Subject: Correct The Record Friday October 17, 2014 Afternoon Roundup
From: Burns Strider <[email-masked]>
To: CTRFriendsFamily <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2014 14:53:18 -0400
List-Id: <CTRFriendsFamily.americanbridge.org>

*​**Correct The Record Friday October 17, 2014 Afternoon Roundup:*

*Tweets:*

*Correct The Record* @CorrectRecord: HRC fought to address global hunger &
food security #WFD2014 <https://twitter.com/hashtag/WFD2014?src=hash>#HRC365
<https://twitter.com/hashtag/HRC365?src=hash>
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/hillary-clinton/attacking-hunger-at-its-r_b_214351.html
…
<http://t.co/fULLNh6xjF>[10/16/14, 4:01 p.m. EDT
<https://twitter.com/CorrectRecord/status/522839698012520449>]

*Headlines:*

*Bloomberg: “Hate-Watching Hillary”
<http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-10-17/hatewatching-hillary>*

“Clinton has her own machinery focused on rebutting the attacks. Correct
the Record, a project of the super-PAC American Bridge, is officially
charged with defending all Democratic candidates against Republican
attacks, but they've largely focused on Clinton, said spokeswoman Adrienne
Elrod. On Monday, as Republicans attacked Clinton for her speaking fees at
UNLV, Correct the Record responded with comments from graduates praising
her.”

*CNN: “Why is this 10-year old so excited to meet Hillary Clinton?”
<http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/17/politics/macy-friday-hillary-clinton/>*

MACY FRIDAY: “I like her because, like, she is running for president and a
lot of people think that girls shouldn't be president because they are not
as smart or they shouldn't have the same rights. And she is just a good
role model for girls because, you know, she is just sort of, like, to
everybody, 'Girls can be awesome, too.'”

*New York Times: First Draft: “Turning 10, Clinton Presidential Library
Celebrates Itself”
<http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2014/10/17/?entry=2674&_php=true&_type=blogs&smid=tw-share&_r=0>*

“The celebration will begin with a kickoff reception on Nov. 9, but the
city expects to be invaded by Friends of Bill on Nov. 14, when Bill and
Hillary Clinton are expected to join a picnic at a tent set up on the
center’s grounds.”

*Associated Press, via WBKO: “Bill Clinton to Campaign for Grimes on
Tuesday”
<http://www.wbko.com/home/headlines/Bill-Clinton-to-Campaign-for-Grimes-on-Tuesday-279569132.html>*

“Bill Clinton will campaign with Democratic Senate candidate Alison
Lundergan Grimes in western Kentuckyon Tuesday.”

*MSNBC: “Making Clinton’s argument for her”
<http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/making-clintons-argument-her>*

“Now, as Panetta echoes Clinton’s recent criticisms of the president’s
foreign policy, some wonder whether she might be grateful for him again —
and what he’s hoping to get out of his bridge-burning.”

*The Atlantic: “Leon Panetta and Hillary Clinton: It's Complicated”
<http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/10/leon-panetta-and-hillary-clinton-its-complicated/381500/>*

[Subtitle:] “Reporters have focused on how the former defense secretary's
memoir praises her and criticizes the president. The book itself tells a
different story.”

*Fortune: “Anne-Marie Slaughter on Obama's failure to recognize ISIS
extremism”
<http://fortune.com/2014/10/17/anne-marie-slaughter-on-obamas-failure-to-recognize-isis-extremism/>*

“The alarming assessment of this former Princeton dean echoes that of
another top Obama official, former CIA and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta,
who last week said Americans should be prepared for a ‘30-year’ war with
the terrorist ISIS. Both Slaughter and Panetta have criticized the White
House for failing to intervene in Syria—the birthplace of ISIS—nearly three
years ago.”

*Hollywood Reporter: “Hillary Clinton Flying Monkey Signs Hung Throughout
Brentwood Ahead of Upcoming Fundraiser”
<http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hillary-clinton-flying-monkey-signs-741631?utm_source=twitter>*

“Guerrilla street artist SABO, who made headlines with his Gwyneth Paltrow
"Obama Drone" poster, has struck again -- this time ahead of Hillary
Clinton's upcoming Democratic fundraiser at Tavern restaurant in Brentwood,
Calif.”

