-
The Chinese Waltz
May 24, 2013 | 0 comments
-
The View From the Other Side
May 17, 2013 | 23 comments
-
Cyprus Uber Alles
May 10, 2013 | 9 comments
-
After Hugo
May 3, 2013 | 16 comments
-
Theory and Practice of Terrorism
April 26, 2013 | 24 comments
At Large
Travels With Hillary
A secretary of state who’s on a perpetual grand tour.
As Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wended her way through chosen portions of Africa, she collected journalistic kudos for her mere existence. In South Africa she was lauded for her willingness to participate in pseudo-African social dancing that is closer to burlesque bump and grind than any Soweto Saturday high life. The local Xhosa ladies were quite amused.
In Nigeria she gave advice to its president to seek out and destroy terrorism while also suggesting that he focus on needed economic development and anti-corruption programs. Supposedly the conversations were more detailed than that, but one shouldn’t count on it. On the other side of the continent in East Africa where a virtual think tank of experts are available to the heavily staffed United States Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, Secretary Clinton worked hard to restrain herself from overwhelming the diplomats and other staff with her exceptional insights.
At each stop Mrs. Clinton is reported to have offered her guidance to local leaders apparently unable to figure out for themselves their nation’s problems. This is of course in addition to her well-honed skills in social interaction with the “little people.” Sarcasm aside, Hillary’s pretence to interest and knowledge is no different than the traveling circus of political appointees, and other patronizing notables from Washington, Hollywood and Cambridge, who circulate about the “dark continent.” Possibly with worthy intentions, but with very little in the way of practical experience, these “do-gooders” personally profit from the credit they gain from simply being there. Unfortunately, the advantages for their hosts are minimal.
The hard working professional staffs of American official missions — to say nothing of the NGOs — hand carry these VIPs to their pre-arranged informal contacts with ordinary folk as well as the pampered local potentates. It all can be quite enjoyable for the visitors, but of little utility to either the host country or the diplomatic representatives involved. For some reason, however, this sort of high profile visiting, while not new, has become particularly fashionable during the Obama Administration.
To be fair, Hillary appears to enjoy traipsing around the world. She is not a good administrator and being away from the seventh floor of State allows her to avoid her executive duties. Reportedly she is a very social person who loves being the center of attention. In this sense her interests and personality coincide with White House political desires. It’s as if President Obama had hired a former Czarina as the official American top envoy.
The White House has sold the idea to the developing world that Hillary Clinton as the wife of former president Bill Clinton carries more political weight as Secretary of State than others have in the same position. That’s considered an advantage in American diplomacy. The truth is that the Obama Administration wants to keep Hillary as far away from foreign policy decisions as possible. Having her swan about the world as she recently did keeps her active, feted, and out of the way.
Upon winding up her whirlwind visit to various sub-Saharan countries, Secretary Clinton was spirited off to Ankara supposedly to coordinate a U.S./Turkey response to the tragically unfolding events in Syria. Nothing more clearly displays Madame Secretary’s lack of knowledge of key matters of foreign affairs than to put her in the middle of a breaking military/political crisis. Hillary knows little to nothing about Turkey, Syria, the Levant, insurgency in general or, for that matter, complicated Sunni/Shia Islamic issues. But then neither does Barack Obama. Actually, she may know a bit more.
Hillary Clinton is usually quite attuned to the domestic political nuances of her role as chief of American foreign affairs. Why would she allow herself to be shunted about on a seemingly perpetual “Grand Tour”? The answer is simple. There is nothing she can do about it. Obama’s national security insiders don’t want to take a chance on Hillary edging some of the foreign policy spotlight away from her boss. Out of sight, out of mind is the best way to handle the Hillary Clinton issue. They have Bill Clinton sewn up with a major appearance at the Democrat convention in North Carolina. That’s all the Clintons they can stand.
All this “to-ing and fro-ing” must drive the hardworking American career ambassadors and their staffs abroad quite crazy. “Who the hell needs to coordinate yet another visit by a Washington bigwig — especially the ever-demanding Secretary of State?” The job of the U.S. foreign diplomatic mission is to represent the interests of the country. Visits by high- ranking politicians, officials of all kinds, and certainly big donor film stars must be carefully orchestrated. Even then such occasions can be counterproductive. To have the Sec. of State drop in with her own “take” on current events — and you know that’s Hillary’s style — is at best of doubtful utility, to put it diplomatically.
