Foreign Policy assembles the usual and unusual suspects. Obama — the "brainy 44th president" and "huge basketball fan" — is only #4. Bill and Hillary Clinton count as a single entity — a 2-headed BillHilldabeest — but they get to be #3. This gives me a chance to look for an answer to
that question I asked the other day: What are Hillary Clinton's
accomplishments, if any? According to FP:
Clinton, who was among those who led the push for the United States to intervene in Libya last year, remains a relentless campaigner for women's rights and economic development, and she has insisted on the promotion of rights for gays and lesbians as an official component of U.S. diplomacy for the first time. But she has also added hardheaded global tactician to her portfolio, as when she spearheaded tense negotiations in China this past spring for the release of dissident Chen Guangcheng (No. 9). With a 66 percent approval rating, she's a lot more popular than her boss these days and has taken the ups and downs of the Arab Spring -- which she accurately predicted at a time when many others succumbed to starry-eyed wishful thinking -- as proof that her brand of pragmatic politics harnessed to global star power can be a recipe for American restoration.
Hardheaded, she spearheaded blah blah blah. My question remains. She believes things and she has an attitude about those beliefs, but can you name an
accomplishment? Chen Guangcheng? Okay...
Here's a WaPo article about how Chen Guangcheng is doing in the United States. Nary a mention of Hillary Clinton.
“Can you use ‘truth’ in a sentence?” their English tutor asked at Monday’s session.
“One plus one equals two. This is a truth,” Yuan replied.
“Very good! Now can you use ‘life’ in a sentence?”
“Life is a ungh-ae-lee-un-ah-boh right,” Chen answers a little more quickly.
An
unalienable right, along with liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
For that, we must relentlessly push and insist and spearhead hardheadedly, like Hillary. Let's harness ourselves pragmatically to Hillary's star power which is not starry-eyed, but accurate. It's... why, what do you expect from a woman? It's a
recipe:
Posts
63 comments:
Why must you pretend that a beauty pageant is something other than a beauty pageant just because it happens to occur on the pages of FP?
At least, we're spared the swimsuit competition.
Oh, yeah, Obama is brainy! Like, there's EVER been any proof of that in all his academic career. Tell a big lie often enough.....
How surprising! The Financial Times chose mostly left leaners! Who would have thought a left leaning publication would declare the world;s top thinkers to be so . . . left!
As to Hillary - keep it up Althouse - spot on!
She is a celebrity, nothing more. Why does being a figurehead for women's rights in this day - nothing that requires any courage or talent - qualify for smart and accomplished?
There is no "there" there.
Tell a big lie often enough.....
See: American Public Education System 1962 - 2012
Seriously?
Doesn't everyone know the FP Top 100 Global Thinkers = international, "citizens of the world" lefty-establishment circle jerk?
Aung San Suu Ky1 #1?
Yes, it's a crime what the Burmese regime has done to her, and her bravery is undoubtedly immense, but "#1 Global Thinker?"
What a joke.
Willie is a global thinker?
Only if you mean breasts and buttocks.
And thank you, Madame, for noting his "wife's" lack of accomplishment.
She's accomplished staying married to Bill. Or having Bill stay married to her. Either side of the coin will do. That's probably a greater accomplishment than talking to the generals of Myanmar. Or are you eschewing the personal for the strictly political?
What evidence is there that Obama belongs in the world's top 1000 or 10,000 thinkers, or should be rated at all, much less be rated as high as #4?
Just because he's the President and received an Honorary (sic) Nobel Peace Prize?
"This gives me a chance to look for an answer to that question I asked the other day: What are Hillary Clinton's accomplishments, if any?"
Yeah, Hillary! is a totem.
But the more important question was (since it no longer matters): "What are Barack Obama's accomplishments, if any?"
The answer to that is, indisputably, "less than Hillary's."
Does being a loyal facilitator of the agenda and prerogatives of the 1% make one a thinker?
