Hillary Clinton's Super Tuesday

Today, the Secretary started off her day at about 7:45 a.m. with a meeting with Vice President Biden. Including breakfast, I'm sure, although State did not confirm that. There are some great photos of the two of them, always so giddy!

Also on the schedule, at 10:00 a.m. Secretary Clinton swore in Eric Schwartz, Assistant Secretary of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration, at the State Department.

At 11:30 a.m. Secretary Clinton attended an Expanded Bilateral Meeting, Press Availability, and Lunch with President Obama and the 81-year-old President of the Arab Republic of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, at the White House. If you are interested, read the full remarks of President Obama and President Murbarak here!

At about 1:30 p.m. this afternoon Secretary Clinton met with President Obama at the White House to brief him on the details of her trip to Africa. I wish I could find some extra juicy details on these conversations but nothing to report from the press briefings and so far no other leaks... Everyone keep your eyes and ears open and be sure to let ATHC know if you get any further info on this meeting.

Also note that not only did Hillary have a meeting with President Obama, but Bill did too! The ex-president was scheduled to return to his former residence to debrief President Barack Obama on his talks and meetings with North Korean President Kim Jong Il. Ah but don't get too excited, their paths did not cross in the halls surrounding the Oval Office, talk about déjà vu! Read more on that meeting in the upcoming post!

Instead of attending the meeting with President Obama and Bill, Hillary held a bilateral meeting with Dr. Jaime Bermudez Merizalde, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Colombia, at the State Department.

Primary topics for discussion between the two of them included the conclusion of the U.S.-Colombia Defense Cooperation Agreement and, of course, the ongoing situation in Honduras.

Part of the importance of this meeting was for the Secretary to clear up a new U.S.-Colombia security pact that has angered some South American nations. The pact is aimed at fighting drug trafficking and terrorism and will not create U.S. bases in the Andean nation the Secretary assured.

"The United States does not have and does not seek bases inside Colombia."

Under this new agreement, which was reached on August 14 and is expected to be signed in a few weeks, there will be no "significant" permanent increase in U.S. military presence in Colombia, Clinton said. Whereas under the current U.S. agreement, U.S. personnel levels in Colombia are capped at 800 military troops and 600 civilian contractors. There are around 268 U.S. military personnel in the country, where U.S. operations focus on providing training and intelligence support for the Colombian armed forces.

One huge critic of this deal is Hugo Chavez. Chavez says the U.S. plan risks sparking war in the region and has vowed to reduce trade with Colombia as a reprisal.

He has said his country needs to be prepared for an attack and plans to beef up Venezuela's army by buying tanks and other weapons from Russia. But Clinton urged critics of the deal to look at it closely.

"I would also ask that ...more countries, you know, actually help us, help us in this fight. Don't just stand on the sidelines, and certainly don't contribute to the problems by doing and saying things that undermine the efforts that our governments are taking to try to protect the entire region from the scourge of narco-traffickers."

Read the full text here or watch below (At about 5:40 into the video, Merizalde knocks the microphone off of the stand. Apparently Hillary later teased him saying something like, "I just can't take you anywhere!):

Other important meetings for the day included a meeting with NSC Adviser General Jim Jones, at the White House, presiding over a swearing in of Jeffrey Feltman, Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, at the State Department as well as a Principals Committee Meeting, at the White House.

Also, since health care is a very important issue these days and since I haven't been reporting much on it, today in the White House press briefing room with Robert Gibbs this question regarding healthcare and the Clintons came up:

QUESTION: And on another issue, does President Obama ever speak with either Bill or Hillary Clinton about health care and their experience?

MR. GIBBS: I don't -- obviously the Secretary of State is in the Oval Office today and was part of the Mubarak -- larger Mubarak delegation meeting. Obviously President Clinton, as we've talked about, will be here later today. I don't know the degree to which they've discussed health care... I haven't asked, and I will be honest with you that I'm not entirely sure that I'm not going to keep private conversations between somebody like the Secretary of State or the former President between the current and former President.

We all have most likely seen this clip from Meet the Press where Gregory asks "Has POTUS sought for advice on healthcare?" to Hillary's evasive answer of "We talk about everything. I have a rule that I dont talk about what I talk about with Presidents. Even my husband! But I am available to talk to the President about anything."

Here and other times, Hillary does suggest that she and the President speak about other issues... So, I can't blame the reporters who continue to press the same questions. I am JUST as curious to know what goes on behind closed doors between our President and Secretary of State... Sigh, but I guess none of us will reeeally know the truth.

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Hillary Clinton meets with Egyptian President Mubarak

Our Secretary was back from Africa and in the action Monday with a full schedule of events.

10:00 a.m. EST - Secretary Clinton swears in Ellen Tauscher, Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, at the State Department.

1:00 p.m. EST - Hosts bilateral Meeting with His Excellency President Mubarak of the Arab Republic of Egypt, at the Four Seasons.

