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Taylor Marsh has been writing on line since 1996, with the archives provided here a representation of that work.

Tag Archives | Hillary Clinton

‘Texts From Hillary’ on Tumblr Frames Iconic Hillary Moment

By on 10 April 2012

It’s so 3:00 a.m. and I’m in charge.

It’s power, baby.

The ultimate Hillary Effect, which has been earned.

That “Texts From Hillary” on Tumblr has gone viral is due to Secy. Clinton’s Madonna meets Gaga pop culture cool aboard a C-17, which was Malta bound for Libya at the height of a crisis, which she managed through getting the Arab League to sign on to NATO bombing.

What it transmits about Hillary to her fans is nothing new. That it’s making a dent among her most strident critics on the left is.

Hillary’s soaring approval rating wasn’t enough. But the new sensation on Tumblr has even gotten the attention of the most anti-Hillary 2008 new media site on the left, TPM. You remember, the boys who thought talking to female voters was a waste of time.

Women are just the majority vote today, with using our power brewing when the Hillary Effect exploded. Her historic campaign caused a shift for women and was the original game changer. Sarah Palin was the proof, ask HBO. The Republican war on women is showing what we can do: turn U.S. politics upside down all the way to Rush.

Now women rule, Hillary’s put them at the front of her diplomacy, with Pres. Obama needing the women’s vote to prevail in November, as does every politician in the country.

Hillary’s the ultimate globe trotting political rock star, who also happens to be everyone’s fantasy president right now.

How could she not be?

Barack Obama is still in search of a slogan for his reelection campaign, with an opponent who looks so bad right now it makes everyone want to hit snooze until November, with swing independents the subject we’ll all choke on until it’s over.

“Texts From Hillary” rescues us all from political boredom, putting the sexy back into service.

“Texts from Hillary” on Tumblr is now so globally popular, credit for pictures and images have now been added to the dueling two-shot message.

Ah, the price of going viral.

The Washington Post didn’t get it and critiqued it as Hillary the “phone addict.” MSNBC went for “Clinton at her coolest,” a far cry from the Keith Olberman – Chris Matthews’ mean boy screeds. Now everyone’s grabbed on.

While Chuck Todd asks GOPers questions about whether team Obama is coasting while laughing at the prospects of running against Mitt Romney, who can’t even close against Rick Santorum, the rest of us are looking for a distraction.

When the Charlotte Observer reported on Monday that Secy. Clinton wouldn’t be at the Democratic convention, following a tradition by other secretaries of state, the manipulated headlines popped. Huffington Post comments exploded, because Amanda Terkel’s piece came with a headline blaring Hillary was “skipping” the Democratic convention, which was also picked up by Slate. The Atlantic preferred “Hillary Has Better Things to Do Than Attend the Democratic Convention.”

Former Pres. Bill Clinton will be attending.

The rest of us will watch “Texts From Hillary,” because while Democrats are converging on a right-to-work state, staying in anti-union hotels, Hillary will be kicking up global dust.

What she won’t be doing is vamping until 2016.

TM Note: Original images by Kevin Lamarque for Reuters, via “Texts From Hillary.”

UPDATE: “Hillz” approves.

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Keith to Dave: ‘I screwed up’

By on 04 April 2012

“Do they know what they’re doing over there?” – Dave Letterman



The biggest casualty last night was Current TV.

Olbermann said he had no idea if “Countdown” had ever aired, because he couldn’t find Current on his dial.

Dave acted positively stumped on where to find it and this routine went on throughout the interview.

Current TV has won two Emmys and a Peabody award. As I’ve written before, we moved companies in order to get “Countdown” and Current.

Keith Olbermannn described his Current debacle through a story about a “$10 million chandelier,” he being that chandelier.

Letterman started with a bit, which began with him presenting Olbermann with a business card. It had a teeny-tiny window cut out, with a pinwheel of company choices on where he was working, which rotated from MSNBC to ESPN to Current to CNN. The exchange between he and Dave on this was priceless, which you can see in the video above.

It was the best Keith Olberman has looked in months.

Sharp suit, with a vest and tie, smart hair cut, though he could still stand to lose some weight, if only for his health.

I watched Letterman last night and as you’ll see in the video, he was a mensch to his friend.

Perhaps most important, he got Dave as a character witness. Olbermann has always been “a stand-up guy,” Letterman proclaimed, who will “take the high road” whenever possible. At one point the comedian insisted: “You’re being contrite almost to a fault.” – Howard Kurtz

Not to be picky, but how far back does Keith’s “I screwed up” admission go?

Letterman’s bluntness came to the forefront when he asked if Olbermann was going to get his money. That’s all Dave cared about and in the end it’s all that matters at this point, because where Keith Olbermann is headed next is up for grabs.

CNN should take another gamble.

Keith Olbermann remains an entertaining host with a following that could wipe out CNN’s ratings problems in whatever time slot they picked, though I believe his natural slot is dishing out his brand of acerbic political commentary in late night.

Correction appended: Olbermann has worked for CNN, back in the 1980s, with edit to reflect this fact.

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Putting the Bimbo in Blonde and Birtherism

By on 04 April 2012

Heather Childers, a “straight news” anchor for the Fox News weekend program America’s News Headquarters and co-host of Fox & Friends First, tweeted this afternoon: “Thoughts? Did Obama Campaign Threaten Chelsea Clinton’s Life 2 Keep Parents Silent?” and linked to a blog post pushing a conspiracy involving the Obama campaign murdering, or threatening to murder, individuals to keep quiet questions about Obama’s eligibility. – Media Matters

It’s all the Clintons’ fault, according to Fox News anchor Heather Childers and her now infamous birther tweets.

via Media Matters

Well, she didn’t exactly say that, but what Heather Childers did was link to a notorious birther site article that pushed the boundaries of birtherism, accusing the ’08 Obama campaign of threatening murder, after committing one to keep everything on the hush-hush.

Godfatherpolitics.com has declared that President Obama’s birth certificate is a “fraud.” Recent posts on the subject include: “World Media Picking Up Obama Birth Certificate Fraud While America’s Media Remains Silent”; “Mr. President – Put Up or Shut Up!”; and “Alabama Supreme Court Justice Says Barack Obama Birth Certificate Would Not Stand Up in Court.” – Media Matters (links for posts available at the link)

And guess who was next on the list? Former Pres. Bill Clinton, with Democratic insiders all knowing the dirty details of the origins of birtherism.

The headline to the post Childers linked to: “Did Barack Obama Campaign Threaten Life of Chelsea Clinton to Keep Parents Silent on Obama’s Ineligibility?”

This broad would make a perfect co-host for Sean Hannity.

Mediaite reached out for a statement from FNC and got one:

“The tweets have been addressed with Heather and she understands this was a mistake.” – Michael Clemente, Fox News senior vice president for news

The news division of Fox News has lower standards than Donald Trump’s Miss Universe Pageant.

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Hillary Mania on High

By on 03 April 2012



Rep. Nancy Pelosi has caught Hillary mania, which is sweeping the media and political class during the Republican circus lull, while everyone nods off until Mitt Romney can squeeze 1144 out of wingnut primary voters.

I’d heard about this exchange, with Buzzfeed posting the video late yesterday.

