Bits and Pieces: Hillary Sparkles as POTUS-Designate at UNGA Roundly Garnering Accolades

Hillary Clinton wrapped up a marathon week at UNGA in New York City this afternoon with every bit as much grace, grit, good humor, and glamor as when she began.   Her Smart Power Doctrine did double-duty through  most  of the week as the president spent just 24 hours in town, long enough to drop by for an appearance on The View and deliver his address to the General Assembly.  His regular meetings and events for the rest of the week were covered by Her Excellency (along with her own scheduled events) as Acting Chief Executive of the U.S. at her last UNGA as Secretary of State.  She did a spectacular job and has won praise from some unlikely sources.

From Politico.

Newt talks up Hillary Clinton

By EMILY SCHULTHEIS|

9/26/12 12:59 PM EDT

Newt Gingrich offered some praise of the Secretary of State on Fox News last night:

Hillary Clinton is a serious person, Barack Obama is an ambitious person. They’re very different personalities.

Hillary Clinton actually gets up every day, thinking about public policy; Barack Obama gets up every day, thinking about Barack Obama. They’re very different approaches to life.

Mayor Mike chimed in on his radio show as the New York Post reports.

Clinton a 'class act'

• By DAVID SEIFMAN
• Last Updated: 10:16 AM, September 28, 2012
• Posted: 10:15 AM, September 28, 2012

Run, Hillary, run?

With speculation brewing about a possible Hillary Clinton run for the presidency in 2016, Mayor Bloomberg today praised her as a shining light in the Obama Administration and called himself a "big fan" of her work as Secretary of State.

"She has worked as hard as anybody can work," the mayor observed on his weekly WOR radio show.

"I'm not sure I agree with all her policies-- some yes, some no. But Hillary Clinton is a class act and has worked over and above what you could ask for somebody to represent the Obama Administration."

Read more >>>>

This  review from  RTT News sparkles almost as much as Mme. Secretary did all week!

Hillary Clinton Shines As Obama Surrogate At UN Meeting

9/28/2012 11:36 AM ET
(RTTNews) - Hillary Clinton may have lost the Democratic primary to Barack Obama back in 2008, but this week in New York, she was Secretary of State and Commander-in-Chief all rolled into one as she acted as the president's surrogate at the United Nations General Assembly.

Clinton, who arguably has closer ties with many of the world's top leaders than the president, took over many of the tasks usually left to the president during this week.

President Obama only spent 24-hours in the city, choosing to eschew formal meetings with world leaders to return to his campaign schedule. He was the first president in over 20 years not to meet with a foreign leader at the conference.

Read more >>>>

Finally, Jezebel does a great takedown of a snarky article in the Daily Mail when a photographer caught a shot of doodles on the top page of Mme. President's prepared remarks at a Security Council meeting.

hillary clinton

Sep 28, 2012 12:45 PM 15,028 44

Hillary Clinton’s UN Doodles Clearly a Window Into Her Innermost Thoughts

Erin Gloria Ryan

Birds do it. Bees do it. Secretaries of State hearing UN pleas do it. Yesterday, a photographer caught Hillary Clinton aimlessly drawing on her speech notes during a UN Security Council meeting on the Middle East peace process. The situation is grim, shooting, suffering etc., but all of that starts to run together after awhile. Let's get to the more interesting water cooler conversation-y stuff that doesn't bum everyone out: what do Hillary Clinton's doodles tell us about her personality?

As breathlessly reported by The Daily Mail (which helpfully included an unflattering picture of Hillary Clinton's face contorting mid-wink with their coverage, you know, for added clarity), Clinton appeared to space out during remarks given by other diplomats, drawing an organized series of interlocking circles and a star on a copy of her prepared speech.

Read more >>>>

**Edited to add  this** Chicago Sun-Times.  Too good to pass up from Lynn Sweet, the scorekeeper!

U.S. meetings at UN: Obama, 0, Hillary Clinton, 25

By Lynn Sweet on September 28, 2012 3:10 PM |

WASHINGTON--President Barack Obama decided not to do face-to-face meetings with global leaders in New York for the United Nations General Assembly this week, outside of courtesy calls to UN officials. The lack of in-person meetings drew fire from Mitt Romney and other GOP critics. Obama delivered a major speech to the UN on Tuesday. While it may be just too close to the election for Obama one-on-ones, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton held 25 meetings with leaders from around the world, a State Department spokesman said Friday.

Mike Hammer, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs, recapping Clinton's week told reporters Friday, "since arriving last Sunday and starting her meetings then, held 25 bilateral and trilateral meetings.

"And that is in addition to events that covered every region of the world. For example, you saw the U.N. secretary-general's meeting on the Sahel. We had a trans-Atlantic dinner with EU and NATO foreign ministers. We had a Central American ministerial. We had an ASEAN foreign ministers meeting.

Read more >>>>

 Madame President, thank you, always, for your tireless and cheerful efforts.  We wish you, as my dear friend Robyn always says, a peaceful and restful weekend.  Job superlatively done!

Hillary Clinton: Wheels Up St. Petersburg

Something about this picture breaks my heart a little for some reason.  God bless her for all she does.  Where would we be without her?

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton boards her plane following a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Friday, June 29, 2012, in St. Petersburg, Russia. (AP Photo/Haraz N. Ghanbari, Pool)

There was a brief background briefing with a senior official that sheds some light on the progress of her meeting with Lavrov today. Since it is short, I will share the whole thing here along with some photos of their day.

