…and we’re off and running.
I certainly appreciate the need for spectacular headlines using a question mark as cover. There is a lot of competition out there for eyes and advertising dollars. It does, however, leave Politico’s journalistic efforts a lot to be desired today.
Politico has a smart story about Secretary Gates as Yoda, unfortunately, not far into the piece the writers talk about Clinton being “his most logical successor.” It makes me wonder if some editor with a marketing eye and a goal to get eyes on the page had something to do with this one, as this bit of rhetorical reaching for the skies is nothing but pure fantasy. It has been turned into fodder after it hit inboxes through Mike Allen’s “Hillary to succeed Gates?” indispensable morning Playbook, though the question mark hardly excuses it.
The Gates as Yoda story, with Clinton as his powerful ally, unlike the nightmare Rumsfeld-Powell-Rice era, is good enough:
“It’s a phalanx,” former Pentagon official Leslie Gelb said of the Clinton-Gates alliance. “I can’t remember a really important issue where they have disagreed. They are both center-right; they have their four feet firmly planted on that ground. And that is, they are not going to open themselves up to serious attack from the right, whether it’s Iraq or Afghanistan or Iran or you name it.”
Gates, known inside the White House as “Yoda,” is unquestionably the most powerful member of the Obama Cabinet — the only one with the muscle to push back. Clinton, meanwhile, is the most popular, her approval ratings cruising well above Obama’s own. An alliance is good for each of them.
I’d also take specific issue with the good reporters on this story, which include Laura Rozen, as well as Jen Dimascio and Ben Smith who wrote: Gates, for his part, has saved Clinton from a different kind of marginalization by a powerful White House staff… This does a supreme disservice to Sect. Clinton who is her own woman on national security, simply finding a partner in philosophy with Sect. Gates, who I assure you thinks of Clinton as an equal. It’s the typical traditional journalist line that Hillary Rodham Clinton requires “saving” in a position in which she personally has thrived, while also re-invigorated the mandate of the State Dept., as well as illustrated the power of muscular diplomacy, as she did with Prime Minister Netanyahu over Israel’s abysmal settlement insult when Vice Pres. Joe Biden was visiting.
The powerful relationship between Gates and Clinton is a tribute to them both, but also Pres. Obama for foreseeing this twosome for the formidable team he would need after inheriting Bush’s misadventures in the Middle East and his negligence in Central Asia. As for the successor teaser churned out of nowhere by Politico today, nothing to see here, move along.
Thanks for posting this. I saw this article first thing in the morning and immediately looked to see who wrote in and was not surprised to see Ben Smith, who likes to float provocative theories, but was surprised to see Laura Rozen was a co-author. Ben Smith essentially had started the whole “Secretary Clinton in the Shadows” meme not long into her tenure. Now we are on to a new meme.
I think the idea of her being a successor to Gates is preposterous but what do I know?
They are very obsessed with Secretary Clinton’s role in the administration, more so than they seem to be with other players such as Rice or Jones. She clearly has forged an excellent working relationship with other members of Obama’s team and it almost seems as though the media is a bit disappointed at that, hence the need to try to find a way to make her working relationships more sensational than perhaps they are.
As I wrote at the close, SCB, nothing to see here, move along.