During the daily press briefing we got some details about this interesting meeting. We know that it was an hour long meeting. President Mubarak of Egypt is in town to meet with President Obama, which he did today. This was his first trip to Washington in five years. They discussed numerous things obviosly befitting the strategic partnership between Egypt and the United States. They compared notes on the status of efforts by the United States and others to resume a negotiation between Israel and Palestine as part of a comprehensive peace in the Middle East and talked about a range of regional issues, including the situation in Iran, the situation in Sudan as well as about the situation in Pakistan and Afghanistan as we approach elections in Afghanistan on Thursday. Also, economics, trade, educational opportunities, human rights and democracy were all topics touched on during their meeting.

Watch a little bit of chit chat between them below:

4:00 p.m. EST - Secretary Clinton swears in Kenneth Merten, U.S. Ambassador to Haiti, at the State Department.

5:15 p.m. EST - Secretary Clinton swears in Carlos Pascual, U.S. Ambassador to Mexico, at the State Department.

6:30 p.m. EST - Secretary Clinton hosts Higher Education Policy Dinner, at the State Department. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (R) speaks as Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez Merizalde (L) listens during a joint press availability at the State Department August 18, 2009 in Washington, DC. Clinton and Merizalde were expected to discuss various issues including the U.S.-Colombia Defense Cooperation Agreement and the ongoing situation in Honduras.

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More White House Photos: Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in Cairo

Click on them! They are BIG.

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Hillary Clinton's interview with Greta Van Susteren of FOX News

Read the transcript of Hillary Clinton's interview with Greta Van Susteren of FOX News here. I am searching for a video and hope to post one soon. You can read clips of the interview in the previous post here.

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Hillary Clinton barefoot in a Mosque then attends Obama's speech

Today was the big day in Cairo Egypt. The Secretary left Honduras, on Tuesday. Here are a few more photo addtions from her time spent in Honduras, including the Secretary as she waves at the Armando Escalon aerial base in the city of San Pedro Sula as she leaves the country.

She landed in Cairo on Wednesday evening. Thursday morning, before President Obama gave his much antipated speech to the Muslim World, they took a tour together of the Sultan Hassan Mosque.

The Sultan Hassan Mosque is considered stylistically the most compact and unified of all Cairo monuments. It is one of the masterpieces of Mamluk architecture.

They listened to a tour guide as they visited the Mosque. From the absolutely adorable photos you can see Hillary looked lovely in a scarf with a matching tan pantsuit. They wandered the mosque in their barefeet, where you can see Hillary's polished toenails and Barack's unmatching black socks paired with his blue suit (come on Obama, men's fashion 101! haha!).

You can view a video of their tour below:

Up next was the big speech. With this speech the President was attempting to open a dialogue with the Muslim world. He gave the address from a tightly secured Cairo University where he quoted from Islam's Holy Book and stressed the United States was not in competition with Islam in a bid to heal the rift that has developed between the two.

In his hour long address, Obama touched on several issues from women's rights to economic development but not before he talked about his personal links with Islam and the role of Islam in American history and stressed that America was not at war with Islam.

"Islam is a part of America," he said as he called on Muslims to help the United States fight extremism because "we do not want to keep our troops in Afghanistan" but we need to be confident that there were no more violent extremists determined to kill Americans.

The president said that he felt it his duty to negate the negative stereotype of Islam in the West and said just as "Muslims do not fit a crude stereotype, America is not the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire."

He touched on other issues ranging from anti-semitism, Israel and Palestine, to Iran and Iraq, and he pledged the closure of Guantanamo Bay.

And for those that are interested you can read the full text of President Obama's speech here or watch below:

Secretary Clinton and Organisation of the Islamic Conference Secretary-General Ekmeleddine Ihsanoglu were seated together for the speech.

She posed for a souvenir photo with Dalia Megahed, the executive director of Gallup Institute and President Obama's advisor on Islamic affairs as well as spoke to reporters after the the speech.

She was also accompanied by US Ambassador to Egypt Margaret Scoby and she talked with Egyptian Christian leaders at the Univeristy.

The speech was intended to be a landmark speech that was a fulfillment of his inaugural speech promise to reach out to Muslims. Was it a success? Please comment with your own thoughts and opinions on his speech, I'd love to hear from everyone!

Want Hillary's reaction? She praised the president for making "a very significant turning point" with his appeal to the Muslim world from Cairo.

"He planted seeds, he encouraged people to have to have a conversation and to think hard about their perspectives and points of view," Clinton said today in an interview airing this evening on FOX News Channel's On the Record with Greta Van Susteren.

"I think he also challenged Americans," Clinton said of Obama. "He went right at how we can't have stereotypes for other people, as we don't want to have stereotypes about us... This was a speech that I believe will be viewed historically as a very significant turning point.... One of the most important points that he made was how if the Palestinians had pursued a different path of non-violence, of following an example of a Gandhi, or a Dr. Martin Luther King, who knows where we'd be right now," Clinton said. "That violence is not the answer. It does not change hearts and minds, it hardens them."

She also said the Obama Administration's teamwork is essential to the mission at hand: "This is a very important part of our new diplomacy, our outreach, our policy of engagement and partnership.... It is really critical that we make clear, as the president did in this magnificent speech he gave, that we want to work with people all over the world, regardless of religion," she said.

"We have no feeling of hostility or conflict with Muslims everywhere... I thought that it was important that we all be here to send a strong signal that America is doing what the president said we would do in his inaugural address. You know, stretch out his hand and hopefully people will unclench their fists."

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