Via Taegan, here is an excerpt from Richard Wolffe’s new book Renegade: The Making of a President:
“His decision to offer her the job of secretary of state came surprisingly early. Well before the end of the primaries, when his staff and friends still felt hostile to her, Obama decided that Clinton possessed the qualities to carry his diplomacy to the rest of the world. ‘We actually thought during the primary, when we were pretty sure we were going to win, that she could end up being a very effective secretary of state,’ he told me later. ‘I felt that she was disciplined, that she was precise, that she was smart as a whip, and that she would present a really strong image to the world… I had that mapped out.’
“Recruiting and managing a team of rivals would not be easy, and Clinton came with her own set of issues. Chief among them was her campaign debt, which she wanted eliminated before she took the job of secretary of state. Would the president-elect go out and help her to do so? ‘I’m not begging her to take this job,’ Obama told his senior aides. ‘If she wants it, I could help. But I’m not willing to go out in these difficult economic times to do a flashy fundraiser in California.’ As it happened, plenty of people in the Senate were begging Obama to offer Clinton the job. Obama’s aides believed that many Senate Democrats thought Clinton had extended her presidential campaign far beyond the point where she had lost the election. Her negative advertising wasted Democratic money, threatened to undermine the party’s nominee, and suggested that she was disloyal to the party. They were unwilling to offer the junior New York senator a position ahead of her lowly rank, and she stood little chance of becoming majority leader. ‘There was a lot of encouragement from inside the Senate to get her into this job,’ said one senior Obama aide. ‘They wanted her out of there.'”
I knew there was going to be a problem when Obama won the endorsement of more senators than Clinton. She demonstrated that she had massive support within the Democratic Party, but she also demonstrated a tenaciousness that would give pause to anyone considering making her their boss. Her road to power in the Senate was blocked by the way she handled the end of the primary. I think Obama was wise to offer her a way out and a large department to pay off her supporters. I think she’s been doing a good job as Secretary of State. I personally would have dealt with her harshly, but Obama is smarter than I am.
I’m surprised how obedient and deferential she seems to be in this position. I’ve noticed she says ‘The president wants this, the president wants that.’ Is this customary? I’d think she should speak on behalf of the administration, of which she is part: ‘The adminstration’s policy is…’ etc. It makes me wonder if she is personally in favor of a colony freeze in the Occupied Territories. That would surprise me. Yes, she acted extremely obnoxiously in the campaign. Her husband too. I thought Obama would send her off to the Supreme Court, in fact. Next stop Cairo where the bazaar has Obama T-shirts on offer.
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I wondered, could the Obama/Tut souvenirs contain a not-so-subtle warning to the American president? A warning that says, “You may be young and powerful, but you–or at least your honeymoon with the Islamic world–will be in big trouble if you fail to live up to your promises.”
When I asked 25-year-old shopkeeper Hamada Hagar, proprietor of the Welcome souvenir shop, about the meaning of the T-shirt, he merely shrugged. “NBC ordered it,” he said, referring to the American television network. “My sister works for them. CNN ordered ceramic plates with Obama’s picture on it and 30 cartouches with ‘Obama’ written in hieroglyphic.
"Obama New Tutankhamon of the World" slogan on a T-shirt"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."that is creepy of NBC. won’t go into the history of the Aten stuff here but maybe it’s time for a candle to the vergincita. what’s wrong with NBC?
I wouldn’t read too much into this choice of verbiage – the reality is that Obama is very popular around the world and the administration is using that to its greatest effect. Plus right now you really want to look united, and since they were at each others’ throats metaphorically just a year ago, it’s good to underscore to the world that she is not speaking on her own (as it might sound if she used the “this administration” construct) but rather that the President is behind her actions and words.
Someone like Powell or Rice or even Albright never had to worry about such things because they didn’t have the history of disagreement with their President that Clinton has (like the hours of tape in debates where they’re outlining their various differences on foreign policy during debates, just for starters).
Why would that surprise you? As far as I can tell, the only outcomes of where Israel is at right now are either the settlements get dismantled and the two-state solution becomes possible again or the settlements DON’T get dismantled and a one-state solution becomes inevitable. The one-state solution would mean either ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians or an end to the “Jewishness” of Israel or both. It would mean that the region would get even more tense and things would get more stupid. Anyone looking to calm the world down and leave a legacy of peace in the ME is going to want to work toward the two-state solution. And that means stopping the settlements in the short term and dismantling them in the long term.
(I think they’re tilting at windmills if they think this will work – it’s obvious that a sizeable chunk of the Israeli population don’t want to cede any of the settled areas back to the Palestinians as a two-state solution would require. And since that sizeable chunk is allowed to vote and Palestinians aren’t, the Palestinians aren’t going to get their land. But I’m not a highly-paid foreign diplomat, so what do I know?)
Today in Informed Comment, Juan Cole makes one of the most startling solutions to all this nastiness that I have ever heard. If by the end of 2011 the Palestinian state is still not a reality or at least a near-term certainty, Obama should recognize Palestine as a proper state which would mean that all the colonists in Palestine would be made residents of Palestine: Jewisth Palestinians, they would have to ask for residency permits or go home.
I can not imagine that Hillary Clinton’s heart is in the freezing of colonies, let alone the dismantling of them. I find her overrated and hardly as ‘intelligent’ as she and everyone else says she is. She’s dense. Otherwise would she have acted so crudely and stupidly during the campaign? Her advisers? No, give me a break.
As much as I hate to say it, because I have a great respect for Professor Cole, his idea is incredibly simplistic. It would be nice if such a thing would work, but what it would most likely lead to is open warfare in the settlements. From everything I’ve seen, the settlers over there are like our militia movement folks but more hardcore – they aren’t going to be budged out or recognize the authority of Palestine over them just because the US has decided to recognize Palestine as a nation. If the government of Israel is not on board then all that would do is start a new war, Israel would re-occupy the territory and be done with it.
As for Clinton not being “intelligent” – please. I’m not even going to argue about it, but just note that it doesn’t take a genius to figure out the trajectory of where the Israeli right is taking their country over these settlements – it’s as obvious as the nose on one’s face. The only reason the Israeli right can’t see it for themselves is because they honestly seem to think that they’ll be allowed to ethnically cleanse the Palestinians out of the territory and into Jordan and Egypt. Maybe they’re actually right on that, but I tend to doubt it.
I love the name Renegade.
better than maverick.
did you just correct a typo in Renegade? was just about to ask how to pronounce renegage – or am i losing my mind? [could be both]?
yes. I posted and went to eat breakfast. Came back, saw the typo, and fixed it.
well I know how to pronounce renegade; thought maybe I was losing the ability to sound out words
I agree she got a far better deal from Obama than she deserved after that campaign (not to mention the cynical vote she cast on Iraq war, the pandering on the flag, etc.). I would not have voted for her, and doubt I ever will, whatever future office she seeks.