Hillary Clinton's Key Insight

In all her years in public life, Hillary Clinton has always been well-prepared. So, in that sense, her superb performance at her confirmation hearing was not a surprise. Nonetheless, it takes more than drilling to be able to handle so deftly and contextually the myriad challenges for US foreign policy. To do that takes mastery, and that is what she displayed.

It was also very comforting to hear her say, in answer to Senator Feingold's question about Somalia, "I don't know the answer." It was not that she did not know the situation in Somalia, but that she, like others, does not know what to do about it. That is more convincing than any protestation about shunning ideology in favor of pragmatism. That is "Change I Can Believe In."

As superb as all of this was, however, it pales in comparison to her observation that the country needs to fund what it says it prefers, and that if diplomacy and "smart power" were to have a chance of success, funding priorities need to change.

It seems obvious but, to my knowledge, no prior Secretary of State has ever made such a clear, unambiguous statement and, by contrasting with the Defense Department that basically always gets whatever funds it requests, she crystallized the de facto policy choices that are made by budgeting.

With the size of the Democratic majorities, with the Secretary of State, the President and the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, all committed to elevating diplomacy and "smart power", it seems that Secretary Clinton provided herself an invitation to determine the funding the State Department needs to execute those policies, and is likely to get what she asks for.

Now we are getting somewhere.

Comments

[nana4g]

Secretary Of State Hillary Clinton will do a great job for President Obama, for our country, and for the people of the world. With these two, and all of the other players, hopefully, we will begin to see more peaceful co-existence, more harmony, more respect for other people in the world and for each other.

I wish her Godspeed, good health, and continued support to achieve our mission.

[lgillooly]

Mrs. Clinton will be a brilliant SOS. To compare her to a smart neocon is ignorant. They all operated from an ideology written in the 90's called the PNAC. Reality,pragmatism and facts be damned!
She is the opposite and a breath of fresh air. I wish you all the best Senator Clinton.

[LizM]

The Secretary of State designate turned in a very well prepared and informed performance before the SFRC. From her reference to "smart power" to properly funding and staffing the state department and to all of the critical foreign policy challenges ahead, she has clearly been well briefed by the Vice President-­elect...sh­e would do well to keep him close to her side.

[lizziekw]

Ahh.... so it wasn't Secretary of State-designate Clinton's great performance and formidable command of the subject matter. She was just a puppet for Vice President-elect Biden. I like Joe Biden, as you well know, but your statement is an unnecessary and ungenerous insult to Hillary Clinton.

She's brilliant, prepared, experienced and a force to be reckoned with in American politics. She will be an outstanding Secretary of State on her own merit. It takes nothing away from Vice President-elect Biden who would also have been brilliant, prepared, experienced and a force to be reckoned with at State. Before he was chosen as the VP nominee, I assumed he'd BE at State and he may have thought that himself. He's certainly well-qualified for that job as well as being an excellent choice for VP.

Still, there's something about the inability to give Hillary Clinton credit for anything around here that really irritates me. She was ready to be President of the United States and she's ready to be Secretary of State.

[LizM]

You're absolutely right, lizzie. I hope you'll accept my apology. Usually, my comments like that get deleted...the moderators must be overworked...or something...I kid the moderators. :)

I guess I am still irritated that when Biden was holding important hearings on smart power and the lack of funding for the state department, or on any number of critical foreign policy issues he got no coverage at all...I'm trying to make up for it! As you know, the vast majority of commenters here are largely unaware of Biden's experience in these areas.

Anyway, that's not an excuse for my uncalled for post...just a sad attempt to explain it.

[wakupmagy]

The smartest student in the class who can easily memorize the material and who meets with her examiners before the test to glean what the questions will be and to rehearse her answers is certainly going to "ace" the exam.
But fixing the sorry state of American diplomacy in this critical and crisis-mode world is going to take a lot more than that. When one looks for character and integrity and soul, this Secretary of State comes up too short.
Many, if not all, the current crop of neocons have brilliant minds. And how did that work out for us?

[nana4g]

Character, integrity, and soul, has been scrutinized for years. This woman has worked for the least of us, the most vulnerable, long before anyone knew who she was.

[stell]

Yeah.....right. Conflicts of interest abound. Hillary: I've got the money to pay off my massive campaign debt, but I'd rather have YOU do it.