"The Résumé Factor

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The assassination of Benazir Bhutto had its own political reverberation on Hillary, and the campaign.

In responding to the killing yesterday, Team Clinton framed the event around the experience theme, emphasizing out how the candidate had met several times with Bhutto.  The point deserves a footnote, however, in light of Wednesday’s NYT front page piece, titled: “The Résumé Factor: Those Two Terms As First Lady.”

The interaction with Bhutto sounds impressive, no doubt.  As does the picture.  In this photo, taken in Islamabad in 1995, however, the affinity is conveyed through motherhood, as well as the fact Ms. Bhutto is looking to Ms. Clinton.  (As far as I know, Bhutto was the only world leader to produce a baby while in office.)  I assume Clinton has had more substantive interactions with Bhutto, perhaps when she was in exile.  What you have here, however, is not an example of parity or a political meeting of equals.  Instead, juxtaposed is an American first lady standing alongside Pakistan’s then-head of state.

The Résumé Factor: Those Two Terms As First Lady (NYT)

Politics and the Pakistan Effect (Newsweek)

(image: B.K. Bangash/A.P.  Pakistan. March 26, 1995.  via YahooNews)