Nonetheless, this may be a lucky break for some countries that may need the U.S. Secretary of State to give them a sense of contemporary relevance. As soon as the White House can figure some place to send her, she’ll be on the road again and out of the domestic spotlight. Of course, there is that unfortunate scene of her “standing by her man” at the forthcoming North Carolina convention. At least she won’t hear any shouts of “Monica, Monica” from that crowd as she did leaving the U.S. Consulate in Alexandria, Egypt.
About the Author
George H. Wittman writes a weekly column on international affairs for The American Spectator online. He was the founding chairman of the National Institute for Public Policy.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (43) | Leave a comment
More Articles by George H. Wittman
More Articles From At Large
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/08/17/travels-with-hillary
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
Aristocat| 8.17.12 @ 6:21AM
Hilary is the most boring politician in America...She has never had an original thought...Try sitting through one of her speeches sometime...
Stephie| 8.17.12 @ 6:57AM
Oh come now Aristocat,, she's entertaining when she starts to shreak.
Thanks Mr Whittman, you made me smile this morning.
Dodd2| 8.17.12 @ 7:08AM
So why isn't this grotesque, old battleaxe doing federal time for her crimes???
Stephie| 8.17.12 @ 7:37AM
Because Dodd2, she's one of the elite. She rode Billy's coattails to the top, well not quite the top, but you know what I mean.
Note to Hill: LOOSE THE PONYTAIL
Von Mises Jr| 8.17.12 @ 10:00AM
Same reason Corzine gets to walk after STEALING $1B. Has Charlie Rangel ever paid his taxes? Did Little Timmy Geithner ever pay the Social Security taxes he failed to pass on from his employer? Let's see their tax returns!!!
Stephie: I think the ponytail is very appropriate. It is connected to a horse's you know what.
Eagle Creek| 8.17.12 @ 12:36PM
She oughta ditch the Hugh Hefner smoking jacket
as well
Nick| 8.18.12 @ 12:55PM
I know where Shrillary the Hut can get a blue dress that is slightly, um, used.
It would be the closest she's been to Bubba "The Rapist" in YEARS!
Dr. Emilio Lizardo| 8.17.12 @ 8:03AM
What has been accomplished in the dispatching of Hillary to sub-saharan Africa and other third world hellholes is the neutering of what was once the most powerful woman in America and who I suspect most of the libs wish had been president instead of the current disaster. Too long in the tooth for 2016 as well. Everyone knows any endorsement on her part of BHO is halfhearted at best, and Bill hasnt forgotten about his shameful treatment of the missus in '08.The disintegration of this shrew as a political force is remarkable.
CJW| 8.17.12 @ 8:09AM
Did she give a seminar on financial planning such as how to turn $1,000 into $100,000 just by reading the WSJ and "investing" in catttle futures?
Or did she give a seminar in how to safely store financial records away from prosecutors?
The only time she was likable was when Obama ran the dirty campaign against her in 2008, especially when the classy O would look and Hillary and scratch his face with his middle finger. The two deserve each other.
Maxwell| 8.17.12 @ 8:27AM
I'm really going to miss her nails on the chalk board voice. I hope she has a grand daughter just like her.
Kilgore Trout| 8.17.12 @ 9:02AM
AND, what about that blue satin Mao jacket (and she has namy more colors, primarily in khaki). What no-talent zerØ. And some dumbøcRATZ want his mediocrity to be prezbø. Sheesh!
JAWilson| 8.17.12 @ 9:10AM
This article nails it on the old girl. And she has accomplished NOTHING since the famous "reset button" debacle. I think that that whole event was a set up.
Pecos Pete| 8.17.12 @ 9:26AM
I once said I wanted to live long enough to vote against Hillary. Now I want to live long enough to vote against King O and then to live long enough to outlive Hillary.
