It’s come to the point in this primary season when I really need some questions answered, or at least statements clarified. I’ve voted in many presidential primaries and general elections, I’ve seen mud slinging, heard more lies than I can count. But, I don’t recall any candidate, republican or democrat, having to pass “commander in chief test.” An explanation would be nice. Had we had the “commander in chief test” in 2000, we would never have George Bush.
Does this test suggest that while Hillary Clinton was First Lady, she took the commander in chief test? Or, that Hillary would know what to do when the phone rings at 3:00 a.m.? Apparently not. Recently, Clinton’s First Lady papers were released, and it’s no surprise that Hillary was doing typical First Lady activities.
As I read through the documents, I noticed that many pages have been withdrawn or redacted;

11,046 pages have been made available. Nearly 4,800 pages have parts blacked out. Archivists said that’s to protect the privacy of third parties. Schedules for more than 30 days of activities were not included in this release.

Not all of Clinton’s papers were released. I did some research for people who where in Bill Clinton’s administration and who were involved with foreign policy. Clinton’s foreign policy experience from her papers, and Mr. Craig, are not what she would have you believe.

• On the day U.S. cruise missiles hit Serbia, the schedules show the former first lady was touring Egyptian ruins.

• On the day when her husband announced attacks against al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan, the schedules show she stayed in Martha’s Vineyard on vacation.

• On her January 1994 visit to Russia with her husband, her schedule is focused on events with political wives. She sat in on a birthing class at a hospital, toured a cathedral and joined prominent women in a lunch of blinis with caviar and salmon.

• A July 1993 trip to Japan for G-7 meetings, during which she spent most of her time with wives of leaders and ambassadors while visiting a Tokyo incineration plant for a lecture on the environment. Her campaign aides note that the schedules released Wednesday do not reflect phone calls or unscheduled events or meetings and are not an exhaustive guide to her work.

That’s an odd statement from Hillary’s campaign, considering other dates in her daily diary list phone calls.
Transcript excerpts of Greg Craig On Hillary Clinton’s Foreign Policy Experience which aired on National Journal On Air March 14, 2008. First some background, Greg Craig was the assistant to the president and special counsel and at that time a senior foreign policy adviser to President Bill Clinton’s administration. Currently Craig is a Washington attorney and a senior adviser to the Obama’s campaign.Q: You also say that the claim that she has passed the commander in chief test, then, is not supported by this record.

Craig: No, I think, look — I think she would be a capable commander in chief. I think Barack Obama, who is my candidate, would also be a capable commander in chief. I’m not denigrating that. What I’m saying is that when you talk about evidence of experience, you should be accurate as to what your role really was. Here’s another example — she claims that she negotiated the opening of the borders in the former Republic of Macedonia, and she arrived the day after that had been achieved. She traveled there, but she had nothing to do with the negotiations. And Ambassador [Robert] Gelbard, who was very much involved, said that she really didn’t play any role in that at all and that it’s a mistake and not accurate for her to take credit for it.

Q: And again, of course, you know that the Clinton campaign has said that former senior foreign policy adviser to the Clinton administration, Richard Holbrooke, said she did play a role.

Craig: She claims that she negotiated the opening of the borders — that’s not accurate, and Ambassador Holbrooke would be the first to agree that that’s not accurate.

Q: So let’s just put this on a scale of one to 10 here. Are we talking exaggeration, or are we talking about something more serious, such as not being truthful?

Craig: Well, I think it’s exaggeration. It’s inflated résumé. It’s in that category. I think she is misleading the American public on the nature of her experience.

Q:But was that experience, do you think, that is — having a lot of influence with advisers, giving private advice to her husband — was that experience that has helped prepare her to be commander in chief?

Craig: Oh, I don’t doubt that. The point that I am making is that her claims of the nature of that experience are overstated. The fact is she did not sit in on national security meetings. She did not have a security clearance. She did not attend meetings in the situation room. She conducted no negotiations. She did not manage any part of the national security bureaucracy. She did not have her own national security staff. That’s the fact. Now the experience that she did have — watching and sometimes sitting in the room where discussions were going on and also meeting heads of state and foreign ministers — that is good experience, and it’s invaluable to understanding how the world works when it comes to international organizations as well as international negotiations.

It appears that Hillary Clinton’s First Lady Papers back up Mr. Craig’s statements:
On NAFTA Hillary continually states that she has always opposed it:

• At least five meetings from the summer of 1993 until the end of that year aimed at helping her husband win congressional approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which she now criticizes and says she wants changed. Some of these meetings also concerned her health care reforms. In one, on Nov. 10, 1993, her schedule shows her speaking about NAFTA to 120 people in a closed meeting.

“They need to be a lot more open. We need to see memoranda of conversations; we need to see decision memos,” Sally Bedell Smith, author of “For Love of Politics – Bill and Hillary Clinton: The White House Years” and contributing editor to “Vanity Fair,” told ABC News

“We’re not seeing the dark side of the moon,” Smith said. “We’re not seeing those meetings that she had in private with key people, with contributors, with people that were seeking to influence certain policies. That seems to be entirely absent.”

Well that answers that questions about Hillary Clinton’s experience and commander in chief test.
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