Hillary loses the plot and her moral compass in desperate bid to win

YOU can have too much of a good thing. All those debates, all those ordinary citizens actively participating in the democratic process: who couldn’t have be energised by the hard fought US Presidential battle? I’m fast becoming disillusioned.

Aren’t you? There’s something creepy about the Obamaniacs. All that jumping up and down chanting “Yes we can” puts you in mind of Hare Krishna followers on glue, no? As for John McCain, it’s the opposite. He’s a real war hero and no Jesus-freak which is something. He even quotes Edmund Burke rather well but isn’t he just a tad dully competent — or do I mean competently dull?

And then there’s Hillary. Gee, she’s hard to love. In Ireland, she and Bill will always have a special place in our affections. Both of them — yes, partly to court the ethnic vote in New York — but mainly because they wanted to make a positive difference, gave chunks of time to help end the Troubles. They didn’t need to: it was a low-level conflict with zero bearing on America’s national security interests.

I’ve tried very hard to be fair to Hillary. Twice in recent months this column has warned that large sections of the media swoon over Barack Obama. They have consistently underestimated the former First Lady’s staying power and all-round competence.

But enough is enough. The debate over readiness for the global arena is emerging as the big flash point in the race for the nomination. It crystallised with that dramatic ‘3am red telephone’ Clinton commercial.

The first time I saw it, I was impressed. “It’s 3am and your children are safe and asleep. But there’s a phone in the White House and it’s ringing. Something’s happening in the world. Your vote will decide who answers that call. Whether it’s someone who already knows the world’s leader, knows the military... someone tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world. It’s 3am and your children are safe and asleep. Who do you want answering the phone?”

It seemed a brutally effective stroke.

If there is one constituency of voters Hillary Clinton cannot afford to lose, it’s moms with kids. And if Texas doesn’t respond to national security concerns, where does? Texas did respond. Hillary defied predictions — again — and kept her flickering chances alive.

But unpack that ad, if you will. “Someone who already knows the world’s leaders?” Is this the same person who — live on air — could only make a vague stab at the name of Russia’s new president: “Meh, uhm, Me-ned-vadah — whatever?” As for “knowing the military”, sitting on the Armed Services Committee is one thing; being holed up in the Hanoi Hilton is quite another.

But it’s the final claim that takes the biscuit: “Someone tested and ready to lead in a dangerous world.” What were these tests? Many and varied, so she says. “I negotiated open borders to let fleeing refugees into safety from Kosovo.”

Robert Gelbard, presidential envoy to the Balkans at the time “cannot recall any involvement by Senator Clinton”.

On China, she says: “I’ve been standing up to the Chinese government over women’s rights.” As former Assistant Secretary of State under Bill, Susan Rice, argues: “How does going to Beijing and giving a speech show crisis management?”

It’s the same pattern with Rwanda. Hillary says she lobbied for military intervention to stop the genocide but a search through the archives of the National Security Council’s deliberations has revealed troops on the ground was never even raised as a possibility. The story about her flying into Bosnia when it was too dangerous to send hubby doesn’t stand much scrutiny either. But it’s in relation to our own island story that Hillary completely loses the run of herself. “I helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland,” she says.

When some scoffed loudly, Hill’s people were on the phone to Derry. A statement was extracted from John Hume about her “pivotal role”. It’s a pity the Nobel Peace Laureate has allowed himself to be used in this way.

Certainly, Hillary Clinton was a tireless cheerleader for the peace process, making six trips, encouraging women to engage in political and community work. But, as the unimpeachably fair Senator George Mitchell puts it delicately, “she was one of many people... not the only one”.

The Boston Globe’s Kevin Cullen is less diplomatic. “To suggest Hillary Clinton was a major player in ending the Troubles is like saying Eleanor Roosevelt played a big role in ending World War II,” he says.

Unfortunately, exaggeration is only the half of it. In New Hampshire, she lost the plot entirely. “I remember a meeting that I pulled together in Belfast, in the town hall there, bringing together for the first time Catholics and Protestants.”

There was no epoch-making encounter in the city hall. there were cups of tea in a cafe, organised by the consulate. No sworn enemies attended. Instead, some peace activists who — as Hillary’s own autobiography records — knew each other fine well gassed about the old days. In other words, it was just the kind of thing a First Lady would be expected to drop in on during a foreign trip. “Laura Bush for President” anyone? The bigger question is, how does providing therapy to a few community workers on Belfast’s Ormeau Road qualify you to react correctly in the event of, say, China invading Taiwan, or Iran launching a strike on Israel, or, in point of fact, any of the sorts of crises requiring the president to be shaken out of bed at 3am?

Hillary Clinton entered the contest with a seemingly watertight game plan. The slogan inside the Bill campaign was “It’s the economy, stupid.” In Hillary’s “It’s experience, stupid’.

With huge resources, 100% name recognition, and the American people having come to regret letting an inexperienced charmer into the White House, all she needed to do was convince voters that they could turn the clock back to 2001 and the nomination was hers. It was a perfect winning strategy — for the 2004 election. Unfortunately, the 2008 race is about “change, stupid”.

There’s little doubt Hillary was an exceptionally activist First Lady. She was the first to set up shop in a West Wing office, and was immediately in the thick of domestic policy deliberations, most notably her unsuccessful fight for healthcare reform.

But as Susan Rice puts it baldly: “There is no crisis to be dealt with or managed when you are First Lady.”

Rice is an Obama supporter. She could be one of the morons bouncing up and down, for all I know. What’s more, popping Hillary’s balloons doesn’t mean Obama — or McCain — have any experience of managing foreign crises either.

But with the 3am ad, Hillary overplayed her hand.

She’s just prolonging the agony. By pushing Texas’s buttons a bit too hard, she proved she had guts, but where’s her moral compass?

Is there anything she won’t say to win this race? That fatal flaw — her on-off relationship with the truth — is coming back to haunt her.

John McCain must be licking his lips.