WILL HILLARY CLINTON BE SECRETARY OF STATE OF THE USA?
Karine Ter-Sahakyan
PanARMENIAN.Net
22.11.2008 GMT+04:00
Armenian Diaspora in the USA reminds that Mrs. Clinton paid a visit
to Turkey as a presidential candidate and there were rumors that some
Turkish lobbying organizations sponsored her election campaign.
The New York Times is reporting that Hillary Clinton has accepted the
position of Secretary of State in the Obama administration. This was
confirmed to the Times by "two confidants" who insisted on remaining
anonymous. According to the representatives of Clinton’s office they
are still in discussions on the matter and any reports beyond that are
premature. However, according to unnamed Clinton and Obama confidants
they have all the grounds to believe that President-elect Obama will
make an announcement on Clinton’s appointment, the AP reports.
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ To all appearances, Mrs. Clinton will accept the
offer, though in that case she would have to resign her office in
the Senate and give up the harbored hopes of a future presidential
run. Here a question arises if Hillary Clinton is ready to sacrifice
all that for the position of the country’s dominant voice in foreign
affairs. The figure of the US Secretary of State has always been
more attractive than that of his colleagues from other countries;
even the RF Minister of Foreign Affairs is not regarded so excitedly.
If Obama takes this step and if Clinton accepts his offer, she will be
the third female Secretary of State of the past 20 years. The first was
Madeleine Albright, who is presently advising on the US President-elect
Barack Obama and who even spoke for him in the G20 economic summit
in Washington. Then the position was taken by Condoleezza Rice, who
did a lot for creation of the negative image of the USA abroad. And,
finally, Hillary Clinton. Obama was expanding his search beyond other
candidates mentioned for the job, among them experienced diplomat
Richard Holbrooke, chief architect of the Dayton Peace Accords that
ended the war in Bosnia, Senator of Massachusetts John Kerry, and
New-Mexico Governor Bill Richardson. According to a number of American
experts Barack Obama is inclined to leave John Kerry to his most
important post of Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
It would be naive to consider that with a new administration the US
foreign policy would be radically changed, as among Obama’s aides
we find Zbigniew Brzezinski, Madeleine Albright and many others
from ex-president Bill Clinton’s staff, who will exert pressure
on the new president in making regular unpopular decisions on
international level. Meanwhile the Washington Post directly writes
that the decision on Clinton’s appointment may greatly damage
Obama administration. "Clinton is the wrong person for that job
in this administration. It’s not the best use of her talents, and
it’s certainly not the best fit for this new president. What Obama
needs in the person running the State Department is a diplomat
who will carry out his foreign policy. He does not need someone
who will tell him how to approach the world or be his mentor in
international relations. The last thing Obama needs is a secretary
of state carving out an independently based foreign policy. He needs
an agent, not an author," the paper states. In its turn the Times
directly says that "There is an old principle that you shouldn’t
hire someone you can’t fire. That is why Barack Obama would make
a huge mistake if he were to pick Hillary Clinton as his Secretary
of State. She would do the US proud as Secretary of State. But she
wouldn’t help Mr. Obama as president. She wouldn’t flatter him; she
wouldn’t really defer to him; she might challenge him, even though
she couldn’t actually upstage him. Foreign policy these days is an
intimate affair, carried out between leaders, on the phone, or in
faux-friendly fishing trips. The Secretary of State role has become
more technical, less independent. Would Mrs. Clinton be happy to play
that role? Surely not. It is inevitable that she would disagree with
Mr. Obama, on substance as well as style. After all (as he endlessly
reminded voters), she backed Iraq at the start, where he opposed it.
She will have her own views on the decisions of her husband’s
presidency (the Middle East, Balkans, North Korea), many well judged,
but messy in their legacy. Come to that, Bill will have even stronger
views," the English paper reports.
Meanwhile, Armenian Community is awaiting appointment of the
new Secretary of State, who will determine the U.S. foreign
policy. Representatives of the Community in Washington consider that
if Hillary Clinton in fact becomes Secretary of State she will be
directed by her husband, ex-President of the USA Bill Clinton.
"Obama seemed more sincere when pledging to recognize the Armenian
Genocide. The Armenian community believed him. We should not forget
that Mrs. Clinton paid a visit to Turkey as a presidential candidate
and there were rumors that some Turkish lobbying organizations
sponsored her election campaign," underlined a representative of one
of Armenian lobbying organizations.