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.