Happy St. Valentine's Day, Mme. Secretary and Mr. President

Everyone here loves you both. We wish you a happy and romantic Valentine's Day with all our hearts!

Happy Valentine's Day to all the readers here!

Myth-Busting: Not the First Time in 20 Years Hillary Clinton Missed SOTU

There was a "missing Hillary" frenzy on Twitter tonight of people saying this was the first time in 20 years that HRC was not in attendance at SOTU.  Even on Facebook, this poignant photo was shared far and wide. 

Actually, this was not the first time she missed SOTU.  In 2010 she was in London for a conference on Afghanistan, and from there went on to Paris.  Here is her schedule for January 27, 2010, the night of SOTU.

Secretary Clinton’s Schedule for January 27, 2010

January 26, 2010 by still4hill | Edit

We already knew this, but it is always nice to have validation and reaffirmation, isn’t it?  I am all for information.

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 27, 2010
ON FOREIGN TRAVEL Secretary Clinton attends a Meeting on Yemen Hosted by the Government of the United Kingdom and holds Bilateral Meetings in London, England.

Fox News Poll: Benghazi Hearings Did Not Put The Brakes On The Hillary Clinton Steamroller

A regular visitor here thought you all might be interested in seeing this Fox News poll taken after (February 4 - 6) the Quinnipiac poll posted here last week,  and after she stepped down from her post.  The poll compares her favorability ratings before and after her Benghazi testimonies on Capitol Hill.  The numbers speak for themselves.

Hillary rising: Benghazi hearing doesn’t slow Clinton’s roll

Posted by Scott Clement on February 8, 2013
Two weeks after Hillary Clinton faced fierce criticism over last year’s attack on a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi, a Fox News poll finds her image untarnished with nearly two-thirds of voters approving of her work as secretary of state.
By 64 to 29 percent more registered voters approve than disapprove of Clinton’s performance, a five-point uptick in Fox News ratings from December that are now closer to her standing in Washington Post-ABC News and CNN/ORC polls from late last year.

Read more >>>>

New Hillary Clinton Bio Due Out

On this blog, over four years of the Hillary Clinton State Department, we have seen many interviews that Hillary granted to Kim Ghattas of the BBC.  A regular on the State Department "Big Blue Bird"  as well as in the press room, Kim has traveled to the far-flung corners of the earth with Hillary and now is releasing the log she has kept of her travels with the the most traveled  U.S. Secretary of State.  Ghattas has provided some of the most penetrating and balanced coverage of Mme. Secretary, and we can expect this seminal work to be among the most comprehensive accounts of Hillary's work at State.

Hillary Clinton's story released

11.02.13 | Charlotte Williams
 
A biography of Hillary Clinton's time as US secretary of state will be released on 5th March by Henry Holt imprint Times Books, with Melia Publishing distributing the title in the UK.
The Secretary: A Journey with Hillary Clinton from Beirut to the Heart of American Power is written by BBC correspondent Kim Ghattas, who had access to Clinton and her entourage over the four years from November 2008, when Clinton agreed to be President Obama's secretary of state, to her last day in the post on the 1st of this month.
Read more >>>>

Hillary Clinton ... and the 2016 beat goes on ...

Here is yet another beautiful video from Ronda who was so sweet to share it with me.  Her work is always so lovely.

Bill and Hillary Clinton's Statement on the Passing of Ed Koch

Back at the end of January, when Ed Koch passed away,  I went to the Clinton Foundation website multiple times in search of a press statement and found none.  By the next week,  WJC was speaking at the funeral and I searched no further.  Visiting there again today, suddenly there was this.  Better late than never.  I thought you would like to see the Clinton's joint statement on the passing of their friend.

Statement by President and Secretary Clinton on the Passing of Mayor Ed Koch

We were deeply saddened to learn of the passing of our friend, Ed Koch. He was a man whose convictions ran deep.  You knew where Ed stood on any topic, and whether or not you agreed with him or what he said, you couldn't help but like him.
His personality was enormous, big enough for the city he called home for nearly his entire life. Ed stood up for the underprivileged and underrepresented in every corner of every borough because he knew that struggle firsthand. He fought for those without a voice because he knew the plight of the voiceless. He used all the tools at his disposal to pull New York out of one of its darkest times.
The son of Polish immigrants is now forever in the city he loved so much. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends and all those who benefited from his life and service.

