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Women Are Drivers of Positive Change—By Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of State

Op-Ed
City Press, South Africa
August 9, 2009

When I first visited the Victoria Mxenge co-operative in Cape Town in 1997, I met homeless women working to transform an empty patch of land into a new community. They pooled their savings and microloans, bought shovels, poured concrete and built new homes for themselves and their children. In 1997 there were just 18 homes. I returned a year later and saw 104. Yesterday I found a village of thousands of homes where once there had been only dust and despair.

The determination and entrepreneurial spirit of the women of Victoria Mxenge underscore a basic truth: empowering women is key to global progress and prosperity. This is not just a moral imperative – it is an economic one as well. When women are accorded their rights and afforded equal opportunities in education, health care and gainful employment, they drive social and economic progress. When they are marginalised and mistreated, as is the case in too many places in Africa today, prosperity is impossible.

This week I am travelling across Africa to highlight the continent’s promise and possibility. Empowering women is a crucial step towards seizing the economic opportunities of this new century. No nation can succeed in spreading prosperity or increasing security if it leaves out or leaves behind more than half of the population.

Our broader agenda for progress and economic growth also includes increasing trade, implementing development strategies that build capacity and opportunity, and advancing responsible governance that rejects corruption, enforces the rule of law and delivers results for people. South Africa’s leadership is essential in advancing this agenda across Africa.

South Africans have many reasons to be proud on this National Women’s Day. President Jacob Zuma recently appointed Gill Marcus as governor of the South African Reserve Bank. Across the country, women are leading small and medium-sized businesses that are the foundation of economic progress. And South Africa is home to dynamic entrepreneurs such as Sally Marengo, who started the KPL Aluminium and Zinc Die-Casting factory which now manufactures car parts in Bedfordview, and Lillian Masebenza, who created the Mhani Gingi Social Entrepreneurial Networks to turn traditional stokvels into collectives that help disadvantaged women generate income and start new businesses.

The women of South Africa have helped to make the country an economic anchor for the continent. They are an example of what can be accomplished through civic responsibility, commitment to the rule of law and a diversified and inclusive economy.

Across Africa, women are driving positive change. Kenya’s Wangari Maathai has launched an international movement on behalf of environmental stewardship. Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has taken the reins of a nation once gripped by civil war and proven that women can lead at the highest levels.

But in many parts of Africa, and indeed around the world, the picture is not so encouraging. Laws deny women the right to own property, access credit or make their own choices within their marriage. Women comprise the majority of the world’s poor, unfed and unschooled. They are subjected to rape as a tactic of war, so-called “honour” killings, maiming, trafficking, child marriages, genital mutilation and other violent, degrading practices.

This week I will visit survivors of sexual and gender-based violence used as a tool of conflict in eastern Congo, where women have been victimised on an unimaginable scale. Some 1100 rapes are reported each month, with an average of 36 women and girls raped every day.

In the face of such depravity the world must speak with one clear voice: this violence must end.

The United States is working to develop partnerships across Africa to ensure that the rights of women are protected and respected, and that they have the opportunity to pursue an education, find a good job, live in safety and fulfil their own potential.

President Barack Obama and I believe in Africa’s promise. Too often, the world views Africa only through the lens of poverty, disease and conflict. But we see a continent of opportunity, home to 800 million people – more than half of them women – ready to build, create and thrive.

National Women’s Day commemorates the 20 000 South African women who marched for justice on August 9 1956. Fearless, they sang an anthem that has become a rallying cry: “Wathint’a bafazi, Wathint’ imbokodo” (You Strike a Woman, You Strike a Rock).

Women can be the rock on which a freer, safer and more prosperous Africa is built. They just need the opportunity.

Clinton: reports of my demise premature--By MATTHEW LEE, Associated Press Writer

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday she is comfortable in her position as President Barack Obama's top diplomat and has been consistently involved in foreign policy decisions.

"I broke my elbow, not my larynx," she said, referring to the fractured elbow that kept her out of the limelight for a month.

Speaking with reporters at the State Department after meetings with the foreign ministers of Canada and Mexico, Clinton delivered the line with a straight face, seeming miffed at widespread speculation that she has lost influence in the Obama administration.

"I have been consistantly involved in the shaping and implementation of our foreign policy and I am off to India and Thailand tonight," Clinton said stonily. She added that when she returns from the week-long, around-the-world trip she will have a full slate of meetings and other travel.

