RUTHFULLY YOURS

Surveying the entire history of the American presidency, from George Washington to Thomas Jefferson to James Madison to Abraham Lincoln to Ulysses S. Grant to Dwight Eisenhower and beyond, President Obama recently declared that he doesn’t think “there’s ever been someone so qualified” to be president as . . . Hillary Clinton.

She didn’t lead American forces to victory in the Revolution. She didn’t write the Declaration of Independence. She didn’t write the Bill of Rights. She didn’t lead the Union to victory in the Civil War or the Allied forces to victory in the world’s worst war. Her accomplishments must be greater — her leadership even more magnificent.

Worried that I’d overlooked her greatness, I scurried over to Hillary’s website to feast my eyes on her “7 biggest accomplishments.” Valley Forge? The Starks have seen colder winters. The Declaration of Independence? White man’s words. Normandy? A beach vacation. Behold the greatness that is Hillary Clinton, in her campaign’s own words — with a few modest annotations following.

1. Fought for children and families for 40 years and counting.

After law school, Hillary could have gone to work for a prestigious law firm, but took a job at the Children’s Defense Fund. She worked with teenagers incarcerated in adult prisons in South Carolina and families with disabled children in Massachusetts. It sparked a lifelong passion for helping children live up to their potential.

Well, not all children:

Also, let’s be clear — in describing a “lifelong passion,” Hillary’s basically identifying herself as an activist. Millions of other Americans are activists with their own “passions” and hundreds of thousands of others have passed up on more profitable work to pursue those passions.

So, there must be more . . .

2. Helped provide millions of children with health care.

As first lady of the United States, Hillary fought to help pass health care reform. When that effort failed, she didn’t give up: Hillary worked with Republicans and Democrats to help create the Children’s Health Insurance Program. CHIP cut the uninsured rate of American children by half, and today it provides health care to more than 8 million kids.

CHIP? Ted Kennedy’s estate called. They want his accomplishment back:

The Clinton White House, while supportive of the idea of expanding children’s health, fought the first SCHIP effort, spearheaded by Senators Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Orrin G. Hatch, Republican of Utah, because of fears that it would derail a bigger budget bill. And several current and former lawmakers and staff said Hillary Clinton had no role in helping to write the congressional legislation, which grew out of a similar program approved in Massachusetts in 1996.

“The White House wasn’t for it. We really roughed them up” in trying to get it approved over the Clinton administration’s objections, Hatch said in an interview. “She may have done some advocacy [privately] over at the White House, but I’m not aware of it.”

“I do like her,” Hatch said of Hillary Clinton. “We all care about children. But does she deserve credit for SCHIP? No – Teddy does, but she doesn’t.”

Sure, she may have eventually been his junior partner, but riding Kennedy’s (and Orrin Hatch’s) coattails after completely failing to pass Hillarycare doesn’t exactly place a politician in the pantheon.

Is there something better?

3. Helped get 9/11 first responders the health care they needed.

When terrorists attacked just months after Hillary became U.S. senator from New York, she worked to make sure the 9/11 first responders who suffered lasting health effects from their time at Ground Zero got the care they needed.

She “worked.” That’s politician-speak for “tried.” The actual 9/11 bill passed long after Clinton left the Senate:

After the Senate vote, a celebration broke out in a room in the Capitol that was packed with emergency workers and 9/11 families, as well as the two senators from New York, Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten E. Gillibrand, and the two senators from New Jersey, Frank R. Lautenberg and Robert Menendez. The senators, all Democrats, were greeted with a huge ovation and repeated chants of “U.S.A.! U.S.A.!”

Mr. Schumer, the state’s senior senator, allowed Ms. Gillibrand to address the group first, in apparent deference to the role she took in the Senate on the 9/11 legislation.

She started the job. Someone else finished. Next?

4. Told the world that “women’s rights are human rights.”

Standing in front of a U.N. conference and declaring that “women’s rights are human rights” was more controversial than it sounds today. Many within the U.S. government didn’t want Hillary to go to Beijing. Others wanted her to pick a less polarizing topic (you say polarizing, we say half the population). But Hillary was determined to speak out about human rights abuses, and her message became a rallying cry for a generation.

She gave a speech. You mean like this?

Or like this?

Oops. For her it was like this — from Human Rights Watch’s 2015 World Report:

Women’s Rights

Women’s reproductive rights and access to reproductive health remain severely curtailed under China’s population planning regulations. That policy includes the use of legal and other coercive measures, such as administrative sanctions, fines, and coercive measures, including forced insertion of intrauterine devices and forced abortion, to control reproductive choices . . . China was reviewed under the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) in October. The committee expressed concerns over the lack of judicial independence and access to justice for women and retaliation against women rights activists. Chinese authorities prevented two activists from participating in the review: Ye Haiyan, China’s most prominent sex worker rights activist, was placed under administrative detention, while HIV-AIDS activist Wang Qiuyun’s passport was confiscated.

Next we have:

5. Stood up for LGBT rights at home and abroad.

As secretary of state, Hillary made LGBT rights a focus of U.S. foreign policy. She lobbied for the first-ever U.N. Human Rights Council resolution on human rights and declared that “gay rights are human rights.” And here at home, she made the State Department a better, fairer place for LGBT employees to work.

When it comes to gay marriage — the central progressive civil-rights cause of her political career — she was forward thinking:

Ahead of her time:

On the right side of history:

Truly, a revolutionary.

6. Helped expand health care and family leave for military families.

Hillary worked across the aisle to expand health care access for members of the National Guard and reservists—making sure those who served and their families had access to health care when they returned home. And she worked to expand the Family Medical Leave Act, allowing families of those wounded in service to their country to take leave in order to care for their loved ones.

Name one senator or representative in the entire Congress who isn’t claiming to “work” on behalf of vets and their families.

Next!

7. Negotiated a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.

As our nation’s chief diplomat, Hillary didn’t back down when the stakes were high. As Hamas rockets rained down on Israel, Hillary went to the region immediately. Twenty-four hours after she landed, a ceasefire went into effect—and that year became Israel’s quietest in a decade.

Wait just one moment. Clinton was secretary of state for President Obama’s entire first term, and her most significant accomplishment is helping negotiate the end of a week-long skirmish between Israel and Hamas?

What about the war in Libya?

Oh, that’s right:

And who can forget this:

But didn’t she reset relations with Russia?

Oh, that’s right:

And who can forget this?

But at least she played a part in normalizing relations with Iran:

America’s previous presidents hang their heads in shame. Clearly, they cannot match the magnificence of Hillary Rodham Clinton.

— David French is an attorney and a staff writer at National Review.