###

Hillary Clinton ... The 2016 Beat Goes On

Where to begin with this? It is no news to Hillary Clinton loyalists that voices urging her to run in 2016 are wildly diverse. They range from realistic (if she feels up to it after resting and refueling) to quasi-psychic (we know her and she will do this for her party and her country). There are the longtime supporters who never left her side, the new converts, and the ones who flipped from her to Obama and now that his second term is set in stone have flopped back to her (seeing no other clear winner for the Dems on the horizon). There are the young who brush aside any notion that someone who has served so doggedly as Secretary of State for four years might actually want to enter her 70s doing the things she has sacrificed over 40 years in public service because, after all, she's Hillary Clinton the super human, and there are some seniors who want to see a woman, and not just any woman, but specifically HRC occupy the Oval Office before they leave this earth. All of these demographics overlap in a variety of ways. Then there are the media pundits.

Lately, the talking heads in some quarters have been beating that Hillary 2016 drum with some degree of self-assuredness. Analysis of Republican strategy plays out against a backdrop of the GOP playbook to beat the unbeatable Hillary Clinton as if her candidacy were certain. Several who treated her 2008 primary run with great disdain now tout her as the flavor of the day. The latest among these is Chris Cillizza whom you might remember for his stint with Dana Milbank as WaPo's “Mouthpiece Theatre” hosts which ended abruptly after their review of micro-brews.  The video is embedded here.

Dana Milbank Suggests Hillary Clinton Should Drink "Mad Bitch Beer"

As many of you know, the Washington Post's Dana Milbank used to do respectable journalism, back when I was six years old or something. But lately, he's basically been reduced to whispering off-camera expletives to Huffington Post National Editor Nico Pitney and performing in inane videos with Chris Cillizza, called "Mouthpiece Theatre." These videos are basically leaden, universally idiotic, and barely worth mentioning. But that all changed today, when Milbank told a joke about Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that was, on its own merits, newsworthy.
Read more >>>>

Post's Video 'Theater' Ends Its Run

By Howard Kurtz,August 06, 2009

The Washington Post has brought down the curtain on "Mouthpiece Theater."
Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli killed the satirical video series Wednesday after harsh criticism of a joke about Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, which prompted him to pull the latest episode from the paper's Web site Friday night. The Post staffers who appeared in the videos, Dana Milbank and Chris Cillizza, agreed with the decision and apologized in separate interviews.
Read more >>>>

I missed it, but when he filled in for Chuck Todd on The Daily Rundown this morning, he said he could not get enough of our girl, an indication of how fickle and fluid the field really is.



So who will be the next to fall in line, albeit for the moment, behind the Hillary 2016 fife and drum corps? Dick Morris? He needs a new job. Bill O'Reilly? Sean Hannity? Will Keith Olbermann surface somewhere to bear the Hillary colors?

We all do well to remember President Bill Clinton's words to House Dems last week: “In politics, nothing is permanent.” Nothing, perhaps, except those who have stuck with Hillary through thick and thin and will be fine if she decides she wants nothing more than to write and take her grandchildren to some places she once visited as Secretary of State once upon a time.

Hillary Clinton for What?

File this under "it had to happen."  Pope Benedict XVI announced this morning that he would abdicate his post as of 8.p.m. Vatican time on February 28.  Before the world had time to absorb the news, a photoshop artist,   anonymous except for the Facebook handle  "Secretary of Awesome,  had time to nominate a successor.  Hillary fans are irrepressible!

Hillary to Bieber: Don't Get Your Hopes Up

Hillary Clinton, about to begin her second week as a citizen so private that apparently paparazzi have been unable to track her down, remains a hot item.   Articles evaluating her performance and legacy at the State Department continue to proliferate on the internet,  speculation about her future abounds,  and her name pops up regularly on cable talk shows.  All of that might have been expected since she strategically, for more than a year, has avoided specifying what she might choose to do next besides rest, and due to her recent health issues, she is now doing that under doctors' orders.  What was unexpected was the way her name popped up on Saturday Night Live last night.  That also was the subject of several headlines today, and I will not bother to link to any of the articles. 