In recent weeks, foreign policy analysts and experts have questioned Clinton's influence with Obama, noting that the president himself, as well as Vice President Joe Biden and others have taken on increasing diplomatic responsibilities. Her absence due to the elbow injury — which forced her to curtail her normally vigorous schedule, compounded that speculation.

After returning to the public eye Wednesday with a widely publicized speech, Clinton said she did not pay much attention to the rumors and that her relationships with the White House and Obama himself are fine.

"I am just going to do the work and make a contribution," she said. "I feel very honored and positive about my working relationship with the White House and my personal relationship with President Obama."

At the same time, she repeated her frustration with the slow pace at which appointments to senior administration positions were being made, citing a burdensome and overlong vetting process for candidates. But she said that was government-wide problem and not just a State Department issue.

"I think it is pretty obvious that the process could not be much more complicated cumbersome and lengthy and that is something that I hear from everyone," Clinton said. "It is a matter that I think we're going to have to address."

Clinton Senate Campaign Paid Millions to Presidential Committee--By Kristin Jensen

Before she became secretary of state, Hillary Clinton’s Senate fundraising committee paid $2.6 million to the remains of her presidential campaign as it struggled to pay down debt.

On Jan. 19, the day before President Barack Obama’s inauguration, Clinton’s Senate committee paid for a “purchase of assets,” according to a report filed with the U.S. Federal Election Commission. The payment represented almost half of the $5.6 million that Clinton’s presidential committee took in during the first quarter of this year.

When Clinton, 61, ended her bid for the Democratic presidential nomination last June, Obama pledged to help her raise money to address the remaining debt. Late last year, the New York Democrat formally wrote off $13.2 million that she lent the campaign, yet still owed $6.4 million to vendors as of Nov. 30.

Thanks in part to the purchase made by her Senate committee, Clinton had whittled the presidential debt down to $2.3 million by the end of March. She owed the whole sum to Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, the firm of her former chief strategist, Mark Penn, owned by London-based WPP Plc.

Penn’s handling of the campaign and potential conflicts with his business drew criticism, and he gave up the role of chief strategist in April of last year.

Clinton adviser James Carville kicked off the most recent effort to pay off the remaining presidential debt on April 9 with an e-mail to her supporters offering them a chance to win a day with her husband, former President Bill Clinton, attend the American Idol season finale or talk politics with Carville and another Clinton adviser, Paul Begala.

Senate Campaign Spending
Clinton’s Senate campaign filing shows continued spending even after she was confirmed as secretary of state on Jan. 21. Among other disbursements, the committee paid $13,743 on March 13 to Occasions Caterers for use of a venue and catering, $5,000 to Mantz Advisory Group LLC on March 16 for consulting and fundraising and thousands of dollars for travel expenses.

In addition to the income from the Senate committee, Clinton’s presidential campaign got thousands of dollars from renting out its list of supporters and contacts. Obama’s inaugural committee paid $274,297, as did the William J. Clinton Foundation, the charitable group her husband formed after leaving office. Hillary Clinton’s leadership political action committee, Hillpac, paid $822,492 to rent the list.

Phone and e-mail messages left for State Department officials weren’t immediately returned. The directory-assistance number for Clinton’s Senate campaign committee, Friends of Hillary, is disconnected.

Campaign committees often outlast a candidacy, often spending money on administrative needs and handling outstanding bills. Former Ohio Senator John Glenn’s 1984 Democratic presidential campaign committee was still submitting FEC reports through the end of 2005.

Clinton was first elected to the Senate in 2000 and won re- election in 2006.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kristin Jensen in Washington at kjensen@bloomberg.net

US Secretary of State Has Harsh Criticism for Pakistan--By Dan Robinson

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has harshly criticized Pakistan's government saying it has abdicated to the Taliban, adding the potential collapse of the Pakistani state would pose a mortal threat to global security.

The remarks, coming in response to questions from lawmakers on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, are some of the sharpest words any U.S. official has had for Pakistan.

In response to a question from one lawmaker, Clinton said the government of Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari has pursued a policy of ceding more and more territory to the Taliban, al-Qaida and others in what she called a terrorist syndicate:

"We cannot underscore [enough] the seriousness of the existential threat posed to the state of Pakistan by the continuing advances, now within hours of Islamabad, that are being made by a loosely-confederated group of terrorists and others who are seeking the overthrow of the Pakistani state, which as we all know is a nuclear-armed state," she said.

