There is a considerable amount of chatter amid the blog-o-sphere for an interview Hugh Hewitt had with former Clinton White House Counsel Lanny Davis. [ Transcript here ]
Most of the attention has focused on the final segment question where Hewitt challenges Davis to summarize Hillary’s accomplishments as Secretary of State, and Davis cannot name one:
LANNY DAVIS: … more time, which is at some point, at some point, if she runs for president, Benghazi and every other issue she’s being criticized for, and I happen to believe that there are only a handful of people that hold Benghazi against her. I don’t think that that’s a serious political issue for her.
HUGH HEWITT: Okay, then give me one more thing.
DAVIS: But she’s got to do it. She’s got to do it if she runs for president. And she knows that.
HEWITT: All right, one question, you’ve got a minute. Summarize for me what she accomplished as Secretary of State.
DAVIS: Well, the biggest thing of all is goodwill around the world, which is what secretaries of State do.
HEWITT: Like in Syria…
DAVIS: I don’t know what any secretary of State…
HEWITT: … and Egypt and Libya?
DAVIS: I don’t know, well, Libya and certainly the intervention in Libya and getting rid of Qaddafi, you would say that’s a pretty good achievement for the President. But these are presidential achievements with a partnership of the secretary of State. What do secretaries of State do? For example, she was very instrumental in the details of the Iranian sanctions program, which has produced, apparently, some results. I’m very skeptical about this deal in Iran on the nuclear weaponry. But the credit she deserves on this sanctions program, which literally was her program in the State Department to enforce, but in partnership with Barack Obama.
HEWITT: So her achievement is that…
DAVIS: But this doesn’t change the question about the secretary of State having achievement. This is a secretary of State is the most popular woman in the world and restored relations with everyone in the world.
HEWITT: All right, Lanny, we’re out of time, but your achievement is one that’s been swept away by the President.
Some thoughts – Firstly, a personal annoyance: When given the opportunity in any Hillary discussion…
….. Why does everyone forget the Wikileaks cables controversy ?
After the first year of Hillary’s tenure as Secretary of State she ended up spending almost the entire second year on a global apology tour. Why is this never brought up?
WASHINGTON — The first batch of newly leaked U.S. diplomatic cables Sunday documented that the king of Saudi Arabia, echoed by other Arab leaders, have urged the United States to “cut off the head of the snake” and destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities.
[…] One awkward leak was a January cable describing a meeting between Army Gen. David Petraeus, then head of U.S. Central Command, and President Ali Abdullah Saleh in which Saleh said he would cover up U.S. air strikes against local al Qaida members by continuing to say “the bombs are ours, not yours.”
At that, Saleh’s deputy prime minister joked that “he had just ‘lied’ by telling Parliament” that Yemeni forces had launched the strikes.
Richard Fontaine, a senior fellow with the Center for a New American Security and a past foreign policy adviser to Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said the release of the cables has the potential to be “a very big deal” not because of any one individual revelation so much as the overall chilling effect on U.S. diplomatic relations.
“I’m sure there are now tens of thousands of people who feel totally burned because they provided either their take or information to U.S. diplomats with the idea this was going to be protected,” Fontaine said. “Now it’s out there for the whole world to see.”
As it did with earlier leaks of thousands of U.S. reports on military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, WikiLeaks provided more than 250,000 diplomatic cables in advance to the New York Times, Germany’s Der Spiegel newsmagazine and the Guardian of Great Britain. It expanded the group to include Spanish newspaper El Pais and French newspaper Le Monde. (link)
Secondly, prepare for the shield of “sexism” to replace the shield of “racism” in all things political.
Hillary is running for President 2016, period.
There is no doubt, and thinking otherwise is profoundly naïve and, well, just plain silly. With that in mind the progressive left will need to construct the “armory of advocacy“.
Using the Alinsky playbook progressives will now wield accusations of sexism and misogyny over all things related to criticizing Hillary Clinton. If you criticize Hillary Clinton, or if you are critical of her skillset you are “sexist”. Just like if you criticize President Obama’s competency you are “racist”.
If you question her credentials or bona-fides to be president or chief executive, you will be expressing your misogynistic tendency.
If you question her attachment to the common person, vis-a-vi her being chauffeured for the past two decades, you will be expressing your sexism.
What, is a woman not allowed to be a CEO ? You sexist pig.
See how that works ?
Watch.
In 2014 you’ll notice that Sexism/Misogyny will evolve to be the new Racism….. and everyone in the progressive media will be tuned in to looking for it, anywhere.
In 2012 the controllers who construct the lead-in to Hillary 2016 put together the “war on women” meme. {Insert Sandra Fluke picture here}
In the 2014 State of The Union address, POTUS advanced the ball with the “unequal pay” nonsense. It all has a specific purpose.
All of it.
