Clinton Mocks Obama's Global Experience
Democratic Front-Runner Ridicules Obama For Touting Childhood Experience Abroad; Obama Fires Back
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Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama, left, and Hillary Clinton. (AP)
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Photo Essay Barack Obama A look at the life and meteoric rise of the president-elect.
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Photo Essay Hillary Clinton A look at a life and career full of firsts.
"Voters will have to judge if living in a foreign country at the age of 10 prepares one to face the big, complex international challenges the next president will face," Clinton said Tuesday. "I think we need a president with more experience than that, someone the rest of the world knows, looks up to and has confidence in."
Obama's retort: "I was wondering which world leader told her that we needed to invade Iraq."
Clinton's conclusion: "This campaign is getting kind of heated now. It's getting a little more exciting and intense."
A day earlier, touting his foreign policy credentials, Obama had said his life experience gave him a better feel for international issues than most candidates gain from official trips to other nations.
He noted his father was from Kenya and that he himself spent part of his childhood in Indonesia. "Probably the strongest experience I have in foreign relations is the fact I spent four years overseas when I was a child in Southeast Asia," he said Monday.
Clinton has been slapping harder at Obama on the issue of experience - on Monday she said America's economy "can't afford on-the-job training" for the next president - as surveys show them in a tight race with former Sen. John Edwards for January's leadoff caucuses in Iowa.
A new Washington Post-ABC News poll shows Obama with 30 percent support among likely Democratic caucus-goers, Clinton with 26 percent and Edwards with 22 percent. About half the Clinton supporters who were surveyed said they had never attended a caucus compared with 43 percent of Obama supporters - a finding that could be significant because voters considered the most reliable caucus participants are those who have caucused before.
The Obama campaign kept up the exchange of tough talk after Clinton's comments on foreign experience Tuesday. Said Obama spokesman Bill Burton, "Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld have spent time in the White House and traveled to many countries as well, but along with Hillary Clinton they led us into the worst foreign policy disaster in a generation and are now giving George Bush the benefit of the doubt on Iran."
Clinton made her fresh remarks from a state away. She had been scheduled to open the second day of a campaign trip through Iowa with a town hall meeting in Shenandoah, but aides said her plane was unable to land because of fog, disappointing more than 400 people gathered to hear her speech. She addressed them by speaker phone - from Omaha.
She sought to compare her experience - a two-term New York senator after eight years as first lady - with that of Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois.
"I offer the experience of being battle-tested in the political wars here at home," said Clinton, arguing that her background not only was superior as a potential president but also made her the most electable Democrat.
"For 15 years I've been the object of the Republican attack machine and I'm still here," she said.
She said she would be ready to address the problems facing the country on her first day in the White House.
"We have so many issues to deal with," she said. "I've traveled the world on behalf of our country. I've met with countless world leaders and know many of them personally."
Aides said she made more than 70 overseas trips during her time as first lady, was actively involved in policy during her husband's tenure in office and has been closely involved in foreign policy issues during her Senate tenure.
Obama's take on that: "A long resume does not guarantee good judgment."
