Right before she stepped down in 2013, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and President Barack Obama sat side-by-side for a gushy interview with CBS' Steve Kroft, mostly to discuss how much they thought of one another.
Kroft was happy to play along, providing softball questions about their best achievements and how they got along after their brutal 2008 primary fight for the Democratic nomination. Obama took care to say Clinton was a close friend, top adviser, and responsible for many of their foreign policy successes.
Fast-forward to this year, where Clinton has steadily tried to distance herself from Obama's disastrous foreign policy track record as she appears to make another bid for the presidency.
In an interview with The Atlantic, she called Obama's insipid "Don't do stupid stuff" mantra an unworthy organizing principle for the United States, and she's reminded voters she opposed Obama in advocating for arming moderate Syrian rebels.
But Clinton's fingerprints remain all over numerous foreign policy fiascos. The Russian reset, which Clinton called a "brilliant stroke" in June, has failed. Relations between the U.S. and Russia have bottomed out with Russia's granting of asylum to NSA leaker Edward Snowden, its partnering with U.S. enemies like Syria and Iran and its aggressive actions in Ukraine, all in defiance of U.S. wishes.
Clinton also said Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad could potentially be a "reformer" in 2011, although she and other administration members changed their tune as Assad's cruel actions against his own people came to light.
In Iraq, Clinton channeled Obama in passing the buck to the Bush administration on full U.S. troop withdrawal in 2011. After failing to secure a Status of Forces Agreement, the U.S. has seen Iraq fall into total disarray with the rise of the fanatical terrorist group ISIL.
The Asia pivot? It went nowhere.
The Benghazi terrorist attack remains a black mark on her tenure, with Clinton acknowledging the State Department didn't provide proper security for the U.S. consulate, and violence in Libya continues to spiral out of control.
Clinton can try all she wants to separate herself from the Obama administration, but the Commander-in-Chief's words during the Kroft interview are hard to ignore.
"I want the country to appreciate just what an extraordinary role she's played during the course of my administration," he said. "A lot of the successes we've had internationally have been because of her hard work."
From a president with abysmal approval ratings on foreign policy, that isn't an endorsement.