*Articles:*

*Bloomberg: “Hate-Watching Hillary”
<http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2014-10-17/hatewatching-hillary>*

By Lisa Lerer

October 17, 2014, 6:48 a.m. EDT

[Subtitle:] Inside the Republican machine scrutinizing Clinton's every word.

Hillary Clinton is drawing large, cheering crowds at virtually every stop
as she campaigns for Democrats in the midterm elections. Back in
Washington, another audience is equally engrossed, though much less
enraptured, by her every word.

While Clinton rallied voters Wednesday night in Kentucky, Republicans in
the capital monitored her appearance on a livestream broadcast. Inside the
Louisville convention center, a GOP campaign tracker recorded video of
Clinton hand-in-hand with Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes in front
of a backdrop of red, white, and blue lights. When the event was over, the
watchers were ready.

"Hillary didn't mention Mitch once. Odd strategy in GOP state," tweeted Tim
Miller after Clinton'sWednesday appearance with Grimes, who is trying to
unseat Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. Miller is the executive
director of America Rising PAC, a Republican research group stockpiling
ammunition to use against Clinton and her allies during the 2014 election
and, he hopes, the 2016 presidential.

Though the former secretary of State is months away from announcing whether
she'll make a second bid for the White House, a whole industry is already
defining her image. At least 10 groups list defeating Clinton as their
primary mission, according to a review of Federal Election Commission
filings, and Democrats say they're preparing for as much as $500 million in
spending on attack ads during the 2016 election aimed at her. Her allies
have created their own organization to push back, an effort run by longtime
supporters but technically unaffiliated with Clinton.

In event after event, Republicans record Clinton's statements, scrutinize
them for any gaffes, and bank footage. The stream of midterm jabs hint at
the onslaught that could come later. Republicans see these individual
strikes as building blocks for a larger message that generally falls along
three major themes: Clinton is too rich, too disconnected, and too much
like Obama.

"The more Americans have seen Hillary Clinton over the past year, they less
they've liked her," said Kirsten Kukowski, a spokeswoman for the Republican
National Committee, referencing polling that shows Clinton's approval
rating falling over the past few months. "Clinton has only reinforced how
out of touch she is and how many vulnerabilities she still has in the run
up to 2016."

Both the attackers and defenders are political canaries, testing early
messages to see what sticks. It's not an easy task: Clinton has been a
fixture of American political life for more than two decades. Most voters
already have strong opinions about her tenure as first lady and senator,
never mind her husband's. Her decision to formally re-enter the political
fray on behalf of Democratic congressional candidates, though, is creating
fresh material and opportunities to define her after her popular stint at
the State Department.

"It's an opportunity to gather ammunition," Miller said. "The more that she
is out on the campaign trail owning the record of the Democratic Senate
majority and the Obama administration over the last six years, the more
we'll be able to use in 2016."

Clinton's midterm schedule is part of her gradual transition from diplomat
to private citizen to candidate after a six-year absence from campaigning.
The appearances give her a chance to try out campaign themes, even audition
potential speech lines.

Last week in Pennsylvania, she delivered her most partisan remarks since
leaving the State Department, praising the Democratic Party, “which stands
for families, stands for working people, stands for fairness and justice.” On
Monday in Colorado, she stopped at a coffee shop and cracked a joke about
pot, touching on a controversial issue that's certain to be asked of
presidential candidates next year. Still on her schedule are stops in
Michigan, Rhode Island, and a number of other states.

In Kentucky, she presented herself as an advocate for working families,
offering a strident defense of the health care plan, raising the minimum
wage, and equal pay for women. “I believe with all my heart no one who
works hard every day should have to end up still living in poverty,” she
said. “Not in this state, not in this country.”

Since leaving Obama's Cabinet, she's made more than 100 appearances, and
her adversaries have watched every one they could. In event after event,
Republicans record Clinton's statements, scrutinize them for any gaffes,
and bank footage.

And they're not targeting their responses solely to conservatives.

