Whom Do You Think Hillary Will Represent?
by James Glaser
December 31, 2007

Yesterday morning on a Sunday news program, Hillary Clinton gave a statement that tells a lot about how she thinks. George Stephanopoulos was asking her about the chaos in Pakistan since Benazir Bhutto's assassination. George showed a clip of rioting Pakistanis, and Hillary said, "When people protesting in the streets wear coats and ties, those are the people we should get behind."

I guess coats and ties make the man as far as Hillary Clinton is concerned. If you are a working stiff, then you had better dress up if Hillary becomes president and you want to get her attention.

Today, Hillary is all for reining in Pakistan's president Pervez Masharraf, but in past years, Senator Clinton was all in favor of keeping this man in power. In fact, Clinton worked hard to keep American arms going to Masharraf, even though the Pakistani president came to power in 1999 by way of a coup, in which he tore up that country's constitution and disbanded its parliament. Since then he has also disbanded Pakistan's Supreme Court.

Here is a quote from Foreign Policy in Focus, 12/11/07

For example, Senator Hillary Clinton has opposed restrictions on U.S. arms transfers and police training to governments that engage in gross and systematic human rights abuses. Indeed, she has supported unconditional U.S. arms transfers and police training to such repressive and autocratic governments as Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Pakistan, Equatorial Guinea, Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Kazakhstan, and Chad, just to name a few. She has also refused to join many of her Democratic colleagues in signing a letter endorsing a treaty that would limit arms transfers to countries that engage in a consistent pattern of gross and systematic human rights violations.

Now that men in "coats and ties" have taken to the streets in Islamabad, Hillary Clinton is changing her tune. Now we should no longer back President Masharraf. With years of backing by the likes of Senator Clinton, Masharraf is not going to leave any time soon, but this crisis in Pakistan gives us some insight into the way Hillary Clinton forms her opinions.

Masses of poorly dressed Pakistanis protesting in the streets these last eight years could not sway Senator Clinton into helping them get democracy back into their government, but well dressed protesters make her do a 180 degree turn on her thinking about what is best for Pakistan.

Go Figure!

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