Background Briefing on Syria

Special Briefing

Senior Department Official
Senior Official

St. Petersburg, Russia

June 29, 2012

---

SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: So before we sat down to dinner, the two ministers spent almost an hour one-on-one talking about Syria. They were talking, first and foremost, about preparing the meeting in Geneva tomorrow.
QUESTION: (Inaudible.)
SENIOR STATE DEPARTMENT OFFICIAL: They talked through all of the remaining areas of difficulty and difference. There are still areas of difficulty and difference. But out of respect to Kofi, they agreed that we should all go to Geneva tomorrow to try to produce a result. We may get there tomorrow. We may not.
In addition to talking about this political transition roadmap and the importance of that, they also talked more broadly about Syria. And the question was: Why do we need to care about Syria? And it’s not simply about the suffering of the Syrian people and the danger that the country itself will unravel, but the Secretary made the point that there are real dangers for the wider region. We’ve seen the tensions between Syria and Turkey just this week. We’ve seen the impact on Lebanon. You could have a seriously destabilizing impact on Jordan. You could have an impact on Israel. So it’s really incumbent upon the Security Council members and regional states to exercise leadership and do what we can to help end the violence and get to a political transition.
The rest of the dinner – when we sat down to dinner, the rest of the dinner was a whole host of other issues which we can go through later – Middle East peace, all of the bilateral issues, strengthening – following up on the President’s meeting with President Putin, et cetera. We’ll go over those later.
QUESTION: Thank you.

Hillary Clinton Condemns Syrian Downing of Turkish F-4 in the Strongest Possible Terms

Syrian Shoot-Down of Turkish Aircraft

Remarks

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State

Washington, DC

June 24, 2012

---

I spoke with Turkish Foreign Minister Davutoglu yesterday to convey our grave concern about the downing of a Turkish F-4 fighter jet by Syrian forces on June 22. I also told him that our thoughts and prayers are with the missing pilots and their loved ones. The Foreign Minister briefed me on the specifics of the incident, including that the Syrian military shot its plane down without warning. The United States condemns this brazen and unacceptable act in the strongest possible terms. It is yet another reflection of the Syrian authorities' callous disregard for international norms, human life, and peace and security.
The United States reaffirms its strong support for the Turkish Government and its solidarity with the Turkish people in the wake of this incident. We will maintain close contact with Turkish officials as they continue to investigate the incident and determine Turkey's response, including in the Security Council. We will work with Turkey and other partners to hold the Assad regime accountable.
Turkey has been a leader in the international community's effort to address the Syrian regime's violence against its own people. We will continue our close cooperation with Turkey as part of our broader efforts to promote a democratic transition in Syria. This work is urgent, and we will be consulting in New York with the Security Council, in Brussels with NATO and the EU, and in Geneva with Special Envoy Kofi Annan on next steps.

This Week: On Hillary Cinton's Busy Agenda

It was at the Wednesday press briefing last week that Victoria Nuland announced Secretary Clinton's participation in a special U.N. Security Council session.

"... on March 12, on Monday. I just wanted to advise you she is going to attend a session of the UN Security Council at the ministerial level that has been called by British Foreign Minister Hague to talk about the broader impact and ramifications of the Arab Spring. Foreign Secretary Hague will host the meeting. The Brits are in the chair of the president of the Security Council this month. And the Security Council foreign ministers will also be joined by the foreign minister of Tunisia, of Libya, and of Egypt. The Secretary will also take the opportunity to have a bilateral meeting, as she said, with Foreign Minister Lavrov of Russia when she’s up in New York."

The Jerusalem Post, notes that also on Monday, there will be a Quartet meeting while some principals are in New York.  Others will participate via conference call.

Mideast Quartet to meet amid stalled peace talks

By REUTERS

03/10/2012 02:40

UN secretary-general, Clinton, Russian FM to meet at UN headquarters; Ashton, Blair to participate via video link.

By Jonathan Ernst / Reuters

UNITED NATIONS - The Quartet of Middle East negotiators - the United States, Russia, the United Nations and European Union - will meet on Monday to discuss the long-stalled peace process between Israel and the Palestinians, the United Nations said Friday.
The UN press office said UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov would meet at UN headquarters ahead of a special UN Security Council session on the Arab Spring uprisings.
Read more >>>>

Then, as if that is not enough history for one woman to deal with in a single day, she zooms back to Washington to host a reception for her second annual conference of heads of missions. Last year at this time, she called all heads of missions home for the inaugural conference, the first secretary of state ever to do so. Here is the schedule for the conference.

Secretary Clinton Convenes the 2nd Global Chiefs of Mission Conference in Washington D.C.

Office of the Spokesperson

Washington, DC

March 9, 2012

---

On March 12, Secretary Clinton will convene the 2nd Global Chiefs of Mission Conference. The Conference, which runs through March 13, presents an opportunity to mobilize and coordinate the work of America’s Ambassadors around the world.
Monday, March 12
5:00 p.m. Welcome reception for the Global Chiefs of Mission Conference, at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
Tuesday, March 13
8:30 a.m. Secretary Clinton delivers remarks at the opening session of the Global Chiefs of Mission Conference. Deputy Secretaries Bill Burns and Tom Nides, and Counselor and Chief of Staff Cheryl Mills, will also deliver remarks. In the Dean Acheson Auditorium at the Department of State.
(OPEN PRESS COVERAGE FOR SECRETARY CLINTON’S REMARKS)
12:30 p.m. Secretary Clinton hosts the Global Chiefs of Mission Conference luncheon with guest speaker Senator John Kerry, in the Ben Franklin Room at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)
4:30 p.m. Secretary Clinton hosts a town hall for participants in the Global Chiefs of Mission Conference, in the Dean Acheson Auditorium at the Department of State.
(CLOSED PRESS COVERAGE)

What a busy lady! Through it all she still manages to look like this, and yes, as Meryl Streep pointed out yesterday, we do watch and notice.   Women know what it takes, and she pulls herself together so beautifully, makes us so proud, and, as my subheader says, makes femininity presidential.