Detractors of Hillary (DOH!)

We were promised change, and when it comes to U.S. domestic policy we will likely get it. The Obama administration is readying a huge economic stimulus package. The president-elect recently announced that his nominee for secretary of labor is Rep. Hilda Solis (D-CA), who is great on both labor and environmental issues. And maybe, just maybe we'll see universal health care.

When it comes to foreign policy, however, Barack Obama seems so very 20th century. There's conservative warhorse Bob Gates staying on at the Pentagon. The more- interesting-but-still-quite-conventional James Jones will be national security advisor.

And then there's Hillary.

Bill Clinton took office in 1992 with a lot of high-powered circle of supporters that called themselves Friends of Bill (FOB). Hillary Clinton, by contrast, awaits confirmation as secretary of state in the Obama administration with a wide circle of detractors, particularly on the left.

These detractors of Hillary (DOH) point out that she supported the Iraq invasion (doh!), wants to up the military ante in Afghanistan (doh!), has consistently supported increased military spending (doh!), backed missile defense (doh!), has aligned herself with the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (doh!), supported the embargo of Cuba (doh!), and derided Obama for being willing to sit down with the leaders of adversarial countries (the biggest doh! of them all).

As David Harsanyi wrote in The Denver Post, "the prospective appointment clashes with virtually every pronouncement Obama made regarding foreign policy in the past."

Alas, there isn't that much daylight between the president-elect and his proposed secretary of state. Obama, too, wants to boost U.S. firepower in Afghanistan and increase the overall size of the U.S. army. And on the positive side, both support dramatic reductions in the U.S. nuclear arsenal, a significant shift in the U.S. position on climate change, a more environment- and labor-friendly trade policy, and the end of the Bush administration's pro-torture approach.

Given this rather substantial overlap in positions, I don't anticipate a clash of titans in the next administration, though of course there will be some turf issues between the State Department and the president's office.

The more intriguing possibility is that Obama gave Hillary the top foreign policy job to sideline her. Say what? How could secretary of state be a backwater position?

Here I'm forced to agree with Charles Krauthammer (for once in my life): "Obama has no intention of being a foreign policy president. Unlike, say, Nixon or Reagan, he does not have aspirations abroad. He simply wants quiet on his eastern and western fronts so that he can proceed with what he really cares about -- his domestic agenda."

In other words, Obama has placated his critics on the right by putting together a thoroughly conventional national security team that will maintain the status quo (with a few Green touches). The real action will be in the domestic sphere.

As Foreign Policy In Focus columnist Conn Hallinan points out, however, this strategy is likely to fail. "If the United States chooses to keep the military on its current footing -- including adding more troops and focusing on the use of "direct military force" -- then future wars and occupations will almost certainly torpedo Obama's plans to deliver a more equal and humane society," he writes in Guns, Butter, and Obama.

Hillary Clinton could play a role in reconciling the conflict between guns and butter. As the chief supporter of health care in the 1990s, she knows more than anyone in the national security establishment about the importance of domestic spending. But that was the Hillary Clinton of the 1990s, before she started pumping iron on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

To transform America in a Green, progressive direction, Obama had better resolve this guns and butter tension in favor of the latter. But if Secretary of State Clinton does nothing except push costly military solutions, then her cabinet appointment may turn out to be Obama's biggest "doh!" so far.

Crossposted from Foreign Policy In Focus

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Comments

[Kache]

It's also possible Hillary will invent a perpetual motion machine and Gates will discover a cure for cancer. You could have written about those possibilities and been just as credible.

Your assumption that Hillary will not bother to brief Barack on what she's done with her foreign policy over the last four years is pathetic. Of course she will leave him little notes laying on his desk from time to time just so he'll remember to keep her on his Xmas card list.

And to think Gates is somehow a continuation of the status quo at Defense is.. ... well .... ludicrous at best. If Gates thought he could talk Barack into it he's do away with the Air Force and almost all new procurement programs. Gates has, for years, been one of the harshest critics of DOD. Of course Hallinan can't find any mention of Gates in Das Capital so he doesn't have a clue who Gates is or what he believes. Quoting Hallinan on Gates is like quoting Rasputin on aerodynamics.

