Clinton probed Argentine leader's 'nerves,' 'anxiety,' 'stress'
Tim Johnson | McClatchy Newspapers
MEXICO CITY — Seeking a frank evaluation of Argentina's president, the office of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton asked the U.S. Embassy in Buenos Aires late last year to delve into her psyche.
"How is Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner managing her nerves and anxiety?" asked a cable dated Dec. 31, 2009, and signed "CLINTON" in all capital letters.
The cable, sent at 2:55 p.m. on New Year's Eve, and originating in the department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, asked a series of other probing questions as part of what it said was an attempt by her office to understand "leadership dynamics" between Kirchner and her husband, former President Nestor Kirchner.
"How does stress affect her behavior toward advisors and/or her decision making?" the cable continued. "What steps does Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner or her advisers/handlers, take in helping her deal with stress? Is she taking any medications?"
Delving into the personalities of foreign counterparts may be integral to modern diplomatic give-and-take. But the bluntly worded cable asking about the Argentine leader's "nerves" and "emotions" may further test up-and-down relations between Washington and Buenos Aires. The cable suggests that Washington saw Kirchner and her husband as perhaps prone to emotional instability.
The cable was one of several related to Argentina released in the latest batch of U.S. diplomatic traffic made public this week by WikiLeaks, the whistle-blowing website that publishes sensitive government documents.
Under Kirchner and her husband, who ruled the country from 2003 to 2007 and who died Oct. 27 after an apparent heart attack, Argentina has sought alliances with neighboring Bolivia and Venezuela, countries led by strong critics of the United States.
The Clinton cable, classified as "secret," also inquired into the mindset of Kirchner's husband, who was her closest adviser prior to his death.
"Long known for his temper, has Nestor Kirchner demonstrated a greater tendency to shift between emotional extremes? What are most common triggers to Nestor Kirchner's anger?" the cable asked.
The cable described Nestor Kirchner's governing style as "heavy-handed," and asked U.S. diplomats in Buenos Aires to determine whether Cristina Kirchner viewed "circumstances in black and white or in nuanced terms?" Does she have a "strategic, big picture outlook" or does she "prefer to take a tactical view?" it asked.
Other leaked cables offered insight into U.S. interest into a foreign minister's past links with leftist Montoneros guerrillas, and suggested that Argentina had offered to intercede with Bolivian President Evo Morales, who expelled the U.S. ambassador to La Paz in September 2008.
Another confidential cable detailed Argentine umbrage at Assistant Secretary of State Arturo Valenzuela's remarks in late 2009 suggesting that U.S. businesses had concerns over "rule of law and management of the economy in Argentina."
"Once again, the Kirchner government has shown itself to be extremely thin-skinned and intolerant of perceived criticism," the cable said.
The Argentine anger at Valenzuela contrasted with the good relations it held with his predecessor, Thomas Shannon, an Oxford-educated U.S. diplomat with a smooth manner. According to the Madrid daily El Pais, a not-yet-public cable dated Sept. 2, 2008, reveals how Shannon convinced Kirchner that Washington did not have anything against Morales, Bolivia's first indigenous leader, and did not seek to break apart his country.
"Evo is not an easy person," Kirchner told the U.S. ambassador in Buenos Aires at the time, according to the cable cited by the newspaper. It said then-Argentine Foreign Minister Jorge Taiana called a Bolivian counterpart three times to try to lower U.S.-Bolivian tensions.
Former President Bill Clinton has some advice for President Obama.
(CNN) - Former President Bill Clinton, himself no stranger to a difficult midterm election environment, has some advice for President Obama:
Make a better case to voters about what he's done in the last two years.
"I'd like to see the president go around the country and explain it just like I did, say we've stopped digging," said Clinton on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart Thursday.
"And then talk about what we need to do now," continued Clinton, whose party suffered massive defeats in the 1994 midterm elections. "How we are gonna get out of this. How America's best are days ahead. How are we going to reduce the role of government in the economy and have a private sector that works again."
The former president, who said today's economic conditions are like those of 1994 but "on steroids," also proposed three initiatives the president should pursue:
"So these are the three things you need to do," he said. "Focus on where the jobs are – small business, manufacturing, and clean energy - figure out how to loosen the money and banks and corporations, and train people to do the jobs that already opening. The cheapest and quickest thing to do is the last.
"Have you said this to him?" Stewart said to laughter, adding later, "I don't know if that was a Jedi mind trick, but I believe you."
AP – In this photo provided by Genevieve de Manio Photography, Chelsea Clinton and Marc Mezvinsky are seen …
By Jessica Rinaldi Jessica Rinaldi
–
Mon Aug 2, 9:43 am ET
RHINEBECK, New York (Reuters) – Bill and Hillary Clinton's
only daughter has married her long-time boyfriend in the picturesque
New York village of Rhinebeck in what was dubbed America's royal
wedding.
