Hillary Clinton: MIA
By Hillary Taft - Tuesday, July 7th, 2009
I stumbled across an excellent blog post talking about the marginalization of Hillary Clinton in her role as Secretary of State:
Week-by-week, world event-by-world event, the public humiliation of Hillary Clinton is taking place right before our eyes. Actually, not before our eyes. Hillary has gone missing.
There was a time when United States Secretaries of State were front and center in foreign policy making and implementation. Our first Secretary of State was Thomas Jefferson, and other historical luminaries included John Quincy Adams, Daniel Webster, William Jennings Bryant, and George C. Marshall.
In more modern times, names such as Henry Kissinger, Cyrus Vance, James Baker, Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell, and Condolezza Rice loom large in our psyche and history.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton? Who? Possibly the most marginalized Secretary of State in modern times.
Barack Obama has not permitted Hillary to participate in a central manner in any of the major diplomatic events, including the upcoming Moscow summit from which Hillary will be notably absent. Obama doesn’t act alone in foreign affairs, but he certainly doesn’t act through Hillary.
You can read the rest over at Legal Insurrection.
The author asks how PUMAs feel about this. Well, as a “PUMA” (if the term still applies), I have to honestly say I am extremely disappointed in Hillary for accepting the role of Secretary of State in the first place. I think she should have remained a senator and stayed as far away from Obama has possible.
Now, some are speculating that Hillary is laying low so she can challenge Obama in the Democratic primaries for 2012. I would like to think that the Clintons are being that savvy, but alas, I just don’t know if they are equipped to deal with the Axelrod Machine at this point.
Obama would have to be the most unpopular president ever by the time these primaries roll around in order for Hillary to have a snowball’s chance in hell. If Obama’s overspending policies do give us hyperinflation and destroy the economy by then, they maybe, just maybe, the Democrats will boot him out. But I doubt it. The kool-aid drinkers will still be blaming Obama’s failures on Bush even three years from now. Hillary is not showing herself to be a leader at the moment, so how on earth will she take the reins from Obama considering she’s not making herself any more popular or respected by her absence?
Hillary – you screwed up. I wish you’d take a lesson from Sarah Palin and learn how to stand up for yourself better.