I am not a prude, but I do believe in a certain amount  of propriety.  Before and after the blizzard, local news  - especially NBC - was  covering the young girls who were #freezing4bieb outside 30 Rockefeller  Plaza.  SNL writers and producers knew who the audience was.  Most parents probably thought, as I did, that Justin Bieber is a nice kid, so OK, this one Saturday night, yes, you may stay up to watch.  So Bieber's imitation of a crotch shot was bad enough.  That is my gripe #1.

Then he went on the urge Hillary Clinton to check her email.  That crossed another kind of line with me.  We know Hillary is hot in a number of ways.  If it was meant as a compliment, it seemed a rather left-handed one.   SNL's Seth Meyers nominating her to GQ Magazine as the sexiest woman of the 21st century was one thing. An unsolicited crotch shot from a tween idol is something else.  To me it had the earmarks of a kind of virtual sexual assault.

You can say it was all in fun, meant in jest, or that I am taking it too seriously, but when you put it in the larger context of people, Democratic Super-delegates included, practically begging her to run for POTUS in 2016,  it contains a kernel of the sexism we saw waged against our girl in 2008. 
Having said all that,  I am sure that our HRC would never make as much of it as I just did.  If she were granting interviews, she would brush it off with her signature good humor as she did the famous Jon Favreau (Obama head speech writer) "Hill-Grope"  around the time she accepted the SOS nomination. 

She thanked him for his interest in the State Department and sent word that they were reviewing his application.  In Bieber's case I can imagine her making a meme, which I can't do, but it would be something like this.

Bottom line, our Queen of Class deserves better than juvenile crass.

Hillary-Talk on the Interwebs - Blizzard Edition

What are the nets buzzing about our Hillary today?   About the latest Quinnipiac University nationwide popularity poll putting her well above every political figure including President Obama.  There was literally a blizzard of articles and reports about this today, so I am happy to present it from the primary source.   The poll was conducted nationwide between January 30 and February 4.  There were 1,772 participants.   As far as we know,  President Bill Clinton was not on this ballot.  He spoke to the House Democratic caucus retreat this morning and we all hope that everyone is safely home and warm now.  Here is a picture of our girl, since I know you are missing her, followed by the poll results.

February 8, 2013 - Hillary Clinton Is Most Popular National Figure, Quinnipiac University National Poll Finds; Obama Approval Sinks After Reelection

President Barack Obama defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, but today the former Senator and Secretary of State is more popular, with a 61 - 34 percent favorability rating among American voters, compared to the president's 51 - 46 percent favorability, according to a Quinnipiac University national poll released today.

President Obama has a split 46 - 45 percent job approval, according to the independent Quinnipiac (KWUIN-uh-pe-ack) University poll, down from 53 - 40 percent approval among registered voters in December, a month after his re-election. Today's figure is closer to the president's negative 45 - 49 percent job approval in July, in the middle of his reelection campaign, and similar to his job score for much of his first term.

Ms. Clinton's favorability is higher than those measured for other national figures:

46 - 41 percent for Vice President Joseph Biden; 25 - 29 percent for former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, with 45 percent who don't know enough about him to form an opinion; 20 - 42 percent for House Speaker John Boehner; 27 - 15 percent for Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, with 57 percent who don't know enough; 34 - 36 percent for U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan; 43 - 33 percent for new Secretary of State John Kerry; 14 - 18 percent for Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel, with 67 percent who don't know enough about him.

"Hillary Clinton ends her term as Secretary of State and the bruising inquiry into the Benghazi murders as easily the most popular actor on the American political stage today," said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.

"After an initial burst of reelection enthusiasm for President Barack Obama, we may be seeing a return to the age of the polarized electorate."

Read more >>>>            PDF Version >>>>

On a final note for today, I know some readers happened upon a Washington Times article today that satirically reported that Hillary would star in a 10th season of the popular TV series The Office, but that was all in jest.  The Office is in its final season,  it was just a joke.

NOT Official Hillary Clinton and UNverified

Someone out there is impersonating Hillary Clinton on Twitter.   For about a week now some regulars here have mentioned and discussed in comment threads this mysteriously named  Twitter account which some of us began following just to keep an eye on it.