“I would love to see Secretary Clinton become the nominee for President in 2016,” Pelosi said during an appearance in the 92nd Street Y in New York City Sunday night.

“I do think the Secretary should entertain the thought of running in 2016,” said the former Speaker of the House, who was formally neutral in 2008 but was widely viewed as tacitly supporting Senator Barack Obama, then Clinton’s bitter rival. “Hasn’t she been a magnificent Secretary of State?”

The speculation continues where my book leaves off. The question won’t be answered until we get a lot close to the next election, after Hillary Clinton has some much deserved rest.

What you won’t see is Secy. Clinton on the campaign trail. Never thought otherwise, but Sam Stein reported confirmation from Administration officials yesterday.

Pres. Bill Clinton talked about Hillary running in 2016 with Jake Tapper, as well as others. He’d be happy with whatever she decides, foundation or another presidential run, which will be an odds-maker in Vegas soon enough.

Beyond the buzz, one thing that was very interesting is Secy. Clinton’s recent handling of Rush Limbaugh. Having written the book on Hillary’s 20-year rise in politics and her interaction with traditional and new media, the confidence and diplomacy showed through honest assessment of the wingnut radio blowhard is worth noting.

Clinton talking to the grande dame of NBC, Andrea Mitchell, via Politico:

“I thought the response [to Limbaugh] was very encouraging. The response from the public, the response, in particular, from women cutting across all kinds of categories, the response from advertisers.”

“I think we need to call people out when they go over the line. They’re entitled to their opinion but no one is entitled to engage in that kind of verbal assault. Let’s keep it to the issues,” she said.

“We, as a nation, have every right — and in fact I welcome it — to engage in the kind of debate and dialogue that is at the root of who we are as Americans,” Clinton said. “But lets not turn it into personal attacks and insults. We’re beyond that. We’re better than that and people in the public eye have a particular responsibility to avoid it.”

The maturity, calm and confidence Clinton illustrates in this comment is a long way from the ’90s trademark “right wing conspiracy.” It’s expected from someone in the national political arena now for 20 years, but also coming from a secretary of state who has seen what she’s seen across the world. A woman who has nothing more to prove.

It makes gnats like Rush Limbaugh much easier to flick away at this point.

Secy. Clinton has never been stronger, more secure or sure of her power than she is today. With some rest and reflection and some holiday time, too, considering she’s tired but healthy, there’s no reason to think she won’t reconsider her Shermanesque statements on running a second time for the presidency.

However, no one should be surprised if living her life exactly as she chooses, without the constraints of the political arena, won’t satisfy her fully. I’m just not sure people will let her. There’s a real hunger for Hillary to run in 2016 and it’s only 2012. It’s only going to get louder from here.

Everyone knows the U.S. is poised to elect a female president as soon as a competent, charismatic woman, who also can be seen as commander in chief, shows up. The thought that it could be an anti-women’s rights conservative is unthinkable to most.

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The Hill: Women are the Real Game Changers, by Taylor Marsh

By on 23 March 2012

I wrote a piece for The Hill yesterday. Here’s a snippet:

HBO’s “Game Change,” adapted from the blockbuster book by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin, couldn’t have been better timed. It reminded everyone of the history made in 2008 and how the earth shook when the Hillary Effect pushed a woman on to the Republican presidential ticket for the first time in history. It solidified women as official game changers. [...]

[...] Republicans would be wise to listen to Margaret Hoover, who said on Bill O’Reilly’s show, talking about the 2012 presidential election, that “if Republicans make this about social issues, we’re going to lose.” O’Reilly ignored her, which is the Fox News audience’s loss.

Hope you check it out.

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Oprah Should Spend Capital to Put OWN in the Political Game

By on 18 March 2012


It’s one thing to have a network vision, it’s quite another to make it marketable, watchable and profitable, let alone hip. And if there is one thing OWN is not it’s relevant. OWN seems sleepy and quaint at a moment when women are flexing their power.

OWN is missing history.

The Susan G. Komen Foundation chose to politicize their mission by targeting Planned Parenthood and their world imploded. Women are railing against Republican bills that range from transvaginal ultrasounds to forcing women to have and view pictures against our will. Rush Limbaugh calls Sandra Fluke a “slut” and “prostitute” for speaking out in favor of Pres. Obama’s contraceptive mandate, which causes an earthquake in talk radio, changing the advertising model of Premiere Networks. Female legislators are tormenting men across the country in state houses with reproductive bills to embarrass them over Viagra.

The big news on Oprah’s OWN?

Rosie O’Donnell’s show has been cancelled.

Al Gore feels Oprah’s pain.

CurrentTV languished for years before Keith Olbermann signed on, then predictably took the buzz off rail in a squabble that anyone could have predicted. Jennifer Granholm has joined The Young Turks, so at least they’re relevant, relentlessly progressive and breaking ground, while struggling to rise.

OWN’s lineup is none of the above and at a time when women are utilizing power to move policy and politics in America, with Democrats depending on women to win in November to keep the Senate, what’s the network’s contribution to the discussion?

As far as I can tell it’s silence.

The president of Emily’s List Stephanie Schriock stated recently that her organization had doubled its membership since Speaker Boehner was handed his gavel. It’s up over 1 million members.

The religious conservative war on women has been in full swing since November 2010 (though I’d argue since 1980), with a list of anti-women’s freedom legislation historic.

It’s a presidential election season once again, but yet Oprah’s OWN remains disengaged on politics in any significant way by choice, in a country that has awakened to the majority of women having the power to elect a president or not and willing to prove it.

Oprah’s talent and ingenuity can still save OWN from irrelevancy, but to do so she needs to harness the moment we’re in today, not channel the nostalgia of her daytime talk show. People forget that Oprah made ratings gold by besting Jerry Springer, but she didn’t do it through tired bookings and yawning subject focus. She found a way to hit the zeitgeist and run with it, never looking back and became one of the most powerful, successful and important women in business and culture.

Why should we care?

Because Oprah has the power and money to bring the best of liberal, conservative and independent thought to her network, putting together a political division that could be unique, though Oprah would have to hand the job to someone savvy beyond the Oprah bubble to set it free from predictable programming.

Secretary Clinton’s former presidential campaign unleashed the Hillary Effect, with female ambassadorships in Washington growing dramatically once she came to State. But long before that the Hillary Effect helped put a woman on the Republican Party’s national ticket, which ignited a conservative women’s movement that lit the Republican Party on fire, with Sarah Palin’s Tea Party power, before it collapsed, leading to huge wins in 2010 and historic victories for the right across the country in state legislatures. In media, it catapulted women across network and cable shows, from morning shows to evening news.

If conservative women were leading the Republican presidential campaign, the right would be on fire right now, instead of on a political death march for Mitt, or worse, Rick Santorum, a politician who when he last ran in Pennsylvania suffered the biggest loss in memory.

Meanwhile, on Oprah’s OWN network it’s as if time has stood still or remains viewed from a pillow.

It’s the 21st century and women are leading in ways that seem revolutionary, from reproductive demands to economics and Occupy, but not on OWN.

Is it any wonder no one’s watching it?

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GOP War on Women Starts Hillary 2016 Talk

By on 14 March 2012


It’s the way I end my book. It was the only place the story of Hillary’s 20-year history could go. But it wasn’t actually an ending.

