Before the media hoopla begins in a few hours for President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, let me squeeze in a quick look at the flavor Sunday night’s fawning 60 Minutes profile of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, which, after some questions about the Time Square botched bomber, framed her job around the challenge of fixing a world abused by George W. Bush and Condoleezza Rice, a situation exacerbated by U.S. debt. Picking up from her initial rejection of the position, Scott Pelley asserted:
Now she's gone from “not interested” to an all-consuming global campaign in a time when the U.S. is the biggest debtor in the world, fighting two wars, and accused of abandoning its ideals to the struggle with terrorism....Right away, she found that America is in a crisis of credibility.
Pelley soon proceeded to how “she doesn't let anyone work harder” and “she's the only person in American politics with global star power close to” that held by Barack Obama:
Many back in Washington have more foreign policy experience than Clinton, but she doesn't let anyone work harder. The Afghan trip was typically brutal. She spent 27 hours on the ground, had countless meetings, plus interviews and speeches. And then, on departure, she stopped to see the troops.
This is exactly what the President got in return for swallowing the bitterness of the campaign and reaching out to Clinton. She's the only person in American politics with global star power close to his own. She can pack a room anywhere. A few Secretaries of State have been famous; none has been a first name celebrity like Hillary.