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
- RON PAUL WILL RESTORE U.S. SOVEREIGNTY
All of the trade deals and world government organizations, which all of the presidential candidates support (except Ron Paul), such as the ICC, NAFTA, GATT, WTO, and CAFTA, are all a major threat to our nation''s sovereignty. They transfer power from our government to unelected foreign elites. The ICC wants to try our soldiers as war criminals. Both the WTO and CAFTA could force Americans to get a prescription to take herbs and vitamins. The WTO has forced Congress to change our laws to meet their needs, and not our own. If anything, the WTO makes trade relations worse by giving foreign competitors a new way to attack U.S. jobs. The NAFTA superhighway, being built by a Spanish company, is just one part of a plan to erase our borders and create the North American Union, a single nation State like the EU, out of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, with a new, unelected bureaucracy and money system. Forget about controlling immigration under the NAU scheme. There won''t be any borders anymore, or a free America. Our limited, constitutional government will be gone forever. Let''s not forget the UN either. It wants to impose a direct Carbon Tax on us. Ron Paul successfully fought this move in Congress last year, but if we are going to stop ongoing attempts of this world government body to rule over us, we need someone in the White House who knows how to say "No." We must withdraw from any organizations or treaty that infringes upon our nation''s sovereignty. - Reply to this comment
- DEMOCRATS HOODWINKED BY HILLARY
Sadly, even though Clinton voted for the war in Iraq, and a host of Laws aimed at removing civil liberties; and our country''s sovereignty, Democrats are so blinded by her cult of personality that I predict they will overwhelmingly vote to put her crime family back into office. While I''ve made some progress in educating Liberals as to the phony staged consensus of the left-right paradigm, the fact remains that a majority of Democrats still see the White House as some kind of political Super Bowl, where the success of their "team" is the be all and end all - to the expense of America as a whole. The Punch and Judy show theater that was the "troop surge" debate in the Senate characterizes Hillary''s role in hoodwinking Americans perfectly. The debate is framed as not whether the U.S. should get out of the Middle-East altogether, but the relative minutia of whether to feed thousands of more troops into the meat grinder or not. A Clinton presidency will mean more war, more dead Americans, and a further desecration of the tattered shreds of what''s left of our Constitution. Clinton is the ultimate global elitist and represents the Democrats supposed base: the poor and downtrodden, about as much as Lindsay Lohan represents grace and dignity. I''m sure she informed the likes of David Rockefeller and Queen Beatrix as to her presidential aspirations during her last visit to attend the Bilderberger conference. Vote for a REAL AMERICAN. Vote for Ron Paul. - Reply to this comment
- BILDERBERGERS RULE
The Bilderberg Group is a secretive gathering of global power brokers, which includes Hillary Clinton, and a virtual who''s who of other folks whose names you will recognize (Search Wikipedia: "Bilderberg Attendees"), has inspired layers of ridicule. In recent times, the deeds laid at the group''s doorstep have included the creation of the EU, the Iraq war, and the group''s current efforts to create a North American Union, which will erase U.S. borders and sovereignty. Their agenda: economic and political domination; one world government; and world population reduction. After it was leaked that a speech by John Edwards at their meeting in Italy, was one reason for his selection as John Kerry''s vice-presidential running mate in 2000, people began to ask, "Are the Bilderbergers now shaping the worldwide political scene?" Over 130 of the world''s most powerful monarchs, politicians and business leaders attend the annual, invitation-only gatherings in order to to discuss and orchestrate public policy worldwide. The hotels involved are closed-off to other guests and reporters. Guards are placed around the perimeter, and attendees promise to keep quiet about what they hear and say. "They do not have to sign anything, but they understand that they do not talk," said Maja Banck-Polderman, the group''s Secretary. Tony Gosling, a British reporter who has followed the group says, "I think that a forum where so many rich and powerful people meet should be open to public scrutiny." - Reply to this comment
- CLINTON LETS BUSH PARDON HIMSELF
Buried deep inside Military Commisions Act, which was FULLY SUPPORTED by Senators Clinton, Obama and McCain, is a provision which pre-pardons President Bush and all the members of his administration for any crimes which they may have committed all the way back to September 11, 2001. Why that far back? That kind of makes you wonder. Huh? I can''t help but recall what Nixon said during an interview following the Watergate scandal when he said, "If the President does it, by definition, it''s not illegal." History never repeats itself, folks. It only rhymes. At least Nixon had enough class to wait for another President to pardon him for his crimes against our country. Bush apparently doesn''t want to take that chance. He has to consider the risk that Ron Paul will become our next President. - Reply to this comment
- CAMPING-OUT WITH HILLARY
The John Warner Defense Authorization Act, which was supported by Clinton, Obama and McCain, permits militarized police round-ups and detention of "protesters" and other "undesirables" for detention in facilities which are already contracted for and under construction by Kellog, Brown & Root, a subsidiary of Halliburton. This Law, which was sold to an emergency managed and willfully gullible public in the wake of the 9/11 attacks as a necessary measure needed by our President in order to fight his "global war on terrorism," permits the indefinite detention of American citizens who resists the foreign and domestic agenda of our President. The Journal of Counterterrorism & Homeland Security International reported recently that global engineering and technical services powerhouse, Kellog, Brown & Root announced during January 2006 that its Government and Infrastructure division had been awarded a (no bid) Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity contract to build these detainment camps with a maximum total value of $385 million over a five year term, and that this contract called for the company to build "temporary detention and processing capabilities" to augment existing U.S. government Detention and Removal Operations and to support "the rapid development of new programs." New Programs? Could it possibly get any worse? Why would the president be so concerned about Americans protesting? Aren''t we all happy campers? - Reply to this comment
- WILL CLINTON MAKE THIS A THOUGHT CRIME?
