This morning CSPAN rebroadcast Tuesday's "Conversation with Secretaries Clinton and Panetta" at the National Defense University. There was a point at which Frank Sesno, the moderator, was driving hard at Secretary Clinton on the issue of Telling Hafez Al Assad he had to go. Here is the exchange:
MR. SESNO: A couple other issues in the time remaining. Syria – is it time for the United States to clearly, emphatically, unequivocally state that President Asad has to go, should step down? There’s been talk that that is going to be forthcoming from the Administration. It has not been yet. Is today the day?
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, Frank, I’m not a big believer in arbitrary deadlines when you’re trying to manage difficult situations. And what we see happening in Syria is galvanizing international opinion against the Asad regime. And that is a far better landscape for us to be operating in than if it were just the United States, if it were just maybe a few European countries.
Just think of what’s happened in the last two weeks. You’ve had the Arab League reverse position. You’ve had King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia make a very strong statement and the Gulf Coordinating Council also making a strong statement. You had Turkey desperately trying to use its influence, which is considerable within Syria, to convince the Asad regime to quit shelling its own people, withdraw its troops from the cities, return them to barracks, begin a process of real transition. And yesterday, the foreign minister made it clear that the Asad regime is not following through on that.
So I happen to think where we are is where we need to be, where it is a growing international chorus of condemnation. The United States has been instrumental in orchestrating that. And we are pushing for stronger sanctions that we hope will be joined by other countries that have far bigger stakes economically than we do.
MR. SESNO: I get all of that. But you know that your critics are saying leading means being out in front, that you condemn from the White House the heinous acts of the Asad regime, but –
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, look, we have condemned it, and we will continue to condemn it.
MR. SESNO: So tell him to leave.
SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I have to say I am a big believer in results over rhetoric, and I think what we’re doing is putting together a very careful set of actions and statements that will make our views very clear, and to have other voices, particularly from the region, as part of that is essential for there to be any impact within Syria. I mean, it’s not news that the United States is not a friend of Syria’s. That is not news to anybody. But it is, I think, important that we send an ambassador back there. I’m very proud of what Ambassador Ford has done, representing the best values of our country. So I think we have done what we needed to do to establish the credibility and, frankly, the universality of the condemnation that may actually make a difference.
Watching this again this morning, I wondered who Sesno thought he was talking to. It seemed to me that he was assigning to the secretary of state a responsibility that is the purview of the White House. There was a point in this exchange at which Hillary Clinton shrugged her pretty shoulders, took a deep breath,and almost seemed to swallow the words that wanted to come out - words to the effect that the decision to tell Assad to go was not hers to make. That she, in fact, is not the president.
The announcement, of course, was made Thursday morning on camera by the secretary of state. It was the only thing on her public schedule.
All of last week her public schedule was light and full of gaps. As pretty and well-groomed as she always looks, it would be easy to suppose that in those empty hours she was getting her mani/pedi, having her highlights refreshed, visiting Georgette Klinger's for a facial. But the fact of the announcement on Thursday implies that things were very busy at the State Department during the week with the SOS spending long hours on the phone with our partners, her counterparts in the region, to effect the international agreement that made the announcement possible, all of which leads me to the first article in today's review.
Sarah Palin, appearing with Greta Van Susteren this week, said what Frank Sesno appeared to be thinking as he questioned the secretary of state, that she projects such a powerfully presidential image that it is hard to remember that she is not the president. I know. I know. This is Newsmax. I know. But it is short and simply reports what Palin said.
Palin: Democrats Wish They Chose Hillary
Friday, 19 Aug 2011 06:22 AM
By Hiram Reisner
Sarah Palin said Thursday — after hearing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announce the United States is demanding that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must go — that she wondered whether Democrats wish they had chosen Clinton as presidential nominee in 2008 instead of President Barack Obama.
Read more on Newsmax.com: Palin: Democrats Wish They Chose Hillary
You can see the exchange here in this video from Team Hillary Clinton, and it is not just Sarah who thinks our girl looks presidential, either. Greta said she felt like she was watching the president.
Lynn Forester de Rothschild rang in this week in an interview at Salon. While she does not hold any hope of a Hillary run, she certainly pulls no punches when it comes to Obama's performance.
We talk to Lady Lynn Forester de Rothschild
The original PUMA talks to Salon about how she went from Hillary loyalist to Huntsman bundler
Reuters/Pascal RossignolLynn Forester de RothschildA lot of people know you as a prominent Hillary supporter in 2008. Going from Hillary to Huntsman -- have you changed ideologically?
You know, if I were able to pick the president, it would be Hillary Clinton. I still consider myself a Clinton Democrat. But the Democratic Party has been so cowardly in standing for the things that Bill Clinton did that made the country so strong in the 1990s, that I have no time for the Democratic Party anymore.
Russell Halley at Business Insider, however, offers a scenario in which Hillary could run without challenging the sitting president.
Why Obama May Pass On Reelection
Russell Halley
Political observers of a certain age will remember the night of March 31, 1968. At the very end of a long speech about the Vietnam War, President Johnson shocked the nation with his announcement that “I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President.”
Don’t be surprised if Obama makes a similar announcement.
Since the moment I heard Hillary Clinton say, "I'm in it to win it," I have been inspired by the idea of this woman in charge ... of her taking charge. She said, "Let the conversation begin," and we told her our concerns, our hopes, and dreams. She laid out plans. There was a lot that was broken in our country in 2007 and 2008. There is a lot more that is broken now.
If you are a single-issue voter, and I do not really think that most Americans are, it is easy to think that Obama is not fighting for you. Those with a commitment to Israel think he is not fighting hard enough for Israel. But if you look at the bigger picture, you will notice that neither do the supporters of Palestine think he is fighting enough for them, either. Many are worried about the jobs crisis, and none more than the African American community that helped sweep Obama into the Oval Office.
Elijah Cummings: Obama Needs To 'Fight Harder,' African-Americans 'Totally Frustrated'
Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), responding to the high unemployment rates in the black community, said that African-Americans feel President Barack Obama "needs to fight, and fight harder."
The sad truth is that he is not fighting at all... for anyone ... not even for his own reelection.
So perhaps Mr. Obama should take Russell Halley's suggestion, execute an LBJ, and get out of the way so a real fighter can legitimately and without rancor get into the ring. You know the one. She looked so presidential on Tuesday and Thursday that Frank Sesno, Sarah Palin, and Greta Van Susteren along with millions of American TV viewers had the impression that the lady with the big blue eyes, easy smile, and quick, thorough responses already was the president. She might as well be. The cockpit is unmanned.Barack Obama: He's come undone
Sunday, August 21, 2011The wheels are off the Obama bus. It's up on the cinder blocks on some rental property in Martha's Vineyard this weekend. It is the end of the summer of discontent for a president who's clearly in over his head and whose wallowing is most unbecoming.
Update: Tacking on this one, posted by Jennifer. Ed Morrissey at Hot Air also thinks Obama could reneg on a rerun and Hillary could walk in.
What if Obama quit?
posted at 10:20 am on August 21, 2011 by Ed Morrissey
If unemployment starts rising and growth remains low in the next few months, Democrats may insist on Obama finding a graceful exit before the primaries. And guess who that leaves with an open path to the Democratic nomination? Hillary Clinton. She can step into the void with promises to return America to the economic policies of her husband.
Read more>>>>
