Hillary Clinton’s Burqa
17 July 2009 12:35 am by Taylor Marsh
Riffing a bit off Tina Brown, this seems to be the reaction lately to Clinton. Even after doing a detailed piece on Secretary Clinton’s speech, it was interesting to note that the real focus is on the back story. It’s doubtful that many made it past Brown’s opening line:
It’s time for Barack Obama to let Hillary Clinton take off her burqa.
But if they had read further, they’d find a mix of reality hitting regarding Obama’s tight control over message, mixed with the tale of Clinton’s preferred position, according to Brown, of pouring through wonky briefing material.
That Clinton is engaging the chatter, as are others at State, is the interesting part.
The cast on her elbow is finally off, and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wasted no time Thursday swinging back at media reports that she is being sidelined by the White House in shaping U.S. foreign policy.
At a question-and-answer session at the State Department, Clinton drew a laugh with her quip that “I broke my elbow, not my larynx.” She told reporters she is consistently involved both in shaping and implementing policy.
Hillary illustrating fine tuned humor is nothing new. But why Clinton feels the need to defend her work by explaining that she’s “involved in shaping and implementing policy” is puzzling.
Ignoring Clinton’s speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, the New York Times piece yesterday got quite a bit of play. Notice the photo they picked for their article? Here’s the description: At the White House last month, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton watched a news conference of President Obama and President Lee Myung-bak of South Korea from a colonnade.
Mrs. Clinton is said by her aides to brush off the scuttlebutt about her low profile. They note that she kept her head down early in her Senate career, too.
She professes to be amused, if baffled, by a recent column on the blog Daily Beast in which Tina Brown wrote, “It’s time for Barack Obama to let Hillary Clinton take off her burqa.”
Assuming that Clinton is indeed “baffled” by Brown’s burqa piece, it’s likely because of her own inability to make the job her own in a way that garners coverage that’s as exciting as the Hillary of 2008.
Holbrooke even goes so far as to come to Clinton’s aid over the prowess argument as well. Via The Cable:
Holbrooke, buttonholed shortly after Clinton’s speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, vigorously dismissed such talk as nothing but a “journalistic construct.” He said that Clinton was deep in the weeds with him on formulating U.S. policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan and noted that the two of them had earlier this week spent 30 minutes with David Lipton, a Larry Summers aide who was being sent to Pakistan to do an economic assessment. He argued that the fact that several former cabinet-level officials work for Clinton is a sign of her strength, and pointed out how, regarding his own portfolio, Clinton had spoken extensively in her remarks and in the subsequent question-and-answer session about such intricacies as the agricultural component of U.S. Af-Pak policy.
Holbrooke certainly has a point about a “journalistic construct,” but then why are they engaging in it by defending her role, explaining her engagement? The other issue is that this “journalistic construct,” as Holbrooke calls it, is an issue because it’s not like Clinton is getting her speeches covered in primetime or at all. At State, Clinton actually needs the press more than ever, an interesting position for someone who’s kept the press at arm’s length.
Quite a few people, including readers and people in emails, have pointed out that Obama scheduled a presser just moments after Clinton started giving her “major speech,” though I find it unremarkable. I just don’t think Pres. Obama considers anyone else when deciding to step out and use his bully pulpit. Why should he? That’s part of Clinton’s challenge.
It seems to come down to the fact that people had a different notion of how Clinton would work from State. That her visibility would be higher profile, perhaps; that she’d be in the spotlight more often, having an opportunity to offer important ways to get exciting coverage. It’s been hard for people to see her as returning to her work horse role at State, which is exactly what she did in the Senate. The result is that Clinton’s current coverage is a yawn.
Given some of the reactions about the articles being written on Clinton, on top of Sidney Blumenthal being frozen out as well, there seems to be a trend in Clinton’s coverage that isn’t giving anyone smiles over at State, including Secretary Clinton.
Meanwhile, Obama’s exercising full control over in the West Wing. It’s just not that clear how strong a secretary of state he wants, at least when it comes to action.