Republican Congressman Ed Royce, who visited Pakistan recently with House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Howard Berman, said Pakistani officials expressed to them directly their concern about the threat posed by extremists.

"In the meetings that we held, some top Pakistani officials told chairman Berman and myself, and this was over this [past] weekend, basically to express their concerns, let's just say they painted a very dire situation," he said. "We had better be prepared on that front."

Later, Republican Representative Michael McCaul asked Clinton about the administration's view of efforts by the U.S. Congress to set conditions for future aid to Pakistan, something both the House and Senate will be considering.

Secretary Clinton said the Obama administration believes assistance must come with conditions, but said the process of formulating these conditions is not simple.

"If they [conditions] are too weak we don't get changes, if they're too strong we get a backlash, so we're trying to figure out sort of, what is the area that will influence behavior [by Pakistan] and produce results," she said. "We are creating measures of performance that we will share with the Congress so that you and we can follow whether or not we are getting the kind of positive outcomes that we are attempting to achieve."

As the Obama administration works to develop conditions for aid to Pakistan, Secretary Clinton added, care must taken that legislation does not stop cooperation with the government in Islamabad which she said shares U.S. goals regarding the terrorist threat.

Earlier, in her prepared testimony to the committee, Secretary Clinton said Pakistan "poses a mortal threat to the security and safety of our country and the world." If Pakistan is unable to deliver basic services to its people, Clinton said, the government could find itself losing out to those who show up and claim that they can solve people's problems and then they will impose this harsh form of oppression on women and others.

House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Howard Berman said lawmakers are deeply concerned about the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Pakistan.

"We cannot allow al-Qaida or any other terrorist group that threatens our national security to operate with impunity in the tribal regions," he said. "Nor can we permit the Pakistani state - and its nuclear arsenal - to be taken over by the Taliban or any other radical groups, or otherwise be destabilized in a manner that could lead to renewed conflict with India. So it is very alarming that we are now hearing predictions from a number of leading experts that Pakistan could collapse in as little as six months."

Berman said President Obama's Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, will testify next week to provide the administration's views on legislation that would massively expand aid to Pakistan, while trying to ensure that military aid is used to support Pakistani and U.S. security interests.

Obama's donor list asked to help pay Clinton debt--By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer

President-elect Barack Obama's vast list of donors is being asked to donate to Hillary Rodham Clinton as she scrambles to reduce her massive campaign debt before she becomes secretary of state and federal ethics rule limit her fundraising, an Obama adviser said Thursday night.

An appeal on Clinton's behalf signed by Vice President-elect Joe Biden is to be sent by e-mail to all of the more than three million donors to Obama's record-setting fundraising, according to this adviser, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the e-mail had not yet been sent.

Obama promised after Clinton endorsed him to help her pay off her debt and this is the second time the Obama list has been asked to help Clinton. It was used once during the campaign as well, but its second use underlines the urgency of Clinton's task now that she is Obama's choice to be secretary of state.

Clinton and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, will headline a major debt retirement event in New York Dec. 15 with "Ugly Betty" star America Ferrera as master of ceremonies. Tickets range from $50 to $1,000, with top donors earning a premium seat and a backstage photo with the former first lady.

Clinton also plans to sell a children's book, titled "Dreams Taking Flight" by author Kathleen Krull, about her pioneering candidacy. Clinton's mother, Dorothy Rodham, planned to send an e-mail to supporters later this week asking them to purchase the book to help raise funds to pay down Clinton's debt.

On Tuesday, a day after Obama announced she would serve as his top diplomat, Bill Clinton signed an e-mail to supporters asking them to send a note of congratulations to his wife and including a link for contributing to her debt retirement.

The urgency is rooted in the size of the New York senator's unpaid bills and the fundraising restrictions she will face once she joins Obama's cabinet.

At the beginning of November, Clinton owed $7.5 million to vendors from her failed presidential bid, according to campaign finance records. The largest share of the debt — about $5.3 million — is owed to the polling firm of Mark Penn, the Clintons' longtime political strategist. She owes hundreds of thousands of dollars for printing, equipment rental, phone banks and other services.

