Hillary Clinton Crosses "The Commander In Chief Threshold" During Her Time As First Lady: Illustrated


Sen. Clinton repeatedly cites 35 years of experience as a major rationale for her presidential candidacy. Next to her term in the Senate (in which the most significant vote she cast was a vote in favor of the Iraq war), the only other experience of hers that has national significance is the 8 years she served as First Lady. As she and her campaign recounts it, this was a high intensity position, one in which she had a major role to play in earthshaking decisions affecting millions of people. Certainly her husband, the president, turned to his spouse for advice on the issues of the day - though he is the one who ultimately made the decisions - what else did she do in her official role as First Lady of the United States that now apparently makes her more qualified than Sen. Obama to be the commander-in-chief, as she says? Let's look.

First Lady Hillary Clinton, with her husband the President, at the Easter Egg Roll on the White House lawn. She may as well be ordering an airstrike on Bosnia.

First Lady Hillary Clinton at a state dinner with her husband, the President. It's not everyone who knows which fork is the salad fork you know.

First Lady Hillary Clinton and the White House Christmas tree. Can we roll the dice on someone who hasn't chosen the decorations for a really big Christmas tree before? I don't think so.

First Lady Hillary Clinton smiles and waves at her husband, the President's second inaugural. Smiles. And waves. At the same time. Do they even teach you how to do that in Illinois?

First Lady Hillary Clinton poses with her family at Christmas. Bold. Decisive. Ready to Lead.

First Lady Hillary Clinton reads to some children. Notice how the Cat In The Hat resembles a member of Al Qaeda? Hillary did.

First Lady Hillary Clinton attends Richard Nixons funeral with her husband, the President. Look how she attended the frick out of that ceremony!

First Lady Hillary Clinton as part of her role leading the health care reform task force, speaks to a senior citizen. This, uh, failed miserably.

First Lady Hillary Clinton meets with some girl scouts. This is totally like meeting with soldiers. That is, soldiers who are as cute as a button and love playing with Barbies.

First Lady Hillary Clinton oversees the construction of a gingerbread house. For our purposes substitute "Baghdad" or "New Orleans" for "gingerbread house" and you can see where I'm going with this.

First Lady Hillary Clinton and some Sesame Street characters meet. It's like a high level meeting at Camp David. Right.

First Lady Hillary Clinton cuts the ribbon of a Women's Wellness Center. Many refer to this as her version of "Nixon goes to China".

First Lady Hillary Clinton testifies to congress about the healthcare reform task... you know what, let's move on.

First Lady Hillary Clinton and the US Women's World Cup Team. Global? Yes, she's got that covered.

First Lady Hillary Clinton has high level talks with Danny Devito at a summit discussing raising teens. Now she's totally ready to take on Kim Jong Il.

First Lady Hillary Clinton displays a book about White House sculpture. There are two kinds of leaders in this world: Ones who know White House sculpture and ones who don't. Sorry, Barack.

First Lady Hillary Clinton and the 1996 US Olympic team. Hillary Clinton is the woman to the right, just one person away from her husband, the President, the only one who at that time was Commander In Chief. He, not her, was the only one tasked by the Constitution to serve as Commander In Chief. She was his wife, his partner, his confidante, his soul-mate and more. But she was not the President.