Thinking, wondering, and trying to game whether Secy. Clinton, after taking a long deserved break and maybe even starting work on her own international women’s foundation, will turn to shaking U.S. history one more time.

“Game Change” authors Halperin and Heilemann were asked about it today.

Maureen Dowd has pondered this out loud today.

Women who assumed that electing Obama would lift all minority boats are beginning to think: Maybe he’s not enough. If the desire of these conservative male leaders to yoke women is this close to the surface, if they are perversely driven to debase women even though it could lead to their own political demise, then women may require more than Obama.

If women are so vulnerable, they may need one of their own.

Is she inevitable?

We’ve been down the inevitable road before and there are still plenty of people who believe her foreign policy ideas have a military foundation to hawkish. But that’s who Hillary is. She’s not going to change, so she’ll never convince some. It depends on if they’re the minority and after the Republican war on women they just may be.

Yesterday Rush Limbaugh tried hard to weave the fantasy that Obama’s birth control mandate had hurt him with women. Of course, the only source he could cite was on the right.

Reuters brings reality today:

Americans overwhelmingly regard the debate over President Barack Obama’s policy on employer-provided contraceptive coverage as a matter of women’s health, not religious freedom, rejecting Republicans’ rationale for opposing the rule. More than three-quarters say the topic shouldn’t even be a part of the U.S. political debate.

More than six in 10 respondents to a Bloomberg National Poll — including almost 70 percent of women — say the issue involves health care and access to birth control, according to the survey taken March 8-11.

America will elect a female president the next time a candidate looks like she can handle it and it cannot be someone who doesn’t believe in women’s individual freedoms. It can’t be a Republican, because they’ve boxed themselves out and believe we don’t.

It’s quite possible that when the time comes to really think about 2016, it won’t be so much about whether Hillary will decide to make another run at the presidency, it will be how can she not?

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Female Villains and the John McCain Love Affair Continues in HBO’s ‘Game Change’

By on 11 March 2012

**updated**

Palin has only herself to blame for how horribly she came off, but as she was the most hotly sought-after interview in the world at the time, the McCain campaign could have picked and chosen and been cleverly calculating about which journalist would win the prize. Wallace was responsible for one of the great blunders in political advance work of modern media history. – Back Stab, by John Podhoretz

Ed Harris and Julianne Moore

HBO’s “Game Change” is great fun to watch, with Sarah Palin to Julianne Moore what Margaret Thatcher was to Meryl Streep.

Woody Harrelson as Steve Schmidt gives an early take to what Sarah Palin says about the Queen Elizabeth II that is so priceless he deserves a mention simply for that one look.

On ABC’s “This Week,” Nicole Wallace says HBO’s film is “true enough to make me squirm.” Only she can deliver that assessment, because she was there. As an expert on what happened in 2008, HBO’s “Game Change” covers only the 60-day period inside the bubble McCain-Palin bubble.

So watching it it’s as if the McCain campaign thought of putting a woman on the Republican ticket for the first time in history on a lark. Because they simply needed a galvanizing moment against the phenomenon that Barack Obama had become. They did and Danny Strong adapted the book as it is, with Heilemann and Halperin missing it for the same reason the women in “Game Change” fare less well than the men.

But then something happened on the way to the Republican convention in St. Paul–and, presto chango, there was Palin. – Game Change, page 353, chapter “Sarahcuda”

The telling of the 2008 story of Clinton in “Game Change” is one of the reasons I knew I had to write The Hillary Effect, even though in the era of Obama it wouldn’t be an easy road.

Clinton’s rip roaring primary finish put us in a moment in time where not only 18 million cracks in the ultimate glass ceiling had occurred, but we’d just watched the heavyweight championship political match of modern history that nominated the first African American. However, Hillary’s loss had left many of her supporters bereft, unwilling even to let go. It wasn’t “presto-chango, there was Palin.” It was the Hillary Effect, as well as the fantasy that her voters would vote for McCain-Palin in big numbers.

As historic as Clinton’s candidacy was and what she accomplished through it, McCain picking Sarah Palin was a first in Republican history, too. They certainly knew it, which is why they went searching for a woman on Google.

But the most stunning missing piece in “Game Change” is that John McCain once again is completely un-examined. He’s funny and profane, sweet and un-involved, but that’s never examined in the way Sarah Palin is.

John McCain is portrayed as a guy who just happened to be the nominee, but who had absolutely no responsibility for choosing Sarah Palin in the first place. Throughout the HBO film, John McCain, played by Ed Harris, who never gets to deliver anything but a one dimensional character because the script won’t let him, seems like a passenger to the plot.

There’s got to be a villain, so who is it?

John Podhoretz supplies it and he blames the whole thing on Nicole Wallace, but also Steve Schmidt. Perhaps if John McCain hadn’t run such a disastrous campaign no one would have talked.

Nicolle Wallace was the onetime consultant to CBS News and media aide to George W. Bush who was assigned to work with Sarah Palin after the Alaska governor was chosen as John McCain’s running mate. It was Wallace who assured the McCain campaign that her dear friend Katie Couric, a committed liberal with a history of interviewing Republicans and conservatives in a quietly nasty way, was the right journalist to conduct a major early interview with the extremely conservative vice-presidential nominee.

How is it that John McCain never has to answer for anything, not even choosing Sarah Palin?

This has been going on for years.

Tiptoeing around McCain’s political malpractice in allowing Palin to be chosen continues the kid glove treatment that he’s always gotten. He’s as Teflon, except to the Rush Limbaugh crowd, as Ronald Reagan, someone who couldn’t get nominated today.

In my book, I certainly do not give Hillary the same courtesy and no one should. In “What If” in my book, the price is paid for the disastrous campaign Hillary ran, but especially for the man she let run it, Mark Penn. But that’s on her, too, because it was her campaign.

Danny Strong’s adaptation and the stellar direction by Jay Roach focus on Palin’s catastrophic gaffes, gaps in knowledge and emotional meltdowns, because it’s where the drama lies.

Sarah Palin’s candidacy fell apart because she was completely unready for the role. But Palin’s talent as a political performer was real as we saw in 2010 when she helped lead the Tea Party to prowess that opened out on a colossal midterm for the right. It’s the historic losses Democrats suffered in the midterm that began the Republican war on women.

Though it’s not a part of “Game Change” history and doesn’t belong in HBO’s film, it’s important to note that Sarah Palin ended up coming to the aid of Sen. McCain’s and helped get him re-elected. Who knows, maybe she’ll one day hold his Senate seat.

“Iron Lady” didn’t get Margaret Thatcher right, though Meryl Streep did and got an Oscar for it.

HBO’s “Game Change” gets Sarah Palin right and so did Julianne Moore. But like in the book, it’s Sarah Palin’s fault or maybe it’s all Nicole Wallace’s fault, with the men never blamed or even examined much, except for someone vetting her in 5 short days.

In “Game Change,” whatever version you’re considering, it’s always the woman’s fault.

It’s why I have a chapter in my book of the same title “It’s Always the Woman’s Fault.” Because when men write the story it is.

That’s the way it was in 2008, but it’s not anymore.

