Hillary Clinton touts her experience. Halfway around the world Russia is holding a presidential election on Sunday. Clinton was asked about Russia's presidential elections to pick a successor to Vladimir Putin. The debate moderator wanted to know what Clinton could tell the world about this new president. In her response Clinton worked in how he'd been hand-picked by Putin, how Russia's political opposition has been suppressed and how she'd been critical of the Bush administration on a wide variety of issues regarding Russia.
Then, the moderator asked: "Who will it be? Do you know his name?"
Villagers, quite honestly, I don't have a clue who the favorite is to win the Russian presidency this coming weekend. But then I'm not running for president telling the world that I'll be ready on Day One. Clinton had the spotlight. And she blew it. She said, "Meh, uhm, Me-ned-vadah -- whatever."
The moderator then turned to Obama, "Do you know anything about him?"
Obama looked genuinely pleased not to have gotten the Russian name question. He smoothly answered, "Well, I think Senator Clinton speaks accurately about him..." and continued to also criticize the Bush administration."
Game... Set... Match! Clinton is no more ready for Day One than any other human being can be for the most difficult job in the world. For those Villagers who are keeping track --> the heavy favorite Putin-puppet being elected on Sunday as the new president of Russia is Dmitry Medvedev.
What observations did you have from the debate in Ohio between Obama and Clinton?
8 comments:
Yes, I caught that too. She has beat up on Obama for his lack of foreign policy experience and I believe she is in the same boat too. I do recall the PM being handpicked by Vladimir Putin and I also recall that the Russian economy is doing way better than ours, so therefore, whether or not he handpicked this guy seems to be irrelevant to the Russians. The bigger picture as you said is the fact that she will not be ready to hit the ground running on Day 1 of ascending the Presidency. As I said before, I find it a telling sign that she cannot exercise fiscal responsibility in her own campaign, let alone doing so for the entire country. So, I feel that if you are going to throw it out there, you'd better be able to back up what you are saying. Clearly Obama did not know the name of this guy either. I believe the onus was on her to deliver because she spoke up first. I do believe that both of them are very inexperienced when it comes to foreign policy and John McCain will, undoubtedly, score over whoever the nominee is on that. Again, I don't believe that would be the deathknell to either candidate's campaign.
villager-
i could be very naive. here's my quesiton...
what is meant when it is said that the president of the united states is the most difficult job?
it seems to me that if one understood very basic principles one would do well.
too many jobs overseas=bad for economy
spending more money than you have=bad
invading and blowing up innocent people world-wide for financial gain=bad
not giving two cents about the average american=bad
corruption=bad
not being a corporate sponsored really rich guy=good
life is simple until we get busy mucking it up. no?
i warned you that i may be naive:-)
thanks for lending me your ear
for a moment.
blessings!
-focusedpurpse
Janet - I don't think that McCain is necessarily better at foreign policy than Obama. McCain's foreign policy experience is primarily based on a Russia-vs-America superpower cold war world. He doesn't have a better understanding of the multi-cultural world that we live in now (IMHO)...
FocusedPurpose - You clearly lay out the basic principles. However, the job is difficult because of the myriad of issues and problems and life-threatening events that come to your desk 24/7/365. Many economic decisions may appear to bring more jobs to US (short-term) but in the long-term we're creating horse and buggy whips (jobs in an industry with no long-term future) while other nations are accepting jobs that are in growing industries. In that instance the simple answer (take those good ol' American jobs) might be the wrong answer.
Anyhow, there have only been 43 US presidents ... so I figure that the job must be pretty tough. If not, everybody would be doin' it (smile)...
Hillary's experience argument has never played out with me. Yes, she is bright and capable. But until 2000 she had NEVER ran for office before. Her official politcal career began then, not when her husband was elected govenor Arkansas or president of the US. I've always thought people gave her too much allowances for "being in the white house for 8 years". Does that mean Tipper Gore should tout her experience, too. After all, she too has a great poltical record - remember she's the one who got the warning label on music - a whole congressional hearing and everything. (Thanks Prince - Darling Nikki.)
Barack is a first time senator, but actually has more experience as an elected official than Hillary, having first been elected to state senate in 1997. So let's measure them up accurately. That's all.
Urban Scientist - All of your points are well-taken. I tend to agree with you...
Wait, so if she doesn't know how to PRONOUNCE a person's name, she must suck at foreign policy? Wow! Are you people stupid? She knew his name but did not know how to prounounce it! Jeez it was a hard name and atleast she knew it but did not say it correctly.
If Obama got that question first, he would've blanked.
Anon - I recall that George Bush screwed up the names of foriegn leaders during the debates leading up to his election victory in 2000 ... and he definitely sucked in foriegn policy decisions over the past 8 years. Perhaps it is a better indicator of future success than you are giving it credit for...
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