Several weeks ago, MRC-TV's Dan Joseph visited the Democratic Party's winter meeting to see if attendees could name a single tangible of Hillary Clinton during her tenure as Secretary of State. They couldn't. It turns out that Hillary Clinton herself can't even do that.
Remember how Texas Governor Rick Perry was mercilessly ridiculed in the press for his 2011 debate brain cramp when he couldn't identify the third of three federal government agencies he would eliminate? At the Women of the World Summit in New York City on Thursday — an event held at, of all places, the David H. Koch Theater (you can't make this stuff up) — Mrs. Clinton rambled on and on in a response to a question about what she was most proud of in looking at her time as Secretary of State, but never identified even one specific accomplishment (HT Capitol City Project):
Transcript:
Well, I really see — that was good — that’s why he wins prizes. Look, I really see my role as Secretary, in fact leadership in general in a democracy, as a relay race. I mean, you run the best race you can run, you hand off the baton. Some of what hasn’t been finished may go on to be finished.
So when President Obama asked me to be Secretary of State and I agreed, we had the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, we had two wars. We had continuing threats from all kinds of corners around the world that we had to deal with. So it was a perilous time frankly. And what he said to me was, ‘Look, I have to be dealing with the economic crisis, I want you to go out and represent us around the world.’
And it was a good division of labor because we needed to make it clear to the rest of the world, that we were going to get our house in order. We were going to stimulate, and grow, and get back to positive growth and work with our friends and partners.
“So I think we did that. I’m very proud of the stabilization and the really solid leadership that the administration provided that I think now, leads us to be able to deal with problems like Ukraine because we’re not so worried about a massive collapse in Europe and China — trying to figure out to do with all their bond holdings and all the problems we were obsessed with.
I think we really restored American leadership in the best sense. That, once again — people began to rely on us as setting the values, setting the standards. I just don’t want to lose that because we have a dysfunctional political situation in Washington. And then of course, a lot of particulars, but I am finishing my book so you’ll be able to read all about it.”
Mrs. Clinton ended up telling a "why I was hired" and "why we're better off now" story (which could be torn to pieces in an instant, but that's for another time) and framed it almost entirely around the administration's tired "look at the awful mess we inherited from Bush" narrative about the economy — something with which she herself admits she had no direct involvement — instead of telling the questioner what she had done.
Any Republican or conservative providing such a non-answer would be pilloried, as Perry was for his partial non-answer 2-1/2 year ago.
A Google News search on "Hillary accomplishment" (not in quotes, sorted by date) returns no relevant result from an establishment press outlet besides Fox News.
Thus, Mrs. Clinton gets to skate over a significant and self-evident gaffe. As far as the press is concerned, she's untouchable. Get used to it.
Cross-posted at BizzyBlog.com.
