AOL News: Hillary Clinton say's she's Secretary, Not Bill.

http://news.aol.com/article/hillary-clinton-says-shes-secretary-not/610664

Hillary Clinton has a message for the world: It's not all about Bill.

The secretary of state bristled Monday when — as she heard it — a Congolese university student asked what her husband thought about an international financial matter.

She hadn't traveled to Africa to talk about her husband the ex-president. But even there, she couldn't escape his outsized shadow.

She abruptly reclaimed the stage for herself.

"My husband is not secretary of state, I am," she snapped. "I am not going to be channeling my husband."

Clinton's presence, so bold in her historic presidential candidacy against Barack Obama, has sometimes been hard to see in the months she's served as the supposed face and voice of U.S. foreign policy.

The president's ambitious travels have overshadowed her, heavyweight special envoys have been assigned to the world's critical hotspots, Vice President Joe Biden has taken on assignments abroad — and then last week her husband succeeded in a North Korean mission to free two journalists even as she landed in Africa on a seven-nation trip.

"You want me to tell you what my husband thinks?" she asked incredulously when the student raised a question about a multibillion-dollar Chinese loan offer to Congo.

"If you want my opinion, I will tell you my opinion," she said. "I am not going to be channeling my husband."

The moderator quickly moved on.

State Department officials said the student approached Clinton afterward and told her he had meant to ask what Obama, not Bill Clinton, thought about the Chinese loan. It was unclear whether the French-speaking student or translator had erred. Either way, she was not pleased at the mention of her husband's name.

The Clintons have always been a complicated couple. An accomplished lawyer and politician in her own right, Hillary Rodham Clinton has struggled for decades to balance her interests and ambitions against his. She has supported his career while looking to blaze a trail of her own — at times proud of, and benefiting from, her husband's accomplishments, and at other times frustrated by his failings and his habit of overshadowing her, friends say.

The biggest controversy of Bill Clinton's career — an affair with a White House intern that led to impeachment proceedings — engendered rare sympathy for his wife and helped her win a Senate seat. One of his biggest political miscues — injecting race into her South Carolina primary with Obama — helped seal her defeat in the 2008 Democratic primary.

Since his presidency, Bill Clinton has spoken out about international financial and development aid to poor countries, one focus of his foundation's Clinton Global Initiative, making his opinion of interest abroad. But the stage in Kinshasa was his wife's, and she reacted instantly to a suggestion that he shared it.

She had been sidelined for weeks after she fell on her way to the White House in June and fractured her elbow, requiring surgery. Her aides acknowledged her frustrations stemming from the injury, which made her miss out on going to Russia with Obama and attending several European conferences.

But her aides and those in the White House have denied any rift or attempt to marginalize her.

After returning to action following her injury, Clinton made a round of TV appearances and a rousing speech — all in tune with Obama's priorities, but in her own voice.

She then resumed her frenetic pace, traveling to India and Thailand and then to Africa.

Hours after she left Washington for Africa a week ago, news broke that Bill Clinton had gone on a humanitarian mission to North Korea to win the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, two television journalists who had been arrested and sentenced to 12 years at hard labor.

She arrived in Kenya to find herself peppered with questions about his secret mission.

Clinton quickly recovered her cool Monday and moved on to other subjects. Just before the question that set off her anger, another student had asked if the U.S. and the West felt a need to apologize to the people of Congo for colonialism and postcolonial interference.

That brought a pointed rebuttal as well.

"I cannot excuse the past and I will not try," she said. "We can either think about the past and be imprisoned by it or we can decide we're going to have a better future and work to make it."

[/Quote]

I guess now she's wants to make her own mark in the political landscape.

I saw the video of her snapping at the question.

I wonder how often she does that to Bill.

I dunno, Bill did seem to manage a situation dealing with stuff that should be done by the Secretary of State.

Bill is in Vegas celebrating his birthday with, well, you know, Vegas people and Hillary is out of the country for weeks at a time.

Bill = thrilled.

I've met Hillary. My wife has known her since Bill was Attorney General in Arkansas back in the 70's. To put it politely, Hillary has always had an abrasive edge which Bill Clinton was much more apt at covering up. That's always been here achilles heal.

I watch Hillary over the weekend on CNN when Frareed Zachario interviewed her. I remember thinking how relaxed, professional, and competent she seemed. I was thinking she's really progressed and smoothed out her rough edges. Then this. It's as bad as anything she's ever done. It's just mean. It's needlessly abrasive and could have easily been handled by a smirk and rolling her eyes, but Hillery felt the need to dress down the questioner and show her outrage.

It wasn't a good moment of her and really reinforced the worst things the country thinks about her. I think the country thinks Hillary is competent, smart, and would really be more comfortable running a dictatorship rather than a democracy.

I saw the video of her snapping at the question.

I wonder how often she does that to Bill.

That wretched ***** would snap at Mother Teresa.

