Althouse: Christopher Hitchens hates the idea of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.

November 25, 2008

Christopher Hitchens hates the idea of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.

"A president absolutely has to know of his chief foreign-policy executive that he or she has no other agenda than the one he has set. Who can say with a straight face that this is true of a woman whose personal ambition is without limit; whose second loyalty is to an impeached and disbarred and discredited former president; and who is ready at any moment, and on government time, to take a wheedling call from either of her bulbous brothers? This is also the unscrupulous female who until recently was willing to play the race card on President-elect Obama and (in spite of her own complete want of any foreign-policy qualifications) to ridicule him for lacking what she only knew about by way of sordid backstairs dealing. What may look like wound-healing and magnanimity to some looks like foolhardiness and masochism to me."

So Obama is a babe in the woods or Hitchens is a hothead... a bulbous hothead.

30 comments:

Dust Bunny Queen said...: Obama is a naive idiot. Puppet on a string. Front for the manipulators behind the scenery. Empty suit mouthing platitudes. He has no experience in actually governing or managing anything.; 11/25/08, 10:25 AM
Simon said...: Does he really think that "it's difficult to see Sen. Clinton achieving confirmation unless our elected representatives are ready to ask a few questions about conflict of interest along similar lines"? Really? I can think of at least three reasons why Hillary shouldn't be nominated, shouldn't accept the nomination, and shouldn't be confirmed, but even I wouldn't dare to dream that the Senate would actually reject the nomination if it was submitted to them, for any of those reasons or any other.; 11/25/08, 10:33 AM
kjbe said...: Christopher Hitchens hates the idea of Hillary Clinton. Period. What else is new?; 11/25/08, 10:34 AM
PoliShifter said...: Hitchens will just have to get overhimself. The rest of the Obama Haters are going to make their lives misrable if they don't get over it either.; 11/25/08, 10:35 AM
Palladian said...: "The rest of the Obama Haters are going to make their lives misrable if they don't get over it either."

Well the rest of the Bush haters never got over it and they're now going to make all of our lives miserable.; 11/25/08, 10:38 AM
Darcy said...: I think Hitchens' description of Hillary is a bit outdated. Didn't she sacrifice her personal ambition for the good of the party when she gave up the nomination battle she could have waged?

Beyond that, I think she was pretty graceful in defeat to someone who used such disgusting tactics against her during the primaries.

Actually, I'm talking myself into thinking she's a bad choice, but not for Hitch's reasons, but because she must loathe Obama, and he must know it. How does that work?; 11/25/08, 10:38 AM
integrity said...: Hitchen also supported the invasion of Iraq, he is a drunken idiot.

I love Hillary as Secretary of State.

Impeach Bush now!!! Yahoo!; 11/25/08, 10:38 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: But the key is going to be whether or not she and her president are seamless in their approach to foreign policy issues. As I think Tom Friedman wrote in a column last week, a, a foreign leader can see daylight between a president and his secretary of state from a hun--from a thousand miles away. So she will be successful depending upon how seamless she is with her president and how they operate together and how he protects her back and vice-versa, how he formulates foreign policy, she picks up on that formulation, and she implements it. That's going to be the key.

Former secretary of state James Baker

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27873500/page/2/; 11/25/08, 10:45 AM
Automatic_Wing said...: I actually think this is a rather shrewd move by Obama.

Hillary is completely neutralized as SecState. Her authority and prestige can easily be undercut with a few words from the President and he can even fire her ass if she gets out of line. It will soon be clear who the boss is and it won't be Hillary.; 11/25/08, 10:45 AM
Palladian said...: Hey integrity, how'd the layoffs go? Hehe. It was good practice for the many more to follow under the "leadership" of the Messiah.; 11/25/08, 10:46 AM
save_the_rustbelt said...: Saw a news clip this morning, apparently our bankrupt giant banks having been paying Bill Clinton huge speaking fees.

A swamp of conflicts and lowered ethical expectations.

She would be acceptable ifg she were single - dump the lump!; 11/25/08, 10:46 AM
Matt Eckert said...: She has a lot in common with our first secretary of state Thomas Jefferson.

She really digs black chicks.; 11/25/08, 10:48 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Actually it’s a brilliant move by Obama. The adage of keeping your enemies closer than your friends comes to mind. I’m honestly stunned Hillary would accept. She’s willing to give up a safe Senate seat for a cabinet appointment taking marching orders from the former community organizer? One little foreign policy flub and next thing she’s on a plane back to Hope. Oh well, Hillary is the smartest woman in the world so I suppose she knows what she’s doing.; 11/25/08, 11:05 AM
Balfegor said...: As I think Tom Friedman wrote in a column last week, a, a foreign leader can see daylight between a president and his secretary of state from a hun--from a thousand miles away.