A speech last month by Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, at last
month's annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative prompted the RNC to
blast out video of Blankfein joking about his long relationship with the
Clintons, a message more likely to resonate with liberals worried about
Clinton's ties to Wall Street. In August, Republicans condemned her for
skipping Netroots Nation, an annual gathering of Democratic activists, to
go on a book tour.

“Never miss an opportunity, right now, to frame her accurately and hold her
accountable with voters who are going to be active all the way to 2016,”
said Kevin Madden, a Republican strategist who worked on Mitt Romney's
presidential campaigns. “We're no longer in a 24-hour news cycle, we're in
a 24-second news cycle.”

So far this week, Republicans have attacked Clinton for the $225,000
speaking fee she was paid to address an annual dinner hosted by University
of Nevada, Las Vegas Foundation, a non-profit that raises money for the
school. (Clinton has said she donated the fee to her family's foundation.)
They circulated images of the private plane Clinton and her husband took to
a campaign event in Iowa, after Bloomberg Politics reported that state
Democrats paid $50,000 for the couple's transportation. They jumped on
comments by Grimes, who has refused to say if she voted for Obama, with a
chart that showed similarities between Clinton and Obama's views. And the
RNC got media attention for a political comment on the 404 error page of
their website: “What do Hillary Clinton and this link have in common?
They're both 'dead broke.'”

The majority of the assault has been left to America Rising, an opposition
research firm formed after the 2012 campaign by former Romney campaign
staffers. On their website, they post images and videos of their barbs in
hopes of taking them viral. To reporters, they shoot a regular torrent of
Clinton criticism into in-boxes.

Still, Clinton remains popular - recent polling shows her approval rating
lower than her State Department days but still positive - making her a
tougher target on the campaign trail. Even McConnell avoided attacking her
this week, pivoting quickly to Obama, a much easier mark with an approval
ratings at 40 percent.

“We're good friends. She's doing what candidates for president do,”
McConnell said of his former Senate colleague in an interview with NBC
News. He added: “One thing I think is noteworthy: Alison Grimes doesn't
have any trouble announcing she voted for Hillary Clinton, even though,
apparently, she doesn't want to say she voted for Barack Obama.”

Clinton has her own machinery focused on rebutting the attacks. Correct the
Record, a project of the super-PAC American Bridge, is officially charged
with defending all Democratic candidates against Republican attacks, but
they've largely focused on Clinton, said spokeswoman Adrienne Elrod. On
Monday, as Republicans attacked Clinton for her speaking fees at UNLV,
Correct the Record responded with comments from graduates praising her.

“The truth of the matter is she's the only one who's really getting
attacked,” said Elrod, an Arkansas native and long-time Clinton backer.
“They're trying to throw the kitchen sink at her.”

It's a feeling shared by Clinton supporters. After her Kentucky speech, the
crowd poured out of the convention hall, passing vendors selling “First
Dude” and “Hillary 2016” buttons. The activists were fired up for the
November election, but perhaps even more excited for the one after that.
“I'm a Hillary girl,” said Missy Harris, a 49-year-old letter carrier in
Louisville. “And she's going to need a lot of support.”

Lynn McCrary, a retired speech pathologist, said the attacks only motivate
Clinton backers. “The Republicans are just trying to pull any old thing out
on here,” she said, as she walked out toting a sign that read “Shatter the
Glass. Break the Ceiling.”

“They are fearful of Hillary because they know she wields a lot of power.”

*CNN: “Why is this 10-year old so excited to meet Hillary Clinton?”
<http://www.cnn.com/2014/10/17/politics/macy-friday-hillary-clinton/>*

By Dan Merica

October 17, 2014, 12:59 p.m. EDT

Macy Friday can't remember what she was thinking when -- mouth agape, eyes
bugged -- she shook hands with Hillary Clinton in Denver this week. It all
happened so fast, she says.

What she does remember is the national response to the photo of her
reacting with pure, unadulterated excitement to meeting the former
secretary of state.

Media outlets pounced on the story. The Washington Post captured the
reaction perfectly, writing that Macy had a "look on her face that has
never been witnessed by anyone who is not a dad chaperoning a minivan full
of teenagers at a One Direction concert."

