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Clinton gaffe: US has an older democracy than Europe
Saturday, 7 March 2009
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Hillary Clinton came to Brussels on a mission: to show Europe that the days of America thinking it is bigger, better, brighter than everywhere else were over. But her strenuous efforts were undermined by a series of minor gaffes that left the officials scratching their heads.
At a lunch, Mrs Clinton bungled the name of the EU external relations commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, calling her Benito, of all things. Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief, became Solano from her lips.
But what froze hearts at the European Parliament was the moment Mrs Clinton spoke about the complexity of multi-party democracies in Europe (compared with just two in the US) while adding, astonishingly, that democracy in the US "has been around a lot longer than European democracy".
The best explanation was exhaustion after a week that had taken her from China through the Middle East and to Brussels. Her efforts seemed to work. Nato foreign ministers fawned and clapped. And the renamed Benita Ferrero-Waldner declared: "Now we have the US with us." Last night in Geneva she had dinner with the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov. At least his names have only two syllables.
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My understanding of a "true" democracy is one where each and every person has the right to vote not just the men or landowners but all people. That whole thing that Lincoln said at Gettysburg I thought was suppose to distill what the fore fathers meant when he said "the government for the people, by the people shall not perish from the earth".
When Sec of State Clinton said we (meaning America) was the oldest she is sorta right, in 1792 in most countries "all" the men were not able to vote.
Also we as a country started out and continue to be Democratic we did not begin our roots as divine right of kings as most countries did, so our form of Democracy is more truer to what it is suppose to be.
Sorta like the difference between imitation Vanilla and Madagascar Vanilla, while they both may serve the same purpose at their core they really are quite different.
Posted by allen9932 | 09.03.09, 00:25 GMT
Making Hillary the Secretary of State might work out well for this country. Obama will probably end up having to get rid of her, and finally the Clintons will be out of power.
Posted by aboy | 07.03.09, 17:16 GMT
So much for Mrs Clinton's smart power! Her staff cannot use a dictionary, she mispronounces a string of important names and she hasn't a clue about the history of democracy. Come back George, all is forgiven!
Posted by Paul, UK | 07.03.09, 14:38 GMT