Hillary Clinton

@VerifiedClinton

Official Twitter for Hillary Clinton. This is Hillary's private account so feel free to get in contact. Tweets by Hillary are signed-HC
United States of America · officialclinton.wordpress.com

Tweeters who follow celebrities and public figures know that verified Twitter accounts are named with the figure's name and are verifiable because a blue check on the page indicates that Twitter has verified that the account holder is indeed the figure he/she claims to be.  Here is Chelsea's Twitter page.

Chelsea Clinton Verified account

@ChelseaClinton

Advocate for a more healthy, equitable, safe world + all things #clintonfoundation/ @NBCNews Special Correspondent/ New Yorker/ Wife and daughter, mom to Soren
New York, NY · https://www.facebook.com/chelseaclinton

Hillary Clinton has many admirers all over the world.  It appears that a couple of thousand people following the account might actually believe these tweets are coming from Hillary.

I also looked at the associated “official” blog entitled Hillary Clinton Official Blog Posting Site of Hillary Clinton.  Some of the pages are straight off of Wikipedia, and there are five posts total all dated November 10, 2012.  Hmmmmm… so very unHillarylike.

1. Hillary knows her own bio and would not need to use wikipedia;
2. Ditto her service as FLOTUS and US Senator;
3. Most tellingly,  I do not think any loyal Hillary Clinton supporter can imagine a circumstance under which our girl, between two taxing trips to the Balkans and then to Australia and Asia, would arbitrarily just start a Wordpress blog (no less - government employees must use governemt platforms - this ignorant individual seems not to know this) and then neglect it.  If she had started it and chose not to keep it up, certainly she would have deleted it. 

Since she opened her new office website earlier this week, we know we have a legitimate place to go to contact Hillary.  It is reprehensible that someone is masquerading as Hillary in such a shabby way.   You can contact the real Hillary Clinton here, at her true website.

Hillary-Talk on the Interwebs

Well, the nets are abuzz, off course, about Hillary's new website.  Speculation ranges from damn certain she is going to run in 2016 to pretty sure this means she is running.  Just about everyone agrees it is a beautiful picture of her, and if the website serves no other purpose than to be bookmarked and clicked on when you need a Hillary-fix, that's fine,  too.



The Gazette announces that Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney will host a special dinner at her home to honor Hillary's public service.

Maloney To Honor Hillary Clinton At Special Dinner

Congressmember Carolyn Maloney has announced that she will be holding a dinner at her home in honor of former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton who ended her term on February 1. The event was announced at the United Community Civic Association’s (UCCA) Legislative/Executive Breakfast. The dinner will be offered to the first 100 persons who RSVP to Congressmember Carolyn Maloney’s office.
Maloney stated that the event is to be held in honor of the accomplishments of the former first lady and U.S. Senator of New York. She stressed that a thank you is in order for Clinton who has served the people of the United States and New York with distinction and honor.

Read more >>>>

A little bird told me that the Clinton motorcade was spotted early this morning headed toward the Saw Mill River Parkway. Speculation was that the Clintons were headed to DC for John Kerry's swearing-in.  Sure enough, Hillary is there.  The moment John Kerry finished his speech a few seconds ago, he bounded across the Benjamin Franklin Room to greet Hillary - very tiny and blonde, lost in the crowd, but I did catch a glimpse of her bright smile.

Bill Clinton and Chelsea Want You To Thank Hillary

This is one thank you note you can be sure she will receive.

Thank You, Hillary!

As First Lady, U.S. Senator, and Secretary of State, she has dedicated herself to service, and to giving more people in more places the opportunities to live their dreams.
We hope you'll send her a personal note of thanks.
Sincerely,
Bill and Chelsea

Send Hillary your message here >>>>

Hillary-Talk on the Interwebs

You all know that I eschew secondary sources, but lacking a primary source at the moment, in order to keep on bringing you Hillary news, I am forced to depend on secondary sources that are credible enough or ask salient questions.  Such posts will appear under the rubric above, and below are some interesting entries.

Hillary Clinton Just Quietly Disbanded Her Presidential Committee

By Adam Clark Estes | The Atlantic Wire
Don't read too far into this, but Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential campaign organization, Hillary Clinton for President, has finally paid its debts and closed its doors. Documents filed with the Federal Election Committee (FEC) on Monday confirm as much, and the transfer of the old organization's leftover cash to a new organization, Friends of Hillary, make the transaction complete. At $102,797, the surplus funds are nothing to scoff at, but they're certainly a long ways off from the billion or so dollars Hillary would need for a full fledged presidential campaign in 2016. But please, before we go any further, let us remind you once again: Don't read too far into this. The fabled Hillary 2016 campaign is still a fable at this point and a fable without an ending at that.
Read more >>>>

Well, we already knew this, but it is a good question, and we cannot get enough of that picture!!!!

