AdWatch: Ensured health coverage for Guard & Reserve

So I reached across the aisle and worked for three years to change that. Now every member of the Guard and Reserve has access to the health coverage they need.

I’ve learned if you want to get things done, you have to know when to stand your ground and when to find common ground.

FactCheck: Only BETTER health coverage for SOME Reservists

That’s not exactly true. First of all, members of the National Guard and Reserve were long covered by federal health insurance while on active duty. As for those not on active duty, 4 out of 5 were covered by their civilian employers

Clinton was among those pushing to expand & improve federal coverage for reservists off active duty. Clinton would have been correct to say “some didn’t” have health insurance. She even would be justified in saying that, before her efforts, guardsmen and reservists “didn’t have adequate health insurance.” That’s an opinion with which many would agree. But by falsely claiming that “they didn’t” have health insurance, she gives herself more credit than the facts support.

Should have criticized JCC for calling homosexuality immoral

A: Well, it was a mistake. Because what I went on to say after what you quoted was to launch an attack on “don’t ask, don’t tell.” You know, because my view was that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs had absolutely no right to say what he said. I disagreed with him profoundly. But what was really offensive is that he was in a position of responsibility that had a direct impact on the lives of hundreds of thousands of these young people in the military. So I went right at him on “don’t ask, don’t tell.” And you say these things when somebody sticks a microphone in front of you; I thought that was pretty good. It wasn’t. So I immediately got the first opportunity I could to say the whole thing.

1999: overturn don’t-ask-don’t-tell so gays can serve openly

Administration secrecy shreds the Constitution

Big disconnect between rhetoric and reality on security

A: I have worked very hard to try to convince the administration to do those things that would make us safer. And I think there’s a big disconnect between the rhetoric and the reality. We haven’t secured our borders, our ports, our mass transit systems. You can go across this country and see so much that has not been done. The resources haven’t gotten to the front lines where decisions are made in local government the way that they need to. And I think that this administration has consistently tried to hype the fear without delivering on the promise of making America safer. And its foreign policy around the world has also made the world less stable, which, of course, has a ripple effect with respect to what we’re going to face in the future. So I hope that we can put that myth to rest. It is certainly something I will try to do during the campaign.

Change our Secretary of Defense: he’s not credible

Homeland security not simply about reorganizing bureaucracy

Hillary’s introduced the Provide for the Common Defense Act that would increase spending and size of government as well as help pay for state-run programs that NY was not funding. The bill called for two additional security coordinators dedicated to NY, a $3 billion counter-technology fund to pay for city-based security measures, more security regulations for certain industries, and money to track medical records of first responders.

2000: sought and got spot on Armed Services Committee

Visiting upstate New York's Fort Drum with President Bush to personally thank the 10th Mountain Division for its service to Afghanistan is hardly what one expects of someone schooled on the ramparts of the anti-war movement. It is less incongruous when you remember that as a young woman who had just moved to Arkansas, Hillary had tried to join the U.S. Marine Corps, a killer political credential for a woman in the era of so-called Chicken Hawk men.

Hillary steers clear of the classic liberal agenda on defense--arms control test bans and opposition to missile defense.

Led criticism about what Bush knew prior to 9/11

Th CBS report left much open to question, but that mattered little to Democratic leaders in Congress. They saw an opportunity to attack the president's strong suit--his leadership in the war on terrorism.

The Democrat who most aroused the ire of the White House was Hillary Clinton. She declared, "Bush had been informed last year, before 9/11, of a possible al Qaeda plot to hijack a US airliner." She held up a newspaper headline, "BUSH KNEW." "The president knew what?" Clinton asked.

To the White House, Clinton's remarks seemed calculated to manipulate the narrative concerning who should be blamed for 9/11, trying to shield the legacy of her husband's presidency by shifting blame for overlooking available intelligence away from him & onto his successor.

Hillary hugs hawkish line on terrorism

In staking out new ground for herself on national defense issues, Hillary has found a big ally: former House speaker Newt Gingrich. Hillary actively uses Newt as a prop to demonstrate her newfound political centrism. Serving together on an advisory panel on defense priorities, Gingrich and Hillary have gone out of their way to indicate a shared commitment to a strong defense. According to the New York Times, “Gingrich says he has been struck by how pro-defense Hillary Clinton has turned out to be at a time when other Democrats have criticized President Bush’s decision to go to war. He chalked that up to her experience in the White House.”