Barackface: February 2013

2016 Talk
Is Hillary Running?

Hillary Clinton is an extremely talented person who is extremely hard working. That is quite a combo. And she is not going to feel like a first woman president, just like Barack Obama did not feel like the first black president to me. My point being, that is not how I see him.

I have a suggestion for her book's title: Ambassador To The World.

After you have been to 112 countries, you deserve to end up in the White House. What preparation! I was in my 20s when I showed up in America. I like the White House occupant to have some deep global perspectives. Barack Obama having partly grown up in Indonesia was a huge plus in my book.

I want Hillary in the White House, and Kirsten Gillibrand there with her, and Susan Rice for Secretary of State, and I want Ashley Judd to kick Mitch McConnell out of Kentucky.

Not knowing if you will run is a great political decision. It keeps the mystery going. I think her inner clock says she will not announce before October 2015. A two year campaign is not her style. But announcing in January 2015 would be best. Learn from Barack. An early announcement would make the primary super easy.

I think her elevation to the White House might bring about an new era in international politics where a female head of state is no longer big news in any part of the world by the time she is done with her two terms. I think I would like that. Or maybe I am being too optimistic.

She would do well to hire all the techno whiz kids of Obama 2008 and 2012, and the grassroots organizing maestros. There is no going back to the old ways that was Hillary 2008 or Bill Clinton 1992.

There is a part of me that does think she is to the Clinton brand name what Ted Kennedy was to the Kennedy brand name. Only one Kennedy became president. And Ted Kennedy was an excellent Senator. He was no slouch. So she can't take things for granted.

Cover of Ashley Judd

Hillary Clinton: 20 years in the spotlight
POLITICAL SCENE: EVALUATING HILLARY CLINTON
What I Learned Covering Hillary Clinton

her immense talent and ambition. Will she seek the presidency in 2016? Clinton doesn’t know. Friends expect her to rest a year or so before taking a final measure of her health and her prospects .... if you don’t think she wants to be president, you don’t know her. ..... In late 1998 or early 1999, people close to Clinton told me she was mulling a U.S. Senate campaign. I was stunned: No sitting first lady had ever contemplated such a move, much less one whose husband had been impeached for lying about an affair....... It took me several days to overcome my doubts. When I finally reported that she was seeking the vacant U.S. Senate seat in New York, another news organization quoted several authoritative sources insisting that she was not. The competition didn’t know what I did: Never bet against Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Why Ashley Judd's Breakup Is Bad News for Mitch McConnell
Interview: Axelrod on Hillary Clinton’s Political Prospects

‘We were friends before we were opponents. She’s tough and skilled and I need someone who will be taken very seriously when they land on foreign soil, because I’m going to be dealing with a financial crisis. I need an A-team.’ ...... “The big question for her is simply whether at this point she wants to do this.” .... “She was the odds-on favorite in 2008 and she didn’t” win, Mr. Fratto said. “It’s not really clear that people who lose their party’s nomination come back and be successful. It’s rare for that to happen. She has been the ‘inevitable’ candidate already. So she has something to prove.”

Clinton's Exit: Either Epilogue or Prelude

Mrs. Clinton would enter the 2016 race for the White House as a solid front-runner. Her presence would likely scare off some other presidential hopefuls ..... For now, she says she wants to sleep, relax and deliver speeches. ..... catching up on about 20 years of sleep deprivation ...... Some of her supporters never warmed to Mr. Obama and would like to see her draw distinctions with the White House in one respect at least: representation of women in government. ..... "It's shameful that a man who got elected by women and people of color and people of different sexual orientation goes and chooses a bunch of white men" for top government roles. ..... she said she was taking medication, adding "that's what people do when you have blood clots."

Iran stepping up support for Syria, Hillary Clinton warns
Barack Obama signs sweeping US defence spending bill
Hillary Clinton's Legacy: Ambassador to the World?

Secretary Clinton achieved more as an ambassador than as secretary of state. Cassidy writes: "The post she really had was that of U.S. Ambassador to the world, and she made a pretty good fist of it." ..... Since 1992, Hillary Rodham Clinton has maintained a consistent level of power in Washington, from first lady to senator to secretary of state. .... Clinton has always had her detractors

