Let's Win One for the Dribbler

Let’s see: Hillary Clinton is Secretary of State, Robert Gates is still SecDef, former NATO commander General James Jones is National Security Advisor, there’s still going to be a Doctor (Susan) Rice at the U.N… Who won this election?

The President-Elect is picking people who are remarkably competent at what they do for the important jobs in national security and defense. This is a very pleasant surprise for me and a very unpleasant surprise for the members of Code Pink and Congressmen like Dennis Kucinich. Although I think that John McCain would have picked a better staff, the left-handed chain smoking basketball player is showing the signs of competence.

Then again, so do the Washington Nationals, and we know what happens to them when spring training is over. Hello, cellar; see you 'til September. Signs of competence are not enough in this time of troubles. We need excellence and we need excellence tempered by experience. So why is Hillary Clinton the Secretary of State-designate?

The selection of Hillary Clinton shows Obama has a killer instinct after all. That job kills reputations. There is nothing the Secretary of State can do that pleases all the key constituencies in Washington. If the Secretary of State is strong, then she steps on the toes of the Secretary of Defense and the National Security Advisor, because their jobs require divergent views of the world. If she is weak, then U.S. foreign policy tends to fall into the hands of the career bureaucrats, who don’t represent the American people.

In her favor, Hillary Clinton is probably the second-most-liked American politician in the world, outside the President-Elect. She has traveled extensively and knows influential people overseas. She has been in Washington since 1992 and she is a very good politician. And she has Bill.

And she has Bill… This is her biggest problem. Bill Clinton is too young to be a former President. He wants to be back near the center of power. How can President Obama use Bill Clinton without being controlled by Bill Clinton? I don’t think he can.

Between the worldwide economic recession, the resurgence of Russian power projection in the Americas, Iranian nuclear ambitions, the instability of Indonesia, Pakistan, and China, the threat to oil supplies piracy offers, and the insolvable Israeli-Palestinian problem stands Hillary Clinton. She can’t do the job in a way that will please everyone. She is going to fail, and leave government with no Senate seat awaiting her.

The Dribbler is going to win when she goes.

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