WASHINGTON – Hillary Clinton made it clear where she stood during the second presidential debate.
The Democratic presidential candidate blasted Republican rival Donald Trump, because, he “never apologized for the racist lie that President Obama was not born in the United States of America.”
Whether it was actually her 2008 campaign who began that “racist lie” has been a matter of considerable debate.
But one thing seems certain, following the latest revelations from Wikileaks on Friday.
Her 2008 presidential campaign wanted to know how voters would react to the fact that then-candidate Barack Obama’s “father was a Muslim and Obama grew up among Muslims in the world’s most populous Islamic country.”
That bombshell was contained in the Wikileaks revelations released Friday, in the form of an email chain sent in January of 2008 that cc’d current Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta and longtime Clinton adviser Paul Begala.
It contained a draft poll questionnaire apparently prepared by Democratic polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research.
The poll was designed to get reaction from voters to statements including the one about Obama’s Muslim roots.
Many of the statements seem designed to gauge the effectiveness of an attack on Obama from the right side of the political spectrum.
Others include:
- Obama was the only candidate at a recent event not to cover his heart during the national anthem and he has stopped wearing an American flag pin.
- Obama benefited from a land deal from a contributor who has been indicted for corruption.
- Obama would personally negotiate with the leaders of terrorist nations like Iran and North Korea without preconditions.
- Obama voted against allowing people to use handguns to defend themselves against intruders.
- Obama plans to raise taxes by 180 (one hundred and eighty) billion dollars a year to pay for his government-run health care plan.
- Obama voted repeatedly against emergency funding bills for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.
- Obama is ranked as one of the ten most liberal members of the Senate because of his support of issues like gay adoption.
- Obama voted against requiring medical care for aborted fetuses who survive the procedure.
- Obama supports giving driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants.
- Obama described his former use of cocaine as using “a little blow.”
Begala claimed the testing wasn’t designed for the Clinton campaign, but for those defending Obama.
“That was a draft poll questionnaire that tested potential right-wing attacks on Obama, to help prepare to defend him,” Begala told the New York Post.
But the email was circulated in January of 2008, just as the presidential primary season was beginning and the intensely bitter battle between Obama and Clinton for the Democratic nomination was just getting underway.
In one email, Begala even suggested, “‘A little blow’ needs to be tested on its own.”
He also wrote, “I think we need a more accurate tax attack on Obama. The $180 billion tax hike for health care is only the beginning. Obama also supports raising the cap on Social Security taxes, which would be a tax increase of $1.3 trillion over ten years.”
Emailed intelligence
Another bombshell is the discovery that Hillary Clinton sent intelligence information about ISIS over her unsecured email system, after she had resigned as Secretary of State.
It’s not clear if the intelligence information was classified, but it certainly appears sensitive, as it discusses the situations in Syria, Iraq, and nearby countries in the Middle East and North Africa, and possible options for the U.S. military.
The email was sent in August 2014, from a private email account she used after leaving the State Department, to her eventual presidential campaign manager John Podesta, when he was sill working in the White House.
In the form of a memo with nine detailed bullet points, Clinton discussed the possible political consequences of military action against ISIS, and the importance of appearing to be on the offensive:
“It is important that once we engage ISIL (ISIS), as we have now done in a limited manner, we and our allies should carry on until they are driven back suffering a tangible defeat. Anything short of this will be seen by other fighters in the region, Libya, Lebanon, and even Jordan, as an American defeat.”
She also makes specific military strategy suggestions:
“Armed with proper equipment, and working with U.S. advisors, the Peshmerga can attack the ISIL with a coordinated assault supported from the air. This effort will come as a surprise to the ISIL, whose leaders believe we will always stop with targeted bombing, and weaken them both in Iraq and inside of Syria. At the same time we should return to plans to provide the FSA, or some group of moderate forces, with equipment that will allow them to deal with a weakened ISIL, and stepped up operations against the Syrian regime.”
One of Clinton’s observations will likely embolden critics of her refusal to send help to the victims of the terror attack in Benghazi.
Clinton noted, “A source in Tripoli stated in confidence that when the U.S. Embassy was evacuated, the presence of two U.S. Navy jet fighters over the city brought all fighting to a halt for several hours, as Islamist forces were not certain that these aircraft would not also provide close ground support for moderate government forces.”
Critics have long claimed that if Clinton had sent fighter jets over Benghazi during the deadly attack in 2012, it would have scared off the terrorists long enough for help to arrive. Her observation about Tripoli would seem to lend credence to that criticism.