Hillary Clinton Launches A New Website, But What Is It For?

Alex Kantrowitz, Contributor

Hillary Clinton has launched a semi-mysterious new website now that she’s returned to life as a private citizen. The site, hillaryclintonoffice.com, contains nothing but a big picture of Clinton in front of a blue background and an expandable contact form allowing site visitors to reach out to Clinton for scheduling requests, media inquiries and whatever else they might want to speak to her about.

Read more >>>>

Hillary Clinton Updates

Great news about  our Hillary on a day that previously promised to be void of any news about her at all!!!
First and foremost, there is this about her health.

Hillary Clinton has more tests, 'is much better'

Associated Press/J. Scott Applewhite - Outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton waves as she leaves the State Department in Washington, Friday, Feb. 1, 2013, for last time as America's top diplomat.

Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Bill Clinton says his wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, has undergone more medical tests but is "doing much better."

He made the remarks Monday to New York Congressman Peter King. The two men spoke in front of reporters outside the funeral of former New York City Mayor Ed Koch.

Clinton said his wife had five hours of tests on Sunday and was told to "take it easy for another month."

He said if her progress continues, "she'll be completely recovered."

Read more >>>>

Then there is the wonderful news that she has a new website that occupies the domain that used to be HillaryClinton.com which has resided on the sidebar here since 2008. The link has been updated to navigate to the new website which is still under construction.

It Commences MHP's Hillary-Hate: Out of the Closet and On the Record

When I posted this yesterday, Hillary Clinton’s Kitten Heels Not Necessarily A Shoo-In, it triggered a few emails from folks apparently not willing to post publicly in a comment thread all of which took the same tone. As if talking to a six-year-old afraid of the thunder, these presumably younger, less bitter and burnt voices assured Gen-Hillary, bitter, old Boomer me that no-no-no-no-no! If she runs in 2016, Hillary will not experience the same nasty treatment she received in 2008, not at all! Not with those high approval ratings! Bill's wife will not be treated as appendage of his now that she has blazed her own path (as if she had not already done that in the Senate before her presidential campaign). It will be kinder, gentler campaign coverage. Yeah, right. And as if on cue, this. I will let the video speak for itself.

 "Rebecca, author of "big girls don't cry." she is the Hillary fan I like to bring to balance out the Hillary hate that will emerge from me if i am not careful." - Melissa Harris Perry, MSNBC, 02-03-2013 

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Noooooooo, of course they won't trash Hillary again.  Of course not.

Eulogizing Ed Koch, Bill Clinton Recalls His Friendship With Hillary

This is the first Monday in a long time that we cannot look forward to some news about our girl.   We really do not even know where she is - whether she remains in DC or has made her way home to NY.   Her good friend, Mayor Ed Koch passed away the same day she said good-bye at the State Department.   President Clinton was in Japan when President Obama asked him to represent him at the funeral.

Walking to the lectern, he carried a blue folder.  He explained to the crowd in the temple that those papers were not his speech but were every letter Ed Koch had written to him.  He began his eulogy as he ended it, talking about the friendship between Ed and Hillary.  Koch supported Hillary in her Senate campaigns and met with her regularly when she served in the Senate.  The last letter came during the holiday season when Hillary was recovering from a series of health issues and Koch himself was in and out of the hospital with congestive heart failure.  Koch asked about Hillary and Bill Clinton told him, "She misses you."

Bill Clinton recalls Ed Koch as a mayor—and a pen pal

By Holly Bailey, Yahoo! News
NEW YORK—Former President Bill Clinton offered a funny and moving eulogy to former New York City Mayor Ed Koch, praising him as someone who truly understood and tried to help “real people.”

Speaking at Koch’s funeral on Monday morning, Clinton praised Koch as someone who “had a big brain but an even bigger heart. ... I don’t think I’ve known anyone in our line of work who understood the impact of what government was like on real people. He could imagine what life was like for people.”