While CBS was busy pretending all other news didn''t exist during the California wildfires, our Constitution was burning on the floors of Congress. On Oct 23, the House overwhelmingly passed HR 1955, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act. This Bill is one of the most blatant attacks against our right to freedom of speech ever devised by Congress. The Bill actually defines different types of thought as "homegrown terrorism," and unlike previous anti-terror legislation, it specifically targets U.S. citizens. The Bill uses extremely vague language to define "terrorist propoganda" as any speech which promotes an agenda that the government considers an "extremist belief system." Since the bill doesn''t specifically define what an "extremist belief system" is, it will be entirely up to the interpretation of government officials. Isn''t that comforting? Considering how much the government has done to desecrate our Constitution lately, they would surely have to define this post as promoting an "extremist belief" system, since it promotes the restoration of civil liberties--something not en vogue these days. As disturbing as this Bill is, so to is the additional requirement that there be a seperate, "public version." In other words, the Bill we see is different from what Congress is seeing. Why''s that necessary? Whatever the reason, I predict this Bill will become Law soon while CBS focuses the country''s attention elsewhere - Reply to this comment
- HILLARY CLINTON MAKES RACIST COMMENTS
Sen. Hillary Clinton drew criticism recently for a Martin Luther King Jr. Day speech in which she told a mostly black audience at a Harlem church that Republican leaders have run the House "like a plantation" and the Bush administration will go down as "one of the worst" in U.S. history. Responding to the speech, House Speaker Dennis Hastert called her remarks "a little bit over the top." "I''ve never run a plantation before. I''m not even sure of what kind of association she''s trying to make," said the speaker, a Republican from Illinois. "If she''s trying to be racist, I think that''s unfortunate, but I''m not going to comment any further on that." One of Clinton''s Republican congressional colleagues from New York, Rep. Peter King, said the Senator "should be ashamed." "It''s definitely using the race card. It definitely has racist connotations. She knows it," King said. "She knew the audience. She knew what she was trying to say, and it was wrong. And she should be ashamed." The host of the event where Clinton made her remarks, activist Al Sharpton, agreed with the criticism. - Reply to this comment
- CLINTON HIRES CRIMINAL AND RECEIVES $850,000
On Sept. 20, CBS News (quietly) reported that Hillary Clinton''s campaign fundraiser Norman Hsu was being charged in New York with running a ponzi scheme that involved illegal campaign contributions to her presidential campaign. He was a leading money bundler for Clinton, and had actually earned the nickname, "HillRaiser" from Hillary for his efforts at collecting donations for her. Ultimately, her campaign was forced to return $850,000 in donations that were linked to Hsu. Afterwards, Clinton promised, "stricter scrutiny of donors." Hsu was actually a wanted fugitive, with an outstanding Felony Warrant, the entire time he worked for Clinton. Hsu''s ponzi scheme involved getting people to invest in what appeared to be a lucrative financial investment while at the same time getting those individuals to donate money to Hillary Clinton''s presidential campaign. Hsu was wanted in California on charges stemming from a 15-year-old Felony Theft conviction. Ron Paul doesn''t staff his campaign with CRIMINALS LIKE HILLARY does. - Reply to this comment
- WHAT''S HILLARY HIDING?
