Earlier this week Hillary Clinton said something rather foolish that really rankled and has been tugging at my mind. Her gaffe came in a chummy interview with American magazine Newsweek, when journalist Karen Breslau asked Mrs Clinton for a joke. I suppose there was context for that somewhere in the conversation. Anyhow, Hillary answers, "Here's a good one. Helen Clark, former prime minister of New Zealand: her opponents have observed that in the event of a nuclear war, the two things that will emerge from the rubble are the cockroaches and Helen Clark," (followed by laughter).

Okay so it's a storm in a teacup, it's much ado about nothing (to quote a famous bard), and it probably wasn't reported much except in New Zealand (where it was reported extensively in fact), and I am sure it is all water off a duck's back to Helen Clark, (thats Helen in the picture by the way), and it's not actually that important... or is it?

I think it is a quite strange and completely inappropriate thing for an apparently serious candidate for the US presidency to be telling jokes about the leaders of other countries. The first thing is that Hillary Clinton needs to learn to do is to get her facts right. Helen Clark is New Zealand's current prime minister. However we in New Zealand are becoming rather used to Hillary Clinton getting things wrong, like awhile back there was her claim that she was named after Sir Edmund Hillary after he had ascended Mount Everest. Nice story but we all came to know she was born five years previously when Sir Ed was still only a kiwi beekeeper.

I can't remember now who originally made that quip about Helen and the cockroaches but it was probably someone from the National Party (that's the NZ version of the Republicans - one of our main right wing parties) and I can imagine that it was said out of sheer frustration from continuously losing elections to Helen Clark and the Labour Party. Its a compliment to Helen really and a testament to her survival skills. Helen Clark is an astute and intelligent politician currently in her third term of office as Prime Minister of New Zealand and unlike overseas leaders, (because of our MMP system), Helen has had to do this while managing varying coalition governments.

Hillary Clinton has made her strongest comments yet during a victory speech in Philadelphia about her quest to be the first woman US president. Women have been reported as being the backbone of her support, throwing her a lifeline in four do-or-die nominating contests.

Instead of making smart ass comments about Helen Clark therefore, Hillary would be better served getting tips from Helen on how to win elections and how to become a successful woman candidate and leader. It seems, however, that Ms Hillary prefers to quote from right wing politicians (isn't she meant to be a left wing politician like Helen?), and rather than demonstrate solidarity with other women she apparently finds it funny to quote the sexist comments of frustrated male politicians from the opposition benches.