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Friday, 21 November 2008
Hillary at State: Bad call, Barack
You know the thing we talked about earlier in the week, the thing that David Broder and Tom Friedman and I all said was a bad idea?
Well, apparently it's happened:
WASHINGTON — Hillary Rodham Clinton has decided to give up her Senate seat and accept the position of secretary of state, making her the public face around the world for the administration of the man who beat her for the Democratic presidential nomination, two confidants said Friday....
That's bad news for the simple fact that Barack Obama needs to be "the public face" of U.S. foreign policy, because he starts off with most of the world having such a great impression of him. Why squander that by putting Hillary Clinton between him and the world?
His secretary of state needs to be someone who is HIS agent and seen as no more than that, not a larger-than-life rival. The office of secretary of state is far too important to be anyone's plum or concession prize.
This is Obama's first significant mistake.
Posted by Brad Warthen at 04:29 PM in Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, The Nation, The World, This just in...
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Comments
Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer.
Posted by: Doug Ross | Nov 21, 2008 5:16:38 PM
Brad,
Tho' she might make your skin crawl, Hillary has shown herself to be a great negotiator in the Senate. Many of the Republicans in the Senate who used to hate her guts now have a very high opinion of her as a public servant and as a person. (There was a big ole article in The Atlantic about this maybe a year ago. The author seemed to think her aptitude at working in the Senate made her a poor candidate for prez.) Aside from your confusion between Hill and Lady Macbeth, what makes you think she can't (or won't) be good in the job?
(& while I'm at it, before you go chiming in with syndicated "authorities," maybe you should provide some support for your own argument?!)
Posted by: beetrave | Nov 21, 2008 5:22:00 PM
I explained exactly what I think about it, in this post and the one before: It doesn't have the slightest thing to do with whether she is QUALIFIED. Nor does it have anything to do with what I think of her (and nothing I've written would suggest she makes my "skin crawl").
It's the wrong position. The person in that post should not compete with the president in terms of having her own power base, or being a big celeb. Attorney General would be fine. But the top diplomat should be able to efface himself (or herself) to the point of not competing with the president; it's critically important for foreign leaders to know HE is in charge, especially since he starts out with a lot of capital with them.
As for her strength as a senator, you make my case for me. I think she's shown a lot of strength there, and could be the next Ted Kennedy (not Ted Kennedy the boogeyman of the right, but Ted Kennedy the senator who is highly respected by his colleagues of both parties), if she'll just have the patience to attain the seniority.
As always, I invite you to understand my point by reading what I say, rather than taking wild guesses at what I mean.
Posted by: Brad Warthen | Nov 21, 2008 6:04:30 PM
I would prefer to have Hillary remain in the Senate as a legislative leader. Nonetheless, I am amazed at the speculation that choosing her is anything more than a bet that she is the person best equipped to accomplish the key job at hand. There is little doubt that she adds strength to the foreign policy team. She will serve the President, and will represent the foreign policy of the country which she will help to shape. She has long been too militaristic for my taste, but Obama likes a variety of views in his decision-making process. She will not be a "yes woman" in policy deliberations, but she will work to implement the decisions the FP team chooses.
Posted by: Harry Harris | Nov 21, 2008 6:17:22 PM
Harry I totally agree. Well said. She'll make u eat your words, Brad.
Posted by: h | Nov 21, 2008 6:45:15 PM
Brad, Friedman did NOT say it was a bad idea. He said "I don't know." His point was they will have to get along much better than would be expected in a team of rivals.
As far as his being his first significant mistake, you haven't even seen them in action. Such a strong evaluation is unjustified because you can only speculate. Clinton is a strong and intelligent person. As Obama works to clean up the elephant dung dropped on the international community these past 8 years, we need a strong person.
Other analysts have pointed out that the SoS needs the gravitas to deal with leaders. Clinton has this, whether she's SoS or not. She's also more hawkish than him which provides balance.
I'll say this for Obama, he is not lacking self-confidence in this choice and bully for him.
Posted by: Randy E | Nov 21, 2008 8:04:23 PM
Perhaps this is the best way Obama could find to keep Bill Clinton from selling himself to the highest bidder anywhere and everywhere around the world.
Posted by: p.m. | Nov 21, 2008 8:15:25 PM
Obama outsmarted Hillary.
Obama will botch Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Somalia, and South America, then blame Hillary Clinton and fire her after 2 years.
Tom Friedman and Doris Kearns Goodwin don't have a clue, and probably won't figure it out until long after Hillary is canned.
Posted by: Lee Muller | Nov 21, 2008 10:17:45 PM
Hillary need to keep her butt in the Senate..
If she takes the Sec. job..she could be out of a job in 4 years...
Obama has hard job ahead of him.. It will take years to fix all of Bush's mistakes.And some people will never be happy no matter what Obama does.
Just like Bill Clinton. It took 8 years to fix Bush Sr. and Reagan's mistakes. You can only start so many wars and borrow so much money.
Posted by: Hubert | Nov 21, 2008 11:41:20 PM
You can only start so many wars and borrow so much money.
