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With the rumors flying that Obama’s pick for secretary of state could be Sen. Hillary Clinton, we are of mixed mind. On the one hand, maybe it would finally shut up all those diehard Hillary fans out there (but I doubt it). On the other, one worries about the toll it would take on our diplomatic relations.
After all, this is the woman who said “hard working Americans, white Americans” would never vote for Obama.
She’s the one who once joked that Ghandi “ran a gas station down in St. Louis.”
She’s also the one who swore she was met with sniper fire instead of flowers and little girls reading poems when she visited Bosnia as First Lady.
If Clinton can keep her mouth in check and her brain engaged, she might make a good secretary of state.
Personally, I would rather Obama go with someone dreamier and more symbolically bipartisan, like Republican former Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel. Leaving more Democrats in the Senate and fewer on the Cabinet will help Obama more in the long run.
I am not a die-hard fan of Hillary, however, she is wonderful at changing her colors like a chameleon an Old World lizard capable of blending into his surroundings. Let’s hope that she will rise to the occasion and be a great Secretary of State. We need a good woman in this position to wipe out the stains of C. Rice.
[...] For a complete opposite viewpoint on this, please see The Pensito Review. Filed Under: President-Elect Barack Obama « It’s Christmas Card Time Again [...]
I thought Clinton appointee Madeleine Albright left a pretty high bar for future female secretaries of state.
Better Hillary than John Kerry. Send him to the UN.
I don’t know that Hillary has the experience to carry off that responsibility, particularly when I consider the mess Rice has left behind. Think about it: Bill had handlers who justifiably selected Albright, who was infinitely well qualified for the appointment during that time. Hillary, at best, is a neophyte with some knowledge of the job requirements. She has not devoted the last two to three decades of her career to world diplomatic efforts and better global policies. To be honest, there is nothing on her political resume, beyond her good will efforts as First Lady, to even begin to qualify her over more viable candidates for that post.
I realize that Obama needs to compensate her for her aid in getting him elected. I can appreciate President Elect’s need to reward HRC with an appointment that not only gets her manipulative campaign fork out of his Presidential back for the next four to eight years, but also allows her ample space and opportunities to buff and polish her own resume for her campaign for the Oval Office in 2012 or, better, 2016. Still, the Office of the Secretary of State is not the position from which that effort can or should be best executed.
Alas, Senator Clinton is no one’s foreign policy expert, even in a pinch, particularly now when Dr. Condi Rice has executed so fecklessly in the post. The Nation now demands a diplomatic policy expert whose actions will be guaranteed to make an immediate and most obvious progressive impact on America’s relationships with nations currently offended on day-1 of the Obama presidency. The political adversary who, during the Democratic primary campaign for her party’s nomination, claimed to parachute into Bosnia behind enemy lines through a hail of gunfire, with a musician and a comedian in tow, clearly is not the best candidate for the post of Secretary of State. Hillary’s strong suit is health, education, and welfare, with great knowledge of the related military-industrial corporate mazes. Appoint her to some other post accordingly.
if Hillary becomes the Sec. State, hopefully she will not be excessively distracted by outside drama or personal career plans, etc.