The U.S. secretary of state is the head of the Department of State, which concerns itself with foreign affairs, such as diplomacy and international development. The secretary of state is the highest ranking Cabinet member, both in terms of succession and precedence. If by some accident of birth you have been living in a cave and do not know this, Hillary Clinton is the U.S. secretary of state. She is one of three women that have held that position. Now since his inauguration as the first black president, President Obama has come under fire for his so-called poor job performance, but is he the only one sleeping on the job?
What has Secretary Clinton been able to accomplish on the world's stage? There isn't much glamour in being the secretary of state, this is universally understood - just look at Condoleezza Rice. If we turn back the hands of time, many of Clinton's predecessors got their jobs done. The Reagan administration had the strong policy voice of George Shultz, and President George H.W. Bush's administration had the world-class power broker James Baker on the job. Most others have been just irritating or utterly useless and forgettable at the job. Condoleezza Rice only made headlines when she decided on a new lipstick color to wear, or she was being picked on by the heads of states of our Middle Eastern brothers. Colin Powell got more accomplished in the military than he did as secretary of state.
Secretary Clinton on the other hand almost became the first female president, so surely her name alone would bring clout and glamour back to the job. Surely, Secretary Clinton would attack the job like she did the campaign trail on her way to the White House. That just hasn't happened. It's like the light has gone out of Clinton's eyes because she wasn't able to beat Obama for the presidency.
To me, she seems like a sore loser and America's foreign policies are paying the price. Clinton's presence, so brazen in her historic presidential candidacy against Barack Obama, has proven hard to find the first few months she's served as the "supposed" voice of U.S. foreign policy. President Obama's passport has more stamps than hers, powerhouse White House envoys have been dispatched to the hotspots around the world, Vice President Biden has been taking on assignments overseas, and even former President Clinton has thrown his hat in the mix, freeing some jailed journalists in North Korea.
I wondered why President Obama would even name her as the secretary of state. One side of the argument could be that Obama was keeping his friends close and his enemies closer. That by appointing Hillary Clinton, he could keep an eye on her ambitions and pacify her bruised ego. The other side would be that Obama wanted to keep her under wraps and essentially neutralize the incredible power she held as a senator. The latter seems to be true, as Clinton hasn't done anything in her first nine months in office; instead letting others like special envoy Richard Holbrooke do her job.
The most newsworthy thing Secretary Clinton has done was to verbally and viciously attack a Congolese student at a press conference. It would seem that she should spend more time doing her job and making her mark that way, instead of jumping on students who ask what her husband thinks about a situation - when he can clearly get the job done and she hasn't even clocked in for her shift.
In the past we would pass or fail the secretary of state on their ability to formulate policy. I mean, that's part of their job. Secretary Clinton has no such track record. During the 2008 Democratic Primary, she did prove to be a bit more conservative than President Obama, being more of a foreign policy realist than an idealist. Is she a good state manager or negotiator? She has never been a global strategist, and thankfully she has never claimed to be. Is it too early to judge her? I think not. She was very vocal in her campaign about the things she wanted to get done about foreign policy. Now that she didn't get the job she was applying for, she seems to be shuffling around trying to find her bearings as if this is the first time she has heard of Afghanistan. Her dismal performance in Jerusalem has proven one thing however: she needs to get a few more lessons in Middle Eastern haggling.
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