Senator Clinton''s political camp are blocking the release of presidential papers about discussions in the White House in the 1990s concerning the Whitewater investigation. Bruce Lindsey, a top adviser to former President Bill Clinton, issued a lengthy statement on Friday evening saying that Mr. Clinton had asked him that records related to communications with Senator Clinton be withheld, and that Mr. Clinton had asked him not to release of any presidential documents. Mrs. Clinton, in an interview with Radio Iowa on Saturday, said she did not know what the papers would reveal, but she would nevertheless refuse to release them. "I think it''s like people think we have boxes of records in our basement and why don''t I just go and get them and hand them over," she said. "And you know my husband has never blocked a record ever. He has been the most forthcoming of all presidents." In interviews recently, lawyers and experts on presidential papers said it was unusual for a President to want a close review of documents that might have political dimensions. "Senator Clinton doesn''t have the power to override federal privacy Laws; they protect all the other people who wrote or participated in conversations," said Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive. Senator Barack Obama is urging that she expedite the release of documents as quickly as possible. - Reply to this comment
- IS RUDY GIULIANI AL QAEDA?
How much exactly would it cost to get Rudy Giuliani to holster his overdone 9/11 sanctimony? The government for the tiny Persian Gulf nation of Qatar might have a good idea. Following earlier reports that Giuliani was still getting paid by a consulting firm he created, Giuliani Partners LLC, Mary Jacoby of the Wall Street Journal sheds light on some potentially problematic sources of Giuliani''s private income. Chief among them is Qatar, the U.S. ally that paid Giuliani Partners for "security advice" regarding their petroleum facilities. The article uncovers a "potential political pitfall" for Giuliani''s candidacy and image given Qatar''s spotty record in fighting Al Qaeda, and addresses aspects of the business arrangement that could dog Giuliani during his quest for the presidency. Specifically, the ostensible chief consumer of Giuliani''s security advice in this case would be Qatar''s Internal Security Ministry, currently headed by a known Al Qaeda associate. As reported earlier this year, Qatar Interior Minister Abdullah bin Khalid Al-Thani has long had ties to top Al Qaeda operatives including Osama Bin Laden, and is believed by many U.S. officials to have personally arranged the narrow escape of Al Qaeda big-wig Khalid Sheikh Mohammed from U.S. agents in 1996, thereby ensuring his freedom to mastermind the 9/11 attacks. Giuliani has refused to release specifics of the case, and to-date remains on the firm''s payroll. - Reply to this comment
- GIULIANI WELCOMES ILLEGAL ALIENS
Cintra-Zachry, a company owned by the King of Spain, is currently building the NAFTA superhighway through the middle of our country, and they to get to keep the tolls. Giuliani''s Law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani represents that Spanish company. Another Giuliani business, Giuliani Capitol Advisors was once a partner of Cintra-Zachry, and owned the rights to collect the tolls from the Indiana and Chicago sections of the highway before they sold that interest to an Australian company called Macquarie recently. Bracewell & Giuliani represents some of the biggest multi-national oil, utility and financial corporations in the world. With that have come the connections that Giuliani has been able to tap into in order to fund his campaign. Not only is Giuliani the consummate globalist who actively sells-off our country to foreigners, he''s also the only GOP candidate who supports abortion. Also unnerving, given Giuliani''s personal experience on 9/11, is his defense of open borders, and the fact that he publicly welcomed illegals to come to New York where he would provide them with sanctuary. We should have seen it coming when Mayor Giuliani enacted Special Order 40 in 1994, ordering NYC cops to stop checking the immigration status of suspects caught violating the Law. Giuliani also supports creation of the North American Union, which will forever end our nation''s sovereignty and limited constitutional form of government. Vote for a REAL AMERICAN--Ron Paul. - Reply to this comment
- RON PAUL KNOWS HOW TO STOP ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