[Stephen C. Rose - Huffpost Blogger]

I disagree if you think Obama does not care about foreign policy. I noted on Keith the other night that Barack looked at Hillary and said he expected her to be advising him when he was President. I think his choice of her was inspired and that she will surprise skeptics and detractors. This is a huge moment and she has made a huge choice. http://stephencrose.wordpress.com/2008/12/23/how-hillary-will-get-her-millions-back/

[partyofone]

Hillary is both made huge choice and represents a HUGE COST. Most of the nation distrust her. Most of the world will learn to, knowling her primarily as Mrs. Bill Clinton. And Bill has already started parsing his "ageement" with a Obama, so he can continue raking in the millions for the "advice" of a former U.S. president enhanced by his ability to influence the SoS, who we know from decades of Clinton propoganda, is his partner and confidant in every self-interested, profiteering, DEEPLY conflicted decision.

[jhNY]

Clinton will be what she ought be in this administration-- a cabinet officer charged with carrying out the policies of her superior in matters of international relations. She will not go rogue, she will not insist on her point of view if she disagrees with the president, she will not go around him. The only secretary of state in living memory about whom this sort of charge might be fairly leveled is Henry Kissinger, whose own genius at recognizing his own genius has long been recognized.

Of course, that doesn't mean the foreign policies of the new administration will be good ones. I too am wary of all the centrist wariness regarding our commitments and activities around the world, which may soon cause the new boss's plans to resemble little more than a pale sickly version of our current wrongheadedness, of which the world is justly fed up.

[partyofone]

But HIllaray thinks she is "co-president' for foreign affairs. Does Obama have the strength to manage Hillary...AND Bill? Time will tell.

[teacheng]

Someday I'd like to read blog posts on here that are not "what if" based.

[partyofone]

and then you would ....

[MHF]

The choice of Hillary Clinton was and is brilliant. She not only brings 18 million Americans along with her she has put her reputation on the line, which to the Clintons has become as important as the air they breathe. Always a Barack supporter it was painful to watch both the Clintons take the road of less resistance and lower their standards by way of character attacks and poor me policies. They took a hit this campaign season, they both did and it showed. Even people who were fond of the Clintons and felt Bill was ill treated in the past felt uncomfortable with his uncalled for bombardment of a fellow Democrat. Their need to win at all costs began to overshadow everything. But now Hillary has a chance to show her true love of country and I believe she will not let us down. We need not forget who the man at the helm will be and as President, Barack Obama will steer us down a path of diplomacy and fence mending with Hillary as his well equipped messenger.

[TommyMcCarthy]

"MHF"

I wish all original Obama supporters took as reasonable a line regarding last year's primary campaign as commenter "MHF" does.

Originally for Clinton, I could have voted in good conscience for ANY ONE of the original Democratic candidates....and I'm as pleased as can be by Obama's election.

The incoming administration faces as formidable a set of challenges as any since that of F.D.R., and will require the support of all of us, as well as a fair amount of luck ,....in order to be successful.

I guess when I read the posts of Obama hyperpartisans having great fun bashing the Clintons...
It reminds me of the kind of folks who attend, say.... a "sustainable living expo" and take a few spins on the solar go carts...but never show up to help with the recycling.

I believe Sen. Clinton will make a fine Secretary of State and WE (not he) are lucky to have her in that role.

MHF reminds me that neither Mr. Feffer's Hillary-hatin' DUh! club (misspelling intentional) nor the PUMA idiots need speak for any of us interested in real solutions.....that impact real people.

Hail to the chief.....26 more days!
Regards
tm

[fayemac]

Geez, cant the Obama people get over the primaries? My God, has anybody out there seen a primary that didnt have mud slinging in it? For that matter it was probably the tamest ive seen in a long time, but that wont stop the hurting and crying from the Obama people. God save us from the whiners on the very left.

[partyofone]

MHF, it is so funny to hear Hillary supporters continuing the worn out 18 million voters mime. She LOST!

Obama won and he had 70 million voters, of whom 123 were part of Hillary's 18 million bitter stay-at-home or vote-for-McCain crowd. :)

Hillary's reluctant support and whispers that "HE CANNOT WIN" negated her influence in the general election. She and Bill only became vocal, active supporters for Obama when he had a 10 point lead in the polls. That's called opportunism, not support.

Obama in the spirit of national unity and CHANGE, magnanimously forgave Hillary for the dispicable way she and Bill campaigned, and gave her the sympathetic, face saving appointment as SoS, in an adminsitration where VP Biden, the National Security Council, and a highly qualified UN Ambassador will dominate.