Welcome to Katalusis for progressive views on politics, religion, environmental issues,
and popular culture. (Photo of the Mississippi River
from the University Club in St. Paul, MN.)
The Naval Officer above demonstrates a sharp salute.
President Obama's usual sloppy salute.
A veteran of the United States Air Force (WAF), I’m annoyed every time I see Barack Obama return a hand salute to a member of the armed forces; he looks ridiculous. As shown in the photo of the U.S. Navy officer above, his right arm and hand should be perfectly straight and his hand just off the right eyebrow. The salute should also be short and snappy. Surely, someone at the Pentagon can show our president how to salute properly.
The media’s good old boys seem to be getting over Hillary Clinton’s success as our top diplomat as more of them have grudgingly begun to acknowledge the warm reception she receives – including standing ovations - wherever she travels and the progress she’s making in restoring America’s relationships with other nations around the globe.
Nevertheless, news writers and pundits have to find something to quibble about and in this morning’s Boston Globe, Glenn Kessler thinks it’s newsworthy the secretary of state occasionally changes her tone depending on where she happens to be at the time – you’d think that would be an early lesson in Diplomacy 101.
Still, Kessler leads off with kudos to Clinton for her celebrity status (emphasis mine):
ANKARA, Turkey - When Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton meets with foreign officials, the initial welcome is formal, as in "greetings, madame secretary." But invariably, the officials slip into calling her "Hillary" - a global brand name on par with "Diana" or "Tiger."
Clinton's celebrity status - and her skill at exploiting it - were again apparent during her first visit as secretary to the Middle East and Europe this past week.
At a private dinner with European foreign ministers in Brussels on Wednesday, she was the center of attention, patiently answering questions from her counterparts - who took the unusual step of bursting into applause after the meal.
When she spoke to hundreds of young political activists at the European Parliament on Friday, Hans-Gert Poettering, the president of the parliament, gushed that there is "enormous goodwill toward you" in Europe. He later paid her what he probably considered the ultimate compliment - that her answers "mostly could have been said by Europeans."
Here’s where Kessler interjects his astute observation concerning Secretary Clinton’s change in tone:
But compared with her visit to Asia last month, this trip displayed a different side of America's top diplomat.
In Asia, Clinton generated headlines with frank remarks, such as when she questioned the efficacy of sanctions against the repressive junta in Burma, spoke openly about a possible succession crisis in North Korea, and said she expected to make little progress on human rights in China.
This past week, she was more cautious, especially in the Middle East. She was often careful to hew to talking points, and her answers to reporters' questions were often vague. She also was less available for sustained give-and-take with the reporters traveling with her. Not counting short news conferences, she conducted one briefing for reporters on her plane in seven days of travel.
That might have had something to do with the tensions in the Middle-East, Glenn. But let’s give our intrepid reporter credit; he at least noticed the secretary was preoccupied with – with - with diplomacy:
But, in contrast to the "listening tour" of Asia, Clinton was much more diplomatically active. Throughout the week, she tried to reach out to nations, especially adversaries, that the Bush administration had spurned.
She dispatched two senior US diplomats to meet with top Syrian officials on Saturday; she extended an invitation to Iran to be part of an international gathering on Afghanistan; and she tried to "reset" relations with Russia by winning NATO approval to restore high-level meetings and by having dinner with her Russian counterpart.
Kessler even noticed our star diplomat made progress:
By week's end, Clinton could claim progress, at least in terms of process. In Syria, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem and other officials met for about four hours with Acting Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman and White House official Dan Shapiro.
At a news conference Saturday in Ankara, where she held talks with Turkish officials, Clinton said it was too soon to say whether the United States would send an ambassador to Syria for the first time since 2005. But she emphasized that the administration will press for peace talks between Israel and Syria.
On Saturday, Iran responded positively to Clinton's plans to invite it to the conference on Afghanistan, an overture that could bring the secretary face to face with her Iranian counterpart by the end of the month.
