The Media 101
Did Hillary Really 'bring peace to Northern Ireland'? Part 1

Only now, it seems, years after the Bill Clinton administration left the White House in disgrace, taking a lot of the furniture with them and vandalizing what little was left, we find out that it wasn't really Bill's presidency - Hillary was the president all along, negotiating peace agreements around the world, opening war-torn borders, and defying the great Chinese monolith.

"I helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland," Clinton said on CNN's American Morning on Wednesday.

A Washington Post blogger accused Clinton in January of exaggerating her involvement in Northern Ireland.

But former Democratic Senate majority leader George Mitchell, who was a U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland, told CNN that while Clinton was not directly involved in negotiations, she did play a helpful role in bringing in women's groups that made a difference.

Mitchell is a Democratic superdelegate and has not publicly endorsed Clinton or Obama.

Rep. Peter King, a Republican from New York, was also involved in the process. He recalls one late-night meeting with former President Bill Clinton, Sen. Clinton and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.

"There was a discussion of how the IRA would decommission its weapons. And I know that Sen. Clinton was part of that meeting," King said. (SOURCE: CNNPolitics.com)

Not so fast, says The Boston Globe:

To suggest Hillary Clinton was a major player in ending what the Irish in their penchant for understatement called the Troubles is like saying Eleanor Roosevelt played a big role in ending World War II.

Most people inside the Beltway, be they politicians or pundits, don't have a clue what happened in Northern Ireland. And that means Mr. Clinton isn't appreciated enough for all he did, while Mrs. Clinton can traipse around the heartland, or go on CNN, and with a straight face tell people she helped get them there fightin' Irish around the conference table.

Guess it all depends on how you define help. Hillary Clinton accompanied her husband on his trips to Northern Ireland. And, at a meeting arranged by diplomats, she met a group of women in Belfast and heard them talk about their aspirations. And she was there on that magical night in 1995, when native son Van Morrison serenaded the crowd outside Belfast City Hall. But, using her logic, you could say Van the Man, a good Prod from East Belfast, did as much as Hillary Clinton to bring peace to Northern Ireland.

There was a woman in the Clinton administration who did play a major role in ending the Troubles. Her name is Nancy Soderberg, and she worked for the National Security Council. She was especially good at convincing Protestant loyalists that the Clinton people were honest brokers, not closet Irish nationalists.

In Belfast, they have a name for people who exaggerate their influence, status or power: a chancer.

By saying she helped bring peace to Northern Ireland, Hillary Clinton is a chancer.

And, by the way, that's off the record.

Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at cullen@globe.com.

Obama himself was pretty pointed in asking Hillary what here "experiences" really were, delivering one of his sharpest jabs yet:

He told reporters on his plane before leaving San Antonio that Clinton must back up her experience argument with evidence.

“I know she talks about visiting 80 countries,” he said. “It was not clear — was she negotiating treaties or agreements? Was she handling crises during this period of time? My sense is the answer is no. I haven’t seen any evidence that she is better-equipped to handle a crisis. If your criteria are longevity in Washington, then she is not going to beat John McCain on that.”

(SOURCE: Ben Smith and Carrie Budoff Brown and Jonathan Martin, "And then there were three", Politico, Mar. 6, 2008)

On the same YouTube page where Obama's rebuttal commercial (above) runs is this statement (undocumented):

As David Trimble said, "I don't want to rain on the thing for her but being a cheerleader for something is slightly different from being a principal player." The fact is that she is saying she was closely involved with negotiations and all of the key players have said she was not. On the campaign trail she states a meeting took place at Belfast's city hall, while the same story in her book took place in a fish restaurant.

Hillary also has her defenders (also undocumented):

"I know even her work in Enniskillen was fantastic-It made us feel like someone cared and saw an end to the troubles and that peace was a possibility. I can still recall the excitement and energy in the area on their many trips-it energised the area and brought a fresh perspective to the ordinary folk on the street-After all peace begins and ends with us."

"I totally agree. Hillary may not have got into the knitty gritty details, but the fact is that she was there, and her presence made a huge difference. She is an inspirational lady and we Northern Irish people understand the magnitude of her work and compassion, even if her fellow Americans cannot. Hillary for President!"

Hillary began laying the groundwork in May 2007 for her claim to diplomatic fame, when she insisted on sharing the credit for the Ireland peace agreement.

Read - What Really Happened in Ireland