Want to know why
Hillary Clinton might become one of the great Secretary of State’s
of all time? She won over her arch enemy Barack Obama.
While there are those who like the narrative
that Obama is taking a page out of Abraham Lincoln’s playbook who
ruled by the mantra keep your enemies close, in selecting his former
rival for his Secretary of State Barack Obama has shown that it just
may be that Hillary Clinton has truly garnered the respect,
admiration and trust of the future president.
Perhaps it is “D” all of the above.
But foremost, it is the extraordinary power of
Hillary Clinton. One of the big surprises of the 2008 campaign was
her big reveal. Many thought they knew Hillary Clinton but were
surprised to learn that they did not. Although she didn’t achieve
her party’s nomination, Hillary Clinton did seduce a nation. By the
end of the contest she had amassed a loyal following and even her
naysayers had to admit she had proven herself to be one formidable
woman, a good quality to have if you are to be Secretary of State.
In her opposition’s eyes, Hillary Clinton had
always been an annoying shadow looming behind her prominent husband,
former-President Bill Clinton. When she ran for the Senate she was
met with derision. First she was accused of capitalizing on her
husband’s fame, then of being a carpetbagger. When most said that
she didn’t have a chance, she won the Senate seat and the hearts of
the New Yorkers she would represent in Washington.
Her early days in the Senate were met with equal
scorn. But Hillary quickly gained the respect of her fellow
Senators, no small feat when her enemies were the quintessential ol’
boy’s network. She surprised, even amazed many with her foreign
policy knowledge. She has been a member of the Senate Committee on
Armed Services since 2003.
Why Obama didn’t pick Hillary for his
vice-president still confounds many. Rumors abound…she didn’t want
it, Bill would have been too much a problem, Obama didn’t trust her,
and Hillary is too polarizing.
My guess is that for his cool, the
President-elect’s bruised ego, still raw from the two year contest,
stood in the way. But another testament to Hillary Clinton’s people
skills, Obama soon came around. To those that know and love Hillary
Clinton best this comes as no surprise. Hillary has a coterie of
friends and alliances, many relationships going back decades. “To
know her is to love her,” an old friend of hers once told me.
Still there are those who are against the
appointment. Oddly, they are not the members of the opposition
party. The suggestion of Mrs. Clinton as Secretary of State has been
met with kudos from the likes of Henry Kissinger and Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger. Even some of the right-wing bloggers are admitting
publically that they’ve gained a certain admiration for the woman
they used to call the “B” word.
There remains, however, some in the media who
vehemently oppose Mrs. Clinton becoming a member of Obama’s cabinet.
These are the talking heads who have built their careers out of
hating everything Clinton, those who have too much riding on their
hatred to let it go, and will continue to be a force for Hillary to
contend with regardless of whether she accepts the position of
Secretary of State or not.
“We thought we were through with the drama of
the Clintons,” one said. “Where’s the change?” ask others. “Hillary
as Secretary of State, a ludicrous embarrassment,” one long-time
Hillary-hater spewed gaining him prominence in the land of YouTube
where fame and fortune are earned these days.
And, of course, there are the Obamamites, who
bought the political rhetoric of change in its most literal sense.
They are horrified that 44 is turning into a redux of 41 and 42 with
the appointments of John Podesta, Rham Emanuel and now possibly
Hillary Clinton. They are the naïve purists who don’t understand
that change comes from within. You have to know the system in order
to change it. Hillary Clinton knows the system.
Inside Obama’s own team there is also said to be
ambivalence about the Clinton appointment although the soon-to-be
commander-in-chief’s team have formed a public united front.
Still, it is Clinton’s enemies on the left of
her own party who are none too thrilled to see the prominence that
the Clinton camp is taking in the new administration. For those who
were concerned that Obama might move the party too far to the left,
the Clinton appointment, at least in the field of foreign policy,
signals a more moderate approach, not what the left was hoping for.
Of course, standing in the way of Senator
Clinton’s appointment is the Big Kahuna himself, the former
President, Bill Clinton, a force to be reckoned with. Bill Clinton
is the King of the world stage. He is America’s Number One diplomat
with alliances from here to Kazakhstan, literally. His little black
book is a large tome of political and business associates, some, no
doubt, which could prove a conflict of interest, were Hillary
Clinton to become the Secretary of State. Reports today, however,
say that “serious progress” is being made on a deal that would
eliminate any conflicts. The former president signaled he is all for
his wife’s appointment and said she would be “really great” in the
post. He’ll cooperate to make sure it happens, as will the
president-elect.
Why would Barack Obama make Hillary Clinton his
secretary of state if that means Bill Clinton would be hanging
around? The answer may be that Bill Clinton isn’t America’s enemy,
as some would like to believe. His world-wide alliances can be more
of an asset to the bruised image of the United States than a
hindrance to an Obama Administration, a positive signal that
President-elect Obama is thinking outside the box.
Still, the person who holds the key to both
men’s futures, if not the image of America worldwide, is Hillary
Clinton who has proven herself to be one powerful lady. Here she
sits bridging the gap between America’s past and America’s future,
so at the end of the day, it turns out it wasn’t such a bad year for
women after all.
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