The talk must stop. We must secure our borders now. A nation without secure borders is no nation at all. It makes no sense to fight terrorists abroad when our own front door is left unlocked. Ron Paul has a plan: (1.) Physically secure our borders and coastlines. We must do whatever it takes to control entry into our country before we undertake complicated immigration reform proposals. (2.) Enforce Visa rules. Immigration officials must track Visa holders and deport anyone who overstays their Visa or otherwise violates U.S. Law. This is especially important when we recall that a number of 9/11 terrorists had expired Visas. (3.) No amnesty. Estimates suggest that 10 to 20 million people are in our country illegally. That''s a lot of people to reward for breaking our Laws. (4.) No welfare for illegal aliens. Americans have welcomed immigrants who seek opportunity, work hard, and play by the rules, but taxpayers should not pay for illegal immigrants who use hospitals, clinics, schools, roads, and social services. (5.) End birthright citizenship. As long as illegal immigrants know their children born here will be citizens, the incentive to enter the U.S. illegally will remain strong. (6.) Pass true immigration reform. The current system, and those proposed by ALL other candidates, is incoherent and unfair, and would allow up to 60 million more immigrants into our country. - Reply to this comment
- RON PAUL WILL RESTORE U.S. SOVEREIGNTY
All of the trade deals and world government organizations, which all of the presidential candidates support (except Ron Paul), such as the ICC, NAFTA, GATT, WTO, and CAFTA, are all a major threat to our nation''s sovereignty. They transfer power from our government to unelected foreign elites. The ICC wants to try our soldiers as war criminals. Both the WTO and CAFTA could force Americans to get a prescription to take herbs and vitamins. The WTO has forced Congress to change our laws to meet their needs, and not our own. If anything, the WTO makes trade relations worse by giving foreign competitors a new way to attack U.S. jobs. The NAFTA superhighway, being built by a Spanish company, is just one part of a plan to erase our borders and create the North American Union, a single nation State like the EU, out of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, with a new, unelected bureaucracy and money system. Forget about controlling immigration under the NAU scheme. There won''t be any borders anymore, or a free America. Our limited, constitutional government will be gone forever. Let''s not forget the UN either. It wants to impose a direct Carbon Tax on us. Ron Paul successfully fought this move in Congress last year, but if we are going to stop ongoing attempts of this world government body to rule over us, we need someone in the White House who knows how to say "No." We must withdraw from any organizations or treaty that infringes upon our nation''s sovereignty. - Reply to this comment
- If Clinton needs to mock someone she only needs to look in the mirror, I hope she gets the socialist nomination since over 50% of the voters would never vote for her.
- Reply to this comment
- Cut it out HIllary! Concentrate on what you''re going to do! Let Mr. Obama stew in his own juice. He''s not even beginning to put forth good answers.
- Reply to this comment
- ARE WE A NATION OF LAWS?
Consider the Patriot Act. The Law is 342 pages long, or 57,000 words, making it a bit longer than Dostoevsky''s "Notes from Underground" or, if you''re partial to pigs, about twice the size of Orwell''s "Animal Farm." The Patriot Act is the reigning champion of our government''s recent un-American activities. When it was first paraded before Congress and the Senate following the 9/11 attacks, few Members, other than Congressman, Ron Paul dared to vote against it. Most in Congress simply gave it their rubber-stamp of approval, without ever reading it. Why bother? It was, after all, named the "USA Patriot Act." It must be a good thing. Right? Now in effect, the Law wrecks a generation''s worth of constitutional protections against government snooping, legalizing police-state tactics in searches and seizures, criminalizing certain forms of speech and political activity, and opening the way for the mistreatment of foreigners in government custody and wholesale expulsions and imprisonment. It is a repugnant, unnecessary Law that goes against the very principles its name wrongly implies. Yet, it remains unchecked and unbalanced by public opinion, Lawmakers or the Courts. So, yes, we''re a nation of Laws. But the Laws aren''t much to speak of when they''re designed to hoodwink the public to win its docility. Neither is public responsibility much to speak of these days when its docility is secured with nothing more than a ploy-riddled play on the word "patriot." - Reply to this comment
- DEMOCRATS HOODWINKED BY HILLARY
