“The most important thing I did was to help restore America’s leadership in the world. And I think that was a very important accomplishment. We were flat on our back when I walked in there (the State Department) the first time. We were viewed as being untrustworthy, as violating our moral rules and values.” – Hillary Clinton, June 10, 2014
During her interview with Renee Montagne, Host of NPR’s Morning Edition (above), Hillary Clinton said her greatest achievement as secretary of state was that she helped restore America’s leadership in the world. Another myth. (npr photo)
Hillary Clinton would have you believe that the U.S. image in the world was left in shambles when George W. Bush left office. “That was my biggest challenge. It was why the president asked me to be secretary of state,” she boasted in her book tour interview with Renee Montagne, co-host of NPR’s Morning Edition.
It certainly didn’t help matters that immediately after his election in 2008, President Obama went on his now infamous apology tour, during which time his comments about America had the overall effect of weakening the view of America on the world stage.
“In America, there’s a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world,” he told an audience in Strasbourg, France on April 3, 2009. “Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges,” he said, “there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.”
“We have at times been disengaged, and at times we sought to dictate our terms,” President Obama said at the April 17, 2009 Summit of the Americas, Port of Spain. He explained there would be no senior and junior partnerships in our future relations, and added the U.S. would be willing to acknowledge past errors.
“I would like to think that my election and the early decisions that were made, that you’re starting to see some restoration of America’s standing in the world.” President Obama, April 2, 2009, press conference at the G-20 Summit of World Leaders, London.
Speaking to members of the Turkish Parliament on April 6, 2009, President Obama said, “The United States is still working through some of our own darker periods in history,” as he referred to our “struggles” with the legacies of slavery and segregation, and the past treatment of Native Americans.
By the time the president arrived in Cairo in June 2009, the crowds were clamoring to hear this anti-Bush American. And he didn’t disappoint in his opening lines, “I’m proud to carry with me the goodwill of the American people, and a greeting of peace from the Muslim communities in my own country. Assalaamu alaykum,”
The lengthy, cleverly worded speech sent a message of appeasement to militant Islamists, essentially telling them under his leadership they would see a new respect.
How opinion of America actually went down under Obama with Hillary at State
As a result of the apology tour we saw an improvement in Gallop’s global opinion on America’s leadership, but it has slowly declined from a 49 percent approval in 2009 to 47 percent in 2011, and 41 percent in 2012, Clinton’s last full year at State.
Favorable views of the U.S. dropped from 33 percent in 2009 to 15 percent in 2011 in six key Arab countries, according to a Zogby international poll.
According to a Pew Global Attitudes Project in June 2012, U.S. favorability ratings dropped in nine out of 14 countries surveyed between 2009 and 2012, Clinton’s tenure as secretary of state. In 2012 the rating was lower than in 2008, Bush’s last year.
The 2012 Transatlantic Trends survey found that between 2009 and 2012 the approval rate for Obama’s policies dropped in a number of countries, including 13 points in Germany, 15 points in Britain, 16 points in Slovakia and Spain, and 17 points in Italy.
Clinton is counting on you being uninformed
Of course, Clinton would prefer not to focus on the past, the facts if you will. She hopes that we are so attracted to her as a future president – the first female president, if you will – that we will take her statement of having restored America’s leadership on blind faith. She like’s to quote her husband, Bill, who once said, “I’m experienced enough to know that political campaigns are about the future, not the past.”
With that belief, it’s no wonder she so callously regarded Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-WI) question on Benghazi with “what difference does it make.” Do you think she ever heard Sara Shepard’s quote, “Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.?”
