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Hernando Today

So Much For Obama's 'Change'

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By JOHN HERBERT, From Where I Sit

Hernando Today

Published: December 3, 2008

So much for "change we can believe in." Barack Obama has designated electoral nemesis and new "close friend" Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State. The New York senator is only the latest of Bill Clinton's old White House gang to be signed on by Obama — after veteran marquee names like Emmanuels, Volker, Summers and Holder.
The nominations leave me rather deflated. Many of us were expecting real "change." The new national security team confirms, instead, that the "change" campaign slogab was only jazzy rhetoric to help win the election.
Even worse, the restoration of so many old Clinton cronies tells me that "faux" rock-star Obama himself is admitting (as his critics feared) he's not experienced enough to shake up Washington on his own. His "old boy" network knows which closets the bodies have been hidden in and in which White House gardens the juiciest papers have been buried.
Each Obama appointee has to be "vetted," even Hillary. Ironically, Obama himself, although he administered the test, couldn't pass that 62-question procedure if he had to. The zinger about terrorist relationships would bite him every time.
The most difficult part of the questionnaire for Hillary was identifying what foreign donors contributed to her husband's presidential library or charitable foundation.
If Hillary does take over as Secretary of State — there's no reason to think she won't, the way the Senate is stacked — she'll probably be conceding the 2012 election. Both Hillary and former President Bill Clinton and their supporters had secretly been hoping McCain would upset Obama this year, leaving the White House wide open for Hillary in four years.
Hillary's apparent sense of entitlement to the presidency has been shelved, temporarily. She still believes she earned the post after eight years as first lady. But how will she ever manage, or motivate, the sprawling State Department organization? She couldn't even shut up her own Bill during this fall's campaign.
She'll probably do an OK job as Secretary of State, although a probing media will always be wondering if Hillary is really working all that hard for President Obama or just for herself with a nod to the next available election cycle. The always-hungry media will inevitably revive the long-running Clinton soap opera.
When she traveled to 82 countries abroad, it was with husband Bill that she met so many heads of state. Without him, or even when he was off conducting the business of state, she was often relegated to drinking tea and to cackling, SNL-style, at other first ladies or NGO chiefs. Conducting foreign policy? How?
This time, she'll have to march to the tunes orchestrated by Obama. Without the advantage of pillow talk, if there ever was any. But she'll still have to answer those urgent 3 a.m. phone calls. Can Hillary write in the dark?
I give her a maximum of two years before a personal or policy conflict with Obama forces her to retreat from the Cabinet. It could be that fed-up Obama will just give her the boot. Hillary and Bill have historically and ideologically always drifted toward the center; Obama, to the left.
Why did Obama cave into Hillary in the first place? The most reasonable explanation is in the old saying, in jest, "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."
The Clintons are now putting their road show on the international stage. Ex-president Clinton should be ushered into a less-sensitive day job, instead. Maybe as a roving ambassador, as the next U.N. secretary general, as head of America's Chamber of Commerce or as a professional board member. Vacancies can be anticipated on many house-cleaned boards in the near future.

A regular columnist for Hernando Today, John Herbert lives in Spring Hill.

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