Clinton confidence grows with national security at forefront [will "tout her tenure"]

The Hill ^ | December 4, 2015 | Amie Parnes

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Hillary Clinton's campaign is emboldened by the rise of national security as an issue in the presidential race.

The threat from international terrorism has become a huge issue since last month's deadly attacks on Paris that killed 130 people, with fears of terrorist attacks in the United States fanned further by Wednesday's mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., where 14 people were killed.

Team Clinton has noted the shift in the public mood, and Clinton has sought to underline her national security credentials - a point she emphasized at the Democratic debate held the day after the Paris attacks.

"Clearly there's a premium on these issues where there wasn't a year ago or so," said one foreign policy expert following the 2016 presidential campaign closely. "And it certainly isn't going to hurt her."

Campaign officials who believe the former secretary of state and senator is well-positioned for national debates about terrorism in both the primary and general elections say she'll tout her tenure at Foggy Bottom throughout the campaign from a position of strength.

As evidence for their confidence, allies point to a recent Washington Post poll that found Clinton is the "most trusted" 2016 candidate from either party on the issue of terrorism.

The survey, released late last month, indicated that she beats Republican frontrunner Donald Trump on the issue 50-42 percent.

Republican candidates argue that rising public worries about terrorism will help their own party as they joust for position.

Trump on Thursday said his own poll numbers have gone up at times of crisis because voters believe in his message of strength. He has unnerved some Republicans, however, with harsh rhetoric toward Muslims that Democrats believe could be a liability next fall.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, whose support is rising in New Hampshire, is emphasizing his prosecutorial background in making the case that he is ready to lead his party on national security. He's suggested Sens. Marco Rubio (R-Ohio) and Ted Cruz (R-Texas), both ahead of him in national polls, aren't ready for the Oval Office.

Rubio and Cruz, for their parts, have battled over whether reforms to National Security Agency surveillance programs have left the homeland more vulnerable.

There are signs that Republicans are worried about their chances in the fall if Trump becomes their nominee.

Yet they also believe the rise of terrorism and national security as a potent issue in the race could hurt Clinton, especially if she is matched against a candidate such as Rubio who they believe would provide a favorable contrast. Rubio is ahead of Clinton in the Real Clear Politics average of polls pitting the two against one another.

Clinton is tied closely to President Obama after serving in his cabinet, something Republicans have been quick to point out. They have argued that the Obama-Clinton foreign policy birth of ISIS, the terrorism of Boko Haram and upheaval in the Middle East.

"The fact is that she can't point to a major success as Secretary of State, and under her watch, the Middle East has descended into chaos and we've seen with that the rise of ISIS," said Republican strategist Ron Bonjean.

The Washington Post poll revealed that 54 percent disapprove of Obama's policies on terrorism, with 57 percent disapproving of his handling of ISIS.

Bonjean argued it will be difficult for Clinton "to overcome her severe liabilities."

"Even though she does have experience, it shows what type of leader she was," Bonjean added. "Things have gotten worse under her watch."

Jeff Bechdel, the communications director for the GOP superPAC America Rising, said that while the controversy surrounding Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of state was damaging, "her failed leadership in public life may be what actually hurts Clinton most among voters in the long run."

Allies of Clinton scoff at those suggestions.

"So be it," said William Galston, a senior fellow of governance studies at the Brookings Institution, which hosted Clinton recently for one of her foreign policy speeches. "She's proud of her record and she's going to stand on it and run on it."

Galston, who served in the Clinton White House, pointed out that the Democratic frontrunner-who served on the Senate Armed Services committee along with her time at Foggy Bottom-"unlike a lot of Democrats in the past has nothing to fear from the elevated discussion of national security issues."

Clinton has made an effort to distance herself from Obama's foreign policy while pointing out their differences, a sign not only of their real division on policy but of the potential political liability.

Clinton pointedly said the goal should be to destroy ISIS and not to contain it, as Obama said before the Paris attacks.

"We have to break the group's momentum and then its back," she said last month in a speech at the Council on Foreign relations several days after the Paris attacks.

Nicholas Burns, a career foreign service officer at the State Department who served as a policy adviser for the Clinton campaign, noted that she recommended a more aggressive strategy on Syria than Obama.

Burns, who also worked under the George W. Bush administration, said Clinton is the right person to be president given the threats from abroad.

