How much experience do you get by being first lady?

The Washington Post’s Fact Checker has a good column with some original reporting on that matter.

I just spoke to Senator George Mitchell, the Clinton administration’s leading Northern Ireland peace negotiator, who said that Hillary was "not involved directly" in the diplomatic negotiations that led to the landmark April 1998 Good Friday agreement on power-sharing. On the other hand, Mitchell credits Clinton with taking an intelligent interest in the issues and getting acquainted with many of the key players.

"She was very much involved in encouraging the emergence of women in the political process in northern Ireland, which was a significant factor in ultimately getting an agreement," Mitchell told me. Mitchell believes that Clinton’s time in the White House enabled her to become "personally acquainted" with world leaders, which will help her if she becomes president.

Chris Thornton, a political reporter for the Belfast Telegraph, said that Hillary Clinton’s visits to northern Ireland contributed to the "mood music" that made an eventual settlement possible, but were hardly key to reaching an agreement. "Would we have reached a settlement without that kind of stuff? Yes. Would we have got one without the intervention of Bill Clinton and George Mitchell? No."

I tend to think an active first lady gets about as much experience as an ordinary Vice President gets. That said, the qualifications for VP are higher. I think this supports my intuition, she knows the players, has interacted with them, and knows how to help make an agreement more likely.