It goes without saying that the Secretary of State is one of the most important public roles in not only the U.S., but the World. Bush Jr.'s first Secretary, Colin Powell, was partially responsible for the advertising onslaught behind the lead-up to the Iraq War. You may recall his ludicrous allegations before the United Nations? Following Powell, the country has had to deal with Condi Rice, a person of immense accomplishments, but whose entire career has been compromised by her unwavering nodding to everything out of Bush's trap. Her achievements are now largely overshadowed by her bowing to Lord George.When Obama tapped Hillary Clinton to be our next Secretary of State, I can't say I was pleased. I was leaning towards John Kerry or Chris Dodd. I can admit that my negative feelings towards Clinton were largely the result of her oft-times shameful primary campaign against Obama. But one thing was clear: Obama showed courage, backbone and humility by naming Clinton. He put aside the past and went with who he thought would be best.
I watched about an hour of Clinton's confirmation hearing yesterday. Although she was mostly receiving softballs from Kerry, Lugar, Feingold and others, I was very, very impressed with Clinton's limitless mental capacity. There wasn't an issue that she couldn't wrap her arms around and offer nuace. And it was the nuance that was most important here. She wasn't tossing out a knee-jerk response to please the bleachers. Rather, many of the issues that face us were met with discussion and thought. After eight years of cut-throat and narrow views on everything from war to the economy, it was incredibly refreshing to see our next ambassador to the World take a step back and look at the landscape.
Whatever ones thoughts on Hillary Clinton, there's no question that she's one of the smartest political minds of our time. She may not have been my choice for president, but she seems well suited to represent our country around the globe.
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