Chelsea Clinton -- the only child of the former U.S. president and the U.S. secretary of state -- wed Marc Mezvinsky on Saturday at Astor Courts, an historic 50-acre (20-hectare) estate about 100 miles north of New York City.
"Today, we watched with great pride and overwhelming emotion as Chelsea and Marc wed in a beautiful ceremony at Astor Courts, surrounded by family and their close friends," Bill and Hillary Clinton said in a statement.
"We could not have asked for a more perfect day to celebrate the
beginning of their life together, and we are so happy to welcome Marc
into our family," the statement said.
Photos showed the bride and groom walking down a broad outdoor aisle
between rows of guests. Chelsea wore a strapless white gown with a
fitted bodice and full skirt with platinum-colored beading at the waist
and a long white veil.
The groom wore a simple black tuxedo going down the aisle and in a photo with the Clinton family, and a white prayer shawl and yarmulke in separate photos with Chelsea under a flowering tree and amid wedding guests.
In the one photo in which she appeared, Hillary Clinton wore a magenta
gown. Bill Clinton, who is pictured walking Chelsea down the aisle, wore
a simple black tux with a white boutonniere in his lapel.
GUEST LIST LARGELY SECRET
Apart from the parents of the bride, the only other high profile guests
seen in Rhinebeck were Bill Clinton's former secretary of state,
Madeleine Albright, actors Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen and fashion designer Vera Wang.
Also spotted was real estate scion and movie producer billionaire Steve Bing.
Chelsea Clinton, 30, and Mezvinsky, 32, have known each other since they
were teenagers. He is an investment banker, whose parents Marjorie
Margolies-Mezvinsky and Edward Mezvinsky were once Democratic U.S. House of Representatives members.
Chelsea Clinton, who worked at a New York hedge fund and has more
recently studied health policy at Columbia University, has kept a low
profile since her father left the White House in January 2001, although
she campaigned for her mother during her failed run for the 2008
Democratic presidential nomination.
Signs and pictures congratulating the newlyweds hang in many shop
windows in Rhinebeck, which has been swarmed by media around the world
for an event that experts estimate to have cost between $3 million and
$5 million.
Airspace above Rhinebeck was closed for 12 hours on Saturday for the
wedding and media were kept well away from the entrance to Astor Courts.
Security in the area was comparable to that surrounding state visits.
The guest list was reported to be between 400 and 500, but did not include President Barack Obama.
"Hillary and Bill properly want to keep this as a thing for Chelsea and
her soon-to-be husband," Obama said on "The View" talk show Thursday.
"It would be tough enough to have one president at a wedding. You don't
want two presidents."
(Writing by Michelle Nichols, editing by Todd Eastham)
And just say under Obama's leadership and insistence on his unpopular healthcare bill over jobs, all the spending and exploding deficits, plus the certainty of new taxes to cover his costs, the Democrats in Congress get thoroughly thrashed by the GOP come November. Maybe they even lose control of both houses.
Do you think then maybe by a year from now some Democratic Party bigwigs and money people might be whispering to each other that this arrogant Illinois guy is pulling a Jimmy Carter, constructing a disastrous....
...single term that teed up 12 straight years of Republican White House rule?
Well, it turns out, there is another Democrat -- another former senator, in fact -- hanging around now free of political tussles with an enhanced resume burnished on the world stage, thanks to Obama himself.
And a new CNN/Opinion Research Poll has just revealed that even today Americans like that other Democrat more and dislike that other Democrat less than they do the incumbent Democratic president.
That other Democrat is, of course, Hillary Clinton, who fought and scratched her way mightily but unsuccessfully through those bitter, belligerent Democratic primaries and caucuses of 2008. The former first lady and current secretary of State professes no intra-mural interest in challenging her White House boss, as she must as long as she's an administration team member.
The published CNN article focused on an Obama matchup with Sarah Palin. But within the data were Favorable/Unfavorable ratings for numerous prominent politicians of both parties. Here are the surprising new poll numbers for Clinton:
61% now think favorably of the former senator and only 35% unfavorably, both numbers improved from the 56% and 40% she had during the Democratic National Convention in late August of 2008.
It is, on one level, an impressive turnaround for the once polarizing political figure.
And on another level it's a comment on the polarity of the political climate presided over by someone who promised to bring people together and change Washington's harsh partisan tone, another postponed campaign vow like eliminating Guantanamo and "Don't Ask-Don't Tell."
By comparison, in the same CNN poll, 57% of Americans now think favorably of Obama, down from 78% just before his inauguration; and 41% now think unfavorably of him, more than twice his unfavorable rating of early 2009.
Clinton's numbers also beat all other both Democrats and Republicans in the new poll.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi has 38-50 Favorable-Unfavorable; Sen. Harry Reid 28-35. The good news for Reid is that 20% of Americans have never heard of him; the bad news is Nevadans know him well and have him trailing any conceivable Republican candidate in this November's election.
