Slick Willie A Diplomat?! Hillary thinks so

[las47032]

Democratic presidential front-runner Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton -- coming off a week of caustic comments from Hollywood mogul David Geffen and a campaign squabble with rival Sen. Barack Obama -- was exactly where she wanted to be Friday: in front of an adoring crowd in the Democratic stronghold of San Francisco, raising boatloads of campaign cash.


And the New York senator used the occasion to defend a man who is potentially a source of controversy: her husband, former Democratic President Bill Clinton.

In response to a question from the audience, she called her husband "the most popular person in the world right now'' and said that when she reaches the White House, "I will continue the tradition of using former presidents" as diplomats around the world.

Clinton visited San Francisco at the invitation of major Democratic Party donor Susie Tompkins Buell on the same day the first declared Democratic candidate for president, former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, dropped out of the race. Vilsack said he could not raise enough money to continue the 618-day marathon to the Nov. 4, 2008, election.

But Clinton appeared to have no such problem in San Francisco, where 900 people attended her sold-out, $250-a-head fundraiser at the Palace Hotel, including such political leaders as state Sens. Don Perata of Oakland and Carole Migden of San Francisco, Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's chief of staff Susan Kennedy, and such major party donors as developer Walter Shorenstein, whom the senator helped serenade with a chorus of "Happy Birthday.''

At the hourlong "town hall"-style appearance, billed as "Hillary Makes History," Clinton supporters munched on boxed lunches of sushi and salad -- organic and locally produced in accordance with the candidate's wishes, they were told -- and listened as the senator spoke in detail about her views regarding the war in Iraq, contraceptives funding, affordable housing, health care, the environment and climate change.
"I'm not running as a woman candidate, I'm running because I think I'm the best candidate to hit the ground running," Clinton said.

The senator said her experience as first lady during her husband's eight years in the White House would help shape her presidency. For example, she acknowledged that "the mistakes that I made during the health care debate" showed that "a president is powerful ... but the president has to lead in a collegial way, bring people along."

With the Academy Awards just two days away, Clinton also gave her husband's former vice president -- who still is viewed as a potential rival for the Democratic nomination -- a thumbs-up for his Oscar-nominated film about global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth."

"We're all pulling for Al Gore to get that Oscar," she said. "Nobody has done more to sound the alarm" on hydrocarbons.

The senator's appearance in San Francisco highlighted her strengths as a powerhouse fundraiser and illustrated her ability as a seasoned public figure with the background to discuss details on a wide range of policy matters.

Clinton was briefly interrupted by protesters from CodePink, the anti-war group, who raised six large pink banners with slogans such as "We Want a Peace President" and "Hillary Stop the War Fund." Five members of the group were escorted from the room by security officers and arrested by police, according to Medea Benjamin, who heads the grassroots organization.

Clinton did not directly acknowledge the protesters -- some of whom yelled "Stop the war" as they were led outside -- but said to cheers, "Yes, we do have to end the war in Iraq.''

Some Democrats have questioned the senator about her October 2002 vote in favor of giving President Bush the authority to use military action against Iraq. While Clinton has said she wouldn't vote that same way knowing now what she didn't know then, she has been criticized for refusing to simply label the vote a mistake.

In her remarks, Clinton noted "a great deal of unrest and anger and deep, deep, frustration" on Iraq and said it's time "to begin to rein this president in" regarding U.S. involvement in the war. She has introduced legislation calling for a limit on the number of U.S. troops in Iraq.

The issue of Clinton's war position was raised earlier this week at a forum in Nevada where almost all the declared Democratic presidential candidates met for the first time. Former Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina, who has publicly apologized for his Iraq vote as a mistake, appeared to jab Clinton for not going that far.

Clinton's stance was more harshly criticized this week by Hollywood movie mogul David Geffen, a supporter of Obama, who said Clinton's refusal to apologize for the war vote is an example of the problems that make her unelectable.

Geffen, who once raised millions for the Clintons, also criticized the former president and said both members of the powerful couple lie for political expediency. Hillary Clinton's campaign spokesman immediately criticized Obama for allowing a supporter such as Geffen to engage in "slash and burn" tactics and called on the Illinois senator to repudiate the remarks.

Clinton didn't directly engage the week's political criticisms during Friday's appearance in San Francisco, but a question from the audience gave her a chance to extol her husband's virtues.

Asked if, as president, she would appoint her husband secretary of state, the senator laughed and joked there may be "a law against that" (although there isn't).

She proudly defended her husband, an enormously popular figure among Democratic voters, saying she would rely on his expertise. She pointedly remarked that his approach to foreign policy and international relations while he was in the Oval Office from 1992 to 2000 was "a lot better than what we've recently seen."

Ellen Malcolm, who heads Emily's List, the powerful Democratic pro-choice women's political action committee -- one of the hosts of the event -- said Democrats "need to focus on the big picture, and that's the general election.''

"Hillary Clinton has spent 15 years on the world stage," she said. "Hillary Clinton is the front-runner, and everybody is going to come after her. ... She knows how to defend herself."

Other supporters were livid at Geffen's comments.
"(Geffen) sucked up every benefit he could when Bill Clinton was president. He spent the night in the White House, and he had private briefings with the president," said attorney Martha Whetstone, a longtime friend of the Clintons from Arkansas. "The values of loyalty are important, and the Clintons have that in spades ... and to try to go after them on a national scale to settle a personal vendetta is unconscionable."

Source: CLINTON SEES ROLE FOR HUSBAND / CAMPAIGN 2008: Senator tells S.F. crowd the former president could be a diplomat


Good idea. Send him to Iraq.

[EdNigma]

Yeah, I read where she will not 'tolerate' ANY wordage of her husbands past, impeachment, or 'faults'...

Hillary, is against Freedom of Speech.

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has a new commandment for the 2008 presidential field: Thou shalt not mention anything related to the impeachment of her husband.

With a swift response to attacks from a former supporter last week, advisers to the New York Democrat offered a glimpse of their strategy for handling one of the most awkward chapters of her biography. They declared her husband's impeachment in 1998 -- or, more accurately, the embarrassing personal behavior that led to it -- taboo, putting her rivals on notice and all but daring other Democrats to mention the ordeal again.