Clinton has slowly been trimming the debt since suspending her campaign last June, partly with Obama's help. But her fundraising efforts will be curtailed if she is confirmed as secretary of state and becomes covered by the Hatch Act, which regulates political involvement by federal employees.

A 2001 advisory opinion by the federal Office of Special Counsel said a federal employee with a campaign debt would be prohibited from "personally soliciting, accepting or receiving political contributions." That means Clinton's political committee could keep raising money to pay off her creditors, but without her direct involvement.

The lack of access to Clinton could pose a disincentive for donors, said Sheila Krumholz, director of the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political donations.

"People write a check to get into the room with a candidate or government official. If she's legally barred from fundraising, the No. 1 reason for giving has been removed," Krumholz said. "It's like attending a wedding and the bride isn't there."

The advisory opinion does allow the former candidate to appear briefly at fundraising events and thank donors. That restriction could suit Clinton well, according to some of her top bundlers who say neither she nor her husband has ever been good at asking for donations.

But none of the Hatch Act rules apply until Clinton is confirmed, so there's an opportunity for people eager to get some face time with the incoming secretary of state. Aides said she will try to avoid doing anything that suggests she is leveraging her new post for fundraising advantage.

Brad Smith, a former Federal Election Commission chairman, said Clinton would be wise to avoid any appearance of conflict of interest.

"If nothing else, there's the embarrassment element," Smith said. "A secretary of state trying to raise campaign money is kind of ugly."

Clinton's new job will help her avoid some pitfalls that loom when political access linked to campaign donations. For example, foreign citizens, who might be interested in forging a relationship with an incoming secretary of state, are legally barred from contributing to U.S. political campaigns.

Still, Krumholz said, there are plenty of U.S. citizens with strong ties to other countries who would welcome the chance to write Clinton a check.

"Wealthy people who have family overseas and are tied to issues in the country — human rights issues, for example — have more incentive to give," Krumholz said.

Analysts said that fundraising to retire a politician's debt — never easy — is more difficult during the recession. Also, Clinton is trying to pay off debts from the Democratic primaries, where many of her supporters already gave the maximum $2,300 per person. They cannot be solicited again.

The large share of her debt owed to Penn, a controversial figure and harsh Obama critic, also complicates matters for Clinton. Many Democrats blamed him for her strategic failings.

Clinton also has about $6 million in her Senate re-election account; some of that could be used under strict restrictions to help pay these debts. Under FEC rules, she would need to ask each contributor's permission to move the donation to her debt retirement account — and none could come from people who already contributed the maximum to her presidential bid.

___
Associated Press Writer Jim Kuhnhenn in Washington contributed to this report.

Obama's first gamble: Clinton at State--By: Ben Smith

What is Barack Obama thinking?

We’ve heard all the rational arguments: Hillary Rodham Clinton has more star power than Richard Holbrooke, more discipline than Bill Richardson, fewer bad jokes than John F. Kerry. She’s tough and competent. She’s a woman and a Democrat, making space for a Republican guy at Defense. It would get her out of the Senate. Both Obama and Clinton loved Doris Kearns Goodwin's book, “Team of Rivals.”

But the sum of those parts seems something less than the whole explanation for Obama’s first great presidential gamble: his move toward giving his former adversary, whose judgment on foreign policy he criticized relentlessly, by offering her the most important Cabinet position in his administration.

Neither Holbrooke, Kerry nor Richardson would bring Clinton’s downsides: Her towering, volcanic husband; her own ambitions; and the endless speculation about the two of them.

“She brings so much to the table,” said Abner Mikva, a former Clinton White House counsel and an Obama mentor. “On the other hand, there are the obvious downsides, the conflicts that that her husband has.”

Insiders around Obama say the X factor at play is Obama’s icy tolerance for risk, and his belief in the power of the grand gesture.

Throughout his political career, Obama has had a tendency to “go big,” as his aides say, with dramatic moves and giant spectacles punctuating his run for president — his head-on race speech, his presidential-style tour of the Middle East and Europe, an acceptance speech held in a football stadium.

The Clinton move, like those, marries an arguably practical choice with lofty symbolism: He’s enlarging his own administration by bringing in one of the leading figures in American politics, and delivering on a promise of a new politics that doesn’t play favorites or hold grudges.