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TALK RADIO BOMB: 98 Advertisers Tell Premiere Networks to Avoid Shock Jocks

By on 10 March 2012

Rush Limbaugh’s “slut” and “prostitute” smears have officially become The Talk Radio Tipping Point. He and his right-wing talker spawn have finally been hoisted on their own poison petard.

But this latest controversy comes at a particularly difficult time for right-wing talk radio. They are playing to a (sometimes literally) dying demographic. Rush & Co. rate best among old, white males. They have been steadily losing women and young listeners, who are alienated by the angry, negative, obsessive approach to political conservations. Add to that the fact that women ages 24–55 are the prize advertising demographic, and you have a perfect storm emerging after Limbaugh’s Sandra Fluke comments. – Rush Limbaugh Scandal Proves Contagious for Talk-Radio Advertisers

From Radio-Info, first reported on The Daily Beast by John Avlon:

From today’s TRI Newsletter: Premiere Networks is circulating a list of 98 advertisers who want to avoid “environments likely to stir negative sentiments.” The list includes carmakers (Ford, GM, Toyota), insurance companies (Allstate, Geico, Prudential, State Farm) and restaurants (McDonald’s, Subway). As you’ll see in the note below, those “environments” go beyond the Rush Limbaugh show –

“To all Traffic Managers: The information below applies to your Premiere Radio Networks commercial inventory. More than 350 different advertisers sponsor the programs and services provided to your station on a barter basis. Like advertisers that purchase commercials on your radio station from your sales staff, our sponsors communicate specific rotations, daypart preferences and advertising environments they prefer… They’ve specifically asked that you schedule their commercials in dayparts or programs free of content that you know are deemed to be offensive or controversial (for example, Mark Levin, Rush Limbaugh, Tom Leykis, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity). Those are defined as environments likely to stir negative sentiment from a very small percentage of the listening public.”

I’ve been waiting for 15 years for this talk radio moment. I’ve studied the medium from every angle and know it well. From my book, which I’ve not excerpted before, from the chapter “It’s All The Woman’s Fault”:

Talk radio king Rush Limbaugh and his fraternity of hacks like Hannity, as well as Sean’s mini-me, Mark Levin, spew misogynistic drivel all day long as part of the freedom-is-only-for-men crowd, while personally demeaning or lying about any liberal woman who stands up to them. Spewing invective like “feminazis” or using “Hillary Rotten Clinton, her thighness,” a sexist slur Mark Levin directed at Secretary of State Clinton, is what masquerades as “entertainment” on right-wing talk radio. Don Imus, the “nappy-headed ho” gasbag, has referred to Hillary as “Satan.” … ..

[...] … .. Besides, in the new-media age, right-wing talk radio is finally seen for what it is: the last sexist outpost of an outdated medium run by men, where women are merely tolerated as totems: a dying, misogynistic format with a mid-twentieth-century mindset. They’ve got their choir, but the majority of Americans just don’t take their sexist, hate-screen rants seriously anymore; certainly new generations will not. … ..

This is one of those moments in time that has the potential to change everything.

Without hate speech, right-wing talk radio could soon be extinct.

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Saturday Night at the Television Movies

By on 10 March 2012



The first time I saw the trailer and heard “American Woman” I felt like I should get ready to go on the air again, because I used it as my intro back when I was dabbling in radio. It’s the lead-in for HBO’s “Game Change”, whose roll out has mimicked a Hollywood theatrical production. The entire marketing and advertising of the HBO film has taken film television production advance to a new level.

The previews seen through all the different interviews, as well as the reviews, reveal Julianne Moore at the top of her game in a role that could be the dessert of her career to date. It’s any actor’s dream to have such a fascinating character to portray, especially a woman who caused such a political furor by coming on to the national political stage wholly unprepared and stirring up a whirlwind of drama with everything she says, does and wherever she goes.

The Hillary Effect and Clinton’s 18 million cracks paved the way for Palin mania. It’s why Sarah Palin is one of the characters in my book. There’s no way to write about ’08 and the Hillary Effect without including Sarah Palin.

Of course, unlike “Game Change”, written by Mark Halperin and John Heilemann, which tore the skin off the bone of every female character portrayed in the book, I write about Palin’s rise and her own self-destruction while also giving her the credit she’s due for the rise of the Tea Party in 2010. No one can take that away from her. Back then and before her Loughner video response flame out there were a lot of establishment Republicans who thought she had an inside track to the nomination, people like Mark McKinnon and many others. But that was then.

HBO’s “Game Change” covers only the 60-day McCain – Palin saga, which is a very smart focus and one that lends itself well to great drama, especially as recounted by Halperin and Heilemann in their book.

There are going to be a lot of people DVRing or watching it tonight. After seeing the clips, as well as all the interviews. I’m looking forward to seeing Ed Harris as John McCain. In some of the clips his looks and persona are uncanny.

However, there’s a lot of talk about the element of the story where Nicole Wallace realizes how she feels about voting for Sarah Palin. Their relationship ended up unraveling, even if Wallace began by rooting for Palin when it all began.

SarahPAC has already put out its rebuttal through a video and Sarah Palin has been very vocal about the advance publicity. It’s obvious she’s freaked about it.

The lesson of Sarah Palin is that national politics is tough on amateurs, but if you’re willing to risk it anyway it can make you rich. But whether Sarah Palin can add something more than chatterbox fodder and a defense for what ails us by coming to the side of people like Rush Limbaugh remains to be seen.

That reality hovers over the film, because the ending of the McCain-Palin partnership was an epic flame out.

ps – Unrelated, we spring forward early Sunday a.m., don’t forget.

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Mitt Romney ‘Not willing to light my hair on fire’ for Support

By on 28 February 2012



Worst of all, there is no clear end in sight for what has become, in the eyes of many Republicans, a joyless and prolonged nomination fight. Even Romney victories in Michigan and Arizona, the two states voting Tuesday, have little chance of forcing his aggrieved opponents out of the race. With a vast personal fortune at his disposal, there’s no prospect of Romney being shunted aside by his foes. – Politico

It’s not the “knife fight” Republicans should worry about, as Politico’s Maggie Haberman and Alexander Burns describe it. Obama and Clinton had the mother of all battles in 2008, but Democrats were exalted at the end. The problem for Republicans is the people throwing the knives.

There isn’t one GOP candidate who measures up to Obama or the challenge Hillary Clinton posed, with their battle one of political muscle, talent and intelligence, a race to the top of the idea pyramid.

Beyond Newt Gingrich’s 1% “infanticide” insults, Ron Paul’s foreign policy stink bomb, as Republicans see it, you’ve got Rick Santorum using the words “throw up” about John F. Kennedy’s seminal speech on religion and the presidency, while Mitt Romney is so discombobulated from turning himself inside out he’s forgotten he’s already lit his hair on fire for a base who will only support him if the alternative is a second Obama term.

As the finale of Michigan and Arizona contests arrive, Mitt Romney, even if he wins Michigan, is in a far worse position to beat Obama in November. That’s the real problem for Republicans, for which there isn’t a solution that doesn’t compound their problems.

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TransCanada to Start Building Portion of Keystone XL

By on 27 February 2012

From The Hill:

TransCanada Corp. said Monday it plans to begin building a major portion of the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline despite the Obama administration’s decision to reject a key permit for the project.