Recently Asia organized a Pacific trade agreement excluding the United States, which had been lobbying heavily to be a part. The United States alienated two boon allies for concessions from a semi-hostile power that were largely imaginary. It sought to overthrow two state powers largely friendly to our interests while catering to two others, similarly situated, who are invariably hostile. It continues to give dangerously mixed signals to hostile powers about our commitment to defend allies. Early in the current Administration, we attacked a friendly neighbor for constitutionally removing a would be dictator. The decline of the US as a power has become accepted wisdom in the halls of power the world over. As a result the entire world is less stable than merely 4 years ago.
Exactly how are any of these things examples of brilliant foreign policy judgement?
You can be sure that the people doing the best "thinking" are not on that list. Most people have never heard of them.
Than kiu, Hi-lah-ree!
As I read about the Clintons and Obama I get an almost visceral reaction. Just complete abhorrence for the worldview and policies of the left.
Why do political leaders think we need to conform to the world? The world is screwed up. The world needs to become what we used to be.
Excuse me, is this a continuation of Althouse's prior post: "How many weasels does it take to make a quorum?"
Preach the socialist gospel, Red Robert!
Angle in on that animus against Clinton with your own animus...then flip the script.
We're almost there, the wheels are coming off capitalism, and a socialist body is rising...workers of the world, unite!
Ah the glorious future...Progress!
Just come out and say it. You know you want too comrade.
“Life is a ungh-ae-lee-un-ah-boh right,” Chen answers
Imagine the thunderous denunciation, not least from the WaPo itself, if Rush or Glen Beck simply read this article on the air.
Salamandyr said...
Exactly how are any of these things examples of brilliant foreign policy judgement?
Well, if the decline of the US as a power is your goal...
the ups and downs of the Arab Spring -- which she accurately predicted at a time when many others succumbed to starry-eyed wishful thinking
She had some inkling that the Muslim Brotherhood didn't want to turn Egypt into Switzerland. There's your Top 100 spot right there.
Looking at that vid? Huh. Hillary was sorta hawt back in the day.
Well, in a Wellesley, cankle, LU(A)G kinda way.
Heh. Who am I trying to kid?
Just because he's the President and received an Honorary (sick) Nobel Peace Prize?
Hillary Clinton is strikingly pretty in that video clip.
Obama's number 7.
Number 10 if you allow for the two-headed listings.
Is it de riguer that any mention of Obama be accompanied by praise, as in "brainy?" That should be a rhetorical question. But for those who still don't get it the answer is, yes. Which, by the way, is the most obvious tipoff that we are now under the reign of a tyrant.
Obama is brainy because he has a nice voice and reads a speech well.
TOTUS not on the list? I call bullshit on this list.
'Tis the List Season. I refuse to click thru unless it's a worthy list.
FP Top 100 Posers.
The Clinton family are such a bunch of posers. I hear their daughter named her cat after Kierkegaard. OMG that's so smaht.
FP Top 100 Photo-Oppers
No Actual Substantive Information will be provided; it is implied. Nitwits who need guidance should refer to the mainstream press. MSNBC is available for the truly retarded.
FP Top 100 Crap Not Another West Wing Re-Run Oh Wait This Is Real?
It all seems so familiar . . . .
Anyone who asserts that Obama is "brainy" is decidedly not.
When I saw that Hillary clip I was not even 10 years old. My first reaction was that she was appropriately righteous. I asked my stay-at-home mom what the controversy was; she explained to me why she was offended. Though she voted for Clinton after seeing him play the saxophone on Arsenio Hall.
Where did that accent go anyway? And where did it ever come from?
Camille Paglia and Victor Davis Hanson are thinkers. Christopher Hitchens was a thinker. Freaking Wittgenstein was a thinker.
This is mostly just a list of people who attend the right kind of parties in Davos, etc.
I always take "brainy" to be a subtle rebuke of Bush, who was unfairly maligned as "incurious" or "tongue-tied" throughout his presidency. Obama is not that smart, at least by presidential standards. He is an accomplished bullshitter, which makes simpletons and leftists (but I repeat myself) think he's absolutely brilliant.
What, no mention of Paul Ryan yet ~ speaking of weasels ...
I mean, come on, one of them actually went to court to strip her name of capital letters (danah boyd).
Is that something a "thinker" does? Is that something that even a mentally-competent adult does? That's the bar they're setting here?
Hil? She stayed with Bill, but the definition of 'stayed' is wide open.