Louis Jenkins| 8.17.12 @ 9:36AM
"I ain't tarred. III've cum to farrrr." I guess it's because she speaks their language that she got the job as Secretary of State. I would imagine that she's also telling the sub-Sahara nations to wear their raincoats, if you catch my drift. Bill certainly doesn't know about that.
Von Mises Jr| 8.17.12 @ 10:03AM
Have you noticed how the compassionate liberals like Hillary and Moochelle like to travel on the goverment dime?
Where do you think the GSA got the idea?
Cobalt| 8.17.12 @ 11:16AM
And now, Chelsea Clinton is talking about leaving the door open to run for Public Office.
Bill and Hillary could probably arrange for Chelsea to get a seat in Congress.
Marie| 8.17.12 @ 12:18PM
One has to giggle a little bit when a corrupt person gives advice about stopping corruption. Man, those democrat politicians make great con artists.
Tom Kyba| 8.17.12 @ 12:30PM
The picture reminds me of the "dancing Elaine" episode of Seinfeld.
Dave Williams| 8.17.12 @ 12:38PM
How on earth does a narcissistic little goody two-shoes as Hilarious, not terribly bright and a complete screech-owl, ascend to such power? Truly it is a mad, mad, mad, mad world....
Joellen| 8.17.12 @ 1:44PM
Hillary Clinton, admirer of Margaret Sanger, who's sole mission was to abort all minorities. Gosh, can we raise a new generation of thinkers that understands just how evil the Clintons, Obamas, and everyone associated with the marxist left are.
TinaB| 8.17.12 @ 10:35PM
Not if they continue to educate the children of America in the onesizefitsall public school system, such as it is. Nope.
I haven't been retired from the classroom for a full
year yet, but even I can see that that is what has brought about this sorry state of adult ignorance.
Indy| 8.17.12 @ 2:51PM
Hopefully, Obama will be voted out of office and Romney has the courage to purge those with ties to the MB from our government...it will be interesting to learn more about Hillary during her term as Sec. of State, I already learned more than I wanted to when I read The Shadow Party and now learning about her staff, it doesn't look good and there is so much more to discover
http://pjmedia.com/andrewmccar.....a-journal/
RCV| 8.17.12 @ 3:49PM
She's one of the finest secretaries of state we've ever had, and her approval ratings among the American people reflect that fact.
Truth to Power| 8.17.12 @ 3:58PM
In the last three years maybe. Overcharged would be a better description. Get ready for the reset button, bozo.
Indy| 8.18.12 @ 10:23AM
The fact that you and so many Americans believe this tells me two things:
- our electorate is poorly educated
- the media is complicit and does nothing but drive the progressive agenda, they don't report facts, many stories are never covered and those that are must be filtered to find the facts.
China owns us
Poland has been betrayed
Isreal has been thrown under the bus
Great Britain insulted many times
This Administration's weakness during the student protests in Iran in 2009 was disgraceful.
How's our relationship with Russia?
http://pjmedia.com/blog/more-r.....d-in-gulf/
The Middle East is a mess, sure some evil dictators are gone but replaced with the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood? How's Egypt and Libya working out? Are they friends or foes? Christians are being brutally killed and POTUS / SOS are silent? How many innocent people are being butchered in Nigeria and other Africian countries for just being Christians?
http://www.theblaze.com/storie.....lar-media/
Keep drinking the Kool-Aid...
George True| 8.18.12 @ 10:52AM
"...one of the finest secretaries of state we've ever had..."
Really? Perhaps then, you would care to explain why she attempted to help the wannabee president-for-life Zelaya overthrow the sovereign democratic republic of Honduras? The matter was absolutely unambiguous. There were no 'gray' areas. Zelaya was attempting to stage an illegal election, and have himself installed for another term as president, which was a clear violation of the Honduran constitution. When the federal judiciary declared it illegal, and the senate voted to remove him from power (which was specifically required by their constitution), Zelaya attempted to have a 'special' election, with ballots printed up by none other than president-for-life Hugo Chavez of neighboring Venezuela.
What did Hitlery do? Why of course, she sided with the would-be leftist dictator Zelaya, and did everything in her power to bring down the lawful government of this free and democratic central American republic. Thank God the Hondurans held fast to their republic, even in the face of economic sanctions by the US that did great harm to their economy.