The company told the State Department in a letter Monday that it will begin construction of a section of the pipeline that runs from Cushing, Okla., to refineries on the Gulf Coast. The stand-alone portion of the project, which TransCanada dubbed the Gulf Coast Project, will cost $2.3 billion and will be completed in mid-to-late 2013, according to the company. The project must still receive other regulatory approvals.

Separately, TransCanada said it would reapply “in the near future” for a permit that would allow the Keystone XL pipeline to cross from Alberta, Canada, into the United States.

The headline on Marketwatch: White House backs Keystone XL southern pipeline.

That’s a good news story for Obama, especially since Rick, Romney and the Republicans are trying their best to make something of gas prices, which never works out like people expect.

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Clinton Blasts Russia and China on Syria; NATO Pulls Advisers Out of Kabul After 2 U.S. Officers Killed

By on 26 February 2012



Secy. Clinton’s statement on Syria from Friday is unequivocal. “The entire world, other than Russia and China, were willing to recognize we must take international action against the Syrian regime,” Clinton said. She went further, calling the action of China and Russia “despicable.” Then asked “Whose side are they on?” Clinton saying neither were on the side of the Syrian people.

Juan Cole writes about Hamas dispersing their interests away from Syria, their long-time patron.

Today, Mitt Romney on Fox News Sunday was asked about Pres. Obama’s apology for the inadvertent burning of Qurans at Bagram airbase, which reportedly had extremist messages inside. Romney asserted “this just sticks in their throat.” Wallace continued the mantra that “winning in Afghanistan” is even possible, whatever that definition means. Romney taking issue with Pres. Obama announce a date to draw down forces, inserting illogical neoconservatism in the place of assessing reality.

When it comes to foreign policy, minus Ron Paul, all of the Republican candidates are 20th century relics when it comes to envisioning America’s role in the world today.

In Afghanistan, the report from the New York Times:

Two American officers were shot dead inside the Interior Ministry building here on Saturday, and NATO responded by immediately pulling all its advisers out of Afghan ministries in Kabul, in a deepening of the crisis over the American military’s burning of Korans at a NATO military base.

The order by the NATO commander, Gen. John R. Allen, came on the fifth day of virulent anti-American demonstrations across the country, and it was a clear sign of concern that the fury had reached deeply into even the Afghan security forces and ministries working most closely with the coalition.

And a word about war with Iran from a friend of Tom Ricks:

The worst possible thing to do is go to war with Iran. The key is the people — and they are sick of the mullahs. Right now the pressure is working to separate the people from the regime. A limited strike would undercut all that.

[...] There is no doubt [that there is a huge divergence between U.S. interests and those of Israel]. We want to stop Israel from attacking so the issue is how to persuade Israel that we are serious about stopping Iran from having a weapon — like a congressional finding that we will take all steps necessary to stop Iran. It means we will define red lines that can’t be crossed.

But the bottom line is, I don’t know a single person in government, civilian or in uniform, who thinks it is in our national interest to go to war with Iran now.

Kiss of death? Rick Santorum gets a glowing tribute by Michael Ledeen in the Wall Street Journal over Santorum’s stance on Iran.

Turning to the GOP primary race, John Heilemann writes a long piece on Romney and the culmination of his candidacy that comes down to Michigan.

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Queer Talk: Obama administration and “gay rights are human rights”

By on 25 February 2012

Joyce L. Arnold, Liberally Independent, Queer Talk, equality activist, writer.

Before getting to the Obama administration: Thursday, the Maryland Senate followed the House’s earlier approval of a bill making marriage of same gender couples legal. From Keen News:

The Maryland Senate … gave final legislative approval to a marriage equality bill that the governor is expected to soon sign. The vote was 25 to 22. …

The vote marked the third time a state legislature has given final approval to marriage equality in the past two weeks. Two of the three states (in Maryland and Washington) are likely to be put the law before voters this November. The third state (New Jersey) had the legislation immediately vetoed by its governor.

The usual advocacy mixture of “good / bad” news. The same can be said related to the Obama administration’s careful, cautious steps toward LGBT equality, with the “bad” currently at the forefront.

From John Aravosis:

So was Hillary only joking when she said ‘gay rights are human rights’?

The US won’t be cutting foreign aid to countries that violate the human rights of their gay citizens, we learned today (Feb. 23). So don’t worry about what the Secretary of State said only a few months ago. She was only joking, I guess.

From US ambassador to Liberia, Linda Thomas Greenfield:

‘Speaking … with the Daily Observer, Ambassador Greenfield said her government’s policy on gay rights was clear and in the public domain.

She stated … ‘I think the issue that has appeared in Liberia is the issue of misconception that United States aid is tied to Liberia’s actions in these areas, and this is not the case’ … .

Asked by the Daily Observer if she “supports gay rights in Liberia,” Greenfield said:

… I strongly believe that gay rights are human rights.’ …

(Aravosis writes) And that’s great. But when you say you support our civil rights, but aren’t willing to do anything about it, then you’re not really supporting us. Especially when you then say:

‘[Greenfield] told the Daily Observer that she was surprised to learn that gay rights in Liberia were an issue. …

She doesn’t know? She was surprised to hear that this is an issue?

Aravosis has good reasons to be skeptical, as he lays out. That same day the AP reported Liberia’s Senate was considering a bill that would strengthen existing anti-gay laws. The report included the fact that Liberian Senator Jewel Taylor (former first lady) submitted a bill making homosexuality a first-degree felony. Aravosis continues:

It is odd … that while the US ambassador to Liberia knew nothing of the gay rights controversy in the country she’s responsible for, the US embassy in South Africa knew about what was happening … .

… some of us actually thought Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s recent UN speech meant something when she said:

‘The Obama Administration defends the human rights of LGBT people as part of our comprehensive human rights policy and as a priority of our foreign policy.’ …

… I think Hillary’s UN speech was huge. … But … (w)e can’t have US ambassadors sending not-so-coded messages to foreign governments that they can violate the human rights of their own citizens with impunity.

Also on February 23, the Obama administration made known another LGBT related decision. From Think Progress, Zack Ford writes:

White House Rejects Hold On Deciding Gay Couples’ Green Card Petitions

When the Obama administration announced in August that it would be conducting a case-by case review of active deportations, this seemed to ensure same-sex binational couples would have the opportunity to stay together, especially given that the working group included an LGBT liaison. Though the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) prevents the federal government from granting green cards to foreign-born same-sex spouses, advocates argued that those cases could be deemed low priority and at the very least delayed until the law is changed or found unconstitutional by the courts. Immigration and Customs Enforcement even agreed to defend same-sex couples from deportation.

But things changed. Andrew Harmon, at The Advocate:

The Obama administration is standing firm against calls by LGBT rights groups and lawmakers to put a blanket hold on deciding green card petitions from married, binational gay couples. Instead, those petitions in all likelihood will continue to be rejected … .

The decision is being criticized by some advocates as a campaign-year calculation based on politics, not on sound legal analysis. …

Of course campaign considerations are in play.