But why was Macy so excited? What does she like about Hillary Clinton? And
who else would she react that way to meeting?

CNN spoke with Macy Friday over the phone Thursday. Here is our
conversation:

CNN: How did you get to meet Hillary Clinton?

Macy: I went to Union Station unsuspecting that she would come. I had seen
her in the elections and I have heard a lot about her. I was just like,
'Wow.' I was excited because, I thought, she was saying hi to a lot of
people. I didn't think she was going to say hi to me. They went into a
coffee shop and we were like, 'Oh no, they are going to leave.' And then,
she came out and she is like, 'Hey you.' And I didn't know who she is
talking to. And then I realized it was me and I went up and I turned back
at my family. (long pause) I had never met anybody famous before. (long
pause) I turned back at my family and I, like, I, you know, made the face.

CNN: What did you think about all the attention your photo received?

Macy: Well, I love it. Because, well, it is not just because... I think
Hillary Clinton is a a really good role model for girls of all ages and it
[the reason she liked the attention] isn't just because it got a lot of
cool places. I am just happy because people know that a younger girl still
looks up to somebody like that.

CNN: What is it about Secretary Clinton that you look up to?

Macy: I like her because, like, she is running for president and a lot of
people think that girls shouldn't be president because they are not as
smart or they shouldn't have the same rights. And she is just a good role
model for girls because, you know, she is just sort of, like, to everybody,
'Girls can be awesome, too.'

[Editor's note: Clinton herself has said she has yet to make a decision on
whether she will run for president.]

CNN: You are 10. When you were born, Hillary Clinton had been well known
for 20 years. How much did you know about her when you met earlier this
week?

Macy: I didn't know, too, too, too much. I knew that she was the first lady
for a while. And her husband is Bill Clinton. And her daughter Chelsea just
had a baby. And her niece's name is Macy. And that is my name. And when I
first went up to her, I said, 'Macy,' and she said that is one of her
favorite names.

CNN: Who are some other famous people you would be as excited to see as you
were with Secretary Clinton?

Macy: Oh gosh, well, Selena Gomez, Katy Perry, probably Michelle Obama and
Barack Obama. Hmmm... Taylor Swift. Did I already say Taylor Swift?
Probably One Direction.

CNN: A local anchor in your hometown joked that you would be the first
women president. Would you ever want to do that?

Macy: Maybe! It is a really hard job. I think, I think, maybe.

CNN: Do you think you could do it?

Macy: Yeah!

CNN: If Hillary Clinton runs for president, what would your advice be to
her?

Macy: I would say that even if you are different or you are a different
gender, it doesn't matter what you look like. I don't know, like, if you
wear glasses. Everybody can be awesome.

CNN: If you could vote in 2016, would you vote for Secretary Clinton?

Macy: Yes, totally.

CNN: Thanks Macy...

Macy: Thank you. And one more thing: Make sure if Finn [her 12-year old
brother] does give you the permission to use the photo, give him photo cred!

---

(CNN did use the selfie that Finn took of his family and Clinton. And, yes,
he did get the photo cred. Also, some question and answers were edited for
clarity.)

*New York Times: First Draft: “Turning 10, Clinton Presidential Library
Celebrates Itself”
<http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2014/10/17/?entry=2674&_php=true&_type=blogs&smid=tw-share&_r=0>*

By Amy Chozick

October 17, 2014, 9:30 a.m. EDT

They grow up so fast. The William J. Clinton Presidential Center in Little
Rock, Ark., turns 10 next month. To celebrate, it has a 10-day party
planned that includes screenings of the documentaries “The War Room” and
“The Hunting of the President,” a “Party Like It’s 1999″ concert and a
“Handbags for Hillary” exhibit.

The celebration will begin with a kickoff reception on Nov. 9, but the city
expects to be invaded by Friends of Bill on Nov. 14, when Bill and Hillary
Clinton are expected to join a picnic at a tent set up on the center’s
grounds.

The Capital Hotel has been reserved for Clinton friends, many of whom lived
in Little Rock to work on Mr. Clinton’s 1992 and 1996 campaigns.

