Despite being born over 450 years after the signing of the treaty between King John II of Portugal and Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain, Clinton cited her vast experience in land deals and bloodline connections to a here-to-fore unknown Spanish explorer, Manuel De La Salchicha, who discovered Coney Island. She cited her key role in brokering the Treaty of Tordesillas as an example of this experience.

The Treaty of Tordesillas fixed problems between the Spanish and Portuguese over how the New World would be divided between them. In the Western Hemisphere, a line of demarcation was drawn that gave a majority of holdings in to the Spanish, who ceded claims to India. The Portuguese gained the easternmost part of South America, which later was expanded as the colony of Brazil. The disputes arose from unclear demarcations in a papal bull handed down by Alexander VI. The treaty was amended several times in to the 16th Century.

A press release from the Clinton camp offered this connection to the Treaty of Tordesillas as further proof of Hillary Clinton's foreign policy experience. "Hillary has consistently shown that despite all logic, she is the better foreign policy expert in this campaign. Tied to her pivotal role in brokering the Northern Irish peace, she thinks that the American people will see her claims of experience as unassailable."

An advisor to Barack Obama was quick to respond. "To claim an intellectual heritage bound to the horror of colonialism is monstrous," said Gomi Slabha, professor of gender and post-colonial discourses at Middlebury College. Professor Slabha was immediately sacked. Obama released a statement distancing himself from Slabha. "I find that we do not need to tell the truth at this point of the campaign and I repudiate such behavior."