Bloomberg’s Mark Halperin said Friday that despite using a hawkish tone and direct rhetoric, Hillary Clinton did not give enough specifics in her strategy to defeat the Islamic State.
While Clinton suggested "some specifics" in her speech, Halperin said that on the whole, her strategy remained vague.
"Although she did suggest a speeded up and ramped up effort, not a lot of specifics about what kind of coalition, what kind of mission on the ground," Halperin said.
He listed a no-fly zone as one of the "specifics" that Clinton recommended in her speech, although she had already been a vocal advocate of a no-fly zone weeks prior.
Halperin also said that Clinton sounded "tougher and more hawkish," in her speech than President Obama, and agreed with host Joe Scarborough that she was trying to distance herself from the president.
"No doubt in terms of tone and some specifics, separation from the president," he said. "More hawkish, and more black and white rhetoric, less grey than you hear from some in the administration now."
"There were a lot of democrats taking great pains to say that she didn’t distance herself from Barrack Obama," Scarborough said, noting, however, that the tone and content of her strategy "didn’t sound anything like Barrack Obama."
"It sounded like the Hillary Clinton that most people have known for the past 20 years," he said.
Clinton gave Obama a pass Thursday when asked about the president’s remark that the Islamic State is akin to a junior varsity team, saying that it is not "useful to go back and re-plow old ground."
She similarly praised Obama in 2011 appearances, extolling the president’s "smart leadership," necessary "in a complex world."