I have never fully understood why Democrat constituencies are never bothered by the assumption of bad accents by Democrat politicians.
To the best of my memory, I've never seen Republicans do that.
Do Democrats actually prefer being condescended to?
shiloh said...
What, no mention of Paul Ryan yet ~ speaking of weasels ...
From the one who knows...
So, where were you hiding out 10/5 - 11/5 when the Romster was winning?
Looking up Gennifer Flowers' home phone for Willie?
Did we say brainy?
The inside word about the Obama/Hillary middle east policy is to help Saudi Arabia arm the Muslim Brotherhood / AlQaeda forces in Syria with Qadaffy's good weapons so the Russians will lose their ally in Syria.
The point is continued use of US Dollars as the oil exchange medium without which Russia will can collapse the USA.
The Benghazi attack was a Russian counter measure to the CIA's operations shipping the Libyan arms thru Turkey to Syria like the Ho Chi Minh Trail was once used in Viet Nam.
In other words the Ambassador was at a CIA location under attack and never at a "Consulate." That is the best attempt at explaining the cover stories on cover stories yet.
I like Chen's answer. It shows he's familiar with our founding principles. Life, liberty and the pursuit are still beacons.
He'd probably quote the same sentence if asked to use the word "endowed" in a sentence. And, in keeping with the breasts theme from earlier, I'd bet that the a vast majority of Americans would think of some other context if asked to use that word in a sentence.
I like Chen's answer. It shows he's familiar with our founding principles. Life, liberty and the pursuit are still beacons.
He'd probably quote the same sentence if asked to use the word "endowed" in a sentence. And, in keeping with the breasts theme from earlier, I'd bet that the a vast majority of Americans would think of some other context if asked to use that word in a sentence.
Hillary!'s agreement with Obama must be a fascinating one.
However, a Secretary of State is only the President's Secretary of State when it comes to executing foreign policy, and I expect that is even more than normally true for Hillary!
There cannot be much trust or love lost between those two.
"As I read about the Clintons and Obama I get an almost visceral reaction. Just complete abhorrence for the worldview and policies of the left."
You're talking about two different things here. Talk about a non-sequitur!
Ah, Hillary pushed for the "kinetic military action" in Libya, what a feather in her cap! There's a victory that will echo through eternity...
A "global thinker" is just someone who's in tune with the current conventional wisdom.
A great thinker is creative, original, and profound.
Lefties are the most unoriginal thinkers imaginable. They parrot bromides and cliches and their value as "thinkers" is how firmly they conform to a tired old "progressive" ideology.
But they are gaining strength and eventually will stamp out any opposing viewpoints or original thought.
They now control the government, media, and education. When they fully capture the military it's all over.
Reminds me of when Chomsky was voted the world's top public intellectual in a Prospect magazine poll.
The media push for Hillary 2016 begins.
What a fucking farce.
Bill Clinton is definitely a global thinker. Globes like Jennifer Flowers has, seems like he was sniff-en that scent as late as 2005, made a booty call and the old dog was rejected.
Biscuit eater like that has to find employment for his wife, keep her occupied.
Did she spearhead intense negotiations regarding Chen Guangcheng?
"U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the U.S. government as "alarmed" by Chen's continued detention and called on China "to embrace a different path".
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iofJbGefybreI5bhuMjyIsqdFnQA?docId=CNG.49ace90e35aac4b84d990f3beef83a13.81
But she said that in Hawaii, and apparently didn't even say it to anyone from China, much less any top Chinese leader.
The negotiation work was done by a top State Dept official:
The senior diplomat, Kurt M. Campbell, an assistant secretary of state, arrived Sunday to meet with Chinese officials concerning Mr. Chen’s case, and to try to keep the matter from undermining the administration’s longstanding effort to improve economic and security relations with China, senior officials and diplomats in Washington and Beijing said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/30/world/asia/us-official-in-beijing-to-discuss-chen-guangcheng.html?_r=0
But then the US Embassy told him that if he sought asylum in the US, his family would be left behind in the hands of brutal communists, so Chen felt coerced to leave the embassy.
http://swampland.time.com/2012/05/02/the-chen-guangcheng-affair-u-s-denies-china-dissidents-account-of-coercion/?iid=sl-main-lede#ixzz1tkTKUNdA
So that's hardly anything Hillary Clinton did, that I can tell.
