What they’re saying about Hillary Clinton – 04/25/10

Every week I’m taking a look at some of the more interesting and sometimes off-beat comments the world media has to say about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Here are a few choice excerpts for this week’s report –

What Hillary Clinton Didn’t Say

By Marjorie Arons-Barron

The premise is important – the idea that, if troubled nations abide by the rule of law and have dynamic economies, they can ameliorate the conditions that terrorists can exploit to advance their causes. Everywhere you turn, even where military action is on-going, the success of United States outcomes depends on how we help others develop their governance and human infrastructure.

This was the theme again and again at the annual State Department briefing held Monday in Washington with a group of editorialists from the National Conference of Editorial Writers.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is the point person to help Obama make the case for these initiatives in the FY2011 federal budget. Convincing editorial writers from around the country should matter. But, in contrast to her predecessors who for years have shown up annually to field questions and advance their agendas, Madame Secretary stiffed the National Conference of Editorial Writers (including this year’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Dallas Morning News) without explanation, failing for the second time to show up as scheduled. In doing so, she turned her back on an important opportunity to get the word out about what United States diplomacy is trying to achieve and what’s at stake.

Marjorie Arons-Barron Blog 04/20/10

It’s Not Just the Usual Suspects Taking Potshots at Israel

By Clifford D. May

The cruelest cut in recent days was made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who called on Israel to “continue building momentum toward a comprehensive peace by demonstrating respect for the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinians, stopping settlement activity, and addressing the humanitarian needs in Gaza.” She implored Israeli leaders “to refrain from unilateral statements and actions that could undermine trust or risk prejudicing the outcome of talks.”

When Clinton was a U.S. senator representing the state of New York, she seemed to appreciate the existential threat Israel faces day after day. When she was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, she seemed to grasp that, as a matter of both principle and policy, the United States needs to stand up to its enemies and stand up for its allies.

But as President Obama’s secretary of state, Clinton has conducted Middle East diplomacy in a way that can be described as, at best, lacking coherence. At worst — borrowing a phrase from scholar Bernard Lewis — she is helping make America appear “harmless as an enemy and treacherous as a friend.” How can any good come of that?

National Review Online 04/22/10

Hillary Clinton again says she’s tired

By Laura Rozen

Hillary Clinton has said several times that while she loves the job, she cannot imagine being Secretary of State beyond one term. Now, she tells Esquire again that she is worn out by the grueling travel schedule of the top envoy job,

“It wears you out,” Clinton told Esquire. “The jet lag, the dry air on planes, the whole ‘If it’s Tuesday, I must be in…’ kind of thing.”

While there have been periodic rumors that Clinton would do everything from run as Obama’s Veep, to head the World Bank to be nominated for SCOTUS, to run for New York governor, if you take her at her word, she may be looking to do what she cares about in promoting women’s and children’s opportunities from private life, perhaps similar to her husband’s role at the Clinton Foundation.

Politico 04/22/10

Obama’s Bad Cop

By Michael Hirsh

Clinton’s played the heavy with Iran, Russia, and even Israel—and her sometimes hawkish views are finding favor with the president.

Clinton is now influencing policy more than she ever has, especially in close partnership with Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Subtly yet unmistakably, her somewhat greater hawkishness is beginning to show up in policy. While Obama’s no slouch at showing displeasure himself, he’s depended on Clinton to hammer Iran (which is becoming a “military dictatorship,” she recently declared, setting the administration’s new tough tone), and to harangue Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his defiance of U.S. demands for a settlement freeze. She also criticized the Russians in their own backyard over Moscow’s work on an Iranian nuclear-power plant. Clinton politely plays down her role as Obama’s bad cop. “I don’t think there’s anything as formal as that,” she says. “With every tough message that I deliver, it is embedded in a much broader context. It’s not, ‘You’re with us or against us.’ It is, ‘We have a lot of business to do.’?”

Newsweek Online 04/23/10

Hillary Clinton: She stoops to conquer

By Rupert Cornwell

One day, of course, Hillary will no longer be Secretary of State. So what then? The surprising answer may be: not a great deal. Political disclaimers should normally be taken with a generous pinch of salt. But in Hillary’s case there is no reason to disbelieve her when she insists she will not run for president again – and when she says she does not see herself sticking in her present job beyond the end Obama’s first term.

By the time election day 2016 rolls around, she will be 69; only Ronald Reagan was as old when he took office. She maintains that she plans a future of writing and teaching. Enoch Powell once said all political careers end in failure. But in Hillary Clinton’s case the observation is true only in that she failed to crack America’s ultimate glass ceiling. As for the rest: high-powered lawyer, First Lady, senator, Secretary of State – if that’s failure, who needs success?

The Independent 04/25/10

What they’re saying about Hillary Clinton – 04/18/10

Every week I’m taking a look at some of the more interesting and sometimes off-beat comments the world media has to say about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Here are a few choice excerpts for this week’s report –

Red flag for a sinking Obama: Americans now prefer Hillary Clinton

By Andrew Malcom

It turns out, there is another Democrat — another former senator, in fact — hanging around now free of political tussles with an enhanced resume burnished on the world stage, thanks to Obama himself. And a new CNN/Opinion Research Poll has just revealed that even today Americans like that other Democrat more and dislike that other Democrat less than they do the incumbent Democratic president.

That other Democrat is, of course, Hillary Clinton, who fought and scratched her way mightily but unsuccessfully through those bitter, belligerent Democratic primaries and caucuses of 2008. The former first lady and current secretary of State professes no intra-mural interest in challenging her White House boss, as she must as long as she’s an administration team member.

