Hillary Clinton does not believe the rules apply to her.
That came across loud and clear Saturday night when ABC broadcast the Democratic Party's presidential debate live from New Hampshire and Clinton shared the stage with Senator Bernie Sanders and former Governor Martin O'Malley.
Here's an exchange from the debate where ABC News' Martha Raddatz asks a basic question.
RADDATZ: Thank you very much. Thank you. We're going to move on here.
Governor O'Malley, thank you very much for that. And we're going to
make a very sharp turn as we wrap things up here.
Secretary
Clinton, first ladies, as you well know, have used their position to
work on important causes like literacy and drug abuse. But they also
supervise the menus, the flowers, the holiday ornaments and White House
decor. I know you think you know where I'm going here.
You
have said that Bill Clinton is a great host and loves giving tours but
may opt out of picking flower arrangements if you're elected. Bill
Clinton aside, is it time to change the role of a president's spouse?
CLINTON:
Well, the role has been defined by each person who's held it. And I am
very grateful for all my predecessors and my successors because each of
them not only did what she could to support her husband and our country
but often chose to work on important issues that were of particular
concern.
Obviously, Mrs. Obama has been a terrific leader when
it comes to young people's health, particularly nutrition and exercise.
And I think has had a big impact. So whoever is part of the family of a
president has an extraordinary privilege of not only having a front row
seat on history but making her or maybe his contribution.
And
with respect to my own husband, I am probably still going to pick the
flowers and the china for state dinners and stuff like that. But I will
certainly turn to him as prior presidents have for special missions, for
advice, and in particular, how we're going to get the economy working
again for everybody, which he knows a little bit about.
Not only does she believe the rules don't apply to her but she's so damn stupid.
She didn't just, you may remember, sit at home baking cookies.
Do you not remember that?
It was 1992 and she wasn't going to do First Lady functions if elected. If elected? In fact, it was going to be a co-presidency, two for the price of one, blah, blah, blah.
No, America didn't go for that.
And the Clinton-Gore campaign had to drop that claim.
And when she got in the White House as First Lady?
Well, she did try healthcare (and failed) but she also hosted teas when not conversing with the spirit of the late Eleanor Roosevelt.
Yes, she did more than host teas -- as did Laura Bush, Rosalynn Carter, Betty Ford, Lady Bird Johnson and countless others.
But she did have to fulfill the role of First Lady.
Now she wants to be president.
24 years later and she's making the same stupid mistakes.
It will be a co-presidency, she insists.
Bill will be advising on foreign policy and on the economy and on . . .
No.
That's not the role of the First Spouse.
If Bill Clinton isn't, dare we say, 'man enough' to handle the role of the First Spouse, then the country needs to know that now.
It his job to be the smiling, diplomatic partner of the president.
The First Spouse does not make policy.
The role is hostess -- and Harriet Lane served in that role for her uncle James Buchanan when the unmarried Buchanan was President of the United States.
If that role is 'beneath' Bill Clinton or some form of an insult to his manhood, then the American people need to know that now.
In light of the news that Hillary, as Secretary of State, slept through a Benghazi briefing, she needs to know right now that the American people are not voting for a president who selects flowers and china for state dinners.
That's not the job of the president.
Nor does the president have the time to do that.
But rules don't apply to Hillary -- or so she believes.
And that came through loud and clear throughout the debate.
She bullied moderators Raddatz and David Muir.
And they let her.
She talked over everyone -- including the moderators -- and insisted on having the last word over and over.
You really started to grasp that she just can't shut up.
"My name was invoked!" she shrieked at one point talking over others.
It was so ridiculous that Bernie Sanders later mocked her on it by using the same phrase.
But there was so much to mock -- including her outfit.
Did someone sew together bathroom mats to make that outfit?
Was it a dress and leggings?
A pantsuit?
Or, as one friend insisted to us, homage to the outfits Ricky and Fred trick Lucy and Ethel into wearing in I LOVE LUCY'S "Lucy Gets a Paris Gown" (written by Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll Jr., Bob Schiller and Bob Weiskopf)?
Some say it with silk, some say it with satin, Hillary apparently says it with burlap.