She was in charge, sure. But Mitt Romney made stronger statements of demanding China support basic human rights than Hillary did at the time.
Did Pauly Shore make the list?
He should have. Encino Man was a masterpiece.
Where is the evidence of Obama's alleged above-average smarts? Seriously.
If Hillary is such a campaigner for womens rights, how come she let IRAN get on the UN Com. for Womens Rights. Susan Rice works for HILLARY -- together they should have been working against IRAN but were not.
leslyn said...
What's the term for a woman who hates successful women?
OWSer?
Come on, Ann, Billhilldabeast!?
If your commenters say it anonymously it is one thing. But you stooping to their level on your blog front page is kind of low class.
In trying to recall anything noteworthy that Hillary had done as Secretary of State, I tried to recall anything noteworthy that Condi Rice had done when she was Sec'y of State. So I checked her bio on Wikipedia.
I came across this and had to laugh. It seems pretty funny, in light of the huge power grab Obama has engaged in throughout his presidency:
"Senator Robert Byrd voted against Rice's appointment, indicating that she "has asserted that the President holds far more of the war power than the Constitution grants him."
Typical FP drivel.
At home, Obama has done far more to lift the faltering U.S. economy out of the doldrums than his critics will acknowledge, while expanding the social safety net and daring to take on the greatest threat to America's fiscal well-being: the country's exploding health-care costs.
Oh, that's just pitiful. And he didn't "take on" exploding health care costs. He rearranged the furniture and this new arrangement will be far more costly than the old and in terms of more than just money.
Lydia said...Reminds me of when Chomsky was voted the world's top public intellectual in a Prospect magazine poll.
Chomsky made top intellectual in Pew's world survey for at least several years running. As if the people polled actually knew anything about him. Where did he come by this reputation anyhow?
sdharms said...Susan Rice works for HILLARY -- together they should have been working against IRAN but were not.
Actually she doesn't. Obama made UN ambassador a cabinet position, so Rice is technically Clinton's equal. Perhaps Val Jarrett sent the word out--no working against the land of my birth.
Hillary in the clip reminded me of Jane Fonda, both in appearance and vocalization. Not trying to make a point, just an observation.
Strip out the names of the people you've heard of already and you might find a crumb of content. Otherwise, this is just a celebrity list, the celebration of people already celebrated. What makes it worse is the flat banalities of the prose. Here we gloss the celebrity's deep thoughts. There we gush over their decor.
Which is why, as the number one global thinker, I would still put the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem first. Who cares if he is dead. There is no new thing under the sun.
In September 2012, Hillary Clinton was dissed by China in a BIG way and our American press didn't report her failure - at all. You know - the Obama re-election effort no media person would ever admit to being party to. LOL.
Read whatever has not been scrubbed (and I have so many reports saved that are no longer online - big surprise)......
at: http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/nightwatch/2012/09/07/china_dissed_clinton_and_gets_away_with_it/page/full/
for starters.....
But it happened - it was a royal serving of disrespect for Hillary...right around September 11, 2012....that nasty Benghazi date (and the date 22 nations were protesting against America over a 17 minute You Tube video made by a California wacko)....
It's not the only "lack of achievement" on the part of Hillary as Sec. of State. She's a horse and pony show that no one outside of USA takes seriously. I believe she took us backwards toward a growing belief in "The Ugly American" syndrome of the Cold War.
She went to the Congo early in her tenure as SOS and promised help that she never delivered. Blah Blah Blah as the Congo suffered MOST under Obama's first term since the Rwandan Genocide that was never acknowledged by Bill Clinton (or the aide working on that genocide - Susan Rice).
Hillary Clinton was a very mediocre - if not failed - Secretary of State and someone will someday write a book that history will record saying just this.
shiloh said...
What, no mention of Paul Ryan yet ~ speaking of weasels ...
Shhhhh. Your polka dot bus will be along shortly.
I am not a fan of the woman by any stretch, but I must say that whomever gave her the advice to grow out her hair like that deserves some credit. It makes her look...remarkably human!
Garry Kasparov is a thinker. Apparently not in the top 100 however.
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