--- title: Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama: Hug It Out description: Follow her criticism of the President's foreign policy canonical: https://time.com/3104920/hillary-clinton-barack-obama-iraq-syria/ author: Zeke Miller article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-08-12T20:28:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:47:44.745Z article:section: Politics og:title: Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama: Hug It Out og:description: Follow her criticism of the President's foreign policy og:url: https://time.com/3104920/hillary-clinton-barack-obama-iraq-syria/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltda6de7fb755d50c0/69869f4c13c79f6e0e1936f2/hillary-clinton1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: Hillary Clinton is seen arriving at The Carlyle Hotel on July 30, 2014 in New York City. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama: Hug It Out twitter:description: Follow her criticism of the President's foreign policy twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltda6de7fb755d50c0/69869f4c13c79f6e0e1936f2/hillary-clinton1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hillary Clinton Wants to 'Hug It Out' With Obama > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Aug 12, 2014 8:28 PM UTC  Hillary Clinton is seen arriving at The Carlyle Hotel on July 30, 2014 in New York City. Hillary Clinton is seen arriving at The Carlyle Hotel on July 30, 2014 in New York City. Alessio Botticelli—GC Images by [Zeke Miller](https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/) ## Zeke Miller Aug 12, 2014 8:28 PM UTC President Barack Obama and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will attend a birthday party Wednesday evening in Martha’s Vineyard, just as their relationship is hitting its lowest point since the 2008 Democratic presidential primary. But Clinton hopes to use the occasion to put a fresh controversy over their foreign policy disagreements behind them, with a spokesman saying “she looks forward to hugging it out” with the commander-in-chief. Clinton and Obama are slotted to attend an 80th birthday party for Ann Dibble Jordan, the wife of former National Urban League president and CEO Vernon Jordan, at an exclusive country club on the island where Obama is vacationing. The meeting follows [Clinton’s critique of Obama published in the _Atlantic_ this week](http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/08/hillary-clinton-failure-to-help-syrian-rebels-led-to-the-rise-of-isis/375832/). “Great nations need organizing principles, and ‘Don’t do stupid stuff’ is not an organizing principle,” Clinton said, looking to distance herself from the President ahead of a possible 2016 White House run. White House aides use the more profane version of the phrase “Don’t do stupid stuff” to summarize Obama’s foreign policy vision for reporters. Obama confidant David Axelrod [fired back](http://time.com/3103648/hillary-clinton-barack-obama-david-axelrod/) at Clinton on Tuesday, bringing up her support for the 2003 invasion of Iraq. “Just to clarify: ‘Don’t do stupid stuff’ means stuff like occupying Iraq in the first place, which was a tragically bad decision,” he wrote on Twitter. Clinton called Obama on Tuesday in an attempt to clear the air before their meeting, Clinton spokesman Nick Merrill said. The flareup highlighted the challenge facing Clinton as she seeks to differentiate herself from a president of her own party, and the limits to which she can break with him without alienating Democratic supporters of Obama. “Secretary Clinton was proud to serve with President Obama, she was proud to be his partner in the project of restoring American leadership and advancing America’s interests and values in a fast changing world,” Merrill said. “She continues to share his deep commitment to a smart and principled foreign policy that uses all the tools at our disposal to achieve our goals. Earlier today, the Secretary called President Obama to make sure he knows that nothing she said was an attempt to attack him, his policies, or his leadership. “Secretary Clinton has at every step of the way touted the significant achievements of his Presidency, which she is honored to have been part of as his Secretary of State,” Merrill added. “While they’ve had honest differences on some issues, including aspects of the wicked challenge Syria presents, she has explained those differences in her book and at many points since then. Some are now choosing to hype those differences but they do not eclipse their broad agreement on most issues. Like any two friends who have to deal with the public eye, she looks forward to hugging it out when she they see each other tomorrow night.” ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3104920/hillary-clinton-barack-obama-iraq-syria/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3104920/hillary-clinton-barack-obama-iraq-syria/"},"headline":"Hillary Clinton Wants to 'Hug It Out' With Obama","datePublished":"2014-08-12T20:28:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:47:44.745Z","description":"Follow her criticism of the President's foreign policy","url":"https://time.com/3104920/hillary-clinton-barack-obama-iraq-syria/","keywords":["2016 Election","Hillary Clinton","2016 Election","Barack Obama"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltda6de7fb755d50c0/69869f4c13c79f6e0e1936f2/hillary-clinton1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Zeke Miller","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/zeke-j-miller/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltda6de7fb755d50c0/69869f4c13c79f6e0e1936f2/hillary-clinton1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Hillary Clinton is seen arriving at The Carlyle Hotel on July 30, 2014 in New York City.","caption":"Hillary Clinton is seen arriving at The Carlyle Hotel on July 30, 2014 in New York City.","creditText":"Alessio Botticelli—GC Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3104920/hillary-clinton-barack-obama-iraq-syria/","name":"Hillary Clinton Wants to 'Hug It Out' With Obama"}}]}] ```