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Younghusband
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Younghusband

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November 18th, 2008

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It’s 3am…

Hillary Clinton and Henry Kissinger answering the phone

Clinton to accept offer of secretary of state job. Curzon, what do you think? [See background].

Comments to this entry

Curzon
November 18, 2008
10:53 am
Funny, I have no particular comment. Clinton has always been distinguished by her views on domestic politics such as health care. Her foreign policy vision has never been particularly extraordinary. Clinton's only been on the scene since 2001, since when Democrats have been afraid of being painted as too soft in the post-9/11 world, so it's hard to see what she would do that would be different from any other moderate Senate Democrat.

For the past 8 years, the SoS has been a glorified diplomat and representative of the US to the outside world with little influence on policy, despite having a popular military leader for 4 years, followed by a capable wonky foreign policy professor after that. It will be interesting to see how Obama handles Clinton, and how she handles the job.
Aceface
November 18, 2008
11:59 am
Somehow that reminds me of Tanaka Makiko being the Japanese FM during Koizumi years...
Jing
November 18, 2008
2:11 pm
I don't understand why Clinton accepted the Secretary of State position. It is a role in which she serves as a whim of Obama who is her boss. She can be dismissed whenever Obama feels like and should that happen she would be a political nobody. Her senate seat is only at the mercy of voters every six years and it is unlikely anyone would be able to challenge her position. She could have easily built up her power base in Congress and taken another stab at the white house in 8 years.
Curzon
November 18, 2008
2:15 pm
... or 4 years, if Obama totally blows it and destroys expectations, or Obama God-forbid gets assasinated and blowhard Joe is up to bat. Ditto to Jing.
Roy Berman
November 18, 2008
3:52 pm
She hasn't accepted it yet. At least not officially. I find it pretty damn unlikely that she could try and steal the virtually automatic incumbent renomination in 4 years though, even if Obama isn't up to snuff. When is the last time there was actually a primary election for an incumbent president?
Curzon
November 18, 2008
4:23 pm
Roy: 1992; 1980; 1976; 1968...

Not all that uncommon...
McKellar
November 18, 2008
10:04 pm
Secretary of State might actually position her better for a 2016 run than her senate seat. She would be in the news constantly, as the forefront of American foreign policy, and not as one voice in a chorus of voices coming from Congress. And think about it, if Obama has a good 8 years, you want to be part of that. If he doesn't, it would be hard for any Democrat to get elected.

I think the bigger issue is, though, how the US presidency has turned into a foreign affairs position more so than a domestic one. The big questions in our elections now are if the candidate can excel as diplomat-in-chief and as commander-in-chief of the military, positions for which few US presidents have been remotely credentialed (except Eisenhower for both, the other generals for the later). In addition, I think from now on presidential candidates will also have to articulate a vision of how the whole world should be run, from global economics to peacekeeping to 'rogue states.' I can't think of any Secretary of State that went on to become president since Jefferson, but I wouldn't be surprised if they become as plentiful as generals in the Oval Office in the future.
feeblemind
November 20, 2008
3:28 pm
You guys are world travelers and I am but a mere peasant farmer, but I am wondering if the USA is making a mistake continually selecting women Secretary of States? My thinking is that since women are viewed as second class citizens in most of the world, are we not insulting many cultures by engaging them diplomatically with a woman. Kind of a variant of the old 'kill the messenger' thing. I don't know if things would be dramatically if we have had men secretary of states, but my gut (and male chauvinism) leads me to think women Secretaries are likely making things worse. Am I way off base in my thinking??
lirelou
November 21, 2008
2:39 am
Well, we wouldn't be insulting the Indians, Indonesians, Malaysians, or Filipinos, all of whom have had women chief executives. My own opinion is that Hillary would be up to the job from a professional standpoint, but I shudder to think what would happen to the Foreign Service Corps if she decided to mandated a 50/50 male/female split for foreign service officers. State has been trying to engineer that for years.
Curzon
November 21, 2008
8:02 am
Feeblemind: I would put it a different way -- being a woman is fine, but you are correct that in most parts of the world, the position of foreign minister is left to a senior old boy with connections to the head of state, to give them stature when they travel the world to assure foreign administrations that they have influence with the head of state. That's generally what America did too -- just look at Bush I appointee James Baker and Clinton appointee Warren Christopher. However, since Clinton appointed Albright, the Secretary of State has turned into the position of glorified diplomat, where the post is really for someone to act as a posterboy for America's image of diversity and equal opportunity to travel the globe, but with little meaningful influence on foreign policy.
Whether it would be more successful to have someone else in the position, I'm not sure. Cheney acted in some ways as the master statesman of the Bush administration with regards to foreign policy, and Biden may end up doing the same. That's why I expect Clinton, with no personal ties to Obama or Biden, will act just like the last three secretaries of state -- the diplomat of the administration to travel the globe. In some ways, this the new institutional model.
feeblemind
November 21, 2008
5:33 pm
Hmmmm..... I see. Thanks for the replies.
PurpleSlog
November 22, 2008
1:49 am
I see it as a good thing, because it is neither Kerry nor Richardson. I think Zinni would have been interesting though.