President Obama effectively dismissed Hillary Clinton's opinion on the Syrian crisis during his press conference Friday, complimenting her time as his secretary of state but adding that there is a "difference between running for president and being president."
Earlier in the same press conference, Obama ripped "half-baked" ideas on Syria, not unlike no-fly zones to keep civilians safe earlier, which Clinton endorsed this week to prevent more deaths on the ground in the war-torn country. CBS reporter Major Garrett asked if Clinton fell into the category of "half-baked" on that topic.
"On the latter issue, on the last question that you asked, Hillary Clinton is not half-baked in terms of her approach to these problems," Obama said. "She was obviously my secretary of state. But, I also think that there's a difference between running for president and being president, and the decisions that are being made and the discussions that I'm having with the Joint Chiefs become much more specific and require, I think, a different kind of judgment, and that's what I'll continue to apply as long as I'm here."
Clinton became Obama's secretary of state for his first term after she was defeated by him in the race for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
Full exchange:
MAJOR GARRETT: To what degree did Hillary Clinton's endorsement just yesterday of a no-fly zone put her in a category of embracing a half-baked answer in Syria that borders on mumbo-jumbo?
BARACK OBAMA: On the latter issue, on the last question that you asked, Hillary Clinton is not half-baked in terms of her approach to these problems. She was obviously my secretary of state. But, I also think that there's a difference between running for president and being president, and the decisions that are being made and the discussions that I'm having with the Joint Chiefs become much more specific and require, I think, a different kind of judgment, and that's what I'll continue to apply as long as I'm here.