Hillary's experience? Evidence from her papers.

[DSeid]

In a different thread I had bemoaned that CNN was using the newly released Hillary Clinton papers merely to pander to those curious about where she was whlist Bill was having his dalliances, rather than finding out if her claims of executive experience by virtue of her years in the White House had any evidenciary basis. Here I want to move past from complaining about the pandering to exploring the record of her so-called experience.

In that thread this article was linked to, which documented a lack of involvement on her part for many issues. This article was also linked to, which, on page two finally states this:

The papers showed she spent most of her time in 1993 and 1994 overseeing the health care task force whose eventual failure would help cost Democrats control of the House and Senate. They indicate she held meetings to help her husband pass the North American Free Trade Agreement even as candidate Clinton tries to distance herself from the trade agreement now. And while she traveled to Northern Ireland and other countries to help promote peace and women’s rights, her schedules indicate that most of her time overseas was spent on the more traditional duties of a first lady.

And now I also find this one

Now that we know from the 11,000 pages of Clinton White House documents released this week that former First Lady was an ardent advocate for NAFTA; now that we know she held at least five meetings to strategize about how to win congressional approval of the deal; now that we know she was in the thick of the manuevering to block the efforts of labor, farm, environmental and human rights groups to get a better agreement. Now that we know all of this, how should we assess the claim that Hillary’s heart has always beaten to a fair-trade rhythm? … Her statement is, to be precise, a lie.

These are indeed more to the point. I care little about what kind of wife she was or is. I care about her claim of experience. The record shows that she was heavily involved in two items during Bill’s years: a cloddish attempt at healthcare reform that poisoned the well for years; and helping promote NAFTA - which she now claims she was always against. Otherwise she was a standard First Lady.

Her experience is very limited and turns out to be an record of a failed attempt to do a good thing, promotion of a policy that she now disavows, and voting for a war that never should have been.

This is her experience? Mind you it is no worse a record than McCain’s, despite more years under his belt, but that kind of experience, experience at failure and of bad decision making I can live without.