While reporting on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s trip to Mexico to address the escalating drug war, on Thursday’s CBS Early Show, correspondent Lara Logan gave a glowing review of Clinton’s job performance so far: "Well, she seems very much at ease. That's one of the things that struck myself and other journalists dealing with her in her new role. She has almost come into her own. She's very open, very direct, taking a lot of time. One particularly important thing to note is that she takes a lot of time to meet with local women and young people, disadvantaged groups...she wants to hear from ordinary people. She finds it very useful to hear from the man on the street."
Logan went on to explain how much effort Clinton puts in to meeting with the "ordinary people": "...that's not a small achievement when you consider the time pressures on trips like these. They're very fast-paced and there's a lot of pressure. And so the fact that Hillary makes this special effort to talk to people is actually noted and appreciated wherever she goes."
Earlier in the segment, Logan also emphasized Clinton’s message that the United States was to blame for certain aspects of Mexico’s drug war: "Hillary Clinton came to Mexico with a very deliberate message that the U.S. is partly to blame for Mexico's problems and that the U.S. shares the responsibility in fighting the drug cartels." Logan played a clip of Clinton: "We have to recognize and accept that the demand for drugs from the United States drives them north and the guns that are used by the drug cartels against the police and the military, 90% of them come from America." Logan then added: "These guns have been used in the bloodshed that's left a trail of bodies in Mexico's border cities right on America's doorstep."
On Wednesday’s CBS Evening News, Logan similarly reported: "Now Mexico's getting the help it's been asking for from the U.S...In an interview with CBS News, Mexico's foreign minister welcomed the change in Washington's attitude...Now Mexico believes the U.S. at last is accepting its share of responsibility, beefing up agents and technology to help Mexico target illegal guns, drugs, and cash."
Here is the full transcript of the Thursday Early Show segment:
7:06AM SEGMENT:
HARRY SMITH: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Mexico focusing on the drug war near the U.S. border. CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan sat down with the Secretary of State last night and joins us now from Mexico City. Good morning, Lara.
LARA LOGAN: Good morning, Harry. Well, Hillary Clinton came to Mexico with a very deliberate message that the U.S. is partly to blame for Mexico's problems and that the U.S. shares the responsibility in fighting the drug cartels.
HILLARY CLINTON: We have to recognize and accept that the demand for drugs from the United States drives them north and the guns that are used by the drug cartels against the police and the military, 90% of them come from America.
LOGAN: These guns have been used in the bloodshed that's left a trail of bodies in Mexico's border cities right on America's doorstep. Do you think its serious enough to be considered a threat to U.S. national security?
CLINTON: No. What I think is that it has to be stopped now.
LOGAN: That sense of urgency is fueled in part by the possibility that terrorists could take advantage of the chaos and join forces with Mexico's drug cartels.
CLINTON: We saw it in Colombia where the insurgents made common cause with the drug traffickers. We're seeing it in Afghanistan, where we're watching the poppy trade help to fuel the Al Qaeda and Taliban extremists there. So we know that where huge amounts of money are involved and ruthless people without conscience or morals are involved, we have to be quick to respond and recognize that left unchecked, this could, you know, mushroom.
SMITH: Lara, my question for you this morning, some 60 days in, how does Mrs. Clinton seem to be settling into her new job?
LOGAN: Well, she seems very much at ease. That's one of the things that struck myself and other journalists dealing with her in her new role. She has almost come into her own. She's very open, very direct, taking a lot of time. One particularly important thing to note is that she takes a lot of time to meet with local women and young people, disadvantaged groups. And I was speaking to one of her top aides about this, asking her what she hopes to get out of these meetings. And she said to me that -- 'Hillary feels it's very important to get outside the bubble.' Usually these visits center around the U.S. embassy and top leaders in the government, and she wants to hear from ordinary people. She finds it very useful to hear from the man on the street what they think of certain policies and programs, and that that has been a very important counterweight to her understanding of the situation anywhere she goes. And Harry, that's not a small achievement when you consider the time pressures on trips like these. They're very fast-paced and there's a lot of pressure. And so the fact that Hillary makes this special effort to talk to people is actually noted and appreciated wherever she goes.
SMITH: Lara Logan in Mexico City this morning, thank you so much. Good to see you.
Here is the full transcript of the Wednesday Evening News segment:
6:39PM SEGMENT:
KATIE COURIC: In other news, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is in Mexico tonight. She says Americans share the blame for the drug war there because of quote 'our insatiable demand for illegal drugs.' President Obama is sending more U.S. agents to the boarder to help fight the Mexican drug cartels. Our chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan is in Mexico City tonight.
LARA LOGAN: This is what it takes to fight the drug cartels in Mexico. The President forced to deploy Mexico's army against ruthless narco-traffickers and a network of corrupt police and officials supporting them. Now Mexico's getting the help it's been asking for from the U.S.
