In the wake of the Wikileaks document dump, Mme. Secretary began December in Kazakhstan with the self-assigned agenda of mending allegedly damaged diplomatic fences. The truth is that there probably was not much that was so terrible in the documents with regard to diplomatic cables. Most of the officials mentioned laughed it off. Nonetheless, yet another Charm Offensive was in order, and no one does a Charm Offensive like Our Girl!
December 1
Astana, Kazakhstan
Enter the Charmer: Mme. Secretary arrives at the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Summit.
With Angela
With Italy's Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi
Ban Ki-Moon does not look too upset
With Kazakhstan's President Nursultan Nazarbayev (cute smile!)
With Britain's Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg
With Georgia's President Saakashvili (He likes her a lot!)
With Italy's PM Berlusconi again.
and again
With Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych (He also likes her a lot!)
*Hillary-Walk alert* You can tell she studied ballet.
December 2
Welcome to Uzbekistan!
Uzbek Foreign Minister Vladimir Norov greets her in Tashkent. She looks exquisite!
With President Roza Otunbayeva
Being greeted by Kyrgyz First Deputy Prime Minister Amangeldy Muraliyev at Manas airport.
Appearing on a talk show at the Kyrgyz state television.
December 3
Bahrain
*Hillary-Walk alert* Looking like a goddess entering a press conference at the foreign ministry in Manama.
Giving an inaugural speech at the IISS (International Institute for Strategic Studies) Manama Dialogue.
December 4
Her annual Kennedy Center Gala Dinner at the State Department
With some of the honorees - missing from this was the honoree identified by one news source as Oprah Whitney!
Sir Paul *likes*
This gown makes up for the inauguration ball atrocity. (Listen to Oscar about the necklines, Mme. Secretary! He is correct on that issue. You look gorgeous!)
December 6
With South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan. Topic: North Korea's belligerent behavior shelling a South Korean island. *Hillary-walk alert*
With Japan's Foreign Minister Seiji Maehara - same topic. *Hillary-walk alert*
U.S.-Japan-South Korea Trilateral
Press conference
December 7
There were five meetings on her schedule, but this bilateral with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere was the only one with a camera spray.
December 8
Mme. Secretary was a surprise speaker at the TEDWomen Conference
She had another speaking engagememnt after this, but most of her day was occupied with meetings at the White House. The Democratic Party was in overt disarray, several legislators having made public statements in opposition to the president's "compromise," as he called it, with the Republicans on the Bush tax cuts. Perhaps for this reason, there was a camera spray preceding the cabinet meeting that day to show that everything was just peachy.
The look on Mme. Secretary's face here is priceless.
December 9
Bilateral with Albanian Foreign Minister Edmond Haxhinasto
Bilateral with Nigerian Foreign Minister Henry Odein Ajumogobia
She delivered remarks at the 2010 Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) Mid-Year Conference.
Other meetings that day were closed to the press.
December 10
There was a series of closed meetings with officials representing the principals in the Mid East peace process.
Department of State Eleanor Roosevelt Awards this one to Sarah Cleto Rial, a native of southern Sudan.
It was Human Rights Day with an International Human Rights Day Town Hall, but, in the photos from that, the Secretary looks very stressed, and I do not want to post them. It was the day Richard Holbrooke collapsed at the State Department, as far as we know, in her presence. As we all know now, he never recovered. He was a close friend of the Clintons and a tireless public servant.
In the evening, she delivered remarks at the Brookings Institution's Saban Center for Middle East Policy.
December 13
Secretary Clinton, accompanied by Assistant Secretary Valenzuela, traveled to Quebec, Canada for the North American Foreign Ministers Meeting.
Wearing cute shoes in the snow.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon greeted her.
With Cannon and Mexico's Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa.
We have not figured out how Mme. Secretary, who bundled sweaters under wool jackets in the Senate Chamber, and wears shawls over jackets at the UN and in the Situation Room, managed to tolerate the cold Canadian weather on this deck wearing just a jacket!
That evening, wearing one of my favorite jackets, she attended a holiday dinner at the White House where she also spoke. Ambassador Holbrooke passed away that evenng.
She is simply adorable here.
December 14
First a bilateral and then a U.S.-South African PEPFAR Partnership Framework Agreement Signing Ceremony with South African Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane.
If the diplomatic Wikileaks caused any damage here, and I do not think they did, it is obviously mended. These two are always so cute together.
Later that evening, she hosted a holiday event at the State Department.
December 15
There were a few closed meetings, but the event of the day was a town hall meeting to discuss the release of the first Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, “Leading Through Civilian Power,” with Department of State employees, in the Dean Acheson Auditorium of the Department of State. She was superb as was Dr. Slaughter and her team. Liaisons have been established between the State Department and other departments, bureaus, and agencies throughout the government. Awesome.
A moment of silence in honor of Ambassador Holbrooke.
With Mme. Secretary, Director of Policy Planning Anne-Marie Slaughter, USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah and USAID Deputy Administrator Donald Steinberg
The Secretary speaks.
A question and answer session.
Holding the report while explaining that there is an abbreviated "executive" version for those who do not have time to read the full review.
Of everything she has done and will do as SOS, this review establishes her legacy at State. It is a major accomplishment paralleled by none before her that will affect all who follow her.
December 16
Closed meetings and ceremonies most of the day. The major event: Secretary Clinton attended President Obama’s statement to the press on the Afghanistan-Pakistan Annual Review in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House. For the second time in the space of about a week, a Clinton took over the podium in the White House press room.
Worth a thousand words....
December 17
A second QDDR Town Hall, this one at USAID, but I have no pictures.
She hosted the 12th Annual Secretary’s Awards for Corporate Excellence (ACE) at the State Department.
Strangely, the State Department posted no public schedule until the 23rd which stated that the SOS had no public schedule, after which they suddenly decided to post, in this sequence, the 22nd, 21st, and finally the 20th. The truth was that Mme. Secretary was working very hard all week, and had been for some time, contacting Senators to convince them to vote in favor of ratification of the New START treaty.
The vote was held on December 22, and CSPAN announced that the SOS was headed for Capitol Hill for the vote.
Arriving with her fingers crossed.
Jubilant that the treaty, finally, was ratified!
So our lovely, hard-working, brilliant, and caring Secretary of State ended December 2010 with two huge victories: a successful QDDR and ratification of her biggest and most important treaty. She also ended the month and year by being named, for the ninth year in a row, the Most Admired Woman by the Gallup Poll. To see her so happy in the last pictures of the year touches my heart.
Another year so well done, Mme. Secretary! God bless you and keep you safe as you continue to travel the world on our behalf. We, here, will continue to follow your work with love and pride. We are so lucky to have you!