This has actually been a problem for Bush II too -- not with his secretaries of state, but with slightly more junior personnel. Christopher Hill, the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian affairs, has presided over the shambles of the Bush II administration's North Korea policy, and is believed in some quarters to have deliberately undermined the line Bush II had publicly been pushing, to the point that we've lost credibility both with Japan -- which pushes the hardest hard line on North Korea -- and even South Korea, which tended over the past decade to be more accomodationist than the US, but elected Lee Myung Bak of the right-leaning Grand National Party last year.; 11/25/08, 11:10 AM
Simon Kenton said...: Hoosier Daddy, SecState is 4th in line for the presidency. Arguably this is not such a brilliant move by Obama.; 11/25/08, 11:19 AM
bearbee said...: Palladian said...
Well the rest of the Bush haters never got over it and they're now going to make all of our lives miserable.

Yeah, but, yeah, but .....he deSERVED it!!

Hoosier Daddy said...
I’m honestly stunned Hillary would accept.

You think maybe Obama was surprised with her acceptance?; 11/25/08, 11:23 AM
Anonymous said...: Note to Hitch: Obama is an inexperienced, ambitious Chicago New Left politician.

Can I say "I told you so" now?; 11/25/08, 11:32 AM
John Salmon said...: What it very possibly means is that, like Kissinger/Rogers under Nixon, Obama's NSA chief will have the real power. Meanwhile Hillary can hardly run in '12, unless she quits early on over a foreign policy gaffe, which she demonstrably had no part in, and one at least equal to the Bay of Pigs. Even then it would still look as if she were merely quitting out of spite, to run against BHO. Won't work.

Shrewd move by Obama, at least politically.; 11/25/08, 11:34 AM
Hoosier Daddy said...: Hoosier Daddy, SecState is 4th in line for the presidency. Arguably this is not such a brilliant move by Obama.

I'll wager that Obama wasn't thinking about presidential succession when he was making his SecState choice but rather keeping a potential political rival under close watch.

As I said, brilliant.; 11/25/08, 11:57 AM
LoafingOaf said...: Hitchens is perfectly justified in despising Bill and Hillary Clinton and writing a thousands editorials expressing that hatred. The Clintons are, after all, criminals.

The fact that they've gotten away with so much and still have so much power while being criminals doesn't mean we should pull back our hatred of them (like those who seem to admire what they get away with). It should increase it.

But then the Bush administration is full of criminals, too.

No wonder the country is so fucked up right now. Obama's supposed to clean things up a little and this isn't a good start.; 11/25/08, 12:44 PM
paul a'barge said...: As if there is anyone in government at any time who has any other agenda than the current President, right?; 11/25/08, 1:29 PM
Hoosier Daddy said...: No wonder the country is so fucked up right now. Obama's supposed to clean things up a little and this isn't a good start.

Change you can believe in baby.

I wondering if some of his devoted are starting to feel like a used piece of tail yet.; 11/25/08, 1:33 PM
walter neff said...: Hey Oaf, you are just supposed to make fun of Sarah Palin all day long. She's the real threat.

It's our job to make fun of that fraud you pimped out to us all election season.; 11/25/08, 1:46 PM
garage mahal said...: It will take hundreds of years to evaluate George W Bush's legacy. "They're still writing about George Washington!".

But we know Obama has already failed before taking office.; 11/25/08, 1:49 PM
Anonymous said...: This is also the unscrupulous female

I agree with Hitchens here. All women are unscrupulous and unfunny.

They are also argumentative, vindictive, money grubbing whore mongers. Oh wait, sorry that's the Jews.

who until recently was willing to play the race card on President-elect Obama

She didn't "play the race card" on President elect or candidate Obama.

Although Axelrod and Obama's handlers repeatedly played the race card on BOTH Clintons in order to solidify the black vote and guilt-up some of the White libs.

and (in spite of her own complete want of any foreign-policy qualifications) to ridicule him for lacking what she only knew about by way of sordid backstairs dealing. What may look like wound-healing and magnanimity to some looks like foolhardiness and masochism to me.

Chris, put down the liquor for a second and look who The Golden Child picked as his VP.; 11/25/08, 2:06 PM
walter neff said...: No he is only failing you liberal dupes.

We already know he is a dissembling political hack with no experience and a glib tongue.

At least he is picking the smartest of the crooks from the Clinton administration. So far so good.

I can not wait until he names Lanny Davis and Paul Begala as his spokesmen. Good times.; 11/25/08, 2:08 PM
Anonymous said...: And he's keeping Robert Gates!; 11/25/08, 2:14 PM
blake said...: But we know Obama has already failed before taking office.

Which doesn't mean we won't still be writing about those failures 100 years from now....; 11/25/08, 2:17 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Loafing Oaf said:

"Obama's supposed to clean things up a little"

If Mort was here, he'd call you a racist.; 11/25/08, 4:03 PM
Georg Felis said...: As much as I dislike Obama's political positions, I think the Hillary SecState nomination can be a brilliant move.
A) It gets her out of the Senate, where she could screw up anything he tries to do.
B) If she performs perfectly in the SecState position, she will not be able to run against him in 2012.
C) If she screws up, the blame will fall on her, not him, and she will leave the administration tainted with the blemish of that failure, therefore making her a non-candidate for 2012.
D) If he screws up, he can blame her, and fire her.

I think argument C and D can be made with Sec Gates too.; 11/27/08, 8:40 PM