Read more >>>>

Hillary Clinton's Kitten Heels Not Necessarily A Shoo-In

Hillary Clinton resigned as Secretary of State and departed Foggy Bottom with her husband and daughter on Friday.

To be sure, the 2016 drums had been beating long before she wrapped up her tenure at State, but by yesterday they were deafening.  Two Super PACs had formed,  the website  of one, "Ready For Hillary," went live and also went viral at the many Hillaryland Facebook groups, and speculation ramped up all over the media aided by the fact that HRC seemed to have granted a marathon of interviews at the State Department prior to vacating the seventh floor aka "heaven."

Now I have stated here many times and will once more today that this blogger will not be part of any pressure group to exact further service from the woman who, in 2008,  stated that she brought a lifetime of service to her primary race that year.  Anyone who has been following her term as SOS here or on other blogs certainly must be aware of the personal sacrifices she has made these past four years in additional service to her country.  It is her decision to make, and she has clearly stated many times that she has been too busy dealing with global events to give that option any consideration.  She needs and deserves time to rest, recuperate from her recent health issues, and reflect upon what she wants to do next.  Just in case, though, your head is in the clouds in the firm belief that she will reach out and grab the brass ring that so clearly seems meant for her,  there are some indications that perhaps things have not changed so much from 2008, and the road might not be as clear as you think it is for her.

Two articles from the New York Times caught my attention, not in a good way.  The first two questions in this one slapped me right back into 2008 for two reasons with the first two questions.

Interview With Hillary Clinton

By MICHAEL R. GORDON and MARK LANDLER

Published: February 2, 2013

Question 1:

Q: President Clinton said that one of his greatest regrets was not doing more to stop genocide in Rwanda. We have a situation in Syria where more than 60,000 Syrians have been killed. [U.N. envoy Lakhdar] Brahimi has been making no headway diplomatically. The conflict is beginning to spread regionally with Iran’s intervention with its Quds Forces, its arms supplies, Hezbollah’s participation and now the Israeli strike on the convoy in Syria. Looking back, can you say that the United States has done everything it could have to stem the killing in Syria? And when you look back on this episode in the book you are going to write, do you think that you might regret that the United States wasn’t able to do more in your years here?

Read her answer here>>>

Question 2:

Q: If one looks back at how the Clinton administration handled the Kosovo crisis, it became clear that Russia would not support a new Security Council resolution authorizing intervention to protect the Kosovars. So the United States elected not to seek a new resolution and instead justified intervention on the basis of international law. Why have you and the Obama administration taken the position that a stronger stance on Syria requires a new Security Council resolution, which means the formal endorsement of the Russian government, when that has always appeared to be a highly unlikely proposition?

Read her answer here>>>

What's that?  President Clinton?  Wow!  If that doesn't smack of the 2008 debates, nothing does, and if you think for a minute that this purposeful confounding of Billary will stop now that she has been Secretary of State, dream on.  It was used against her in primary debates by her own party in 2008 and will -  actually has -  arisen again a mere day after she stepped aside at State.

In addition, the implication in that second question that she somehow, as SOS, had the power to force the President's hand is unreasonable and unfair.  Will the morass in Syria move forward with her as one of her huge "failures" as Secretary of State?  Well, Gordon and Landler put it out there for any future opponent to use.

Backstage Glimpses of Clinton as Dogged Diplomat, Win or Lose

Patrik Stollarz/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton behind President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan during a meeting in Germany in 2011.

By MICHAEL R. GORDON and MARK LANDLER

Published: February 2, 2013

In the above NYT article, the same two journalists, in a review of her tenure as SOS disguised as a behind-the-scenes glimpse,  provide the following yardstick.

As she leaves the State Department, the simplest yardstick for measuring Mrs. Clinton’s legacy has been her tireless travels: 112 countries, nearly a million miles, 401 days on the road. Historians will point to how she expanded the State Department’s agenda to embrace issues like gender violence and the use of social media in diplomacy.