“It says that he has the personal confidence to engage someone of the notoriety and substance of Sen. Clinton,” said Democratic Rep. Robert Wexler of Florida, an early Obama supporter and prominent campaign surrogate. “Implementing change is an exciting exercise.”

Indeed, Obama’s transition appears suffused with a sense that the actors are living a historic moment, for which extraordinary gestures are appropriate.

“This would really give her a very unique platform to really be a part of this historic time we’re living in right now, even greater than her role as a powerful senator,” said Democratic Rep. Russ Carnahan of Missouri, another early Obama backer.

Obama supporters point to her specific qualifications, her global celebrity, command of the issues and personal acquaintance with international players (assets Obama downplayed in his long campaign against her) as central to the decision to offer her the position.

“She is a capable and strong candidate for that post,” said Carnahan. “Probably few people would have the kind of built-in knowledge and relationships with world leaders she would have.”

But beyond the triumphal symbolism is a specific job, accompanied by a serious downside. Negotiations between the two camps focus on the former president’s role, as do many of the quiet doubts among Obama’s supporters, though Bill Clinton said Wednesday he would do “whatever they want” to make the arrangement possible, should his wife and the president-elect agree.

Still, imagining how the former president could cause Obama problems has become a popular Beltway pastime, and not a particularly challenging one. He could criticize administration choices that differ from his own. He could inconveniently rise to his wife’s defense against a foreign leader. He could be too close for comfort with any of the dozens of foreign leaders and tycoons he’s courted as head of a private foundation. He could remobilize an army of investigative reporters, beginning with the National Enquirer.

Clinton herself poses specific challenges as the president’s chief international envoy.

“This notion of team of rivals is an absurd concept,” said Aaron David Miller, a longtime State Department official now at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington.

Miller said Clinton has some of the key attributes of a good secretary of state — stature and toughness — but that she’s untested as a negotiator, and her status as an erstwhile Obama rival might undermine an envoy’s traditional trump card.

“People need to know that you speak with the authority of your president, and she … lacks a close relationship with” Obama, said Miller, who wrote that she is the “the best of a weak field of potential Secretaries of State.”

Obama is undeterred by those worries, Democrats say. Though some of his backers cringed at the idea of nominating a woman they’d spent more than a year hammering, his circle has come to view the move as another masterstroke on the road to creating the most unified, powerful Democratic leadership in living memory.

With Clinton out of the Senate, the considerably lower-profile Russ Feingold of Wisconsin would probably be the highest-ranking Democrat with a propensity to oppose the new president in the Senate.

The new president, meanwhile, would be able to conserve his political capital for the issue on which he was elected, the economy.

On Wednesday, Obama’s circle remained sanguine about the choice, and apparently confident that the appointment would come to pass, even as some close to Clinton expressed doubts that she’d accept.

“It’s a risk with a big upside,” said one Democrat close to Obama.

Clinton lawyers vetting her for secretary of state--By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton has engaged three prominent lawyers to help President-elect Barack Obama vet her candidacy for secretary of state even as some insiders criticized the pick and advisers to the former first lady said she was weighing whether to take the job if Obama offered it.

Attorneys Cheryl Mills, David Kendall and Robert Barnett are working with the Obama transition team to review information about the Clintons' background and finances, including Bill Clinton's post-presidential business deals and relationships with foreign governments. All three represented the Clintons on legal matters in the White House, including President Clinton's dalliance with intern Monica Lewinsky that led to his impeachment in 1998.

Officials knowledgeable about the vetting said it has gone smoothly and that both Clintons were cooperating fully.

Bill Clinton already has appeared to take an important step toward smoothing his wife's path to the job.

Democrats familiar with the negotiations said the former president has suggested he would step away from day-to-day responsibility for his charitable foundation while his wife served and would alert the State Department to his speaking schedule and any new sources of income.
A top aide involved in the vetting said there was nothing obvious in the former president's dealings that would torpedo his wife's prospects for the job. The aide was not authorized to discuss the matter, and would speak only on background.

The aide pointed out that former President George H.W. Bush has given paid speeches and participated in international business ventures since his son, George W. Bush, has been president without stirring public complaints about a conflict of interest.

