I'm voting for her because of her work with women and children.

[Captain_Nemo]

So much has been made of Obama's ideas for change. In fact, they seem to have overshadowed all of Senator Clinton's accomplishments. I believe we need a president that puts women and children first. I know I may not sway Obama supporters. Indeed,I believe that we will be a better and safer world if we all did as much work as Senator Clinton for women and children. Therefore, I am for Hillary.
Best of luck,
Captain Nemo


Subject: Why Hillary Clinton Will Restore America's Standing in the World

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lissa-muscatine-and-melanne-verveer/why-hillary-clinton-will-_b_83037.html?view=print
The Huffington Post

Lissa Muscatine and Melanne Verveer


Why Hillary Clinton Will Restore America's Standing in the World
Posted January 24, 2008 | 10:32 AM (EST)

Henri Barkey and Tara Sonenshine are right in observing in this space ("Global
View of Democrats") that the next US president will have the critical task
of raising America's credibility around the world from the depths to which it
has sunk.

The authors argue that Senator Obama is the best candidate to restore America's
standing and authority based on his "transformative personality, personal history
and appeal."

Here's why they are wrong.

While personal appeal and oratorical skill are certainly helpful in building diplomatic
ties and conveying goodwill, they aren't a substitute for strong relationships
and demonstrated leadership on the international stage. And as valuable as Senator
Obama's Kenyan roots and childhood in Indonesia are, these experiences are not,
in fact, indicators of diplomatic skill or the knowledge of global affairs needed
to navigate international relations in our treacherous world.

By contrast, Hillary Clinton has been practicing public diplomacy for years and
is widely respected around the world for her longtime commitment to international
development, human rights and America's global leadership.

During the years that Hillary Clinton served as first lady, she became a symbol
of America's human face and the values we cherish as a people. In an unprecedented
role, she traveled to more than eighty countries to highlight the importance of
investing in people. She gave voice to those living on the margins of society, particularly
women and children, but also the poor. She put a spotlight on US development programs
that offered solutions to pressing problems like infectious diseases, illiteracy,
and economic marginalization. She advanced important causes -- from microcredit
to global health initiatives -- with an array of foreign leaders, international
organizations, and grass roots activists. And she also talked to Americans about
why these investments were critical to expanding our influence and enhancing our
own security.

Hillary Clinton traveled to places no first lady had ever gone, and where presidents
can't go. Visits to some of the most troubled places around the world certainly
offered her a measure of exposure and acculturation that she would carry with her
to the presidency.

While her oratory may not be as soaring as Senator Obama's, her words helped
galvanize a global women's rights movement. Her now famous speech in Beijing
at the UN Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995 -- which declared that "human
rights are women's rights and women's rights are human rights" -- became
a call to action to millions of women who joined together in a common purpose -
the struggle for women's rights and human rights on a global scale.

Given her status as one of the world's most visible champions of these causes,
it's not surprising that thousands waited through the night to hear her speak
in the Philippines; that men and women stood ten deep along the streets in Mongolia
to salute her when she traveled there; that the residents of Soweto danced in the
streets awaiting her visit to their township.

Indeed, Hillary is today a familiar and beloved presence in many parts of the world.
A street in a housing project where she helped squatters in South Africa was named
after her. So was a clinic in Eritrea, a village in Bangladesh, and a school in
Romania. When she arrived in Nicaragua after a devastating hurricane had hit, women
held up a banner in Spanish that said: "Welcome to Hillary, the ambassador
to the poor."

Perhaps as relevant today is her stature in the Muslim world. Having traveled extensively
in the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia, she conducted vigorous outreach
to diverse religious groups and convened leaders of different faiths to work together
on religious tolerance and ways to combat extremism.

In 1999, a plaque was dedicated at the US Agency for International Development to
recognize Hillary's leadership on global issues.

