Trusted Source: HRC Takes State.
Mr. Obama has offered her the job, and HRC is moving toward accepting the job as Secretary of State. The Obama administration is working on the deal that will dominate political chat for
the rest of this gloomy year, and the best information now is that all the stars have lined up for Mrs. Clinton to accept the job. There will be rough edges, such as dealing with the many entangled details of Bill Clinton's global affairs, but nothing profound. It will provide the Obama team a major voice in world affairs with credibility immediately on Israel and Palestine, on Russia, on China and East Asia economies. Mrs. Clinton will be the third female StateSec and not attract interference about being the first female, or being an awkward official for the hairy potentates overseas to deal with. She will need independence and broad funding support; she will need an air force and a whole new political apparatus built upon the antique political offices at State; but she will have the foundations of a massive reawakening of State as the traditionally first and most senior Cabinet post -- the Prime Ministry of the United States of America.
Why HRC Takes State:
1. HRC has the opportunity to redraw the map from Islamabad to Tripoli, especially with regard Pakistan, Iraq and Gaza. Tehran respects her. Riyadh cannot figure her. Hamas and Fatah trust her. Who knows why?.
2. HRC can find Osama Bin Laden. Remember him? Also, the next attack on the Homeland makes the State Sec the primary minister to direct and consolidate the allies at the U.N, and she already enjoys the respect of the UN Security Council.
3. The best StaeSec was George Marshall, because he built a permanent peace in Western Europe. HRC has the chance to build a permanent peace in Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. How? At the bargaining table, the Russian P.M. Mr. Putin cannot out stare her and cannot read her.
4. The PR China trusts her. Who knows why?
5. President Clinton will do what she asks and quickly. Mr. Clinton is the most effective foreign policy weapon in the American arsenal at least since TR and possibly since Benjamin Franklin, a man for all continents.
6. The president asks for her help. It does come to this. Mr. Obama is now the office, and when the office asks for your help, you say, "Yes, Mr. President."
So does this take her out of contention for 2012?
“It’s 4:30AM on a Tuesday: It doesn’t get much worse than this”. I woke up with a start: Nightmares. I dreamt of a mine. (“And nothing’s more precious than a hole in the ground.”) There was an endless row of trucks lined up in front of the rock gushing spout, each patiently awaiting its turn. As soon as it was full, it would drive away and the next one crawled forward to assume its supine position.
Then the mine morphed into the U.S. Treasury. I came close enough to read the writing on the truck doors. There were the names of automobile companies, banks, investment firms; several of the 50 States were represented; foreign countries, homeowners – like I say, the cue was endless.
My own 401K is now below what I myself have put into it. They’re now cutting into the bone. I sat up in bed and found myself bleeding. Already I’m paying $7 for a pack of cigarettes and there’s still only 20 to a pack. I’m wondering how soon I’ll be needing a wheelbarrow to buy a loaf of bread.
Hillary for Secretary of State? Who cares at this point? The ship is taking on water. We’ve ceded the waterways to pirates on rubber rafts. Re-arranging the deck chairs on a sinking ship has always been a pointless task. Irony is a frivolous pastime in these vanishing times.
I like it. Does Mr Clinton go to the UN?
I'm afraid I have a different take on that thick-ankled mediocrity. She can no more find Bin Laden that she can keep track of her financial records. And as for her ability to deal with Putin...well, that condescending schoolmarm's tone she incessantly uses might get on that formidable character's nerves enough to spoil his concentration some, but that's about it.
Yes, I think it does...barring anything catastrophic to mar O's reign, he gets to live @ 1600 for 8 years - and, should HRC want it, she can keep herself and BillyBoy jetting around the world for the same amt of time. The job is tailor-made for the two of them. Gives the Clinton's visibility and glory on the world stage, and keeps them out of Barry's hair! She has to answer to him - not vice versa. At the end of 8 years, she'll be close to 70. Unlikely she will want to run then..of course, anything is possible with the Clintons!
Seriously, I don´t get the "strange new respect" for HRC. What has she done except staying around?
Look on the bright side: the more time she spends travelling around the world, the less time she spends fouling up the United States.
I've punched people at bars for paying Bill Clinton a compliment as glowing as the above; but I'm going to suspend judgment and see where John is going with this.
First 1st lady to be a Senator, First 1st Lady to be SecState. She's got a legacy, and now is automatically the candidate of choice if Biden has to leave Observatory Circle. A racist remark hidden somewhere? FBI tapes? Doesn't the Senate approve VPs between elections?
After Bush 43 has ruined foreign relations, Madame Secretary will have a full time honeymoon for 4 years. Unless Israel blows up or Iran goes Nook-uh-luhr, she will have the easiest job in the cabinet.
Her military expertise and foreign experience... "I can see the Bronx from my house!" will help her as well.
Anon, which foreign relations are you most concerned about Bush having "ruined"? Those with Kim Jong Il? Fidel and Raul Castro? Vladimir Putin? Ahmadinejad? Saddam Hussein? Hugo Chavez? Or with the spineless, good-for-nothing socialist leaders of the EU, who want us to take the PR fall for protecting their national security, fund the IMF, and foot the bill for some phony global warming crisis that could be called the brainchild of Al Gore but for the fact that doing so would leave it orphaned?
The good guys out there like us .... and there hasn't been a second 9/11, knock wood, in over 7 years. Blaming Bush for "ruining" our foreign policy is just absurd ... do you blame Obama for provoking al-Qaeda's remarks today? Oh, darn, now Obama has gone and ruined our relationship with al-Qaeda!
HRC is not stupid, but she is aging. When men age, they look distinguished; when women age, the just look old. If she takes the job, it will be a signal that she knows her days in national politics are over, no matter what gloss she and Bill put on it.
"The best StaeSec was George Marshall, because he built a permanent peace in Western Europe."
There were a couple of reasons for that, chiefest of which was the fact that he masterminded the successful war effort. It didn't hurt that no one else was left standing after WW2 so the US had a largely free hand to shape policy without interference from the likes of the European ankle-biters that have plagued us since the fall of the Soviet Union. HRC won't have the luxury of either. She has . . . Bill.
"the next attack on the Homeland makes the State Sec the primary minister to direct and consolidate the allies at the U.N."
John, yer havin' us on.