasement to the world’s tyrants.
HE was the one who insisted on apologizing for everything this country ever did wrong.
HE is the one who constantly invoked moral equivalence between events that had no equivalence. God only knows why Israel still talks to us. It’s no wonder Islamic thugs are on the march. I labored hard in my travels around the world trying to mitigate the damage created by Barack’s insistence that the president ‘talk loudly and carry a small twig.’
If I the American people should honor me by electing me as the first woman president of the United States, I pledge to use every fiber of my being and every single one of my feminine wiles to undo the unmitigated disaster that was Barack Obama’s foreign policy.
[Looking to the camera]: Won’t you join me in a quest to restore America as the world’s Super Power?”

What do you think?