Hillary Clinton will not attend the Democratic National Convention
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addresses a press conference following a US-Gulf Cooperation Council forum at the GCC secretariat in Riyadh on March 31, 2012.
Hillary Clinton will not be attending this year's Democratic National Convention, the Charlotte Observer reported.
Clinton will miss the 2012 DNC — which will take place the week of September 3 in Charlotte, North Carolina — due to federal statutes and ethical standards which prohibit the Secretary of State (as well as the attorney general and the Secretary of Defense) from being involved in partisan politics, the Atlantic Wire reported.
“Given her current position, she will not be attending, consistent with her not engaging in any political activity whatsoever,” Philippe Reines, spokesman for the Secretary of State, told the Observer in an e-mail. "It’ll be the first time in decades Clinton will miss a Democratic National Convention, possibly all the way back to ’68 in Chicago.”
Clinton has made it clear on numerous occasions that she plans to retire from politics after this presidential election, despite rallying calls from fellow democrats for her to run in 2016.
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Michael Bitzer, a political scientist at Catawba College, said that attendance at the DNC could potentially have a negative effect on the work of certain "apolitical" cabinet members, such as Clinton.
“I can’t think of one (of those office-holders) from the modern era who has attended,” Blitzer told the Observer. “She is certainly the president’s ambassador and personal representative around the world. Getting involved in base partisan activities may leave a taint.”
Hillary Clinton has been a notable figure at conventions in the past: her husband, former president Bill Clinton, was nominated in 1992, and was re-nominated in 1996. In 2000, she was a US Senate candidate in New York, the Observer pointed out. Her “No Way, No How, No McCain” speech at 2008's DNC was a decisive rallying call for democrats around Barack Obama, CBS News reported.
Bill Clinton is expected to be in attendance in Charlotte, according to the Huffington Post.
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