Hillary Clinton's "silly" Irish Peace Claims

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/03/08/wuspols108.xml&page=2

The above article reports on recent debate surrounding claims made by Hillary Clinton that, during her time as first lady, she "helped bring peace to Northern Ireland".
In doing so it raises many points about political intelligence and experience, the particularly American role of the 1st lady, and the influence of gender in a political campaign.
At stake here is firstly the question of what exactly constitutes "experience"- just how much does it matter?- and within that, ideas about the relative importance/influence carried by the role of first lady, and indeed, the role of a wife.
Her claims are imbued with gender influence when Clinton talks of hosting a meeting which bought Catholic and Protestant mothers together "for the first time", a declaration acceptable as a woman but also limited by its image as what Lord Trimble describes "a classic woman politicky sort of way".
This was also seen to collide with the cut and thrust of politics as commentators remember that particular meeting being crammed with reporters.
Gender again clashed with protocol when Hillary hugged and kissed Gerry Adams and Martin McGuiness, a move that Lord Trimble suggested "lost all credibility".
But perhaps none of this matters-arguably what is interesting here is what Americans are prepared to accept, to believe, and the freedom allowed for in American political intelligence.