Loyal Ticket readers may remember this item of ours from last December when USA Today and Gallup found the two most admired females in America were Clinton and Palin -- and only 1% separated them.
Even more loyal Ticket readers will recall our item from nearly two years ago here revealing that the day after she surrendered to Obama upon losing the party primary race and said she heartily supported him, Clinton associates purchased a Web domain name: HRC2012.
Probably just an over-eager staffer, wouldn't you think?
-- Andrew Malcolm
From The Times
March 3, 2010
Argentina celebrates diplomatic coup as Hillary Clinton calls for talks over Falklands
(Picture Alliance/Photoshot)
Argentine President Fernandez de Kirchner and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shake hands after a meeting at the presidential palace in Buenos Aires
Giles Whittell, Hannah Strange, Catherine Philp and Martin Fletcher in Stanley
Argentina was celebrating a diplomatic coup yesterday in its attempt to force Britain to accept talks on the future of the Falkland Islands, after a two-hour meeting in Buenos Aires between Hillary Clinton and President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
Responding to a request from Mrs Kirchner for “friendly mediation” between Britain and Argentina, Mrs Clinton, the US Secretary of State, said she agreed that talks were a sensible way forward and offered “to encourage both countries to sit down”.
Her intervention defied Britain’s longstanding position that there should be no negotiations unless the islands’ 3,000 inhabitants asked for them. It was hailed in Buenos Aires as a major diplomatic victory, but condemned in the Falklands.
Britain insisted there was no need for mediation as long as the islanders wanted to remain British. “We don’t think that’s necessary,” a Downing Street spokesman said.
What began as a last-minute change to Mrs Clinton’s itinerary on her five-day sweep through Latin America has snowballed into a major diplomatic incident that has emboldened Argentina and caught the US largely un- awares. It could force Britain to reassess the level of international support for its efforts to develop a hydrocarbon industry in the Falklands basin.
When Mrs Clinton left Washington at the weekend she was scheduled to spend just ten minutes with Mrs Kirchner on the fringes of the inauguration of the new Uruguayan President in Montevideo. Argentina was not on her itinerary. The Argentine leadership lobbied hard for more respectful treatment and was rewarded with one of the most closely watched American visits since President Bush attended a summit in Buenos Aires in 2005.
The timing, days after Argentina secured unanimous backing from South American leaders for its demand for talks on the Falklands, meant that Mrs Clinton’s words were bound to be studied for any sign of a shift from America’s traditional stance on the islands — which has been to stay out of the argument over sovereignty but offer Britain vital logistical support.
Mrs Clinton’s meeting with the flamboyant but vulnerable Argentine leader ended amid smiles and laughter. She gave no sign of backing the British position on negotiations, saying instead: “We would like to see Argentina and the UK sit down and resolve the issues between them in a peaceful and productive way. We want very much to encourage both countries to sit down. We cannot make either one do so. We think it is the right way to proceed, so we will be saying this publicly.”
US officials said privately that British fears of being abandoned by the US over the Falklands were wildly overblown, but any hope on the part of the Administration of staying on the sidelines looked forlorn yesterday.
Héctor Timerman, the Argentine Ambassador to the US, said he had never seen “such substantial support” from Washington for his country’s claim. Mrs Clinton had not only offered to mediate but had also signalled that talks should be in line with existing UN resolutions, he insisted, referring to non-binding UN General Assembly resolutions from the 1970s that urge both sides to negotiate.
Ruperto Godoy, the official Argentine government spokesman on the islands, said the new pressure from Mrs Clinton was “very significant, very important” and would help Buenos Aires to force Britain to the negotiating table.
In the Falklands, reaction to the meeting ranged from dismay to fury. “It’s outrageous after all the support we have given the United States,” said Hattie Kilmartin, a sheepfarmer’s wife. “They are not looking at the people who are actually living here and what they want, and it’s crazy that they are even contemplating going against us.”
Jane Clement, who works at Stanley airport, said her reaction was “probably unprintable”. She added: “I’m very disappointed. I always thought we would have support.”
Tiffany Gillen, an American citizen living in the Falklands, wrote a letter of protest to President Obama, asking: “How can we not support these people, this country? Have we ceased to be allies of the United Kingdom?”
Mrs Clinton’s tour is intended to repair relations with a continent that has felt neglected and abused by its northern neighbour, and which hoped for transformed relations with the US under Mr Obama. Instead, he has angered many regional leaders by taking sides with the unpopular Honduran President in last year’s coup, and by boosting the US military presence in Colombia. Mark Weisbrot, of the Washington Centre for Economic and Policy Research, said Mrs Clinton’s visit was “all about damage control”. She may have controlled one source of damage, but she has sparked another.
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