HILLARY CLINTON: It's important that we join together to defeat the violence and the criminal gangs.
LOGAN: In an interview with CBS News, Mexico's foreign minister welcomed the change in Washington's attitude.
PATRICIA ESPINOSA: We want to address together the challenges that we are facing.
LOGAN: Now Mexico believes the U.S. at last is accepting its share of responsibility, beefing up agents and technology to help Mexico target illegal guns, drugs, and cash. But Mexico says it will never allow U.S. troops to operate on their soil and the possibility the U.S. could deploy national guard troops to the border is causing concern.
ESPINOSA: Militarizing the border is something that is seen as a very delicate issue.
LOGAN: So National Guard troops would not be popular in Mexico?
ESPINOSA: Yes, that's correct.
LOGAN: The Mexican authorities have been making big arrests, sending a message to its enemies. Here in the capital, the authorities were eager to send another message, that Mexico is not in danger of becoming a failed state. Sergeant Ramon Perez took us around the city to show how much safer it's become.
RAMON PEREZ: We work two police officers per block.
LOGAN: Two policemen per block?
PEREZ: Per block.
LOGAN: That's a lot.
PEREZ: Yeah.
LOGAN: But the safety of the capital is in stark contrast to the chaos and bloodshed in Mexico's border cities. Critics of Mexico's war on drugs say the increase in violence here is not a sign the government is winning, rather, it's a sign that Mexico's president has stirred up a hornet's nest and is only now discovering that the Mexican sate is too weakened by fear and corruption to bring the situation under control. That could drag the U.S. even deeper into Mexico's drug war. Lara Logan, CBS News, Mexico City.
—Kyle Drennen is a news analyst at the Media Research Center.




















Editor at Large
Comments Policy
Right Church Wrong Pew
March 26, 2009 - 12:16 ET by freecitizenSo we are finally going to secure the border, but only going INTO Mexico. Mexico is corrupt at every level of society, yet their crime problem is due to our lax border security?
Perhaps if we had not listened to Mexico all of those times they complained when we tried to improve border security there would be no need for Hillary to apologize for our lack of security.
Fantasy
March 26, 2009 - 12:27 ET by cvgbuckeyeThese people are living in the fantasy of fantasies worlds.
"Appreciated wherever she goes" indeed!!! Allow me to vomit.
SOLUTION!!! Since Hillary joins her boss in BLAMING
March 26, 2009 - 12:40 ET by Cape Conservativeher OWN country for the evils on the border, I offer the following suggestion - since THEY are the cause of all these murders and kidnappings, deport ( and take their passports!) ALL American drug users to Mexico - then there would be NO reason for violence - the drug users and drug providers would all be on the right (south!) side of the border! Good riddance to bad rubbish!!
AND AMERICA COULD RETURN TO THE COUNTRY IT USED TO BE!
It is no dishonor to be in a minority in the cause of liberty and virtue. ~ Sam Adams
She refuses to blame the
March 26, 2009 - 13:38 ET by kgShe refuses to blame the drug cartel and instead blames the "guns". Those evil "guns" are the problem. It is time for "guns" and "SUV's" to unite and tell liberals they commit no crimes. It is the people using/abusing them that commit the crimes.
"DumbAssity of Dope"
Hillary has a short memory
March 26, 2009 - 13:01 ET by YahooWatcherI tried marijuana once. I did not inhale.
- Bill Clinton
Don't Tax Me, Bro.
Hillary has a short memory
March 26, 2009 - 13:01 ET by YahooWatcherI tried marijuana once. I did not inhale.
- Bill Clinton
Don't Tax Me, Bro.
Hillarious Clinton: Stalin-in-a-pants-suit
March 26, 2009 - 14:04 ET by j17ghsI'm reading a book from '63, How The Far East Was Lost, by Anthony Kubek. Never knew all the animosity FDR had toward Japan on behalf of Joe Stalin to allow Communists to seize control of China after the war.
The Soviets didn't even enter the war there until three days after Hiroshima, just in time to share in the spoils, but none of the military deaths as Americans did for Stalin.
We had a bunch of subversive Soviet agents in the U.S. State Department then. Now we have Hillarious Clinton, Stalin-in-a-pants-suit, in charge of the State Department, and today the Obama administration animosity is all directed toward the United States.
Lara says Shrillster has
March 26, 2009 - 14:28 ET by bigtimerLara says Shrillster has almost come into her own...
My gawd...how old does one have to be to accomplish that...give me a break!
...and if these twits ever wanted to get serious about the open border policy they may want to start with her and her mate, they had boxes and boxes (unopened by the way) of documents of illegals that she ushered in with their buddies she apt. to help with illegal votes...let alone the Motor Voter Law...