"I think that given the times we live in and the multiplicity of threat...we need an experienced, tough-minded person in the Oval office," he said.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Hillary Clinton Slept In, Missed Benghazi Briefing Days After Attack

Hillary Clinton Was Warned Not to Blame Benghazi on Youtube Video

Clinton Aide Shared Classified Information With Foundation, Email Shows

Clinton Foundation Getting More Donations During Hillary's Campaign

[Westbrook]

LOL!

National Security is her WEAKEST point!

[Gaffer]

What do you mean? Don’t you remember what a wonderful job she did on Benghazi?

[circlecity]

"And it certainly isn't going to hurt her."

LOL. Hillary presided over the greatest deterioration in our national security since Jimmy Carter.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

The Alpha Male at Bay

"....The result has been a carnival of unintended consequences, much of it farcical, no small part of it terrifying. As Margaret Mead pointed out decades ago, males (by which she meant alphas) turn their backs on fields in which women are dominant. (Anyone doubting this is invited to examine the Democratic Party.) So we see endless situations in which beta males wander the landscape, in fields such as academia, the arts, and increasingly the sciences and government, looking for alphas to obey, and finding women who have no idea how to fit the role.

This is clearly in play in American academia, which has been totally taken over by feminists and betas. (Most interesting here is the Yale incident in which the college master was publicly berated by a foul-mouthed female student over an email sent by his wife suggesting that students take ethnic Halloween costumes with a grain of salt. Note that it was the wife who was responsible for the offending email but the husband who was sent out to answer for it. Clearly, she was sending a beta to do an alpha's job.)....

We were promised by feminists that once women took their places in leadership positions, we would immediately have a better world, predicated on the female virtues of moderation, community, and compromise. This may have worked in a world in which every society was operating on the same level. But in a milieu overrun by gangbangers, jihadis, organized criminals, and petty tyrants, all the Ritalin in the world is not going to help. An aversion to subjecting women to the same level of criticism as men has given a system characterized by fatuity, frivolousness, irresponsibility, and incompetence caused by unwillingness to acknowledge how the world actually works. Angela Merkel, Hillary, and Claire McCaskill can serve as examples. But we could go on.

The good news about this is that it's self-limiting. No society can operate in complete defiance of natural law for very long (Just look at Islam for an example.) Eventually, alphas will be annoyed enough to leave their current strongholds (generally business and arts such as film and music, where swashbucklers are still admired, along with the Internet-what are hackers but the highwaymen of old armed with mouse and modem?) to straighten things out. The question is, how much damage will occur before that happens?"

[meatloaf]

Not to mention her private email server which served up classified information on a come and get it basis.

[Buckeye Battle Cry]

It is a misplaced confidence.

[elhombrelibre]

Yeah, she’s swell on this subject. She’s swell if you support ISIS, chaos, Russian Imperialism, a weakened and embarrassed USA. She’s swell if you like to hack and monitor her classified email. If you’re pro-American, she’s not doing so well.

[MuttTheHoople]

Ben-Ghaz-I

[CIB-173RDABN]

Commercial - dark, face of clock, it shows 3 am, the phone is on do not disturb...

Crisis gets out of control while Hillary sleeps.

Hillary unlike Obama, has a track record. Besides the long history of corruption, she has shown herself incompetent.

Add to that the “Clinton/Bush/Obama fatigue” the people are ready to throw them all out and start with someone new.

[euram]

I sure hope you are right.

[RginTN]

WTF, only a lefty can get this stupid headline after benghazi

[The Antiyuppie]

Sounds to me like Hitler in the bunker mentality...imagining increasingly outlandish and implausible ways to win.

[Bobalu]

Tout her tenure.

[Timber Rattler]

Clueless if she thinks people will believe this nonsense after what she pulled with Russia and Libya.

[Menthops]

Hillary Clinton would be much stronger and tougher on defense and security than the GOPe Betas - Rubio, Christie, and Bush.

[ichabod1]

It’s scary. She appeals to the people who post Facebook posters such as “Guns don’t kill people; People who stand in the way of sensible gun control laws kill people.” My jaw dropped.

[DJ Frisat]

I think the word is “delusion”, not confidence...

[moovova]

Her finest accomplishment is staying out of prison.

[SC_Pete]

Bill Clinton’s war on the Serbs opened up the Balkans for the mass invasion that is occurring today. George Soros inspired him. Soros hosted the annual Dayton Peace Accords commemoration in Dayton, Ohio thereafter.

THE BALKAN WAR WAS THE FIRST STEP IN THE ISLAMIFICATION OF EUROPE. And we Americans did it. We set the stage for the destruction of Western Civilization. It started before Obama.