The Advantages Of Hillary Clinton



(image via nysocialdiary)

The disadvantages of Senator Hillary Clinton as United States Secretary of State in an Obama administration are many, and have been recounted here as well as other media outlets unfavorable to the Clintons. We will not bore you again with the catalogue of grievances. What about the advantages? Among which are:

-- Hillary Clinton is an international superstar, a global icon, a known commodity with a track record among women, children and the poor around the world. President-elect Obama is, similarly, an international superstar, especially in the rising second world as well as the Third World. Together -- combined with the backroom influence of former President Bill Clinton, the third most-influential global humanitarian after Mandela and Gates -- they present the highest possible wattage of soft power humanly imaginable. Whether in South Africa or Russia or Latin America, America's foreign policy interests will be received with not only the rapt attention of world leaders (and the editorial boards of their newspapers), but with the sympathies of large percentages of the internal populations, especially in the Second and Third World.

-- Bill Clinton. Hillary Clinton is a buy one get one free Secretary of State. Her husband's influence will be felt, his volumnous Rolodex will be utilized, but taxpayers won't have to foot the bill. Bill Clinton owes Hillary, if not the Presidency, at least a Nobel Peace Prize -- and that works to the advantage of the United States.

-- 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling. Hillary Clinton ran a spirited campaign, garnered 18 million votes, alighted the hopes of women -- and girls -- everywhere (and she didn't do so bad among the elderly and working class whites). When the race was over, Clinton did not mope Achillean: she instead did her job and helped elect the ticket, taking on the most difficult tasks, making the case for Obama among her base, and making a measurable difference in the final vote tally.

-- SecState diminishes Clinton's run in 2012. With a bow to the Machiavellian fundament of electoral politics, it can not have escaped President-elect Obama entirely that Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State diminishes the possibility (and political viability) of a primary run in 2012.

From Bloomberg:

"The activists needn't worry, said Steve Clemons, an analyst at the Washington-based New America Foundation. Obama retains the final say, and appointing experienced centrists like Clinton, Gates and Jones actually gives the new president more room to pursue fresh approaches, he said.

"'By bringing Hillary on to achieve his policy vision, he protects himself from those prepared to call him 'appeaser-in- chief,' Clemons said. 'He's putting together a diverse team that covers the bases politically.'"