And get this:
The dinner meeting in Geneva on Friday with the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, yielded no breakthroughs on arms control, missile defense, or other thorny issues. But the atmospherics were strikingly different than Lavrov's often-stormy sessions with Clinton's predecessor, Condoleezza Rice.
The Obama infatuated media with little or no credentials for judging such things has repeatedly labeled Barack Obama a great orator. I, on the other hand, have been repeatedly bored by the One’s monotonouscadences borrowed from civil rights leaders and evangelical preachers. Obama wouldn’t pass the test at any Toastmaster’s gathering.
Nevertheless, during his campaign, he was able to convert his massive teenage audiences from political rallies to foot-stomping revival meetings chanting, “Yes, we can.”
Thanks to Examiner.com, the word is finally out: Obama can’t speak coherently without his teleprompter:
"Last summer I took note of Obama's dependency on his teleprompter and how Obama usually heavily scripted. I also noted that without that remote control from his handlers, Obama is prone to gaffes such as his infamous clingy remarks at that San Francisco fundraiser.
"Yesterday, Carol E. Lee wrote about Obama's dependence on his teleprompter:
Obama’s reliance on the teleprompter is unusual — not only because he is famous for his oratory, but because no other president has used one so consistently and at so many events, large and small.
"That was followed by Peter Baker writing in the New York Times that no other President has used the device as much as Obama:
Presidents have been using teleprompters for more than half a century, but none have relied on them as extensively as Mr. Obama has so far. While presidents typically have used them for their most important speeches — an inaugural, State of the Union or Oval Office address — Mr. Obama uses them for routine announcements and even for the opening statement of his only news conference so far.
He used them during a visit to a Caterpillar plant in Peoria, Ill. He used them to make brief remarks opening his “fiscal responsibility summit.” He used them to discuss endangered species, even recalling a visit to national parks as an 11-year-old. “That was an experience I will never forget,” he said, reading from the teleprompter.
"Both articles also noted what a poor speaker Obama is without his remote-controlled teleprompter providing a script to read. All of which sets the stage for the following video from Iowahawk:
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton with Britain's Foreign Secretary David Miliband at the start of a NATO and EU dinner at Egmont Palace in Brussels, Wednesday March 4, 2009. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert)
*For an update and video on Secretary Clinton’s speech in Brussels posted at Seattlepi.com, go here.
The media in general has continued its good old boy best to find fault with Secretary Clinton regardless of where she has traveled lately or what she has achieved. For example, check out this malicious rant in Reuters by David Brunnstrom on her recent trip to Europe in which Brunnstrom only grudgingly reports the warm reception Clinton received.
Western Canada based Politonomist provides a more accurate account of the secretary’s achievements so far. Tom Prout reports:
Though her personal website is free of a list of her accomplishments in the role, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has been exceptionally busy since her appointment as Secretary of State on January 21, 2009.
Mrs. Clinton’s appointment was much more than a show of good faith by her recent democratic rival Barack Obama; to her position at the head of the State Department she brings a wealth of international, diplomatic contacts acquired over her 8 years serving as First Lady. Traveling the world alongside former US President Bill Clinton involved much work pertinent to her current endeavors and is proving to be invaluable as her duties evolve.
In her trip to Japan (February 16-18), her first trip abroad since coming into office, Secretary Clinton discussed, with senior Japanese government officials in Japan, the strategic bilateral alliance and cooperation with Japan on regional and global issues. One such issue was, not surprisingly, the economy: Japan’s economy is the second largest in the world and parallels were drawn between the stimulus put forward by the US Government and potential solutions in Japan.
Secretary Clinton stressed in an interview with CBS, when talking about a possible solution between the US and Japan, “that we don’t build walls between us, that we don’t engage in activity that will worsen the financial situation”, adding that both countries were aware of that. As has been reiterated before on many an occasion, the current policy for handling the recent financial crisis is that once national affairs are in a comfortable state, international bonds will be forged to simultaneously bolster the markets. When questions about the ‘Buy American’ clause arose, Secretary Clinton articulated that no existing international agreements would be violated for the sake of self preservation.
