« TPMDC Morning Roundup | Home | First Shot Fired in the GOP Battle Against Action on Climate Change »
Hillary Visits State Department, Ringing In The End Of Bush Foreign Policy
Hillary Clinton's grand arrival at the State Department this morning, greeted by a cheering crowd of employees, had a single constant message: The era of the Bush foreign policy really is over.
"There are three legs to the stool of American foreign policy: defense, diplomacy and development," Hillary said. "And we are responsible for two of the three legs. And we will make clear as we go forward that diplomacy and development are essential tools in achieving the long-term objectives of the United States."
And above all, Hillary promised openness and debate:
"This is going to be a challenging time, and it will require 21st-century tools and solutions to meet our problems and seize our opportunities. I'm gonna be asking a lot of you, I want you to think outside the proverbial box. I want you to give me the best advice you can, I want you to understand there is nothing that I welcome more than a good debate, and the kind of dialogue that will make us better."
Barack Obama and Joe Biden will also be visiting later today. Their reception should probably be at least as celebratory as this one, if not more so.
Advertisement
Josh
Matt
Eric
Great, the first day on the job Clinton uses a tread worn cliche in encouraging her employees to be creative.
Excuse me for the negative note on Clinton's first day on the job; but, really.
January 22, 2009 10:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
No, Chris, you apparently don't entirely Get It yet. The era of "negative notes" ended a couple of days ago. Welcome to Obama Time in which snide comments are neither helpful nor necessary, especially those that contribute nothing of interest or use. (Don't believe me? Check out the president's reaction to Biden's cutsey joking about muffed oaths.) They only contribute to an atmosphere of unhappiness, which we're all heartily sick of. If a shopworn cliche advances the idea of diplomacy and development taking precedence over "defense," then let's take it; the contest for the Nobel Prize for Cute Phrases is separate. (And, btw, if you don't believe in "new eras," check out today's NYT Op-Ed page. I don't know whether it's Ghaddafi's seemingly moderate presentation or the mere fact that he has space on that page that makes it a new era, but something surely has changed.)
January 22, 2009 10:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
So when do we start the veepstakes for 2012? Barack is too sensitive to the needs of the party as a national organization not to run with a successor.
January 22, 2009 10:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
The trolls are poised to comment first, folks, check out some of the recent blog entries and articles, and much like what happened immediately after the 2006 election, we are seeing the partisan, potentially professional bloggers, the paid naysayers, moving back into their transparent first-post habits.
They are reading every article and blog, and tossing out their trash, both subtle and profane, as the opening salvo on many centrist and left leaning blogs.
Whether organized or spontaneous, it is quite evident. And by troll, I mean those people who intentionally get onto this and other blogs to disrupt the conversation, disillusion the hopeful, and basically to start flame-wars and dissension.
They tend to identify themselves with words like "cliche."
January 22, 2009 12:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah. I'm a troll who posts under his real name and includes a link to his blog in his profile, unlike his holiness the troll pronouncer.
Calling folks trolls is another tread worn cliche.
January 22, 2009 1:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Better to keep your mouth closed and retain some possibility of a question of whether you're a troll, than to open it and remove all doubt, Chris.
January 22, 2009 2:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Perhaps you should go look up the definition of a troll. It seems there are those who consider anyone with a contrary point of a view to be a troll.
January 22, 2009 10:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Calling folks trolls is another tread worn cliche."
You've now used the phrase "tread worn cliche" twice in two short posts. Although I've never heard that phrase before, it could soon start to sound as much like a tread worn cliche as "thinking outside the box."
January 22, 2009 2:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Perhaps you should go look up the definition of a cliche.
January 22, 2009 10:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
As for me, I believe Hillary will make a great Secretary of State. Mr. Brown, it is obvious by your statement, Hillary will never do anything to please you, but that is okay. Is America a great country or what?!
January 22, 2009 10:30 AM | Reply | Permalink
Blue Heron,
Bull shit. That's some pretty radical extrapolation.
I am also sure that Clinton will be a find SofS, and have remarked so a number of times in these threads.
It's just that they cliche of thinking outside the box makes my skin crawl. How can anyone who must resort to cliche "think outside the box?"
January 22, 2009 11:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
Maybe it is time to start thinking inside the box again.
January 22, 2009 12:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Mr. Brown,
I seemed to have touched on a nerve. Anytime someone has to respond with swearing, they lose the argument.
I happen to like the saying "think outside the box." Why, because Americans don't seem to have the capacity to do so. When everyone begins to see the possibilities are endless if you become creative, then, maybe, that trite cliche will go away, but until then, it will remain part of our American vernacular.
January 22, 2009 1:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Fair enough. And I will continue to deride its use.
January 22, 2009 1:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
News Flash: Troll to continue being troll! Film at 11.
January 22, 2009 2:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
Clinton's role at SOS the DOS is a major departure from Sec. Rice and the Bush administration. The cynics and skeptics aught to give Hillary a chance before they judge.
January 22, 2009 10:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
Clinton's role as SOS at the DOS is a major departure from Sec. Rice and the Bush administration. The cynics and skeptics aught to give Hillary a chance before they judge.
January 22, 2009 10:35 AM | Reply | Permalink