LA Times 04/14/10

Bill Clinton: Hillary and I are too old to be appointed to the Supreme Court

Bill and Hillary Clinton have both held big jobs in their lives, but the ex-president said Sunday that Supreme Court justice shouldn’t be among them – they’re too old.

“She would be good at it,” Clinton said of his wife, 62, adding that at “one point in her life, she might [have] been interested. But she’s like me, you know, we’re kind of doers,” Clinton said. “I think if she were asked, she would advise the President to appoint some 10, 15 years younger.”

New York Daily News 04/18/10

Nearly Two Decades Later, Clinton Wins on Healthcare

By Jessica Rettig

It’s taken nearly two decades, but Hillary Clinton is finally making a difference on healthcare. Clinton, who as first lady tried but failed to win congressional and public approval of national healthcare, is hitting home runs on the issue as President Obama’s secretary of state. But instead of working domestically, where Obama finally did win on healthcare, Clinton is working on the global stage helping women find better access to care.

This week, she received credit for her efforts from Women’s Policy Inc. and the Congressional Caucus on Women’s Issues. At a breakfast sponsored by Women’s Policy, Rachel Vogelstein, State’s senior policy adviser for the Office of Global Women’s Issues, said that Clinton has played a fundamental role in the implementation of her department’s recently-launched global health initiative. The plan will dedicate $63 billion over six years to its mission, with a focus on the well-being and empowerment of girls and women in particular, who generally provide the care-giving roles in third-world households.

US News – Washington Whispers 04/16/10

Cinton Calls Out Armey And Gingrich For Reprising Roles, Reusing Lines

By Sam Stein

Speaking on Friday about the parallels between the fiery national mood during his presidency and the domestic unrest that grips the country today, former President Bill Clinton hit on a somewhat salient point: the political characters remain the same.

“I love seeing that picture in the [Washington] Post today, with that outline of [Former Majority Leader Dick] Armey with the cowboy hat on,” Clinton said. “I remember when he called Hillary a ‘socialist.’ I remember when Newt Gingrich, shortly after becoming Speaker Elect, said that Hillary and I were the ‘enemies of normal.’ It didn’t bother me a bit. I was planning to get in and mix it up. But what we learned from [the] Oklahoma City [bombing] is not that we should gag each other…. but that the words we use really do matter, because there is this vast echo chamber and they go across space and they fall on the serious and the delirious alike.”

The Huffington Post 04/16/10

The secret to loosening up Hillary Clinton is revealed and no it isn’t Bill.

Who knew that Hillary Clinton could be such a lush. For those of you who ever wondered what it takes to actually loosen up Hillary Clinton, the answer is a few glasses of Jack Daniels. It must be nice to be able to get wasted on the tax payer’s dime and not have to worry about being fired for it, thus the life of a liberal elitist. Did you all know that the State Department spent $300,000 dollars last year on alcohol purchases? I wish I could give a rational explanation on why the State Department needs to spend tax dollars on alcohol, but I can’t think of one I’m sober. This type of waste is why the Tea Party exists and are ticked off. How many books and computers can $300,000 buy for inner city schools and recreation centers? Forgot about the citizens money going up in smoke. It’s more like it’s going “down the hatch” cheers.

Wake up Black America 04/16/10

Hillary Clinton will not accept Supreme Court position.

Already there is speculation that Hillary Clinton is being considered by President Obama to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stevens. This morning Republican Senator Orrin Hatch fanned the flames by noting that he had heard Hillary’s name come up as a potential nominee:

“I even heard the name Hillary Clinton today, and that would be an interesting person in the mix,” Hatch said on NBC’s Today Show. “I happen to like Hillary Clinton, I think she’s done agood job for the Democrats — Secretary of State’s position,” Hatch said, “and I have high respect for her, and think a great deal of her.”

The receptivity to a Clinton nomination is predictably mixed. Juli Weiner, writing on the Vanity Fair web site, noted several enthusiastic endorsements of Hillary -

Slate’s Emily Bazelon wrote that “Clinton has all the makings of a full-throated, strong-minded liberal stalwart on the bench.” The Daily Beast’s Mark McKinnon agrees: “Stripping away the drama, the politics and psychobabble, she’d be a great choice for Obama and the Democrats. She’s as smart and as qualified as any prospect her party could nominate.” Seventy-one percent of NPR.com readers also say they would welcome a Clinton nomination.

In my report yesterday I included a comment from Outside the Beltway’s James Joyner that Hillary is too old for the Supreme Court:

Speculating on Supreme Court appointments is a great parlor game and throwing the “pick a politician” wildcard into the game is especially fun. Hillary would be confirmed easily, I’d think.  The 1990s are over and the controversies surrounding her have long since died down.  She was, by all accounts, a hard worker and excellent colleague in the Senate and she sailed to confirmation as Secretary of State.

But, even assuming Obama decides to bypass the recent trend of picking law professors and appeals court justices — preferably those with little history of taking controversial positions — I don’t think Hillary is the gal. She’s too old. Stevens was appointed by Gerald Ford 35 years ago.  He served the entirety of the presidencies of Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush plus the first half of Barack Obama’s first term.  That sort of longevity is the goal.

The bottom line, of course, is whether or not Hillary Clinton even wants to be nominated. The short answer is, “No, she doesn’t.”

If the hasn’t already expressed that position to Obama “with the greatest respect,” she will quickly do so if the rumors continue. Although all the positive reasons for seeing Hillary on the the Supreme Court are valid in my opinion, such a position does not fit into the lifelong paradigm of Hillary’s activist history. Sitting on the Court would push her into the darkness where she would no longer be the outspoken, out-front advocate that she has been her entire life.

Hillary is not too old for the Supreme Court. But she is too valuable a player in our political life to be stashed away in a black robe writing legal opinions, and she knows it.