Hillary embarrassed by White House records

Hillary Clinton's argument that she is more experienced than her rival Barack Obama - 'Ready on Day One' is her slogan - took a blow on Wednesday when archived schedules from her days as First Lady were made public. Far from showing her at the centre of decision-making, they indicate that she was often nowhere near the action during some of the key events of Bill Clinton's presidency.

When Nato launched air strikes against Serbia, for instance, Hills was visiting King Tut's tomb and the temple of Hatshepsut in Egypt. She dined at the Temple of Luxor, and stayed overnight at the Sofitel Winter Palace Hotel there.

When the presidents of three Balkan states signed a peace agreement in November 1995, ending years of ethnic violence in the former Yugoslavia, Clinton was in Washington. But the signing was in Dayton, Ohio.

As for Northern Ireland, Hillary Clinton's claim that she was "instrumental"
in bringing peace to the province now looks decidedly shaky. Her schedules do not record a single meeting there. Instead, they detail the sort of handshaking and bouquet-accepting duties that every other first lady - or prime minister's wife - has to endure.

On one trip to Belfast with Bill, her schedule records that she and Cherie Blair were to "proceed to the children's play area, where children are creating playground models". They were then to "proceed down the path where they are joined by 25 children with balloons" and go "to the top of the hill and release the balloons". Hardly peace-making diplomacy in action.

Things looked more promising on a solo trip to Belfast when she paid a visit to Stormont to meet David Trimble, then Northern Ireland's First Minister, and his deputy, Seamus Mallon. However, the records show that the meeting was limited to a five-minute "courtesy call" before the real purpose of the visit - 40 minutes in which "the First Lady mixes and mingles with the women assembly members". No wonder she's itching to be president.