Wherever you’ve stood on the subject of Hillary Rodham Clinton over the years–from her merger-marriage to Bill Clinton through her nigh-on-to-divisive presidential primary run–you should be able to acknowledge this: She’s been a prime-time asset as Secretary of State. And this in an Administration that has looked asset-challenged on more than one occasion.
She has taken her global political celebrity and leveraged it. She has stood up for women’s rights in some of the most brutally sexist venues in the world. She’s been gutsy and discerning in her use of one of the world’s most formidable bully pulpits.
She just returned from a Middle East trip where she delivered a scalding critique to (male) Muslim leaders about what it’s like to have to do business with them–and their corruption-corroding, business-by-bribe countries. “Trying to get a permit,” she explained in Doha, Qatar, “you have to pass money through so many different hands. Trying to open up, you have to pay people off. Trying to stay open, you have to pay people off. Trying to export your goods, you have to pay people off. So by the time you pay everybody off,” she underscored, “it’s not a very profitable venture.”
Frankly, nothing via WikiLeaks could have said it better.
Too bad, however, that she couldn’t have also said: “By the way, a further word to the wise while I’m in your neighborhood, America is well on its way to energy self-sufficiency and, as we speak, weaning ourselves off of a large percentage of imported oil. So don’t count on a de facto, oil-extortion relationship with the U.S. much longer. The implications for your repressive, autocratic regimes, though hardly the world’s worst, are obvious to us too. Good luck and we look forward to working with you on an increasingly level playing field.”