Well, the Calendar Girl had a very busy month of October, so she could not be with her Romeo on Halloween. Actually, yours truly saw Bill Clinton at a campaign event the day after Hillary's birthday. He whispered something to my Congressman. Congressman Pascrell visibly paled. I could not tell what Pascrell said. He had turned away from me toward Bill. But I could see Bill and read his lips when he said, "No. She's safe." I knew then that she was already wheels-down in Pakistan, a trip I dreaded for her, and I also knew that something bad had happened, and we would not know until the next day. It was the terrible market bombing in Peshawar timed to coincide with her arrival.
She began the month of October on home ground meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister of Viet Nam, to me, an amazing thing.
And was welcomed at a huge speaking event with Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, at The George Washington University, televised on CNN, and moderated by Christiane Amapour.
Before leaving on a trip to Europe, she stepped into the fray on late night TV between Conan O'Brien and Hon. Corey Booker, Mayor of Newark, N.J. Soon after landing in Zurich, she applied those same conflict resolution skills to salvaging the Turkey-Armenia accord.
From there it was on to the U.K. and meetings with close allies P.M. Gordon Brown and F.M. David Miliband.
She went both to Ireland and to Northern Ireland where she addressed the Stormont Assembly.
Then it was on to Russia where she held town halls at universities and spoke on a radio show.
She was not home long, before rumors began to fly about the Pakistan trip, an ETA was not being released by State, but press sources in India and Pakistan were speculating. I believe she actually left on this trip on her birthday. She met with P.M. Gilani and F.M. Qureshi.
From Pakistan, she moved on to Abu Dhabi where she met briefly with Mahmod Abbas.
Before ending the month of October in Israel. Here she is pictured with Ehud Barak.
So October ends with Hillary a year older and every bit as beautful as when the month began despite the heavy travel schedule and the tensions she was dealing with.
Here are the archives for October 2009 at this blog.