Harmon reports that LGBT advocates (Lambda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, the Human Rights Campaign, Immigration Equality, and Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders) met with government officials on January 30, at the Department of Justice. The administration “contingency” included “senior officials” from the White House, DOJ and Department of Homeland Security. But now …

DHS spokesman Peter Boogaard (told) … The Advocate … : ‘Pursuant to the Attorney General’s guidance, the Defense of Marriage Act remains in effect and the Executive Branch … will continue to enforce it unless and until Congress repeals it or there is a final judicial determination that it is unconstitutional.’

Crystal Williams, executive director of the American Immigration Lawyers Association said:

‘Nobody has offered a legal basis as to the decision that’s been made’ by the administration … . ‘All they’ve said is that they’re not going to [hold the green card petitions in abeyance]. So it has to be a political decision. How can they say that DOMA is legally indefensible, yet proceed to deny married couples the legal right to be together in the United States?’

I’d like to hear the administration’s non-political answer to that question.

(US and Rainbow Flags photo via Think Progress )

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Horror in Homs, Torture Reported Across Syria

By on 24 February 2012



The Red Cross has reached the city of Homs. Juan Cole retweeted the link for the video above, as “Friends of Syria” try to maneuver a way through this cricis, which will not be easy.

A CBS News report on what’s happening in Syria is even worse, including a map of documented torture.

Homs — which is mostly Sunni — was an early flashpoint of dissent against Assad’s regime, which is led by the minority Alawite community, which has Shiite power Iran as its main patron.

In April, protesters gathered at the central Clock Square in Homs, bringing mattresses, food and water in hopes of emulating Cairo’s Tahrir Square during the Egyptian revolution. Homs had a reputation for tolerance between Syria’s religions and Muslim sects, said Mohammad Saleh, an opposition figure who fled the city, but Sunnis have increasingly felt pushed into an underclass status by Assad.

A Western intelligence official said the Syrian military has the ability to “level Homs if it wanted to.” But the risks of backlash from Syria’s majority Sunnis — including many military officers — is far too great, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity under briefing rules.

[...] White House spokesman Jay Carney said the Obama administration still opposes military intervention but “obviously we’ll have to evaluate this as time goes on.”

In Geneva, a panel of U.N. human rights experts said the United Nations has a secret list of top Syrian officials who could face investigation for crimes against humanity. The U.N. experts indicated that the list goes as high as Assad.

Experts said the list appears mostly part of international pressures on Syria rather than a direct threat. Syria isn’t a member of the International Criminal Court so is outside its jurisdiction. Russia also would likely block any moves in the U.N. Security Council to refer the country to the Hague-based tribunal.

What we are reading about and seeing through the little news getting out of Syria is genocide. It is also far worse than what happened in Libya.

Speaking with Andrea Mitchell today, former SecDef William Cohen speculated about a “coalition of the willing” mounting a force against Assad, but was correct to emphasize the Arab nations must take the lead. With United Nations Security Council paralyzed, in order to save the Syrian people, the Arab League must step up, but let’s not kid ourselves that the U.S. won’t have an important role.

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PBS Pres. Clinton Profile Set Perfectly Against Extreme Republican Primary Battle

By on 24 February 2012

Watch Clinton on PBS. See more from American Experience.

The rise once again of religious conservatives in the 2012 primary season is a perfect setting for “Clinton,” the PBS American Experience documentary of William Jefferson Clinton’s presidency.

Today’s religious conservatives aren’t the same as they were in the Clinton era, but it’s a reminder of how dangerous their politics are for the country. See the Republican war on women being waged through Santorum’s candidacy, as well as in Virginia, where veep hopeful Bob McDonnell refused to sign the state rape bill, because of pressure coming down from women who aren’t amused at what they’re hearing from Republicans.

Watching “Clinton,” which aired on PBS on two nights this week, it was like rifling through 20 years of my own research, experiences and my own excavation on the way to writing my new book The Hillary Effect: Politics, Sexism and the Destiny of Loss.

It wasn’t until the second night that Lewinsky comes into focus. When questioned on the CBS “Morning Show,” Barak Goodman, director and writer of “Clinton”, was pressed by Charlie Rose and also Erica Hill about the lengthy part of the documentary that focuses on Monica Lewinsky. Before the show even aired I received emails wondering if this was going to be a hit piece because of how intently the Lewinski scandal would be reviewed.

Anyone enamored with former Pres. William Jefferson Clinton has to accept that history will record the Lewinsky scandal as a monstrously stupid act for any president, but with the enemies Clinton had it was exponentially so.

One particular quibble I have with PBS’s “Clinton” is the omission of when the Whitewater frenzy began. American Experience missed an opportunity to make note of the historical importance of Jeff Gerth’s spring 1992 New York Times article on Whitewater that has been thoroughly debunked. It was published before Clinton had even won the nomination, so unless the viewer is made aware of this he or she simply cannot understand how early the hunting of Bill Clinton began.

PBS American Experience did do a tremendous job on interviews starting with Dee Dee Myers, the first female press secretary, Lucianne Goldberg, the broker of the Tripp tapes and confidante of what Goldberg describes as a very angry woman. There is also Christiane Amanpour, as well as Betsy Wright, his powerful gatekeeper, who appears still not over what she considers a betrayal by Pres. Clinton.

John Harris of Politico gives incisive analysis of events, but Harris also makes a point to remind the viewer that Somalia began at Pres. H.W. Bush’s hands, which is no small point coming in the summer before the election. Harris is quoted in a couple of sections in my book as someone who offered contrary analysis at important points in the ’08 primary election cycle as well.

Remembering what presidents leave for their successors to clean up and that inevitably become part of the new president’s headaches is history worth noting. What Bush left Obama economically is a classic example, as is the disgrace of torture and Gitmo.

Surprisingly, Joe Klein, author of Primary Colors, which was originally penned anonymously, and someone who is well known for his standard insider views and harsh Clinton rhetoric as well, offers interesting analysis on the Lewinsky legacy for Clinton. Klein scoffs at the “what might have been” romancing of the Clinton presidency, believing that his record is remarkable regardless.

Bob Reich still sounds like a man mystified how Clinton could have let Lewinski happen.

I’ve always been of the belief that Clinton’s unquenchable thirst for multiple sexual relationships is simply part of his human appetite for all levels of life. It’s a function of being Bill Clinton. You can’t separate the corporeal Clinton from the mind that allowed the man to beat the lawyers through a brilliantly made agreement that led to the 4-hour time-limited deposition where William Jefferson Clinton carved his own narrow escape. His appetites, great and horrible, make him who he is.

And even Clinton hater Jonathan Alter offers declarations of just how badly people in Washington hated the Clintons and wanted them taken down.

American Experience, nor anyone interviewed, goes into the details of Chief Justice Rehnquist stacking the deck with conservative judges who were also Clinton haters. However, the producers do offer a brief citing of William Safire, the New York Times columnist and former Nixon man who went after Bill Clinton before he set his sights on Hillary.

All of this is part of the history collected in my book, because it was the baggage Hillary brought into her own political adventures.

Ken Gormley, the legal expert and scholar who crafted the definitive biography of the Starr vs. Clinton battle, and the man who proved the illegality of Starr’s team bracing Lewinsky, offers the freshest analysis on the Lewinsky matter, which also proves the zeal of Starr and his people.