Politonomics, unlike many of its American counterparts, stated Clinton’s position accurately on human rights during her visit to China:
In spite of setting aside differences for the duration of the trip, Mrs. Clinton did make clear in a report what she thought of China’s human rights record, proving that even in extenuating circumstances certain things are intolerable. Critics are interested to see the plans the Secretary of State has in store for resolving these differences, once the current financial crisis is resolved, whenever that may be.
Below is Politonomics summary of the secretary’s visit to the Middle-East and Europe:
Secretary Clinton is currently visiting the Middle East and Europe between March 1-7, a trip which began with participation in the donor’s conference for Gaza recovery held in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt. Special Envoy for Middle East Peace George Mitchel was amongst the many high-level world representatives present when the US pledged $900 million to the cause of rebuilding Gaza strip. The strip has been destroyed by days of fighting between Fatah and Hamas caused by refusal to establish a Palestinian state. The money, as well as scheduled talks, are also put forward to find a possible solution to the issue; Clinton has vowed to strive towards peace in the Middle East.
The United States, Britain, the European Union, and the six member states of the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) contributed combined sums far beyond the $2.8 billion initially hoped for by the Palestinian Authority. Following the conference, Clinton met with senior officials from Egypt, Israel, and Palestinian Territories for discussions.
Today, March 5th, Secretary Clinton attended a NATO meeting in Brussels with other foreign ministers as a preparatory discussion for the NATO summit scheduled to be held April 3-4th. In conjunction with this meeting, individual meetings were held during which transatlantic bonds, such as with Russia, were deliberated on. Tomorrow, the talks with Russia will continue in reference to the dire conditions in Afghanistan and how the two countries plan to work together to achieve common international goals.
The European visit will conclude on March 7th with a visit to the Turkish capital, Ankara, where key Turkish officials will engage in discussions with the Secretary similar to those held in other countries over the trip.
In its account of Secretary Clinton’s activities, Politonomics lives up to its goals:
Politonomist.com is an enterprising Western Canada-based social, economic and political news organization, providing a detailed, thorough and diverse range of news from a variety of perspectives and opinions. Unlike other major business and economic news organizations, we aim to include political scientists and economists from a range of different belief camps - aiming for a varied and fair look at different events, statistics and information.
The Democratic Party’s slow awakening to reality: they blew it when they selected neophyte Barack Obama over the clear-eyed, issues-oriented Hillary Clinton.
Wow! The commentariat really is finally catching on to the fact that President Obama is already way out of his depth. Amen to this reader of Paul Krugman’s column at the NY Times this morning:
March 06, 2009 6:20 am
I count on your articles and your thoughts. God how I wish Clinton had become president! She ( and Bill) would have listened to you and other brilliant economists because she is brilliant herself. It's really getting scary now.
— am5parker, los angeles
Recommended by 25 Readers
Krugman’s column is titled the Big Dither (emphasis mine):
Last month, in his big speech to Congress, President Obama argued for bold steps to fix America’s dysfunctional banks. “While the cost of action will be great,” he declared, “I can assure you that the cost of inaction will be far greater, for it could result in an economy that sputters along for not months or years, but perhaps a decade.”
Many analysts agree. But among people I talk to there’s a growing sense of frustration, even panic, over Mr. Obama’s failure to match his words with deeds. The reality is that when it comes to dealing with the banks, the Obama administration is dithering. Policy is stuck in a holding pattern.
Here’s how the pattern works: first, administration officials, usually speaking off the record, float a plan for rescuing the banks in the press. This trial balloon is quickly shot down by informed commentators.
Then, a few weeks later, the administration floats a new plan. This plan is, however, just a thinly disguised version of the previous plan, a fact quickly realized by all concerned. And the cycle starts again.
Krugman goes on to say:
The truth is that the Bernanke-Geithner plan — the plan the administration keeps floating, in slightly different versions — isn’t going to fly.
The Naval Officer above demonstrates a sharp salute.
President Obama's usual sloppy salute.
