The Clinton Conundrum

by Patrick Gibson

The big news this week from the nascent Obama administration was the naming of Hillary Clinton as the presumptive Secretary of State. This was a noteworthy choice to say the least. For more than twelve months of campaigning against each other the primary issue of contention between Clinton and Obama was, after all, foreign policy. Did she not spend a disproportionate amount of her campaign questioning not simply Obama's positions on foreign policy, but indeed his very fitness for office on that basis?

It is a head-scratcher, and it raises some interesting questions.

-Who will be leading our foreign policy? Obama says that is his job in no uncertain terms. But wouldn't it be negligent at least and irresponsible at most to carry out the policies of someone that you sincerely feel is not capable? How does Mrs. Clinton justify that in her mind?

-Did Obama not successfully sideline her as a viable presidential candidate in 2012? It would be very difficult to execute the policies of an administration and then turn around and be critical enough to win an intra-party fight. So he takes her off the table in 2012 but at what cost to his own objectives? He has named a SoS that has disagreed with him publicly and repeatedly about how her job is supposed to be done. This could get interesting.

-Is this not yet another tacit admission by Obama that he needs some kind of adult supervision of his foreign policy? I can think of no other example of a President-elect choosing someone so diametrically opposed to their foreign policy, and so ON RECORD as being so to run point on the very issue where they most disagree. Who spends the next four years eating crow? Hillary or Obama? Remember we didn't know about Colin Powell way back then.

-What is in it for Hillary to give up one of the best name brands in politics and lend it to a young and bold Obama at the cost of her nation's security (her words) and her own presidential aspirations?

It seems to be increasingly unlikely that Mrs. Clinton would be able to run a viable campaign in 2012. It would presumably involve extricating herself from her own policies. Leave it to the Clintons to figure out how. I just know I wouldn't want to manage her.