Sadly, even though Clinton voted for the war in Iraq, and a host of Laws aimed at removing civil liberties; and our country''s sovereignty, Democrats are so blinded by her cult of personality that I predict they will overwhelmingly vote to put her crime family back into office. While I''ve made some progress in educating Liberals as to the phony staged consensus of the left-right paradigm, the fact remains that a majority of Democrats still see the White House as some kind of political Super Bowl, where the success of their "team" is the be all and end all - to the expense of America as a whole. The Punch and Judy show theater that was the "troop surge" debate in the Senate characterizes Hillary''s role in hoodwinking Americans perfectly. The debate is framed as not whether the U.S. should get out of the Middle-East altogether, but the relative minutia of whether to feed thousands of more troops into the meat grinder or not. A Clinton presidency will mean more war, more dead Americans, and a further desecration of the tattered shreds of what''s left of our Constitution. Clinton is the ultimate global elitist and represents the Democrats supposed base: the poor and downtrodden, about as much as Lindsay Lohan represents grace and dignity. I''m sure she informed the likes of David Rockefeller and Queen Beatrix as to her presidential aspirations during her last visit to attend the Bilderberger conference. Vote for a REAL AMERICAN. Vote for Ron Paul. - Reply to this comment
- BILDERBERGERS RULE
The Bilderberg Group is a secretive gathering of global power brokers, which includes Hillary Clinton, and a virtual who''s who of other folks whose names you will recognize (Search Wikipedia: "Bilderberg Attendees"), has inspired layers of ridicule. In recent times, the deeds laid at the group''s doorstep have included the creation of the EU, the Iraq war, and the group''s current efforts to create a North American Union, which will erase U.S. borders and sovereignty. Their agenda: economic and political domination; one world government; and world population reduction. After it was leaked that a speech by John Edwards at their meeting in Italy, was one reason for his selection as John Kerry''s vice-presidential running mate in 2000, people began to ask, "Are the Bilderbergers now shaping the worldwide political scene?" Over 130 of the world''s most powerful monarchs, politicians and business leaders attend the annual, invitation-only gatherings in order to to discuss and orchestrate public policy worldwide. The hotels involved are closed-off to other guests and reporters. Guards are placed around the perimeter, and attendees promise to keep quiet about what they hear and say. "They do not have to sign anything, but they understand that they do not talk," said Maja Banck-Polderman, the group''s Secretary. Tony Gosling, a British reporter who has followed the group says, "I think that a forum where so many rich and powerful people meet should be open to public scrutiny." - Reply to this comment
- CLINTON MAKES BUSH DICTATOR
With the full support of Senators Clinton, Obama and McCain, President Bush recently signed into Law the John Warner Defense Authorization Act, which, according to Senator Leahy (VT), will actually "encourage the President to declare Martial Law." It does so by revising the Insurrection Act, a Laws which limits the President''s ability to deploy troops within the United States. The Insurrection Act has historically, along with the Posse Comitatus Act, helped to enforce strict prohibitions on military involvement in domestic Law enforcement. With one cloaked swipe of his pen, Bush has now undone all of those prohibitions. The John Warner Defense Authorization Act, which was signed by the President in an unpublicized ceremony, allows the President to declare a "public emergency," suspend Congress; The Constitution; and to take control of state-based National Guard units without the consent of your Governor or local authorities, in order to "suppress public disorder." President Bush seized this unprecedented power on the very same day that he signed the equally odious Military Commissions Act. The two Laws compliment one another. One allows for torture and detention abroad of those who dissent and are stripped of their citizenship, while the other seeks to enforce acquiescence at home by allowing the President to order the military onto our streets in a domestic Law enforcement role, which is already being done. Vote for Liberty. Vote for Ron Paul. - Reply to this comment
- CLINTON LETS BUSH PARDON HIMSELF
Buried deep inside Military Commisions Act, which was FULLY SUPPORTED by Senators Clinton, Obama and McCain, is a provision which pre-pardons President Bush and all the members of his administration for any crimes which they may have committed all the way back to September 11, 2001. Why that far back? That kind of makes you wonder. Huh? I can''t help but recall what Nixon said during an interview following the Watergate scandal when he said, "If the President does it, by definition, it''s not illegal." History never repeats itself, folks. It only rhymes. At least Nixon had enough class to wait for another President to pardon him for his crimes against our country. Bush apparently doesn''t want to take that chance. He has to consider the risk that Ron Paul will become our next President. - Reply to this comment

Mike Huckabee on GOP "rock stars," 2012, health care reform and more.