It said, "May all who pass through these portals recognize the invaluable contributions
to worldwide development made by the First Lady of the US, Hillary Clinton."
The Bush Administration had the plaque removed. Plaque or not, her legacy around
the world endures in the hearts and minds of millions of people for whom she was
an embodiment of America at its very best. That is what Hillary Clinton would bring
to the presidency.


Web
Copyright © 2008 HuffingtonPost.com, Inc.

[Fredda Weinberg]

1. It takes a village n/t

[jillan]

2. Her work with children is what made me warm up to her.

[Captain_Nemo]

3. Yes, and how wonderful that it has taken this election for this to be spotlighted.

[sueh]

17. Read what Hillary's mentor, Marian Wright Edelman had to say in July 2007...

How Hillary Clinton Betrayed the Children's Defense Fund for Political Gain

BUZZFLASH EDITOR'S BLOG

Mark Karlin, Editor and Publisher, BuzzFlash.com

January 24, 2008


<Snip>
Among those who ardently and eloquently opposed the Clinton "welfare reform" bill was Marian Wright Edelman. Her husband, Peter Edelman, quit his high-level job at the Department of Health and Human Services in protest when Bill Clinton signed the bill. He was deeply upset about what the legislation would do to helpless children.

In a July 2007 interview with Amy Goodman, Marian Wright Edelman had this to say about the "welfare reform bill" and Hillary Clinton:

AMY GOODMAN: Marian Wright Edelman, we just heard Hillary Rodham Clinton. She used to be the head of the board of the Children’s Defense Fund, of the organization that you founded. But you were extremely critical of the Clintons. I mean, when President Clinton signed off on the, well, so-called welfare reform bill, you said, “His signature on this pernicious bill makes a mockery of his pledge not to hurt children.” So what are your hopes right now for these Democrats? And what are your thoughts about Hillary Rodham Clinton?

MARIAN WRIGHT EDELMAN: Well, you know, Hillary Clinton is an old friend, but they are not friends in politics. We have to build a constituency, and you don’t—and we profoundly disagreed with the forms of the welfare reform bill, and we said so. We were for welfare reform, I am for welfare reform, but we need good jobs, we need adequate work incentives, we need minimum wage to be decent wage and livable wage, we need health care, we need transportation, we need to invest preventively in all of our children to prevent them ever having to be on welfare.

And yet, you know, many years after that, when many people are pronouncing welfare reform a great success, you know, we’ve got growing child poverty, we have more children in poverty and in extreme poverty over the last six years than we had earlier in the year. When an economy is down, and the real test of welfare reform is what happens to the poor when the economy is not booming. Well, the poor are suffering, the gap between rich and poor widening.

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/editorblog/034

I think when Hillary was young she really had the best of intentions. But when she became part of the "inner circle" of politics and board rooms she did too much compromising and looked the other way while children and families became pawns in the political battle of welfare "reform".

[AX10]

4. She is a good person!

[neutron]

6. Nurses

she has done an insane amount of work for those guys.
It kills me she's branded a "corporate hack."

Look at this:
She introduced the Nursing Education and Quality of Care Act, which would expand the number of programs that address nursing faculty shortages and increase the supply of nurses in rural areas. As part of the Nurse Reinvestment Act, she helped create grants that expanded nurse Magnet hospitals. Hillary also supported increased funding for both Title VII and Title VIII, which help to address the higher education needs of nurses and nursing faculty. Finally, she has supported programs to attract nurses to the field, including efforts to improve the quality of the working environment for nurses.

[Captain_Nemo]

9. I am creating a post for this, thanks.

[Beacool]

5. Her speech in Beijing was inspiring to many women around the globe.

To this day, women in countries where they've had very little voice quote that speech. It is considered one of the best American speeches, it ranks in 35th place.

Hillary is a remarkable woman who IMO has been underestimated in this country. More's the pity..........

[Captain_Nemo]

7. why can't people see her strengths? Economy, women's rights.....To me Obama just says

"change" and "hope." I don't care about those words. I want solutions, action, track record.

[THUNDER HANDS]

13. people see her strengths

she has a lot of them. She also has enough negatives to fill the grand canyon.

