"Don't do it! Bill will embarrass you!"
How many times did Barack Obama receive that advice as he was mulling over whether to hire Hillary Clinton for his cabinet?
"Don't do it! The Clintons will leak. They'll create an administration within the administration. They're undisciplined!"
That, uh, sage advice really did form the conventional wisdom when news first leaked that the former first lady was on the short list to be Secretary of State.
"Don't do it! The Clintons will leak. They'll create an administration within the administration. They're undisciplined!"
That, uh, sage advice really did form the conventional wisdom when news first leaked that the former first lady was on the short list to be Secretary of State.
Turns out... those Clintons really do know how to seize the moment. Not only has Hillary Clinton been a team player, her team -- still made up of loyalists -- doesn't leak. They don't try to undercut other power centers. (No, I don't think the Gregory Craig rumors are coming from State. And I don't put much stock in those rumors either.) They're humble and effective. When they make mistakes, they get things right, quickly.
And Bill Clinton... his "entanglements" haven't been an issue. Either have his library donors or his foreign travels. He's behaved himself in public, by which I mean he has never undermined the administration's policy arguments, even going so far as to agree with their Clinton-era-corrections to policy approaches. He has not upstaged his wife. He's matured since the presidential campaign. He now seems to understand the way news cycles work in the Net era. And today, as we've seen, he can -- and will -- drop everything at a moment's notice to do the administration a favor.
To add a contrary note to this musing on how great the Clintons are, there is a chance that the rapid acquiescence of the administration to the DPRK request for Bill Clinton's presence might give every punk dictator the idea to kidnap Americans and then demand a meeting with Bill Clinton in order to release them. After all, as of a few weeks ago, our formal policy toward the DPRK was one of non-response to their provocations. Allowing Bill Clinton to meet with Kim Jong Ill is a gesture of respect.
It's also a great intelligence gathering opportunity.
.....Mr. President, this is Leon. I've got a few folks in my office who're very interested in what you think of Dear Leader's health....
Who won today? Is this a zero sum question? What do you think?
I'm equally impressed - well done. Sometimes I think the scandal or potential for scandal makes us forget that both of the Clintons are just pretty darn capable, regardless of political view. Don't see much downside to the whole thing - the perverse incentives of sending Bill Clinton to have a beer summit with a bad guy in order to get hostages released does not trouble me like, say, dropping a $3M ransom to Somali pirates to get your oil tanker out of hock...
......Since this is going to be all over the media for the next three days it's advantage Obama....game, set, match for Bill and Hillary......the silence from the right has been defeaning apart from the insane Boulton who apparently thinks Bill was negotiating with the axis powers.....Personally I hope Bolton and his ilk are all over the media with this line......since the Republicans seem to have decided discretion was the better part of valor over the clunkers perhaps they could substitute a nice weekend of ranting about this.
And, therein lies the problem with political coverage today: who won and who lost.
Watching him walk out of North Korea with those two women is really unbelievable:
http://www.gotchamediablog.com/2009/08/clinton-goes-to-north-korea-gets-girls.html
I, too, am very pleased. This is better than I thought Bill could do, and I'm delighted to be proved wrong. He could be a formidable tool in the diplomatic arsenal. I'm impressed with how much he's learned about the new media and how to make it work for him.
It's also a good sign for relations with North Korea, which has been making a series of "We are craaaazyyyy" moves, looking more unstable than ever. It's nice to see that they're actually capable of engaging in a diplomatic solution, rather than offering fashion advice while firing missiles into the ocean. And perhaps that improvement was going to best come about by engaging with someone with heft but no official office.
As for the whining about actually getting our journalists back while paying no blood, treasure, or face: I voted for Obama on foreign policy. Each time something has arisen (Somali pirates, Iranian election protests, US journalist in jail in Iran, US journalists in jail in North Korea, now US hikers in Iran) his people have kept their cool while the critics carped about not giving big empty speeches with hollow threats. And they got stuff done. Results. This is what I voted for. (And of course they were still criticized: "I'f you'd sent in the Marines to take down those Somalis, sure, the captain would have died and a bunch of Marines would have died. But who cares? I wanted a John Wayne speech, dammit! I want to feel like Dirty Harry, except in my living room, with a beer.")
Who won?
The imprisoned journalists and their families.
Who did not win?
Mark Ambinder and anyone who would proffer "Who won?" with a straight face.
"He's behaved himself in public...He's matured since the presidential campaign. He now seems to understand the way news cycles work in the Net era."
False, false, and false. You and the rest of the haters were wrong about the Clintons, Marc, plain and simple. The Clintons were right from the beginning.
The only thing that happened to Bill Clinton during the campaign was that the Obama camp purposely, viciously, and divisively used the media to play the race card against him and his wife for statements which weren't racist then or now. Obama and the media were wrong, not the Clintons. The only thing that's changed is the media's analysis. Bill and Hillary have been the same from jump: hardworking, intelligent, public servants dedicated to the Democratic party and the center-left consensus.
The deranged Clinton haters keep throwing mud, manufacturing outrage, and changing their minds about the Clintons based on the (usually wrong) conventional wisdom of the hour. Next year it will be something else about how evil the Clintons are. Then the year after that we'll hear how great the Clintons are.
Meanwhile, the Clintons will just keep on doing what they do: working hard, being diligent and loyal, and succeeding. The same ole song.