Smart START - Hillary Clinton Unveils Non-Proliferation Rationale @ McConnell Center Speaker Series!

No, sorry, I do not have the video yet as it is not yet up. I was not able to watch the livestream because I was teaching. But just before class, I DID see Senator McConnell speaking before the Secretary of State spoke, and was struck by the brilliance of this engagement. Whose idea this was, and how it came about I do not know (though I have my suspicions - hint - she's a brainy, beautiful, blond member of the cabinet, and people have a hard time saying"no" to her when she flirts, which she does masterfully), but it was a brilliant political coup, a shining example of "smart power."

Here is a snip from Reuters.

Clinton woos Republican in pitch for nuclear treaty

Arshad Mohammed

WASHINGTON

Fri Apr 9, 2010 5:18pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a pitch on Friday for the Senate to ratify a new treaty to slash the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals with a personal visit to the Senate Republican leader's home state.

With Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in the audience, Clinton told students in Kentucky the arms control pact signed in Prague on Thursday by the U.S. and Russian presidents deserved Democratic and Republican support.

While President Barack Obama's fellow Democrats have a majority in the Senate, he needs some Republican votes to win Senate consent to the agreement, which commits both nations to cut their deployed nuclear warheads by about 30 percent.

Under the U.S. Constitution, treaties must secure two-thirds approval to secure Senate ratification.

A successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), the accord is part of a broader U.S. push, including a next week's Washington summit on preventing nuclear terrorism, to reduce the threat from nuclear weapons and proliferation.

Read more here>>>

If wooing is what is necessary (and it IS, they need 61 votes in the Senate, i.e. some Republicans) they have sent out their biggest gun in the form of the petite, adorable, possibly irresistible Secretary of State who is expert at wooing, and in case the baby blues do not have the desired effect, knows this text more intimately and thoroughly than anyone else in the administration. Not only will she be able to speak about it in her usual machine-gun fast, linear, organized fashion, she will be able to field questions like the ace shortstop she is. Hillary Clinton introducing the administration argument for ratification of START - priceless! A brilliant idea, a masterly move!

Now you KNEW I wound not end this without a picture of the Wooer-in-Chief, didn't you?

(I am patiently awaiting the posting of the video and text of this event. I will post it ASAP.)