Hirsh began at the Copenhagen global-warming summit, which most people saw as accomplishing little. But Hirsh was scripting for Hollywood: "It was almost like one of those moments in a buddy-cop movie when the two partners who dislike each other at the beginning finally bond while taking on the bad guys."
The bad guys were the Chinese, but not because they were communists, but because they weren't bending to the world on carbon reduction targets. Hillary and Obama barged in on premier Wen Jiabao: "The former political rivals suddenly morphed into a diplomatic version of Starsky and Hutch."
One serious problem with this analogy is that Starsky and Hutch wouldn't barge into a criminal's den....to offer a bribe. Hirsh continued:
Two days before, the secretary of state has flown in to Copenhagen by surprise to deliver a sweetener to help win over developing countries. In essence, it was a global bribe: $100 billion a year from rich nations by 2020 to help poorer countries cope with climate controls. It was political hardball, Hillary style, and it had helped to isolate Beijing. Now Obama was closing the deal Clinton had set up...
Clinton later called it one of 'the most extraordinary 48 hours she's spent in public life,' said her global-warming negotiator, Todd Stern.
In case readers tuned out early (or were called into the dentist chair), all that gushy detail was in the first few paragraphs. Later, Hirsh found that Hillary and Obama were not that far apart in their foreign-policy views -- which, in case you were wondering, aren't liberal, they're practical and realistic. (Like expecting the Chinese to observe carbon emissions mandates?)
Copenhagen also provided further evidence that the sharp differences between Obama and Clinton over foreign policy on the campaign trail were, as many on both sides now acknowledge, largely political theater. In fact, their views of American power had never been that far apart. "We're both, at bottom, problem solvers and practical, realistic people," Clinton says now. "
Hirsh also conducted an interview with Hillary where he tried to solidify the magazine's positive spin: "You have delivered some of the toughest messages to come out of this administration. Are you President Obama's bad cop these days?"
Conservative critics of Hillary might have followed up: "If you're such a steely messenger and bad cop, why didn't you have the steel to stop your husband from having sex with the interns?"
