Hillary Compares Nigeria Democracy to Florida 2000

Hillary Clinton told an audience of Nigerians yesterday that while their country's democracy is deeply flawed, the Florida presidential race recount shows America's isn't perfect either, the Guardian reports. "Our democracy is still evolving," Clinton said. "We had some problems in some of our presidential elections. In 2000 our presidential election came down to one state where the brother of one of the men running for president was governor of the state. So we have our problems, too."

State Department officials stood by Clinton's comments, saying that she made the comparison to stress that a peaceful transfer of power happened despite the dispute. Clinton held up last year's US election as an example for Nigeria, which goes to the polls in 2011. "In my country the man that I was running against, and spent a lot of time and effort to defeat, asked me to join his government," she said. "So there is a way to begin to make this transition that will lead to free and fair elections." (More Hillary Clinton stories.)