Hillary Was Adviser, Not Decider

Hillary Clinton spent her 8 years in the White House informally advising her husband and jetting around the world mediating social crises, the New York Times says, but the first lady had little direct experience with war or terrorism. She didn’t do “the heavy lifting of foreign policy,” snipes an ex-Clinton State Department official who’s now supporting Barack Obama.

But a Clinton friend says, “I would be surprised if there was any major decision he made that she didn’t weigh in on.” She visited 79 countries, wielding soft power in the war zones of Bosnia and Kosovo and across religious differences in Northern Ireland. But she knew her place, ex-officials said. “Bill, you’re the president,” she would remind him. (More Hillary Clinton stories.)