by Eyck Freymann
I supported Hillary Rodham Clinton at one point in the primaries. As a New Yorker, she's my senator and I think she has been a good one. Why, then, do I recoil at the idea of her being named Secretary of State? Let me give three reasons:
- Her expertise is not in foreign policy. She would be better suited for a cabinet position focusing on health care or education. She would even be a fine Attorney General.
- She is needed as a senator. The Democrats in the senate desperately need new leadership. Icons Kennedy, Inouye, and Byrd will all retire or die within the next two years. Biden is gone and Harry Reid must be replaced immediately (another story). With the next in line being the competent but unimpressive Chris Dodd, Hillary could easy emerge as the leading voice for progressive politics in the senate. She is the obvious heir to Ted Kennedy's political legacy.
- Although Obama really owes her (she delivered him her base on November 4th) I am sure the President-Elect would prefer someone else as Secretary of State. Having run on a platform of change and bipartisanship, Obama would surely prefer to appoint a Republican (or certainly a centrist) to the position.
3 comments:
Very true points.
If Hilary Clinton becomes Secretary of State, we will not see a foresightful foreign policy for quite awhile.
If Sen. Clinton becomes the new face of the Democratic Party in Congress, I would be very disappointed, (as an extremely left-wing liberal,) in the politicians of our Legislative Branch, (Rep. Dennis Kucinich and Sen. Bernard Sanders excepted.)
For more on this subject, refer to my post from June: "Dennis Kucinich for Vice President."
Speaking as a Rousseauvian democrat I'm disappointed by the fact that we have a "legislative branch" as such at all.
That aside, I would agree that Clinton as Secretary of State would not be a wonderful choice, although there probably could be worse ones. I don't know who else I would choose, however, so I'm not really offering much in the way of constructive criticism. The person I probably would have suggested would actually have been Biden, but since that's out of the question...
While I am also a Bernie Sanders fan, I unfortunately don't think there's any chance that either he or Kucinich will become the new face of the Democratic Party anytime in the foreseeable future.
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