On Saturday, Nov. 15, Mrs. Clinton has an event related to her “No
Ceilings” effort at the Clinton Foundation. A Sunday brunch will address
the impact the presidential center has had on Little Rock. Hosts will
include Bruce R. Lindsey and Stephanie S. Streett, former Clinton White
House aides and Arkansans who now oversee the library. The Clintons are
also expected to stop by a local food bank.

Arkansans often say the Clinton library, a sleek, box-shaped building off
the highway, looks like a giant mobile home perched on the side of the
Arkansas River. The library, with its archival images of the Clinton-Gore
campaigns and glossy retelling of Mr. Clinton’s presidency, has attracted
visitors and brought more than $2.5 billion in economic development to the
area.

*Associated Press, via WBKO: “Bill Clinton to Campaign for Grimes on
Tuesday”
<http://www.wbko.com/home/headlines/Bill-Clinton-to-Campaign-for-Grimes-on-Tuesday-279569132.html>*

[No Writer Mentioned]

October 17, 2014, 10:37 a.m. EDT

Bill Clinton will campaign with Democratic Senate candidate Alison
Lundergan Grimes in western Kentuckyon Tuesday.

This will be Clinton's third trip to the Bluegrass State to stump for
Grimes. In August he spoke at a Lexington fundraiser and a campaign rally
in Hazard, the latter providing footage for a statewide TV ad.

Clinton's visit comes after Hillary Clinton told thousands of people in
Louisville on Wednesday to send Grimes to Washington to improve Kentucky's
health care reforms under the Affordable Care Act and to raise the minimum
wage.

Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell will hold a three-day bus tour through
Kentucky's coal country beginningMonday. He has criticized Grimes for
appearing with the Clintons, noting their support for Democratic President
Barack Obama and his energy policies.

Grimes has said she disagrees with Obama on coal.

*MSNBC: “Making Clinton’s argument for her”
<http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/making-clintons-argument-her>*

By Alex Seitz-Wald

October 17, 2014, 8:08 a.m. EDT

Hillary Clinton and former CIA director Leon Panetta go back a long way.

She was the first person the then-congressman met when he walked into the
Arkansas Governor’s mansion in 1992, shortly after her husband had won the
presidency. “Hillary was warm and welcoming. She extended a hand and spoke
briskly. ‘I’m glad you’re here,’” she told him, according to his new
memoir, “Worthy Fights.”

Now, as Panetta echoes Clinton’s recent criticisms of the president’s
foreign policy, some wonder whether she might be grateful for him again —
and what he’s hoping to get out of his bridge-burning.

The pointed critique of Obama in “Worthy Fights” — Panetta wrote that the
president too often “relies on the logic of a law professor rather than the
passion of a leader” — generated headlines. In interviews on his book tour,
Obama’s former defense secretary portrays the current president as
dithering and reactive.

At a book discussion Tuesday night in Washington, Panetta all but endorsed
Clinton. “She’s smart, she’s experienced, and she’s tough. What the hell
else do you want?” he said. Would he support her if she ran for president
again, as he did in the 2008 Democratic primary over Obama? “Sure.
Absolutely.”

And there’s plenty more praise for Clinton in the pages of his memoir.

Some progressives, including The Nation magazine and msnbc’s Rachel Maddow,
have noted that Panetta now works for a consulting firm co-founded by some
Clinton State Department alumni, including longtime spokesperson Philippe
Reines. The suggestion is that the Clinton and Panetta camps worked
together around the book.

Asked for comment, Reines forwarded a request to a spokesperson for the
firm, Beacon Global Strategies. The spokesperson Michael McKeon warned even
before a question was put to him that “some questions hatched by conspiracy
theorists are too silly to merit a serious reply.”

Asked to debunk the idea that the Clinton and Panetta camps collaborated on
the book, McKeon replied: “[E]ncouraging conspiratorial types by advancing
silly question doesn’t solve anything. Have a good day.”

A followup email wasn’t returned.

A spokesperson for Panetta’s publisher was no more forthcoming, demurring
on an interview request. “Secretary Panetta wrote this book for the readers
and Penguin Press is thrilled with their reaction,” the spokesperson said.

Vice President Joe Biden called Panetta’s criticisms of Obama
“inappropriate,” saying Panetta and other former administration officials
who write memoirs should at least wait until the president they served is
out of office.

