One of my Democratic friends wasn’t able to answer this question and he’s pretty well informed. As a conservative, it’s actually not too hard for me to name some things Clinton has done that I’m proud of her for: voting for the Iraq war, urging Obama to intervene in Libya and Syria, being his spine when he hesitated on bin Laden, voting for the bankruptcy bill in 2001, voting for free trade deals.
So Democratic Clinton supporters, what has she accomplished that YOU are most proud of?
Hillarycare made Obamacare possible.
Interesting that the biggest mistake in American history and the cause of so much human suffering worldwide has made your list of good accomplishments. Libyan intervention ultimately turned out to be a mistake. All in all, secular strongmen are better than anarchy and mob rule.
I’m not so much impressed by anything that she has done but what she promises to be- a hardworking, competent president who will much more often than not do the right thing.
So her failure is what you’re most proud of because it allowed a more talented politician to have success. Okay, I’ll bite. What will Clinton fail at as President that will lead to better things from her Democratic successor?
I agree in hindsight that the Iraq war was a horrible idea, but at the time I was happy she supported us.
Okay, so when has she done the right thing from your point of view?
Supporting nearly everything that our great president Barack Obama has done.
This is difficult, huh?
Plenty of cheerleaders for Obama in politics, with actual accomplishments that you could name.
I suppose helping Obama restore America’s image in the world in the first term after Bush sent it down the toilet for eight years was a pretty good accomplishment. That and running the State Department with competence and not starting any international incidents or blowing the trumpets of war the way Kindasleezy Rice did.
I think she did a fine job in the State Department as well for the most part, but your reality seems to be vastly different from mine. COndi Rice started zero wars as SecState. Clinton started one and got the President involved in another indirectly. Was her rhetoric as bellicose as Rice’s? Probably not, but again you seem to be valuing words over actions. Clinton’s actions have been more consistently hawkish than any politician in either party. And unlike other famous hawks, she’s never negotiated a successful arms or peace treaty. One could argue that Kerry finished her work in that regard with Iran, but I’d respond that only because Kerry was willing to give up more than Clinton was to get a deal.
On foreign policy, there is actually almost no daylight between Hillary Clinton and John McCain.
Clinton is well informed and has political views that generally align with mine. I’m not voting for her because of past accomplishments. That’s one measure of a candidate (Ike, Washington, LBJ) but not the only one.
In addition, I’m not expecting world-changing initiatives from Mrs. Clinton. Just put decent people on the federal bench and try to get us true Universal Health Care. Oh, also please keep us out of war, and put competent people in charge of federal agencies. I’m okay with mostly status quo and a bit of slow steady progress.
Condi repeatedly lied about Iraq while she was the NSA. Her lack of personal integrity taints anything she did while SoS.
Without Hillary Clinton’s efforts at healthcare reform, Obama would have been the first democratic president to have attempted healthcare reform. He would have had no baseline to know where the missteps might have occurred. He also had a more liberal congress to work with, whereas democrats in 1994 were still very much a centrist and even center-right party. Obama was also coming into office knowing that voters were angry at right wing economic policies, and yet…Obama’s success in getting legislation passed is also most likely what led to the success of the Tea Party. Well, that and the fact that a lot of exuberant hipsters who voted for him (and now support Bernie Sanders) simply stayed home and watched republicans take over congress and now complain that Obama wasn’t progressive enough.
Who is “us” in this sentence? (Be careful; how you answer may say something very damning about your perspective.)
Which of your “gotcha” thread failures are you the least embarrassed by?
I think most people are most proud of Clinton for being the first viable candidate with a vagina. I know that sounds snarky but its only partly snarky. The path to political legitimacy for women is not ac clear as it is for men. Getting people to take you seriously isn’t as easy for women as it is for men.
Clinton has changed our society to the point where we now see a female president as an inevitable eventuality. If not her then someone else, but she was the one that made everyone feel like it was definitely going to happen someday soon.
Eh, what the hell, I’ll bite:
Something not yet mentioned: This woman has had 25 years of the greatest vitriolic shit-throwing tantrum fit ever put on by the Hand of Man directed at her, being accused of everything from killing American soldiers (Benghazi) to killing her friends (Vince Foster) to killing capitalism (Health Care Reform) to being too capitalistic (cattle futures) to opportunism (even the very legitimacy of her marriage is constantly called into question) … and:
And, hell, back in 1993, 94 I bought the damn Health Care act bill, read the damn thing, railed against it with all the knowledge and experience that my 26 years of non-health care industry existence allowed me (which is to say, I was ignorant as fuck), and thought that Hillary was the worst example of, whatever, ever. But she kept going. I thought it was stupid for New Yorkers to elect an Arkansan for Senate, I was probably secretly pleased when she lost to Obama (though I was voting D in 2008 regardless of who won), but when Obama nominated her for SoS I actually thought… “well, that makes sense. She’ll probably make a good one.” And she did.
So, fuck it. Hillary, after 24 years, you won, you wore me down. I’m going to vote for you because you’re tough, you’re a survivor, and because history has shown us… well, me, that is… that we were wrong about you. And despite all the hatred thrown at you, you still built up the most credible resume of any of the Presidential candidates running in 2016.
SCHIP.
I will say that her fight for universal health care in the 1990s was also quite impressive to me. SCHIP was somewhat kind of a consolation, but was definitely something with great importance.
I think Damuri is right. And, I’m proud of Condi Rice for the same things - although she has far less in common with me politically.
And I like SCHIP. And I like her post 9/11 work for New York. And I like her negotiated cease fire between Israel and Hamas (not that they last long, but each one is a success). And I like how as First Lady she helped get the DoJs Office on Violence Against Women going. And I like her fight for health care as first lady - which did set up the ACA - which is not yet what we need, but a step to a good solution.
Agree, and there was also PREA, the Pediatric Research Equity Act. Getting getting China, Western Europe, Russia, to agree with sanctions against Iran was not a small feat, and that made Iran go to the negotiating table. She was also successful in negotiating the cease fire in Gaza.
http://www.politico.com/story/2012/11/clinton-announces-gaza-cease-fire-084145
No more personal remarks, please.
No warning issued.