Hillary Was a Great Ambassador, Not a Great Secretary of State

Having stopped off in a hundred and twelve countries during her four years as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, in her last week in office, seems intent on visiting almost as many televisions studios. At the weekend, she did “60 Minutes” on CBS. Today, she will be on ABC, NBC, CNN, and Fox. Tomorrow, it’s the BBC. If you are a news producer at CNBC, Bloomberg, New York 1, or the Weather Channel, give the State Department a call. As far as I know, Thursday and Friday are still open. ....... In foreign-policy circles, the knock on Hillary is that, unlike some of her storied predecessors—John Quincy Adams, George C. Marshall, Dean Acheson, Henry Kissinger—she failed to carve out a historically significant role for herself. ...... Marshall gave his name to an economic-recovery plan for war-torn Europe. Acheson laid down the Cold War policy of containment and helped create NATO. Adams helped conceive the Monroe Doctrine, which defined Central and South America as part of the U.S. sphere of influence. Kissinger pioneered détente with the Soviets, instigated a rapprochement with the Chinese, and did much else besides (by no means all of it estimable). By contrast, Hillary’s signature achievements look like small beer. She was the public face of the U.S. response to the Arab Spring, which involved persuading Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian President, to step aside peaceably ..... In carrying out the task she was allotted, she was a big success. It’s just that the nature of her job was very different from the ones that Acheson and Kissinger held. In reality, she wasn’t directing American foreign policy, or anything close. At times, she wasn’t even the Administration’s chief troubleshooter—a niche occupied by a series of special envoys: Richard Holbrooke, George Mitchell, and Dennis Ross. The post she really had was that of U.S. Ambassador to the world, and she made a pretty good fist of it...... In total, she was traveling for four hundred and one days—more than thirteen months—enduring hundreds of long flights and sitting through countless boring meetings

'Hillary Clinton 2016' Hype To Be Further Fueled By Eye-Popping PPP Poll

the former FLOTUS/New York senator/presidential aspirant/secretary of state could put Texas in play..... PPP's newest Texas poll finds that, at least for now, Hillary Clinton could win the state in 2016. This follows on the heels of a survey last month where we found she would have a decent chance of winning Kentucky if she makes another White House bid. .... The going theory is that Texas' growing Hispanic population could be the seed bed for a new generation of majority-tipping Democratic voters

Name Hillary Clinton's book
The new Hillary Clinton

still afflicted by the same problem that hampered her during the up-and-down 2008 campaign: an inability to clearly define her leadership or governing philosophy..... Few modern American politicians have enjoyed quite as dramatic a political rebirth as Clinton has experienced in her four years at the State Department ..... the past week’s farewell tour seems to augur the arrival of The New Hillary..... The leap from State to the White House used to be commonplace in the early days of the Republic. Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams and Martin Van Buren did it. But the last secretary to make the jump was James Buchanan, one of the worst presidents ever, a weakling who ceded the stage to Abraham Lincoln 152 years ago..... Vice President Joe Biden, a Clinton admirer who own gaze is firmly fixed on 2016 ..... once elected Obama adopted Clinton’s “smart power” strategy, an unromantic foreign policy strategy of limited intervention, dictated by circumstance, availability of resources and likelihood of success. It may be a defensible approach, but it’s not one geared at capturing the public imagination....... in an age of ambiguous alliances, asymmetric threats and a diminishing U.S. footprint overseas ...... Clinton’s diffuse achievements — which range from wrangling international support for sanctions against Iran, organizing goodwill missions to off-map countries like Togo and fighting for the rights of oppressed women and girls around the globe

The Obsessive Guide to Hillary Clinton’s Not-Quite-Shermanesque 2016 Denials
Rest Up, Hillary Clinton: 2016 Will Be Different

I surmise that there has never been a national political figure so watched and so examined as has Hillary Clinton..... She is an incredibly smart and talented politician; and as important as her gender is, it is not the primary thing that defines her. Things are different now, and consequently, I think the U.S. is ready to see her as President

How The South Will Rise To Power Again

this year the four best states for business, according to CEO Magazine, were Texas, Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee .... Last year Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and North Carolina were four of the six leading destinations for new corporate facilities .... Houston and Dallas are already immigrant hotbeds; Nashville. Charlotte, Atlanta, Raleigh and Orlando all have among the nation’s fastest-growing foreign populations.

Clinton says she doesn't see "getting back into politics"

"...I am really looking forward to stepping off the fast track that I've been on. I've been out of politics as Secretary of State. I don't see myself getting back into politics" ...... in a separate NBC interview she said that she was healthy enough to wage a campaign.

Reinventing Rahul Gandhi
Nitish Kumar best prime ministerial candidate: JD-U leader
Rove: About That 'Permanent Democratic Majority'

Obama has forged a new majority coalition of women, minorities, young people and upscale cultural liberals so large and durable that he can do what no president has done before—pursue a very liberal agenda without serious opposition or defections from his own party. Demography is destiny ..... Demography isn't destiny because nothing is permanent in politics—and Democrats' insistence to the contrary will likely lead them to overreach, ignoring issues such as jobs, anemic growth and deficits in order to tackle gun control and climate change. That would be good for Republicans. Governing from the hard left sunk Democrats in 2010 and would cost them again in 2014.