Bill Burton, a former White House spokesperson and early Obama campaign
aide, suggested that Panetta’s view of events is embellished. “The timing
is unfortunate. The version of history is revisionist,” he told msnbc. “But
at the end of the day, there are more pressing issues than some book a
former administration official is trying to sell.”

Panetta has responded to the criticism by saying that he’s essentially
dishing out tough love. He says he wants Obama to succeed and that that
will only happen if the president learns from past mistakes. “I don’t think
you put history on hold,” he told one interviewer.

Other observers wonder if he has his eye on the next potential occupant of
the White House. As The New York Times’  Mark Landler pointed out,
Panetta’s book leaves out or downplays some known disagreements he had with
Clinton.

It’s not hard to see how Panetta’s criticisms of Obama could help Clinton,
who will need to dodge Republican accusations that she’s merely the third
term of an unpopular president. They’re similar to ones Clinton herself
made in an explosive Atlantic interview earlier this year, when she knocked
the president’s “don’t do stupid stuff” mantra and called his decision to
not arm Syrian rebels earlier a “failure.”

On issues where Clinton splits from the president, Panetta takes her side.
And in other places where Clinton is vulnerable, like the Benghazi attack,
he downplays her responsibility.

“It’s like he’s working from a checklist and just going down and hitting
each box he needs to, to back up Hillary,” said one former State Department
staffer who worked under Clinton and asked to remain anonymous so as not to
imperil job prospects in a potential Clinton administration.

Clinton, who faces perils if she distances herself too aggressively from
the president, later backed off her criticism in the Atlantic interview.

Obama’s unpopularity is such a conundrum for Clinton allies that some
privately joke about urging Joe Biden to run in 2016 so that the vice
president assumes the “third term” mantle from Clinton.

Why would Panetta help Clinton? At 76, Panetta seems eager to return to the
farm in California that he often flew back to on weekends. It’s hard to
imagine what job he would want in Washington that he hasn’t already had.

There are, however, part-time presidential commissions, like the
president’s Intelligence Advisory Board. And he could join the top echelon
of elder statesmen like Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski, both of
whom have served on the board and seem have endless opportunities to speak
or write or consult.

Besides, he’s hardly alone among Democrats  — or Americans for that matter
— in turning his back on Obama. Former President Jimmy Carter has also
chided Obama on similar grounds as Clinton.

And Panetta has known Clinton for over 20 years, writing in his book that
she’s one of the “few people in politics whose acumen I more admired.”

Why wouldn’t he want to do everything he could to help make her president —
for his party, for his country, and for himself?

*The Atlantic: “Leon Panetta and Hillary Clinton: It's Complicated”
<http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/10/leon-panetta-and-hillary-clinton-its-complicated/381500/>*

By Peter Beinart

October 17, 2014, 11:00 a.m. EDT

[Subtitle:] Reporters have focused on how the former defense secretary's
memoir praises her and criticizes the president. The book itself tells a
different story.

I’m thinking of teaching my journalism students about Leon Panetta’s book
tour—as a case study in how to game the press.

Since Worthy Fights came out a couple of weeks ago, the headlines have been
largely consistent: Hillary Clinton is terrific; Barack Obama, not so much.
Panetta launched this meme with a couple of choice sentences in the book
itself. Hillary, he wrote, “was a luminous representative for the United
States in every foreign capital, as well as a smart, forceful advocate in
meetings of the president’s top advisers.” Obama, by contrast, “relies on
the logic of a law professor rather than the passion of a leader.”

Since then, the former defense secretary has repeatedly stoked the fire by
telling interviewers things like: “These last two years, I think he [Obama]
kind of lost his way.” “Barack Obama does not like that process of engaging
in politics, and I think that hurts his presidency.” And, most recently,
Hillary Clinton “is somebody that I’ve seen who’s dedicated to this
country. She’s smart, she’s experienced, and she’s tough. What the hell
else do you want?” in a president.

