31 Oct Hillary Clinton’s Interesting Take on the Afghan Runoff
Clinton seems like she’s been a relatively competent Secretary of State, but her take on the news that Abdullah Abdullah will not participate in Afghanistan’s runoff election is truly priceless:
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, traveling in Abu Dhabi, gave the administration’s only comment. “We see that happen in our own country where, for whatever combination of reasons, one of the candidates decides not to go forward,” she said. “I don’t think it has anything to do with the legitimacy of the election. It’s a personal choice which may or may not be made.”
Right — there is no difference between dropping out of a race to spend more time with one’s family and dropping out because the incumbent committed massive fraud and refuses to reform the system to prevent massive fraud in the future.
I realize that the Obama administration is far more interested in ensuring that Karzai remains an American ally in the War on Terror than it is in promoting democracy in Afghanistan, but couldn’t Clinton at least come up with a less patently ridiculous explanation for Abdullah’s non-participation?
Clinton is right. It makes no difference if one corrupt candidate chooses not to run and let another equally corrupt candidate occupy the presidential palace for four more years.
That is not what Clinton said. She said that Abdullah’s decision was personal, not political — which is absurd.
She said it was a personal choice and said nothing about the reasons for his choice not to run.
Come on — she said the decision had nothing to do with the legitimacy of the election. That is obviously a claim that he is not running for personal reasons, not political ones.
This is what she said at the press meeting yesterday with mr Netanyahu:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8336342.stm
I think it was NYT who asked the question.