But another Democrat who advised Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign warned that Bill Clinton's business arrangements were more complicated than many people realized. During the campaign, few of her senior strategists knew anything about the former president's business deals and whether they would hold up under scrutiny if she won the nomination, this person said. The adviser spoke on background, not authorized to speak publicly for Hillary Clinton's political operation.

It was unclear whether Bill Clinton has agreed to submit financial information to the transition team that has not been made public through Hillary Clinton's Senate disclosure requirements or during her campaign, when the couple released several years of joint tax returns.
For example, still unknown are the names of donors to Bill Clinton's foundation and presidential library or what he earns as a partner with Yucaipa Global Opportunities Fund, a private investment venture run by billionaire Ron Burkle, a close friend.

During his primary campaign against Hillary Clinton, Obama pressed the former president to name the donors to his library. Bill Clinton refused, saying many had given money on the condition that their names not be revealed. He promised to make the donors' names public going forward if his wife won the Democratic nomination.

The former president has engaged in other deals that could complicate his wife's work with foreign governments as secretary of state. Records show he raised money for his foundation from the Saudi royal family, Kuwait, Brunei and the Embassy of Qatar, and from a Chinese Internet company seeking information on Tibetan human rights activists.

While many people familiar with the New York senator's thinking say she is inclined to take the secretary of state's job if it is offered, others say she is also considering the consequences of leaving the Senate, where she had hoped to take a leading role on health care reform and other issues.

"Would she be willing to give up her independent stature in the U.S. Senate, Robert F. Kennedy's seat, to be in the Cabinet? It will be a considerable decision for her," said Lanny Davis, a former Clinton adviser not involved in the vetting. "It's a completely different life than you lead in the Senate, where you are your own spokesperson, your own advocate. When you join the Cabinet of the president of the United States, that is no longer the case."

Clinton declined to discuss any part of the selection process Tuesday. "I've said everything I have to say on Friday," she said.

At the State Department, the prospect of Clinton as secretary is creating some anxiety among career foreign service officers worried that she would install her own loyalists and exclude them from policy making. Some at the State Department see her as a foreign policy lightweight, although there is grudging acknowledgment of her star power.

Others closer to the Obama camp have criticized Clinton's credentials for the job.

Greg Craig, a law school classmate of both Clintons who led President Clinton's defense team during his impeachment, wrote a blistering memo during the primary campaign attacking Hillary Clinton's claim to have brokered foreign policy deals during her husband's presidency.

"There is no reason to believe ... that she was a key player in foreign policy at any time during the Clinton administration," Craig, an early Obama supporter likely to be White House counsel, wrote in March.

"She did not sit in on National Security Council meetings. She did not have a security clearance. She did not attend meetings in the Situation Room," Craig added. "She did not manage any part of the national security bureaucracy, nor did she have her own national security staff. She did not do any heavy lifting with foreign governments, whether they were friendly or not."
___
Associated Press writers Matthew Lee, Nedra Pickler and Devlin Barrett in Washington and Ann Sanner in Chicago contributed to this report.

Hillary & Bill Clinton on GOTV

New York United States Senator & 2008 Democratic Presidential Candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton and the 41st President & former Governor of Arkansas Bill Clinton speak to voters about “Getting Out The Vote!”

Hillary at the eighth annual Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee luncheon

Hillary at the eighth annual Eleanor Roosevelt Legacy Committee luncheon

The Bidens and the Clintons at an Obama Rally in Scranta, PA

Jill Biden introduces Bill Clinton at an Obama Biden rally on October 12th, 2008, in Scranton, PA


President Bill Clinton spoke about the economy at an Obama-Biden campaign event before introducing his wife, Senator Hillary Clinton, on October 12th, 2008, in Scranton, PA.


Hillary Clinton spoke about the need to elect the democratic ticket on election day in Scranton, PA October 12th, 2008


After being introduced by Hillary Clinton, Joe speaks to crowd of 6,000 -- with only 24 days left until the general election.

Hillary: Mavericks in Washington

Mavericks in Washington

Hillary - Turning Point

Hillary - Turning Point

Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton Discuss Women's Issues

As part of the Obama campaigns Women for the Change We Need Week of Action, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton got together for a conversation with women on the issues that are most important to them.

Clinton avoids Palin, focuses criticism on McCain--By BETH FOUHY, Associated Press Writer

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton is avoiding a public face-off with Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, the new female star of the 2008 campaign, while still raising money and votes for the Democrat who wrested the presidential nomination from her.