It all makes for a pretty tidy narrative, unless you actually read the
book. That’s because Worthy Fights itself offers little specific evidence
of Clinton’s smarts, toughness, or luminosity as secretary of state.
Panetta notes that they agreed about (1) sending more troops to Afghanistan
in 2009, (2) launching the raid to kill Osama bin Laden, (3) not swapping
Guantanamo Bay prisoners for Bowe Bergdahl, and (4) arming Syria’s rebels.

Decision No. 2 looks good in retrospect. Decision No. 1 doesn’t, given what
a mess Afghanistan remains. Decisions Nos. 3 and 4 remain arguable, at
least to me. Either way, Panetta’s brief acknowledgment that on certain
issues he and Clinton agreed—without virtually any details about the way
she argued her case inside the administration, the way she swayed foreign
leaders and publics to America’s side or the way she viewed the
world—hardly substantiates the over-the-top adjectives he showers on her.

When it comes to Clinton’s time as first lady, the incongruity grows even
greater. As Panetta notes gingerly in Worthy Fights, he and Hillary
disagreed on the two most important economic questions of Bill Clinton’s
first term: whether to prioritize reducing the budget deficit or
stimulating the economy, and how hard to push for health-care reform.

As budget director and then White House chief of staff, Panetta was among
the Clinton administration’s staunchest deficit hawks. Hillary, by
contrast, “picked at our economic program, asking why there wasn’t more
room for health care reform and other initiatives” that Panetta considered
too costly. Once Clinton’s first budget passed, Panetta “thought we should
move welfare first” while “Hillary demanded that we … not relegate health
care to the back burner again.” Throughout the health-care fight, Panetta
acknowledges, he and the first lady “were on opposite sides” and “she
vented her frustration about me.” For his part, Panetta calls the “health
care team” that Hillary led “painfully naïve about politics.”

Panetta’s description of his tangles with Clinton over domestic policy in
the White House years are actually more detailed than his description of
their agreements on foreign policy in the Obama years. What’s more, the
historical verdict is far clearer. It is now Beltway conventional wisdom
that the Clinton administration’s decision to emphasize deficit reduction
in its initial budget helped pave the way for the economic boom of the late
1990s and restored the Democratic Party’s reputation for fiscal
responsibility. It’s also conventional wisdom that the administration’s
decision to push for health-care reform rather than welfare reform in 1994
undermined Bill Clinton’s centrist reputation and helped enable the
Gingrich takeover of Congress that fall.

Given that Hillary Clinton’s role in the push for health-care reform
remains the most significant domestic-policy episode of her career, one
might have thought it would inform Panetta’s judgment of her. But he never
factors it into his overall assessment of Hillary’s presidential
fitness—either in the book or the book tour. And as a result, the press has
ignored Panetta’s description of the episode almost entirely.

You can’t blame Panetta too much for this. Like most former administration
officials, he’s trying to both vindicate his own actions and stay on the
right side of powerful people (which means Hillary, the prospective
president, more than Obama, the soon-to-be-former one).

Under normal circumstances, it would be a tricky balance. But it’s a lot
easier when so many in the media feel entitled to sum up a book they
haven’t actually read it.

*Fortune: “Anne-Marie Slaughter on Obama's failure to recognize ISIS
extremism”
<http://fortune.com/2014/10/17/anne-marie-slaughter-on-obamas-failure-to-recognize-isis-extremism/>*

By Nina Easton

October 17, 2014, 11:40 a.m. EDT

[Subtitle:] Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s ex-policy director
predicts a 10 to 15 year “brutal conflict” in the Middle East combining
both religious war and territorial claims.

I spoke with Anne-Marie Slaughter, Hillary Clinton’s former policy director
who now heads the New America Foundation, at last week’s Fortune Most
Powerful Women Summit, where she warned that the spread of ISIS, combined
with civil war in Syria, is setting off the equivalent of the 17th century
Thirty Years War, “which decimated one-third of Europe’s population.”

The alarming assessment of this former Princeton dean echoes that of
another top Obama official, former CIA and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta,
who last week said Americans should be prepared for a “30-year” war with
the terrorist ISIS. Both Slaughter and Panetta have criticized the White
House for failing to intervene in Syria—the birthplace of ISIS—nearly three
years ago.