“Clinton,” the PBS American Spirit documentary tackled what it was like for Clinton during his presidency. It was not a look back from where we stand today, which would surely look at Glass-Steagall repeal, though what people forget today is that it passed Congress by a veto-proof majority. Having it, however, would not have stopped the problem that AIG became. But at the time of Clinton’s presidency, Glass-Steagall wasn’t a problem, because everyone on all sides agreed. All were wrong, as Clinton himself has stated.

Pres. Bill Clinton was impeached by the House of Representatives, but that legacy for Ken Starr and Republicans like Henry Hyde, author of the discriminatory Hyde Amendment, says more about them than Clinton. As Hyde admitted, which I write about in the chapter “Blaming Bill” in my book, it was a clash of cultures, a hatred of Clinton born out of the time he (and Hillary) represented.

The best thing PBS American Experience does in “Clinton” is put into perfect view what we’re seeing unfold in the 2012 Republican primary contest. Religious conservatives giving rise to Mitt Romney’s conservative contortions, Rick Santorum’s Satan squeals, and Newt Gingrich’s hyperbolic ravings, all to appease the religious right.

The ending of “Clinton” talks about Hillary’s rise, as her husband ends his presidency. There is not a better continuation of the last 20 years of politics and what Clinton’s presidency meant for Hillary’s candidacy than my book The Hillary Effect.

“Clinton” captures the presidency of William Jefferson Clinton, with the Lewinsky scandal as much a product of the Republican Party as it was Clinton’s own reckless appetite, which before, in the era of John F. Kennedy and coming amid the sexual revolution, women’s liberation, but before cable and the Internet, was known, yet completely ignored.

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Wounded Journalists Trapped in Syria After ‘Assassination’ Attempt

By on 23 February 2012

French President Nicolas Sarkozy called it an “assassination” attempt. Now one of the wounded journalists is reportedly in danger of going into shock from her wounds.

The dire situation has led to discussions about an ultimatum for Pres. Assad. From the AP:

The United States, Europe and Arab nations are preparing to demand that Syrian President Bashar Assad agree within days to a ceasefire and allow humanitarian aid into areas hardest hit by his regime’s brutal crackdown on opponents.

U.S., European and Arab officials were meeting in London on Thursday to craft details of an ultimatum to Assad that diplomats said could demand compliance within 72 hours or result in additional as-yet-unspecified punitive measures, likely to include toughened sanctions. The ultimatum is to be presented at a major international conference on Syria set for Friday in Tunisia.

This development comes as journalists in Syria reporting what is clearly genocide at the hands of Pres. Bashar al-Assad are reportedly being targeted. I wrote about it yesterday citing the deaths of Marie Colvin and Remi Ocklik, with the reports on their death throwing suspicion on Syrian Security Forces.

From Reuters:

French journalist Edith Bouvier and Paul Conroy, a British photographer from the Sunday Times, made their plea by video as the sound of rocket fire echoed in the background.

They were two of six Western journalists who came under fire on Wednesday when Syrian forces attacked the building where they were hiding in Baba Amro, an opposition stronghold in the central city of Homs.

American journalist Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik were among 80 people killed in bombardments that day. …

The doctor treating him and Bouvier warned that surgery was critical to prevent blood clots in her leg, which could put her body into toxic shock and put her at risk of death.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy called the rocket assault that killed the journalists on Wednesday an “assassination.” “I saw the pictures, it’s an assassination,” he said, referring to the picture. “Those who carried out the assassination will have to pay for it.”

Meanwhile, Josh Rogin offers background on the first “Friends of Syria” meeting, which will convene in Tunis and focus on humanitarian access.

[...] The Tunis meeting should result in concrete proposal for speeding humanitarian and medical assistance to the civilians inside Syria, but all would require the agreement of the Assad regime, the official said.

The second main focus of the Tunis meeting will be to coalesce around a plan to transition toward democracy in Syria. Members of the Syrian National Council, the opposition group composed mostly of people living outside Syria, has its own plan for transition that it will present at the Tunis meeting. That plan and the Arab League backed plan for transition are not mutually exclusive, the State Department official said.

“Everybody is backing the Arab League transition plan who’s at the conference tomorrow, but it’s incumbent upon the Syrian National Council to talk about how they would translate that transition plan into action on the ground and for them to articulate it in a compelling way that’s comprehensible, understandable to Syrians inside and out,” said the official.

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Trial Date Set in Egypt for 16 Americans and Other Pro-Democracy Workers

By on 18 February 2012

NGO’s have rarely, if ever, been targeted this way and have been operating in Egypt and around the world for years.

Egypt sets trial date for pro-democracy workers – The trial of 43 people charged with unlawfully conducting pro-democracy work will begin Feb. 26, state media reported Saturday, in the latest sign that the Egyptian government is disinclined to heed Washington’s warning that failure to drop the matter could lead to a cut off of U.S. aid.

The announcement of a trial date for the defendants, including at least 16 Americans, came as the state-run newspaper, al-Ahram, published several stories that portrayed the work of the non-government organizations as underhanded and a threat to Egypt’s sovereignty.

The al-Ahram report goes on to say that Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, already requested to transport the 7 indicted Americans with him as he departed Cairo recently, with Secy. LaHood’s son one of those being detained. Egyptian officials decline the request.

White House and State Dept. hadn’t released statements at the time of this post.

As an aside, I have always marveled at Egyptian men turning away from the heritage seen in their ancient erotic art, drawings and relics. The earliest erotica can be traced back to ancient Egypt. Any time you see a watering can or vessel in mural or any other Egyptian art, pay close attention to the details, which very likely will lead you to a corporeal setting.

It’s hard to think of this latest development of the Egyptian revolution that ousted Mubarak without thinking of Secy. Clinton’s first words. She came out first to say the Mubarak regime was “stable,” quickly having to eat those words. Can there be any doubt that knowing the Middle East as she does what Clinton was envisioning were circumstances the U.S. could no longer control through our “friend”.

If you believe in freedom you’ve got to also understand that societies kept in bondage for a century are going to unleash fury once freed. That goes double for Egypt, which is the beating heart of where Sayyid Qutb, the godfather of Al Qaeda and leader of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood back in the ’50s and 1960s, lived.

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Secy. Clinton’s Strength at State Seen in Obama Budget

By on 14 February 2012

Secretary Clinton is welcomed to Munich conference by host Wolfgang Ischinger. State Dept Image (Feb 04, 2012)

Provides $51.6 billion in discretionary funding for the Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), an increase of 1.6 percent, or $0.8 billion over the 2012 enacted level when including Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) resources. Within tightly capped budget constraints, the Budget makes investments in key priorities including the Middle East, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, plus continues funding for critical initiatives such as global health, climate change and food security. – Budget: DEPARTMENT OF STATE AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS

It’s the Hillary Effect.

An event that occurs or when something important is impacted because of Hillary Clinton’s presence, her power and strength of persuasion that is built entirely upon purpose.

It’s why she’s been so effective, even when I’ve disagreed with her, like on Libya. This chasm doesn’t change that her cunning helped get people, the Arab League for instance, to listen, then act.

It’s another example of what I write about in The Hillary Effect.

However, looking at Syria through the lens of Libya, let’s be perfectly clear what the Obama administration is saying through policy.