GWB disagrees.
Posted by: Birchibald T. Barlow | Nov 21, 2008 11:52:42 PM
I love the fact that Barack is appointing Hillary Clinton Sec. of State. This is not just a recognition of her talent, hard work, and political importance, but also his respect for those of us who voted for her before enthusiastically voting for him.
The cabinet of rivals worked well for Lincoln; it might work equally well for Obama. I support all his appointments and would dearly love to see Bush resign and get out of the way before he f*cks things up even more than he already has!
Posted by: Rich | Nov 21, 2008 11:52:52 PM
Hubert, I'm trying very hard to conceive of Bill Clinton fixing something.
I'm focusing. I'm zeroing in.
Sorry. The only thing I can imagine him fixing is an election.
Clinton was the first man born to be a used car salesman who was elected president. The idea that he fixed mistakes made by GHW Bush and Ronald Reagan is ludicrous.
Posted by: p.m. | Nov 22, 2008 8:28:39 AM
The current economic problems are the Clinton legacy.
Bill Clinton left a war and mess in the Balkans which still continues today.
Clinton ran from Al Qaeda.
Clinton started a war in Iraq in 1998, but did not pursue it.
Clinton tax increases and tax law changes gave us a 2 stock market crashes and 2 recessions, including the one in 2000 as he left office. Unemployment today is still lower than it was at the worst under Clinton.
Clinton and the Democrats gave us the mortgage crisis through their Community Reinvestment Act, which forced banks to write bad loans to 6,000,000 unqualified blacks and 5,000,000 illegal aliens.
Bush's contribution to the mess is his lack of will to reverse the economic programs of Bill Clinton.
Posted by: Lee Muller | Nov 22, 2008 9:26:55 AM
Brad, you soooooo overthink stuff sometimes. You acknowledge that's she's qualified, and attest to the fact that it doesn't matter whether you like her or not. Then you trivialize the whole process with this esoteric peace of nonsense:
That's bad news for the simple fact that Barack Obama needs to be "the public face" of U.S. foreign policy, because he starts off with most of the world having such a great impression of him. Why squander that by putting Hillary Clinton between him and the world?
-Brad
Come on, give the man a break. He won the election and is seeking out the best folks for his cabinet. Hillary Clinton is well know and respected throughout the world. The folks in London, Moscow, Paris, Tehran and Bahgdad view this choice with the utmost respect for the American system. It shows Obama as a man of intellect and vision to select a formal rival with no fear that he will be upstaged. She brings White House experience to the process in a way no one other than Bill could. She is going to make a wonder SofS. I'm delighted she was chosen for this important post.
Posted by: bud | Nov 22, 2008 10:27:17 AM
Way to stay on topic Lee. Wrong as always, but you know that on the days you take your meds.
Honestly I think Hillary is looking to "retire" and go on the lecture tour in a few years since her biggest ambition has been trounced. She has at least four more years in the Senate, but taking Sec of State now, she can stay on for a few years and leave at her leisure versus having to serve out any elected term.
Plus, it also gives her a good position (not that she needed one) to replace Biden in 2012 on the ticket as I seriously doubt Biden will do two terms as VP.
Posted by: wtf | Nov 22, 2008 10:31:47 AM
We are faced with the fact that Obama will be president and has announced that he is going to start a Franklin D. Roosevelt works program.
He is appointing Hillary Clinton as Sec. Of State and she has told us many times that she is a student of Eleanor Roosevelt.
Both choices of Obama president and Hillary Sec. Of State will do nothing but harm our way of life and turn the country into a nation of socialist/Marxist.
In a way it reminds me of the present auto crisis. We are being told that the unions are raping the auto industry with the aid of Viagra being bought by the auto industry for the employees at the tune of $18 million a year just for the General Motors employees.
Only in America could something like this take place
Posted by: slugger | Nov 22, 2008 10:34:34 AM
Obama had to mend the fences with the Clintons. It was a peace offering. Hillary will be this administration's Colin Powell. She will be ignored.
Posted by: Charles Broadway | Nov 22, 2008 11:23:47 AM
Not that! Anything but to be ignored! Except when we are doing bad things. Then, ignore us.
Posted by: HillacratsInternational | Nov 22, 2008 1:35:55 PM
I think that Hillary was the wrong choice as Secretary of State. She is too much a polarizing figure. But then, Barack probably wanted to keep close tabs on what she's doing, which he couldn't do as President while she was in the Senate.
Tom Daschle was the wrong choice for any position in the Obama administration. When I think of Tom Daschle, I think of Tom Delay; both Tom(s) were loggerheads refusing to blink, refusing to acknowledge the other, refusing to compromise. Daschle/Delay are emblematic problems of Washington gridlock.
Likewise, another person should have been chosen as Attorney General instead of Holder; Barack's and Michele's mentor at Harvard law school was mentioned as a possible candidate for AG. Holder did say afterwards that he hadn't had the time to view the case file of Marc Rich, a tax fugitive, pardoned by Bill Clinton.