This is sickening...the hypocrisy and double standards these talking heads use, bad enough with the congress-critters.
Yeah...she takes the time to talk to the real people..blah blah blah.
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
Yeah, every couple of
March 26, 2009 - 18:17 ET by PeskyDaneYeah, every couple of months, Shrill tends to "finally" find her voice, or "finally" get her message out. This "almost coming into her own is a new one for me."
I have never seen someone in the public eye with such a long deveopment process. If you count her speech at her Wellesley commencement, this woman has been waiting to bloom for 40 years.
This is like an early draft pick that just never takes their team all the way through the play-offs and the hometown press just refuses to give up.
Don't get me wrong, its been a hell of a ride for her - would that any of our daughters (or sons for that matter) obain comparable acheivements, but enough, with the fawing aduation already.
I can just imagine the pudgy midget in Pyongyang...
March 26, 2009 - 14:32 ET by Prester John...shaking in his boots in anticipation of a strongly worded protest from HRC after he launches his tinker toy missile over Japan (assuming it doesn't blow up on the launch pad).
Prester... We were
March 26, 2009 - 16:16 ET by bigtimerPrester...
We were laughing here at home with the same semtiments you just expressed...yeah...she put the fear of God into him by golly!
Doubling down on stupid is not a particularly good idea. ~Andrew Breitbart
Lara Logan...the woman who
March 26, 2009 - 16:11 ET by Radar_OneLara Logan...the woman who literally tore a family apart by sleeping with a contractor while "imbedded" (more like she got imbedded) in Iraq...
WOW she's a great person....AND a great judge of character
Barack Obama= Half Honkey...ALL Donkey
Radar_One
March 26, 2009 - 21:29 ET by TN MomLara Logan...the woman who literally tore a family apart by sleeping with a contractor while "imbedded" (more like she got imbedded) in Iraq...
WOW she's a great person....AND a great judge of character
Do share!
"Apologies R Us"
March 26, 2009 - 17:33 ET by BrizzyfolkA new name for Hills current tour or maybe for the entire State department?
YOU WIN BEST POST on this line! What a total EMBARRASSMENT!
March 26, 2009 - 17:45 ET by Cape ConservativeIt is no dishonor to be in a minority in the cause of liberty and virtue. ~ Sam Adams
I hate to say it, but Hillary was right about Mexico
March 26, 2009 - 17:42 ET by R D HelmBut not because of the guns, but because of our failed, hideous "War on Drugs."
Just like Prohibition brought us street violence and organized crime, this misguided "war" has brought us exactly the same things, for exactly the same reasons.
LOL-Dave now takes cover in the nearest bunker, awaiting the incoming projectiles. :-O
-Dave
This coup has gone on long enough. The time to put it down is NOW.
~Sorry Dave
March 26, 2009 - 17:45 ET by choselife3xThat bunker is packed so full of stoners there's no more room. You gonna cower in the doorway, or come out and take it like a man?
:-O
That high-pitched scream you hear is the troll under my heel.
Dave,
March 26, 2009 - 21:52 ET by RESTLESS 1I don't think the war on drugs as a concept is a bad thing. The way it has been carried out is the problem.
I concede that I don't have many answers on this, but I am reluctant to legalize drugs. I know the libertarian answer is basically to legalize, regulate, and tax the hell out of drugs, but this would still create a black market. Besides, we regulate and tax the hell out of alcohol, and it is still abused heavily.
On the other hand, I don't see what good it has done to incarcerate non-violent drug offenders with those that have committed violent crimes, or clogging the court system with them.
Yeah, I admit it. I'm being wishy-washy on this one.
"This
liberal would be all about socialize -- uh, uh, would be about
basically taking over and the government running all of your companies."-Maxine Waters 2008
R1,
March 30, 2009 - 21:30 ET by R D Helm"On the other hand, I don't see what good it has done to incarcerate
non-violent drug offenders with those that have committed violent
crimes, or clogging the court system with them."
Exactly.
And I cannot help but wonder if that cop-killing and child raping vermin in Oakland last week may have been in part paroled due to prison "over crowding."
-Dave
This coup has gone on long enough. The time to put it down is NOW.
Has Hillary been hiding? I
March 26, 2009 - 21:25 ET by TN MomHas Hillary been hiding? I thought maybe President TelePrompter has kept her quiet 'cause she is 'quicker on her feet' speech-wise than he is. Oh, and she doesn't need a teleprompter everytime she gives a statement. Ha!
Hillary
March 27, 2009 - 00:07 ET by NorthCoasterMore Hillarity! It's unfortunate that the prerequisite for getting appointed Secretary of State, is to have flown on AirForce One with your President husband.
Cheese and Crackers are we in such deep $#it.