Hitlery gets a well-earned Massive Fail as secretary of state for her attempt to overthrow a democratic republic and install a Marxist dictator in its place.
Aristocat| 8.19.12 @ 11:53PM
Well done, George....Most people have forgotten the abortive coup in Honduras & the disgraceful actions by Obama & Hillary...
George True| 8.18.12 @ 11:38AM
Let's see now....She is currently saying the Syrian dictator Assad must go. But it wasn't that long ago that she was referring to him as 'Assad the Reformer'. Even when everyone else knew him to be a long time mass murderer of his own people.
Hitlery's grade: F minus.
RCV| 8.21.12 @ 12:06PM
She didn't call him a reformer. She explicitly referred to comments made by GOP and Democratic congressmen who had just come back from Syria.
George True| 8.18.12 @ 11:48AM
When the Iranian people staged mass demonstrations against their mass murdering totalitarian regime in 2009, Hillery of course sided with the murderous islamofascist Iranian regime, and publicly issued statements of support for said regime even as they were committing mass murder on their own people and every other crime against humanity imaginable. I suppose it could be said in her defense that she was just doing the bidding of her Marxist boss Obama. But then again, as the old saying goes: Birds of a a feather...and all that.
At the Nuremburg trials "I was just following orders" was not considered a valid excuse for facililtating mass murder.
RCV| 8.21.12 @ 12:03PM
This post is a blatant and utter lie.
George True| 8.18.12 @ 11:52AM
"She's one of the finest secretaries of state we've ever had."
Truly one of the most Bizarro World comments RCV has ever posted.
Nick| 8.18.12 @ 1:04PM
I believe RCV was attempting to bait us, Mr. True.
RCV| 8.21.12 @ 12:00PM
Au contrair. I meant every word, Nick.
Suzyqpie| 8.18.12 @ 6:10AM
Last time I saw Ms Clinton, she was having a beer in Columbia. Have the WDC bureaucrats created some frequent flier government jet rewards program?
RCV| 8.21.12 @ 10:30PM
She's Secretary of State, not the Interior.
Theo Prinse| 8.18.12 @ 9:02AM
My 'apologies' for the lovely language of Afrikaans (old Dutch) but in the link pictures of the deadly riots that occured on Lonmin se Marikana-myne site days after the months before prepared visit to South Africa of the Kill the Boer analogy dancing Hillary Muslim Outreach Clinton by the friends of John Brennan in the CIA.
http://www.volksblad.com/Suid-.....n-20120817
Mistral| 8.18.12 @ 11:47AM
Hillary is campaigning for 2016 already but she's too self-engrossed to understand that she will never be POTUS. Hussein Obama is going to get a second term since Romney makes it look like there is no choice and too many voters are clueless politically. The second term will completely blow it for the Democrats with a republican candidate securing victory then.
Nick| 8.18.12 @ 1:01PM
There was only one good thing about President You Didn't Build That getting the democrat party nomination in '08:
It meant that Shrillary the Hut's own party rejected her!
Especially, after everything that Bubba "The Rapist" Clinton did to her, she paid the price for his perverted acts!
That was kind of awesome, you'd have to admit.
Kwan| 8.18.12 @ 1:22PM
Hillary and Da Community Organizer were the two bumbling-boobs that allowed the fall of Egypt into the hands of the Muslim Brotherhood. The biggest foreign policy disaster in decades. Just like that other bumbling-boob Carter (another Democrat ) who allowed Muslim radicals to take-over Iran. Notice that the MSM goes into it's deaf, dumb, and blind act whenever Democrat Party screw-ups are running things.
Oldefarte| 8.18.12 @ 1:56PM
The photographer of those pictures needs to revise same to eliminate HillyBilly's tongue from hanging out and the drool running down her chin while she is dancing with that woman!!!!
RCV| 8.21.12 @ 12:02PM
Your mind is in its usual gutter, Oldfarte.
KamilBourne13| 8.18.12 @ 3:01PM
like Susan said I didnt even know that any body can get paid $6695 in 4 weeks on the computer. have you seen this page EarlyRich(dot)com