And whatever she says, it's to cut off Martin O'Malley or Bernie Sanders or Martha Raddatz or David Muir.
Let's talk about the moderators.
Martha had one good moment in the whole debate.
Hillary was yacking on in her War Hawk manner about the need for a no-fly zone over Syria.
RADDATZ: Secretary Clinton, I'd like to go back to that if I could. ISIS doesn't have aircraft, Al Qaida doesn't have aircraft. So would you shoot down a Syrian military aircraft or a Russian airplane?
CLINTON: I do not think it would come to that. We are already de-conflicting air space. We know...
RADDATZ: But isn't that a decision you should make now, whether...
CLINTON: No, I don't think so. I am advocating...
RADDATZ: ... if you're advocating this?
No, she didn't think so.
Nor did she ever manage to actually answer Martha Raddatz' question.
It was not a proud moment for her as she had repeatedly 'invoked' the need for a no-fly zone -- this despite, as Raddatz pointed out, the Islmaic State not having any aircraft.
Another embarrassing moment also involved the Islamic State -- Hillary Clinton insisting that IS was using Donald Trump in infomericals to recruit for the terrorist organization.
Angie Drobnic Holan (POLITIFACT) addressed that claim:
"We also need to make sure that the really discriminatory messages that
Trump is sending around the world don't fall on receptive ears," Clinton
said. "He is becoming ISIS's best recruiter. They are going to people
showing Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit
more radical jihadists."
Not having heard that before, our eyebrows went up when we heard Clinton’s comment, and we weren’t alone. The Twittersphere, on both the right and the left, picked up on Clinton’s statement and questioned whether she had any evidence for it.
Extensive Google searches did not turn up any evidence. And the
response from the Clinton campaign did not point to any specific videos.
The campaign pointed to an NBC News article that quoted Rita Katz of the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors the social media activities of Islamic terrorist groups.
"They love him from the sense that he is supporting their rhetoric,"
she said. "They follow everything Donald Trump says. When he says, 'No
Muslims should be allowed in America,' they tell people, 'We told you
America hates Muslims and here is proof.' "
The article also quoted David Phillips, director of the Program on
Peace-Building and Rights at Columbia University's Institute for the
Study of Human Rights, saying that "Trump's incendiary anti-Muslim
comments will surely be used by ISIS social media to demonize the United
States and attract recruits to fight in Iraq and Syria."
But while such quotes support the notion that ISIS could be making
recruiting videos, or will do so, they do not support Clinton’s
contention -- offered in the present tense -- that they are currently
doing so.
Vox.com tweeted at J.M. Berger, author of the book ISIS: The State of Terror, and Berger tweeted back, "I would be surprised if they had and we didn't hear about it in a big way."
So serial liar Hillary Clinton backs up her claim by citing . . . serial liar Rita Katz?
[Rita Katz has long been called out here and at THE COMMON ILLS. If you're new to her, you can refer to
Benjamin Wallis-Wells' 2006 article for THE NEW YORKER.]
Did David Muir have even one good moment?
The best term for him would be "coltish."
Shiny sheen, glossy lips? Not since Julia Roberts paraded down Rodeo Drive has anyone rivaled Mr. Ed for the title of best talking horse.
Is it really too much to expect that debate moderators will impose rules?
Or that when one chat hog won't shut up, that they cut her off?
And if she continues yacking after she's been cut off, that they only get firmer?
"Secretary Clinton," Raddatz asked at one point as Hillary was refusing to answer the question and attempting to distract by going to a different topic, "could we stick to gun control?"
Could we?
Stop her.
Shut her down.
Shut any candidate down who cannot follow the rules.
If you're not up to that, you're not up to being a debate moderator.
They're supposed to impose the rules but Raddatz and Muir let Hillary Clinton walk all over them.
"We have to abide by the rules," Muir insisted at one point, before refusing to impose them -- then or at any other time.
In their half-assed way, however, Muir and Raddatz may have provided a public service: Letting the American public see just what a blow hard and ego maniac Hillary has become.
Better they know while there's still a chance to defeat her in a primary.
[You can
stream Saturday's debate at ABC News, you can
read a transcript of the debate at THE WASHINGTON POST.]
Newsweek
Elgin Charles