“This White House refused to recognize both the spreading and fueling of
extremism,” she told me. “It was evident that unless we intervened it was
just going to spread. But the White House did not want to get involved in
another Middle East war so we effectively limited our assistance to
humanitarian aid on the side.”

Slaughter says the U.S. should continue attacks on ISIS from the air,
rather than deploying troops on the ground. “ISIL [also known as ISIS]
wants images of U.S. troops again knocking down villages. That’s how they
recruit—[calling] the United States the great enemy against Islam.”

In the complicated web of that widening conflict, she also called on the
Obama administration to defang Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad—an ISIS
enemy—by using the U.S. military to destroy his air force. “The Syrian
government has massacred 200,000 people,” she said. “I wouldn’t go to war
with him but [say to him] we are going to bomb your air force to stop you
from dropping barrel bombs on your people.”

Slaughter also offered advice on dealing with another autocrat—Russian
President Vladmir Putin. The U.S., she said, should isolate him by
appealing directly to the Russian people, who –under the spell of an
effective propaganda campaign — have rallied behind Putin and his
aggressions in Ukraine.

“You really have to react more positively to the Russian people, using the
media, [finding] ways of saying, ‘Look this is not Russia against the West.
You’ve got a leader that is leading you to economic disruption and poverty
for a long time to come.”’

*Hollywood Reporter: “Hillary Clinton Flying Monkey Signs Hung Throughout
Brentwood Ahead of Upcoming Fundraiser”
<http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hillary-clinton-flying-monkey-signs-741631?utm_source=twitter>*

By Tina Daunt

October 17, 2014, 8:47 a.m. PST

[Subtitle:] The conservatives' answer to Shepard Fairey is also working on
a fake website designed to mock Clinton and the Democratic Party

Guerrilla street artist SABO, who made headlines with his Gwyneth Paltrow
"Obama Drone" poster, has struck again -- this time ahead of Hillary
Clinton's upcoming Democratic fundraiser at Tavern restaurant in Brentwood,
Calif.

The Los Angeles artist early Friday hung signs depicting Wizard of Oz
flying monkeys holding "Hillary 2016" signs from traffic lights and pasted
them on utility boxes near the San Vicente Boulevard restaurant.

Although, as SABO told The Hollywood Reporter on Friday, one poster near a
Whole Foods had been "violently" torn down.

"All these leftists, I'm tired of their s—," SABO said via email.

The Louisiana native, who moved to Los Angeles in 1987 to attend the
prestigious Art Center of Design in Pasadena, has become the conservatives'
answer to liberal artists like Shepard Fairey — but much meaner.

His caricature of former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi twerking, which helped
launch the conservative website Breitbart California, triggered demands for
an apology from a cross section of angry Democrats. And when Texas lawmaker
Wendy Davis came to L.A. to raise money last year, SABO lampooned her as
"Abortion Barbie."

In addition to the flying monkey posters, SABO has been busy working on a
fake Tavern website, which brutally ridicules Clinton and the Democratic
Party. He also has an entire section of his website, Unsavory Agents,
dedicated to the former Secretary of State, who will be in Los Angeles on Oct.
20 for the Democratic senatorial fundraiser hosted by Jeffrey Katzenberg,
Steven Spielberg, Alan Horn and other top industry execs at Tavern.

"It sickens me to see just about every California Republican I run across
pull out the white flag in surrender to the coming coronation of Hillary
Clinton," SABO wrote on his website. "They've all but given up with out a
hint of a fight. Let this image be a reminder to them that our lady in
waiting is not invincible. Obama came out of nowhere and knocked her off
her perch without so much as trying."

In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, SABO said Hollywood and
politics have become a focal point of his guerrilla art, particularly with
his "Drone" campaign, which also features Samuel L. Jackson, Alec Baldwin
and Jon Stewart.

"I think the drone campaign encapsulates how I feel about Hollywood," he
says. "You know, it's kind of like a double or triple entendre in that, I
mean, if you listen to one of these celebrities go on, they're like,
droning on and on and on about how they love Obama or the left or the
Democrats, or they drone on about how much Republicans suck, and in a way,
much the way an unmanned aircraft flies through the air, these people fly
through the airwaves."