Secretary Clinton with Cook Island Prime Minister Henry Puna and his wife Akaiti as she is farewelled at Rarotonga airport.
SECRETARY CLINTON is traveling to the Cook Islands, Indonesia, China, Timor-Leste, Brunei, and Russia, from August 30, 2012 to September 9, 2012.
The months are winding down to the close of Hillary as America’s top diplomat, Pres. Obama’s smartest appointment. On Thursday we’ll get a glimpse of the man who could have the job next. Since I’ve interviewed and even worked for one of Sen. John Kerry’s endeavors, The Patriot Project, which took on the swiftboating of Democrats after Republicans successful hit job on Kerry, I’m biased and believe there is no one better suited for the job, because he’s also earned it.
Kerry’s prime-time spot — he speaks shortly before Obama accepts the Democratic presidential nomination — comes as rumors abound that he is in the running for Hillary Clinton’s job as secretary of state. Clinton has said she won’t stay on if Obama wins reelection, and Kerry is said to have long coveted the position. [The Hill]
Secretary Clinton’s fight for the foreign service and to upgrade the State Department, after it was decimated by the Bush administration, as well as her efforts to reinvigorate the place and clout of diplomacy in U.S. foreign policy, will be her greatest legacy.
Clinton has had to fight the Pentagon to get well needed dollars through the budget, but the State Department and diplomacy remains a step child to the military industrial complex. From Steve Clemons recently:
She essentially acknowledges that war-time efficacy resulted in the Department of Defense aggrandizing budgets to do development in crisis areas. She implies that this was a mistake that needed correction. Clinton also said that the State Department needed to become much more “operational and expeditionary” in the field. And lastly and most importantly, Clinton reminds that the State Department, not the Pentagon, holds the statutory lead in crises — and is “demanding” respect of that role in order to make “this civilian-military partnership something more than a phrase.”
[...] Hillary Clinton has been a constructive partner with the Department of Defense and worked out a good relationship with the Pentagon under Gates — but from both an authorization and appropriations perspective, the Pentagon has continued to clobber the State Department, not necessarily of its own volition but in part because a Republican-dominated House prefers to under resource diplomacy and development and over resource military action.
Secretary Clinton broke the travel record in July 2012, traveling to more countries than any other secretary of state in U.S. history.
Tonight Secy. Clinton’s husband delivers the speech of the convention, coming after a tremendous opening night for Democrats. Bill Clinton will compete with the football game between the Dallas Cowboys and the New York Giants. It’s fitting. Reports are also saying he will appear during the game as well.
Somewhere, some how Hillary will be watching.
Secretary Clinton is welcomed upon her arrival in the Cook Islands. [State Dept.]
Secretary Clinton and Indonesian Foreign Minister Raden Mohammad Marty Muliana Natalegawa speak to the press in Jakarta, Indonesia. [State Dept.]
God, I hope she runs for President in 2016. It will be interesting to see if she does.
A lot of people agree with you, lynnette.
First she needs a loooooooooong rest.
If she does, you know many progressives will mount a fight against her, right?
God, how I hope she does, too, lynnette. But as Taylor said, she is in need of a loooooooooong rest.
I’m a Hillary Clinton Dem which is different from being a Clinton (Bill) Dem. What so many people refuse to recognize (god forbid they use their brains and their truth meters to analyze Mrs. Clinton’s domestic positions compared to her husbands) that her domestic positions are not the same as her husbands. It’s maddening to me when they glue her onto her husband’s triangulation hip bone. She’s not her husband, dammit. But,that doesn’t stop the cable clowns from gluing them together whether it’s MSNBC or FOX or even CNN.
They have quite a few differenes both in domestic and foreign policy. But, in terms of domestic policy, Hillary advocated for Brooksley Born in 1993 when Bill was choosing his cabinet. She became good friends with Hillary Clinton, and when Bill Clinton was elected president, Hillary Clinton invited Brooksley Born to Little Rock, Ark., to meet with the president-elect. She hoped Born would be a suitable candidate for attorney general. It was not to be,because Bill thought she was boring, however, he offered her a position on the OBSCURE Commodity Futures Trading Commission. In 1996, he promoted her to chairwoman. And, we know what happened then as his three horsemen of the Ogopolypse, Greenspan, Rubin and Summers.
Born immediately noted there were approximately $70 trillion of derivatives being traded on the market without regulation or supervision and said publicly she would begin writing regulations to control the sale and accountancy of such sales. (This was the beginning of Credit Default Swaps which caused the financial tsunami in 2008. And, Born was right!)
The “big boys” — Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, Deputy Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and Arthur Levitt, chairman of the SEC — held hands and decided to quell this disturbance from someone who “didn’t know what she was doing.”
And, Bill acquiesced to these three stooges. Of course, I have no proof but I don’t think Hillary would have given in to them overriding Born especially given her support for this brilliant analytical and perceptive professional woman who was her friend.
Hillary was also against NAFTA, but that didn’t get much play either. She was first lady, not the boss.
Hillary is also closer to the military and Pentagon big shots than her husband ever as, something that makes quite a few progressives queasy. There are few Democrats who have a better relationship with the boys inside the DoD.
It will be very complicated in 2016 for some, IF she runs. If she doesn’t run it will be one of the biggest letdowns.
As I wrote earlier, Democrats should not take Hillary’s “no” for an answer.
Open quote:
“”
Hillary was also against NAFTA, but that didn’t get much play either. She was first lady, not the boss.
Close quote
Yup about NAFTA and not being the boss. But, tell that to her detractors who look upon her as Lady Macbeth ferchrisakes.
Open Quote:
Hillary is also closer to the military and Pentagon big shots than her husband ever as, something that makes quite a few progressives queasy. There are few Democrats who have a better relationship with the boys inside the DoD.
Close Quote
That’ true, however, that doesn’t necessarily mean she’s one of them. I think there is a reaon for that: Money for State for development purposes which starved under Bush/Rice/Rumsfeld (and I haven’t heard that Rice ever fought for more funds for development which would have taken funds away from DoD.
Frankly, I’m happy that Hillary’s State had a better relationship with DoD than Rice’s State had with DoD and the hateful Rumsfeld. Clinton convinced Gates to agree that Congress should give more to State for dipolmacy and less to DoD for development but it was nothing near what she wanted but it was better than it ever was before. And, I think those who work for her at State appreciate what she tried to do as she stood up for them against all odds even with the support from Gates.
Btw, I don’t give a rat’s petut what the so-called progressives think of Hillary Clinton because they failed big time in 2008 many of whom will never criticize Obama for being more conservative than she but to them Hillary Clinton is anathema to them. I am a liberal and I support her. Do I agree with everything she belives? No. FDR was a great man and I will always be a New Deal Dem but that doesn’t mean I agree wth everything he did either and there were quite a few of those issues where we parted company. The Japanese internment for one. But, if he were running for office today (unlikely given the current Dem party) I would have voted for him even knowing what I know today about all of his policies. Same with Hillary Clinton.