Print
E-mail
Will Clinton Quit If Iran Gets Nukes?
 |
| Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks with President Barack Obama during the annual convention of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Washington on July 19, 2006. Insiders say Mrs. Clinton may resign if Iran becomes a nuclear-armed nation in 2010. (Evan Vucci/Associated Press) |
By JONATHAN BRAUN, For The Bulletin
If Islamist Iran becomes a nuclear-armed nation in 2010, the first “casualty,” according to some Washington insiders, is likely to be America's Secretary of State.
Hillary Clinton, will resign, sources who claim to know her plans predict, in an attempt to distance and disassociate herself from what is almost certain to be Barack Obama's paramount and potentially most catastrophic foreign policy failure--allowing an avowed enemy of the United States and Israel to acquire the ultimate weapons of mass destruction.
Quitting would position Mrs. Clinton to challenge Mr. Obama for the Democratic Party's Presidential nomination in 2012.
“Hillary is a rich woman who is still young enough to become the first woman president of the United States,” a veteran political analyst with strong Democratic ties tells this reporter. “She does not need to be identified with failure and defeat.”
The same, seemingly in-the-know sources say Mrs. Clinton will also resign — and run for president — if there is another terrorist attack on the U.S. homeland, such as the Fort Hood massacre by a Muslim fundamentalist Army major, or the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. passenger jet by a Nigerian Islamist, and Mr. Obama does not respond by scrapping his soft approach to terrorism, which includes treating alien enemy combatants as common criminals entitled to civilian court trials, lawyers, and plea bargains.
Like many Americans, Mrs. Clinton, who ran against Mr. Obama in the 2008 primary race--and came closer than any woman ever has to winning her party's nomination for president--is said to have begun to look at her boss as a one-termer, a Commander-in-Chief in the Jimmy Carter mold.
Her resignation would not be unusual. On the contrary; as the Presidential Power blog (http://blogs.middlebury.edu/presidentialpower/) pointed out last year, of the 18 Secretaries of State since the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidency, only nine served at least a full, four-year presidential term. More to the point, of the eight Secretaries of State since F.D.R. who were first appointed at the beginning of a president's first term--meaning, they were not held over by the Truman, Johnson, and Ford administrations after, respectively, F.D.R.'s death, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and the resignation of Richard Nixon--only five held onto their jobs until the end of that first term. The others stepped down.
Mrs. Clinton is widely perceived to be unhappy at State. Although she has denied the rumors, she has clearly been sidelined by Mr. Obama, who is known to have preferred the man he eventually chose as his running mate, Senator Joe Biden, for the nation's top foreign policy post.
The Foggy Bottom buzz is that Vice President Joe Biden still sees himself as the administration's foremost foreign affairs authority, and that the Vice President's proximity to Mr. Obama, combined with the increased importance of the National Security Council, has effectively diminished the policy-making role of the State Department and contributed significantly to Mrs. Clinton's discontent.
In an interview with PBS that aired Wednesday night, Clinton said she does not envision serving as Secretary of State in a second Obama administration. She also denied having any interest in again running for President.
Jonathan Braun is a journalist and communications consultant who has written extensively about national and international topics for a wide range of traditional and new media publications.
Hillary Clinton, will resign, sources who claim to know her plans predict, in an attempt to distance and disassociate herself from what is almost certain to be Barack Obama's paramount and potentially most catastrophic foreign policy failure--allowing an avowed enemy of the United States and Israel to acquire the ultimate weapons of mass destruction.
Quitting would position Mrs. Clinton to challenge Mr. Obama for the Democratic Party's Presidential nomination in 2012.
“Hillary is a rich woman who is still young enough to become the first woman president of the United States,” a veteran political analyst with strong Democratic ties tells this reporter. “She does not need to be identified with failure and defeat.”
The same, seemingly in-the-know sources say Mrs. Clinton will also resign — and run for president — if there is another terrorist attack on the U.S. homeland, such as the Fort Hood massacre by a Muslim fundamentalist Army major, or the attempted Christmas Day bombing of a U.S. passenger jet by a Nigerian Islamist, and Mr. Obama does not respond by scrapping his soft approach to terrorism, which includes treating alien enemy combatants as common criminals entitled to civilian court trials, lawyers, and plea bargains.
Like many Americans, Mrs. Clinton, who ran against Mr. Obama in the 2008 primary race--and came closer than any woman ever has to winning her party's nomination for president--is said to have begun to look at her boss as a one-termer, a Commander-in-Chief in the Jimmy Carter mold.
Her resignation would not be unusual. On the contrary; as the Presidential Power blog (http://blogs.middlebury.edu/presidentialpower/) pointed out last year, of the 18 Secretaries of State since the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidency, only nine served at least a full, four-year presidential term. More to the point, of the eight Secretaries of State since F.D.R. who were first appointed at the beginning of a president's first term--meaning, they were not held over by the Truman, Johnson, and Ford administrations after, respectively, F.D.R.'s death, the assassination of John F. Kennedy, and the resignation of Richard Nixon--only five held onto their jobs until the end of that first term. The others stepped down.
Mrs. Clinton is widely perceived to be unhappy at State. Although she has denied the rumors, she has clearly been sidelined by Mr. Obama, who is known to have preferred the man he eventually chose as his running mate, Senator Joe Biden, for the nation's top foreign policy post.
The Foggy Bottom buzz is that Vice President Joe Biden still sees himself as the administration's foremost foreign affairs authority, and that the Vice President's proximity to Mr. Obama, combined with the increased importance of the National Security Council, has effectively diminished the policy-making role of the State Department and contributed significantly to Mrs. Clinton's discontent.
In an interview with PBS that aired Wednesday night, Clinton said she does not envision serving as Secretary of State in a second Obama administration. She also denied having any interest in again running for President.
Jonathan Braun is a journalist and communications consultant who has written extensively about national and international topics for a wide range of traditional and new media publications.
 |
||
| Pia Varma To Run For Pennsylvania’s First Congressional District Seat |
Reader Comments
The following are comments from the readers. In no way do they represent the view of thebulletin.us.
You must register with a valid email to post comments. Only your Member ID will be posted with the comments.
Registered users sign in here: |
Become a Registered User |