That's why Mr. Bill spends every possible second he can, as far away from her as possible. Plus, it prevents them from hittin' on the same chicks, at the same time.

Well if Bill didn't do her job and free those journalists, questions like these wouldn't be brought up. She does it to herself.

i'm sure it must be frustrating to feel overshadowed by your husband when you are friggin secretary of state. she probably took the question as a sexist kind of "do you defer to your man" kind of thing.

however, it is her job as a politician and diplomat to put her personal peeves and demons aside and handle that kind of question (which wasn't even that bad) with far more class, calm, and politeness than she mustered here. snapping like that is exactly the wrong move. we are certainly lucky she didn't get the nomination over obama (i think people forget how incredibly close the democratic primary was in the end - she nearly came back and won it).

Everyone snaps sometimes. As long as she apologized I'm fine with it.

The translator messed up the translation. I heard thgat reported on the news last night that is why she flipped. Her and the reporter shook hands afterwards. But I would have snapped too if I were her.

I've met Hillary. My wife has known her since Bill was Attorney General in Arkansas back in the 70's. To put it politely, Hillary has always had an abrasive edge which Bill Clinton was much more apt at covering up. That's always been here achilles heal.

I watch Hillary over the weekend on CNN when Frareed Zachario interviewed her. I remember thinking how relaxed, professional, and competent she seemed. I was thinking she's really progressed and smoothed out her rough edges. Then this. It's as bad as anything she's ever done. It's just mean. It's needlessly abrasive and could have easily been handled by a smirk and rolling her eyes, but Hillery felt the need to dress down the questioner and show her outrage.

It wasn't a good moment of her and really reinforced the worst things the country thinks about her. I think the country thinks Hillary is competent, smart, and would really be more comfortable running a dictatorship rather than a democracy.

Has to feel good to be someone of some significance

Whatever happened to "we are a package deal?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0z4vJNfK2g

I've watched it and it looks like it was just a minor twitch to a non-offensive question.

Has to feel good to be someone of some significance

Be maried to someone whos family is politically connected in Arkansas you mean. I didn't get to go to the white house.

Arkansas is a small state. We have a "vacation house" there. Vacation shack actually. My wifes family is pretty well connected in Arkansas. Like being the tallest midget....

I did get to listen to the stories though.

Funny story: My wife's cousins (a husband and wife) were staying at the whitehouse when Clinton's were in office. They were touring the oval office and the wife jumps into Bills lap and has her photo taken hands draped around her neck, feet flung in the air, sitting behind the resolute desk in the oval office....

Her cousin sends the 8x10 color photo out to a bunch of folks in the family. Kind of cool, a little racy, don't think much of it. Year latter the Lewinsky scandal breaks. I half jokingly said to my wife... Hey we should send that photo into the National Enquirer, might be able to pay off the house.....

Wife told the cousin, Next thing I knew, every one of those photo's were tracked down and recovered. I kind of felt bad, I was just joking. Mostly.

No-one even mentioned that she did this to a student, not a reporter.

That makes her even more of a scumbag, IMO.

No-one even mentioned that she did this to a student, not a reporter.

That makes her even more of a scumbag, IMO.

the translator screwed up the question...the reporter didnt...and i would have been pissed if someone asked me what bill clinton thought about my job...she shook the guys hand afterwards when they straightened the translation out.

I think I loathe her more than anyone here, and even I dont think this is a big deal. SHe got rightfully pissed off, but it was a mistake by the translater, not a bad question.

The translator messed up the translation.

That only makes a difference if you want to argue that her explosion was a legitimate reaction. If you don't, it doesn't matter who asked the question. It would have been the same reaction if that is what the student really asked.

I think it was an appropriate reaction to a reporter (yes, a student) but not to another head of state.

It would be innaprpriate if she responed that way to the PM of Britain.

It’s always looked to me as though some of Bill's political skill came from managing his relationship diplomatically with Hillary.

I think it was an appropriate reaction to a reporter (yes, a student) but not to another head of state.

I didn't say it was inappropriate. I was just pointing out that it's irrelevant to the question whether or not the translator screwed up.

Actually, I suspect she's getting more flack because she's a woman, and because she's Hillary. A man doing that would be "fiery", and while people would probably still call it inappropriate, I doubt the reaction would be quite as bad as it is.

I can totally understand why she was pissed even if the question was translated incorrectly. However, as the Secretary of State, and representing President Obama and the nation she needs to do a better job of controlling herself. I understand she was probably tired and run ragged from her trip, but when you are the nation's top diplomat you need to do better than that. I hope she controls herself better behind closed doors.

Dear Hillary,

You rode his coat tails and will always be in his shadow.

Frankly,

Judges

She was foolish for accepting the position of Sec of State, which really made Pelosi more happy since her Queen Bee position was no longer threatened

Jealousy plan and simple

Give that woman a cigar