[Captain_Nemo]

22. and what would those be?

[THUNDER HANDS]

23. well...

she is the one candidate who can mobalize a demoralized Republican party.
she has all the Clinton baggage that dogged her husband in the 90s.
she doesn't play well in Red states.
she would mobalize women and turn off men.
she doesn't do well with independents.
she is polarizing, or at least moreso than any other candidate.
she voted for the Iraq war and wants to argue against it now - see John Kerry circa 2004 to see how that worked out.
her husband is as much a liability as he is an asset.
she is part of a 30-year cycle of two political families aiming to rule the country.
she would have trouble winning any state that Kerry couldn't win in 2004.

[LVjinx]

29. Interesting list of liabilities

What's more interesting is that none of them are actually about her, except for the Iraq point. The rest are all about perceptions and opinions. That's not baggage.

[REDFISHBLUEFISH]

8. Hillary 08, Hillary.com has alot of information on her work!

[Hieronymus]

10. Mother Theresa would have qualified, as well.

[Captain_Nemo]

11. No, she wasn't the First Lady of The US, Senator of the USA. Sorry. MT was more religious too

[emilyg]

12. Thank you.

[Captain_Nemo]

14. Say it loud. the lives of women and children are at the heart of what is wrong with our world. She

can make a difference. Show it up against Obama with all of his "change" talk. She has created change!

[HopeforChange]

15. She's is not a good role model for Women - She supported her husband's infidelity

[krabigirl]

18. So, I guess my mom's not a good role model...she forgave my father for cheating, too.

ugh

[Captain_Nemo]

21. Sounds like she had her reasons and they were right for her and you. Good for her.

[Captain_Nemo]

20. Were you there in the bedroom listening to that? How do you know she supported it.

[emilyg]

25. Perhaps not right for you.

I admire her for forgiving.

[Egnever]

16. Thats a decent reason

I think the argument this author is making though about her world stage experience is a negative not a positive. I think its time to shake off the influence peddlers. There is no doubt in my mind that Hillary has ties to lots of people in lots of places, I think its time for a sea change though.

As bad as we are looking right now we are still the most powerful nation on earth. I don't believe we are in imminent danger of anything other than killing ourselves. I think what we need is a healing of old wounds around the world a fresh slate with new eyes and no old skeletons. The world wants to believe in us again as much as we want to believe in ourselves. Hillary represents a stability and that is reassuring but I think we need to, as Obama says, change the mindset that got us where we are today.

I do however think Hillary's work with children is very admirable

[Andromeda]

19. This is one of the reasons I love Hillary.

She really, really cares for plight of women and children all around the world.

Hillary is well-loved in foreign countries where she and Chelsea have visited. She is welcomed warmly by the people she has tried to help.

She will do more good than any current presidential candidate.

I truly believe in Hillary Clinton and I feel that she is the best choice for 2008.

[eridani]

24. And she voted to put the entire female population under house arrest

No thanks.

[rodeodance]

26. Can you explain yourself????

[eridani]

30. She voted for the Iraq war

It was a strictly political calculation. Furthermore, she believes in keeping an embassy built with slave labor imposed on an unwilling population, and beyond that, in continuing to attempt to dominate the rest of the world by military force.

[Divernan]

32. I agree. The women and children of Iraq have not benefitted

fromher support of the Iraq war. Further, as the lobbyists for all the big corporate interests have observed, they can "work with" her, ie., she takes their donations. She supports letting out of state indian tribes open casinos in her home state - I gotta run now - can't go on to list her other big corporate buddies.

[rodeodance]

27. I am going to pass this around to all I know. thank you.

[avrdream]

28. Sweet article.

Thanks for the reality check.

[femrap]

31. She is my second choice after

John Edwards...and my reasoning is that she will be good for women and children...eliminating the gag rule overseas, standing up for Choice, Headstart...basically restoring all the programs and funding that W eliminated.

Obama's 'present' votes are just too slick and calculated for me. I don't trust him.