Posted by: Ralph Hightower | Nov 22, 2008 2:15:34 PM
This was an extremely shrewd pick.
The Clinton brand is strong around the world, and that sort of international respect is exactly what is needed in the State position.
Hillary also made Barack a better candidate on the campaign trail, and will certainly make him a better President by her presence. I don't think she will undermine his authority. I think he knows, probably better than anyone based on what he went through over the last 20 months or so, how large the Clinton footprint is. I think Obama wants to be challenged. He doesn't mind the internal resistance and debate that may occur. He may actually be counting on it as a kind of creative friction.
It's an anti-cronyism pick.
But the thing that makes this such a clever pick is that, with Hillary so deeply engaged in foreign policy, Obama's other cabinet members can dive into a RAFT of domestic issues without having Hillary constantly poking her fingers into the domestic pie. She's a polarizing figure with respect to DOMESTIC policy much more so than foreign policy. This is especially important with respect to health care. Obama just gave Daschle, et al. the space they need to make things happen on this front.
Finally, people often talk about Bill Clinton nowadays as a net negative, a kind of red-nosed, rampant Bubba, but I think Obama greatly values a closer relationship to Bill Clinton the policy wonk, the hugely experienced and internationally popular ex-President. He'll get to pick Bill's brain whenever he wants.
It's a good pick. Hillary proved in the last few months, and especially at the Democratic convention, that she can pitch hardball for Team Obama, AND bring Bill to heel. Many here in America have this residual distortion, colored by the grueling primary campaign, that Team Obama and Team Clinton must be bitterly incompatible. But this isn't the view outside the States, and it doesn't appear to be the view inside the minds of the individuals concerned.
Like I say, it's a shrewd pick with deep interior logic.
Posted by: jfx | Nov 22, 2008 4:07:56 PM
Oh, and I have to give Barack a big virtual high five for NOT picking John Kerry.
Now THAT would have been a significant mistake.
Posted by: jfx | Nov 22, 2008 4:18:49 PM
Theeeeerrrrr'rrrrrreeeeee Baaaaaaaacccccckkk!
This is just too funny for words. Not so long ago, the very same people on ths blog calling for Bill and Hillary's heads are the same ones now praising Obama for his intelligent choices for his cabinet and administration positions.
Keep your friends close but your enemies closer indeed! This not some movie plot and Obama is not the Godfather. What he has done is insure we will have a Clinton Shadow Government for at least four years. No, he has not played Bill and Hillary, they played him like a cheap violin and did it masterfully.
Is this the "change" promised. Looks like a continuation of the same old politics as usual. By the way, Hillary has always been able to pitch hardball for the Democrat Party. What ever made you think she wouldn't do so this time? She proved a long time ago she can get past anything. If she stood by Bill when he was getting his jollies from Monica, standing by Obama was a no-brainer.
Yep, the Clintons and their cronies are back in power once again.
Posted by: Bart | Nov 22, 2008 4:30:20 PM
Brad, you really should phrase it, "I predict this will be his first significant mistake." We have no way of knowing for sure.
Most of the objections are based on old ways of thinking about power, about politics. It's not necessarily the pick that conventional wisdom would predict, but Obama has flouted conventional wisdom time and again since he first came on the national scene four years ago.
I have my concerns about Hillary, but overriding that is my trust that if Obama wanted her for this job, he must have very strong reasons. There have been very high-profile Secy's of State before. Why not a triple threat of Obama, Biden, and Clinton?
There's a chance you could be right, Brad, but there's also a chance that she could be one of the great Secretary's of State of all time, too.
Posted by: Phillip | Nov 22, 2008 4:51:09 PM
I also have to add that this pick is about enhancing a perceived support for Israel within the Obama administration, to better position them to broker a potential Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. I don't think any of the other mentioned candidates have as much potential as this three-pronged team now to help bring this about.
In so many of your posts and columns about the so-called "War on Terror," Brad, you don't even mention the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but the Obama-Biden-Clinton team surely recognizes that that lies at the heart of any long-term resolution of Mideast strife and terrorist difficulties.
The Clinton pick signals to me that they are going after this goal in a big way.
Posted by: Phillip | Nov 22, 2008 4:59:33 PM
Bart, if it were the same old politics as usual, wouldn't Hillary be ostracized, marginalized, demonized, spied upon, and perhaps have something sensitive and possibly life-endangering about her leaked to Bob Novak?
Have you noticed that the Roves and Hannnitys and Limbaughs of the world, the champions of an idealized permanent arch-conservative super-majority, really hate...and I mean HATE...the Clintons? Ooooh, those dastardly Clintons, always wrecking the plan for permanent, Omnipotent right wing rule! Dang it!
I don't think it was enough for Hillary to come crashing to Earth in the primaries. Some people are so mean-spirited that they want to see the Clintons permanently sullied and thumped. Credit to Obama for having the balls to pick a Hillary Clinton instead of some spineless salute-and-march ideologue.
Posted by: jfx | Nov 22, 2008 6:41:21 PM
