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Hillary’s Record: Free of Accomplishments, Full of Setbacks
National Review ^ | 03/24/2015 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 03/24/2015 6:37:30 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

The case for her in 2016 boils down to demographic symbolism.

It is amazing how a simple question can cause a complex lie to collapse like a house of cards. The simple question was asked by Bill O’Reilly of the Fox News Channel, and it was addressed to two Democrats. He asked what has Hillary Clinton ever accomplished.

The two Democrats immediately sidestepped the question and started reciting their talking points in favor of Hillary. But O’Reilly kept coming back to the fact that nothing they were talking about was an accomplishment.

For someone who has spent her entire adult life in politics, including being a senator and then a secretary of state, Hillary Clinton has nothing to show for all those years — no significant legislation of hers that she got passed in the Senate, and only an unbroken series of international setbacks for the United States during her time as secretary of state.

Before Barack Obama entered the White House and appointed Mrs. Clinton secretary of state, al-Qaeda operatives in Iraq had notified their higher-ups, stationed in Pakistan, that their cause was lost in Iraq and that there was no point sending more men there.

Hosni Mubarak was in charge in Egypt. He posed no threat to American or Western interests in the Middle East or to Christians within Egypt or to Israel. But the Obama administration threw its weight behind the Muslim Brotherhood, which took over and began terrorizing Christians in Egypt and promoting hostility to Israel.

In Libya next door, the Qaddafi regime had already given up its weapons of mass destruction, after they saw what happened to Saddam Hussein in Iraq. But President Obama’s foreign policy, carried out by Secretary of State Clinton, got Qaddafi removed, after which Libya became a terrorist haven where an American ambassador was killed, for the first time in decades.

The rationale for getting rid of Middle East leaders who posed no threat to American interests was that they were undemocratic and their people were restless. But there are no democracies in the Middle East, except for Israel. Moreover, the people were restless in Iran and Syria, and the Obama-Clinton foreign policy did nothing to support those who were trying to overthrow these regimes.

It would be only fair to balance this picture with foreign-policy triumphs of the Obama-Clinton team. But there are none. Not in the Middle East, not in Europe, where the Russians have invaded the Crimea, and not in Asia, where both China and North Korea are building up threatening military forces, while the Obama administration has been cutting back on American military forces.

Hillary Clinton became an iconic figure by feeding the media and the Left the kind of rhetoric they love. Barack Obama did the same and became president. Neither had any concrete accomplishments beforehand besides rhetoric, and both have had the opposite of accomplishments after taking office.

They have something else in common. They attract the votes of those people who vote for demographic symbolism — “the first black president” to be followed by “the first woman president” — and neither is to be criticized, lest you be denounced for racism or sexism.

It is staggering that there are sane adults who can vote for someone to be president of the United States as if they are in school, just voting for “most popular boy” or “most popular girl” — or, worse yet, voting for someone who will give them free stuff.

Whoever holds that office makes decisions involving the life and death of Americans and — especially if Iran gets a nuclear arsenal — the life and death of this nation. It took just two nuclear bombs — neither of them as powerful as those available today — to get a very tough nation like Japan to surrender.

Anyone familiar with World War II battles in the Pacific knows that it was not unusual for 90 percent of the Japanese troops defending Iwo Jima or other islands to fight to the death, even after it was clear that American troops had them beaten.

When people like that surrender after two nuclear bombs, do not imagine that today’s soft Americans — led by the likes of Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton — will fight on after New York and Chicago have been reduced to radioactive ashes.

Meanwhile, ISIS and other terrorists are giving us a free demonstration of what surrender would mean. But perhaps we can kick the can down the road, and leave that as a legacy to our children and grandchildren, along with the national debt.

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


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: clinton; hillary; hillaryclinton

1 posted on 03/24/2015 6:37:30 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

2 posted on 03/24/2015 6:39:16 AM PDT by Doogle (( USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: SeekAndFind

"..?????...is that a frisbee?"

3 posted on 03/24/2015 6:45:46 AM PDT by Doogle (( USAF.68-73..8th TFW Ubon Thailand..never store a threat you should have eliminated))
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To: SeekAndFind

New York and Chicago smoking holes ?

And the downside is ??? (evil grin)


4 posted on 03/24/2015 6:47:36 AM PDT by Salgak (Peace Through Superior Firepower. . . .)
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To: SeekAndFind

To a liberal, ‘failure’ is a resume enhancement.................


5 posted on 03/24/2015 6:52:21 AM PDT by Red Badger (Man builds a ship in a bottle. God builds a universe in the palm of His hand.............)
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To: Doogle

No, it’s a little square with an icon of a torn sheet of paper.................


6 posted on 03/24/2015 6:53:08 AM PDT by Red Badger (Man builds a ship in a bottle. God builds a universe in the palm of His hand.............)
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To: SeekAndFind
"It is staggering that there are sane adults who can vote for someone to be president of the United States as if they are in school, just voting for “most popular boy” or “most popular girl” — or, worse yet, voting for someone who will give them free stuff."

This topic came up on a thread here a while back and one of the posters said his daughter voted for Obama just because her friends were. I think he added that she had no idea what he was even saying or what the issues were.

7 posted on 03/24/2015 6:55:41 AM PDT by Baynative (You can judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him.)
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To: SeekAndFind

“Accomplishment is a white male concept, very overrated.”


8 posted on 03/24/2015 7:08:48 AM PDT by Steely Tom (Vote GOP for A Slower Handbasket)
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To: SeekAndFind

He’s forgetting her epic win in the early 90s at the National Document Shredding Championships playing for the Rose Law Firm!


9 posted on 03/24/2015 7:12:03 AM PDT by nascarnation (Impeach, convict, deport)
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To: SeekAndFind

More than a sobering thought ..........:

**************************************

Anyone familiar with World War II battles in the Pacific knows that it was not unusual for 90 percent of the
Japanese troops defending Iwo Jima or other islands to fight to the death, even after it was clear that American troops had them beaten.

When people like that surrender after two nuclear bombs, do not imagine that today’s soft Americans — led by the likes of Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton — will fight on after New York and Chicago have been reduced to radioactive ashes.

Meanwhile, ISIS and other terrorists are giving us a free demonstration of what surrender would mean.


10 posted on 03/24/2015 7:22:51 AM PDT by Qiviut ( One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides. ~W.E. Johns)
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To: Qiviut

With all Hitlary’s “baggage” I would be surprised if the demodummies were still stupid enough to push her as their candidate. She has nothing to offer but “more of the same”. Her days in the lime light are over plus her previous and recent failures have all but crucified her chances.


11 posted on 03/24/2015 7:45:58 AM PDT by DaveA37
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To: DaveA37

Some good discussion on Hitlary & various potential Dem competition here:

http://hotair.com/archives/2015/03/24/so-that-was-a-quick-end-to-what-couldve-been-the-pepsi-throwback-of-presidential-primaries/


12 posted on 03/24/2015 8:27:07 AM PDT by Qiviut ( One of the most delightful things about a garden is the anticipation it provides. ~W.E. Johns)
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To: SeekAndFind

She in no way should evn be allowed to run for president as she is a known criminal. Then again we have a corrupt news media who are bought off.


13 posted on 03/24/2015 9:07:55 AM PDT by minnesota_bound
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