Barack Obama's advisers and Clinton aides say she will resist pressure to speak out against Palin, believing it would diminish the former first lady's stature while creating a sideshow that would only distract from the top of the ticket contest. Any mention Clinton makes of Palin will only be in the context of her partnership with GOP nominee John McCain, aides said.

The New York senator abruptly canceled an appearance at a rally protesting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after learning that Palin had also been invited to the event scheduled next week outside the United Nations. Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines said Clinton was never told that the Alaska governor would be there.

A spokeswoman for Palin, Tracey Schmitt, said of Clinton's cancellation: "Gov. Palin believes that the danger of a nuclear Iran is greater than party or politics. She hopes that all parties can rally together in opposition to this grave threat."

When McCain chose Palin as his running mate, a new chapter began in Clinton's complicated political saga.

Besides her own sore feelings for losing the nomination to Obama — not to mention about $24 million in campaign debt — Clinton has had to deal with the disappointment of many supporters angry at what they perceived as sexist treatment of her by the Obama campaign and the news media.

One prominent Clinton backer and fundraiser, Lynn Forester de Rothschild, announced her support for McCain on Wednesday. The former Democratic Party platform committee member has said Obama is arrogant and has a problem connecting with average Americans.

Indeed, an Associated Press-Yahoo News poll conducted Sept. 5-15 found that 26 percent of voters who supported Clinton are now backing McCain and Palin, who was brought on in part to woo women voters.

Clinton took a light approach to Palin this week on ABC's "Good Morning America," one of a handful of national interviews she has granted since abandoning her presidential bid in June.

"You know, I think the point is not the vice presidential candidate on the other side, with all due respect. It is the presidential candidate," Clinton said. "Sen. McCain is not offering much of a change from what has already been the policies of the Republicans and of this administration."

Susie Tompkins Buell, a Clinton supporter and fundraiser who only recently announced she would back Obama in the general election, said she agreed Clinton should avoid being an "attack dog" against Palin.

But Buell said Obama should showcase Clinton more prominently if he hopes to win in November.

"I think the Obama campaign should use her as much as they can because they need her terribly. This isn't looking so great right now," she said.

Clinton has said repeatedly that she would do whatever the Obama campaign asked her to do, and so far she has made good on that promise.

"We couldn't be happier," Obama spokesman Bill Burton said, adding that officials would ask Clinton to step up campaign appearances after the Senate adjourns this month.

Clinton traveled last weekend to Ohio, a major battleground state, and has campaigned for Obama in Florida, Nevada and New Mexico. She's raised more than $4 million for Obama and is planning another fundraising reception next week in New York slated to bring in about $500,000.

Clinton is also campaigning on behalf of Democratic Senate and House candidates, where she talks up the need to strengthen the party's majorities in Congress to help an Obama administration. She planned to address a rally in Kentucky on Saturday on behalf of Bruce Lunsford, who is challenging veteran GOP Sen. Mitch McConnell, the minority leader.

Clinton has a warm relationship with Democratic vice presidential nominee Joe Biden and plans to campaign with him despite grumbling from many supporters who believe Obama should have chosen her as his running mate.

Biden and Clinton held an online video forum with women voters where they took questions on pay equity, abortion rights and other issues. The forum was to be broadcast Wednesday evening on Obama's campaign Web site.

Day 3: Behind-the-Scenes with Hillary in Denver

This is Part 3 of a Behind-the-Scenes series following Hillary through Denver at the Democratic National Convention. We caught up with Hillary just before the roll call vote to nominate Senator Obama. Take a look and please continue to learn more by visiting http://www.hillaryclinton.com/.

OBAMA, ON HILLARY'S MOTION, NOMINATED BY ACCLAMATION

Day 2: Behind-the-Scenes with Hillary in Denver

This is Part 2 of a Behind-the-Scenes series following Hillary through Denver at the Democratic National Convention. We caught up with Hillary right before she spoke at the Emily's List Gala. Check back to www.hillaryclinton.com for more updates!

HILLARY CLINTON: Speech to Denver Convention

Sen. Hillary Clinton encourages Democrats to support Barack Obama for president.

2008 DNC: Hillary Clinton Tribute

The DNC takes a look at the life and achievements of Hillary Clinton.