Yes, it is simple, isn't it?  Too simple.  In all fairness, Gordon and Landler are not the only pundits citing these stats, but it is irresponsible on the part of all who use them not to analyze the reasons behind all these miles and countries.  They break down, really, into two major types of travel.  Outreach trips where she toured regions that required her attention in diplomatic, personal, friendship-building ways and trips involving summits, conferences, and meetings, the latter breaking down into long-planned, regular summits like NATO and ASEAN, and emergency meetings like the two trips in one week in March 2011 to deal with the situation in Libya,  or the three-day whirlwind in the Middle East in September 2010.  Can we please dispel the notion that our top diplomat from 2009 to 2013 was in some kind of competition to tack on the miles and countries?    Furthermore,  the authors mention her initiatives for women and girls and her use of social nets in diplomacy while ignoring her singular most challenging undertaking, her QDDR (Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review) which overhauled and streamlined both the State Department and USAID and enhanced interagency communication and cooperation.    So if you thought that her legacy at the State Department would slide her right into a 2016 nomination, just take a look at some of these reviews for what has been left out.  In four years, these are what folks will be quoting, and some of them are thin indeed compared to the actual work put in.

Then on the very parochial domestic scene for the future of the Democratic Party, we have those who cry out that "Yes, she will do this for her country and her party." (As if her party has ever treated her particularly well.)   There is this.

Can Hillary Clinton make Texas turn blue?

Aliyah Frumin

Can Hillary Clinton make Texas turn blue?

Aliyah Frumin

2:50 PM on 02/01/2013

FILE: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives at NATO headquarters ahead of a two-day NATO foreign ministers in Brussels in this file photo from December 4, 2012. (Photo by Yves Herman/Reuters)

Is Hillary Clinton  the game-changing Democrat who can finally realize the liberal dream of turning Texas blue?
A new survey by the left-leaning Public Policy Polling indicates that the answer is yes. The retiring secretary of state could make the Lone Star State competitive in 2016, should she decide to run for president.
In hypothetical matchups, she’d beat GOP heavyweight Florida Sen. Marco Rubio 46% to 45% and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie 45% to 43%. She would even handily beat the state’s governor, Rick Perry, 50% to 42%, according to PPP’s numbers.Pretty impressive for a state that hasn’t voted Democratic since 1976, when Jimmy Carter won Texas in the first presidential election after the GOP disaster of Watergate.
Read more >>>>

Unless you have amnesia, you do well to consider the source on this one.  It is not Hillary Clinton's "job" to turn those two states blue just because some people think she can.

It will never be easy for Hillary Clinton.   Nothing ever has been, and no one knows that better than she.  Aside from the hurdles that have been part of her track from the day she wrote to NASA as a schoolgirl, she herself puts pressures on her own performance that are stringent, so a 2016 run, no matter how easy you might think it will be, will not be a cakewalk.

It, of course, is her decision alone to make.  She has much to consider.  Even if her health had not been challenged toward the end of her tenure, she would still have needed a good long rest as she had been saying for almost a full year before she stepped down.  She certainly deserves that rest and recuperation, and perhaps a bit of quiet so she can nap before the din demanding that she take on that fight for that office from age 67 when the campaigning would begin through the age of 78 presuming she won two terms. 

Can we ratchet this down a few notches?  Give a girl a break!

Hillary Clinton: Most Powerful Woman

Not for the first time, and probably not for the last, our lovely Hillary graces the cover of Newsweek.  Tomasky gets it wrong, though, right in the first paragraph because we know she gets her scrunchies at Rite Aid not CVS, and she goes there to choose them personally.  She does not send errand people.

Hillary Clinton Exits Politics: Her Enduring Legacy

Michael Tomasky

 Feb 5, 2013 12:00 AM EST

She changed the game irrevocably, and now she’s about to transform it again—by walking away. 

And now, as of this week, Hillary Rodham Clinton becomes something she has not been in two decades: a private citizen. A mind-boggling thought, really, rich in amusingly prosaic implications. Will she drive a car? Is she going to pop up at the Safeway (you’re supposed to bring your own bags now, Madame Secretary!) or be found standing in line at the Friendship Heights multiplex? She’ll still have Secret Service protection, and she has more than enough money to send other people out on a CVS run. But even so, she is now, for the first time in a very, very long time, just one of us

 

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PBS: Hillary Clinton on To The Contrary with Bonnie Erbe

I checked my guide and did not see a listing that included Hillary. 

Published on Feb 1, 2013

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sat down with Bonnie Erbe to share her ongoing work on women and girls' empowerment. Catch the full interview on this week's To the Contrary. (Check local listings for times near you.)