one case for Hillary as Secretary of State

Now that President-Elect Obama has chatted up Hillary Clinton about the Secretary of State position, speculations are flying about how he might negotiate around Bill's philanthropic endeavors and international connections, whether Hillary would properly underscore the message of change he won on, and the usual calls for the policy equivalent of jello-wrestling between them.

I have my own qualms about her as a potential Sec. of State. It boils down to the fact that she doesn't come off as a diplomat to me. She could be great as, say, Secretary of Health and Human Services, because something more legislatively focused would fit her personal style and career experience better than a position dependent on subtle smooth-talking. I mean, when Hillary wants to make a point, oh, it gets across. There just isn't a lot of finesse most of the time. And finesse is probably communication skill #1 for that position.

HOWEVAH! Here's Hillary's secret totally-unique-to-her advantage: Among impending crises with Waziristan (that amorphous area between Pakistan and Afghanistan where Al-Queda rules the rugged mountainsides, kind of like the Polish-Russian territory where my ancestors came from, only now the pogroms occur on a GLOBAL scale, great), Russia, could somebody please step up and at least say SOMETHING about the Congo, kthnx, Iraq, Iran, India's nuclear arsenal, et al., there is one conflict that the Obama administration will have to change. I'm talking, of course, about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Getting Israel to make some concessions and broker an imperfect-but-stable agreement with the Palestinians for a two-state solution, while obviously necessary and meaningful for its own sake, would immensely increase our credibility and ability to prevent terrorist recruitment and activity in the Arab world and Iran.

Hillary Clinton is a) a Clinton, and we all know how active Bill was in mediating the conflict and the weight that carries, and b) the Senator from New York, and I think its safe to say she's received a courtesy call or two from AIPAC. Whether or not you think highly of the major Israel lobby, her familiarity and trust with the American Jewish community gives her the ability to sit down with Israeli leadership and say, for instance, "You have to halt settlement activity and free up checkpoints between Ramallah and Bethlehem." And she can do the same on the Palestinian side if they believe she can get useful concessions from the Israelis.

Plus! the image of Hillary Clinton and Tzipi Livni shooting the shit over their respective countries' neuroses about gender and leadership, well, that just warms my feminist heart.