following her
foreign policy criticism, while David Axelrod slams her
WASHINGTON - After an extraordinary public break with President Obama,
Hillary Clinton phoned her ex-boss on Tuesday hoping to patch things up.
For good measure, she planned on “hugging it out” with the President at
an A-list party Wednesday evening on Martha’s Vineyard.
Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said Clinton dialed up Obama to
emphasize “that nothing she said was an attempt to attack him, his policies, or
his leadership.”
“While they’ve had honest differences ... some are now choosing to hype
those differences but they do not eclipse their broad agreement on most
issues,” he said.
“Like any two friends who have to deal with the public eye, she looks
forward to hugging it out when she they see each other tomorrow night."
The attempt at fence-mending came
after she critiqued Obama’s foreign policy - and was tweet-slapped by Obama’s
former political guru in return.
In an interview with The Atlantic, posted Sunday, Clinton suggested
that Obama’s failure to support “moderate” rebels in Syia led to the growth of
the violent Islamic extremism now sweeping northern Syria and Iraq.
She took aim at Obama’s foreign policy doctrine, saying, “Don’t do
stupid stuff” is not an “organizing principle” for “great nations.”
David Axelrod, Obama’s former adviser, fired back Tuesday on Twitter.
"Just to clarify: 'Don't do stupid stuff' means stuff like
occupying Iraq in the first place, which was a tragically bad decision,"
he wrote.
It was an apparent dig at Clinton's vote as a U.S. senator to authorize
President George W. Bush's invasion of Iraq.
The vote hurt Clinton's 2008 presidential bid and bolstered the campaign of
Obama, a vocal opponent of the war. He became President - and named Clinton as
his first secretary of state.
While Axelrod no longer works in the White House, he remains close to
his former boss.
His shot at Clinton suggested Obama allies were simmering at Clinton's
comments, which appeared aimed at bolstering her expected 2016 presidential
candidacy at Obama's expense.
Some prominent liberals also took issue with her comments, raising the
prospect that if she runs in 2016, she could have a problem with her party’s
liberal wing, just as she did in 2008.
"Secretary Clinton ... should think long and hard before embracing
the same policies advocated by right-wing war hawks that got America into Iraq
in the first place and helped set the stage for Iraq's troubles today,"
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