“Ultimately, it’s going to be important to convince the Assad regime that they are leading Syria into the outcome that we all deplore. We do not want to see a civil war in Syria,” Clinton said. “No one wants to see a civil war in Syria. So we have to encourage the Assad regime, and those who support it, to understand that there’s either a path toward peacemaking and democratic transition – which is what we are promoting – or there’s a path that leads toward chaos and violence, which we deplore.” – Clinton: We need Assad’s consent to put troops in Syria, by Josh Rogin

Humanitarian intervention through military might will be utilized, but only when it’s fully convenient; access to water helps. Because if any situation required humanitarian action and intervention by the world it is in Syria, where innocents are being slaughtered and have been for weeks. In Libya there was only a threat of massacre, whereas in Syria it’s playing out now.

However, as Rogin reports, the Obama administration is “looking for a political solution in Syria and won’t consider putting international troops there unless the Syrian regime agrees.” Because of the proximity of Syria to Israel and its primacy in the region, as well as being land-locked, which is no small issue, there is little the U.S. can do without risking very serious consequences, something that wasn’t a threat with Libya.

In Pres. Obama’s new budget, where the State Dept. received a slight increase over last year’s budget, you can see the prowess soft power has gained since Bush-Cheney. You can peruse for yourself, the entire State Dept. budget available on pdf.

I was thinking of Ryan Lizza’s article “The Obama Memos” when the news of Clinton’s budget victory the State Department was reported:

One Cabinet official made it clear that she did not share the President’s growing commitment to coupon-clipping: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She rejected the White House’s budget for her department, and wrote the President a six-page letter detailing her complaints. Some in the White House saw the long letter as a weapon, something that could be leaked if Clinton didn’t get her way. “At the proposed funding levels,” Clinton wrote, “we will not have the capacity to deliver either the full level of civilian staffing or the foreign assistance programs that underlie the civilian-military strategy you outlined for Afghanistan; nor the transition from U.S. Military to civilian programming in Iraq; nor the expanded assistance that is central to our Pakistan strategy.” She went on, “I want to emphasize that I fully understand the economic realities within which this budget is being constructed, and I share your commitment to fiscal responsibility. But I am deeply concerned about these funding levels.”

The letter contained indications of a real relationship between the former rivals. “You and I often speak about the need to restore the capacity of civilian agencies,” Clinton noted. But the general tone was stern and businesslike. It ended with an urgent plea for Obama to intervene on her behalf. “There is little room for progress unless you provide guidance that you are open to an increase in overall funding levels,” she wrote. Obama did indeed fight for some additional money for Clinton.

Mark Leon Goldberg had the same idea when he wrote his piece for UN Dispatches.

As I noted at the time of Pres. Obama’s State of the Union speech, we are seeing the final moves of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. She’s stated that if Pres. Obama is reelected she will not serve a second term and I doubt anything will change her mind.

From Goldberg’s UN Dispatch’s piece on the budget, first section in bold below is from his original post, the second is added:

This will be the last foreign affairs budget request in which Hillary Clinton is Secretary of State. At a time when other agencies are seeing their budgets slashed or flat-lined, the State Department managed to receive a slight increase over last year’s funding levels. I can’t help but think that having a politically powerful Secretary of State had something to do with this.

Without a strong secretary of state fighting for diplomatic and soft power priorities, the cuts seen at other agencies would likely be delivered to the State Dept.

I’ve been thinking for some time whether Pres. Obama will pick Sen. John Kerry next; though I must say that Kerry coming out against Obama’s contraception mandate is not a small thing.

There can also be no doubt that Pres. Obama listened to Secy. Clinton’s case for the increase, proving this relationship has indeed been all that I wrote it would be.

State is also drawing down its personnel in Baghdad. Pres. George W. Bush’s boondoggle embassy in Iraq, a titanic monstrosity, is scheduled for massive cuts, which is very good news for everyone, especially the Iraqis.

The expansive diplomatic operation and the $750 million embassy building, the largest of its kind in the world, were billed as necessary to nurture a postwar Iraq on its shaky path to democracy and establish normal relations between two countries linked by blood and mutual suspicion. But the Americans have been frustrated by what they see as Iraqi obstructionism and are now largely confined to the embassy because of security concerns, unable to interact enough with ordinary Iraqis to justify the $6 billion annual price tag.

The swift realization among some top officials that the diplomatic buildup may have been ill advised represents a remarkable pivot for the State Department, in that officials spent more than a year planning the expansion and that many of the thousands of additional personnel have only recently arrived.

Michael W. McClellan, the embassy spokesman, said in a statement, “Over the last year and continuing this year the Department of State and the Embassy in Baghdad have been considering ways to appropriately reduce the size of the U.S. mission in Iraq, primarily by decreasing the number of contractors needed to support the embassy’s operations.”

Everyone remembers what the Cheney-Rumsfeld alliance did to the State Dept.

Secy. Clinton came in to a greatly diminished and in some cases, gravely demoralized foreign service team. What she’s done in Obama’s first term has injected new purpose, meaning and power into State, with the power she wields through the Hillary Effect giving her a seat at the boys’ table.

The Pentagon has won more battles, because the defense industry remains one of the toughest and most formidable lobbying arms in America, with the challenges in the world going well beyond State’s reach.

Issues, however, remain. They begin with Pres. Obama’s foreign policy itself and the eye-in-the-sky predator drone strike priority of his Administration, as well as the choice of surgical assassinations. It has rendered Obama counterterrorism policies a cold, bloodless, and lawless venture for Americans who simply look on from afar; the collateral damage we wreak void of glaring light or witness, except for the elite forces that sweep in and out unseen.

Progressives are looking the other way, with a Washington Post/ABC-News poll just last week showing Democrats approve of Pres. Obama’s tactics. Put the name Pres. Romney behind these same policies and I can hear the caterwauling echo. Both Glenn Greenwald and Greg Sargent made a similar point when the polling was first released.

The sharpest edges of President Obama’s counterterrorism policy, including the use of drone aircraft to kill suspected terrorists abroad and keeping open the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, have broad public support, including from the left wing of the Democratic Party.

The survey shows that 70 percent of respondents approve of Obama’s decision to keep open the prison at Guantanamo Bay. . . . The poll shows that 53 percent of self-identified liberal Democrats — and 67 percent of moderate or conservative Democrats — support keeping Guantanamo Bay open, even though it emerged as a symbol of the post-Sept. 11 national security policies of George W. Bush, which many liberals bitterly opposed. – Poll finds broad support for Obama’s counterterrorism policies

It’s why you have stories like what’s in the LA Times today:

Pentagon working with FAA to open U.S. airspace to combat drones

The military says the nearly 7,500 robotic aircraft it has accrued for use overseas need to come home at some point. But the FAA doesn’t allow drones in U.S. airspace without a special certificate.

It means when hell comes knocking at the hands of people who have scores to settle, nobody will have clean hands.

Secy. Clinton getting a small increase in State’s budget won’t come close to challenging what’s become a foreign policy that adopts a water’s edge philosophy in the worst of what that means. It melds Bush-Cheney with the Obama-Biden era, with the lack of morality and conscience best represented in Libya and Syria.

Being moral and just, committed to upholding U.S. and international laws in the face of great challenges including political pressure, but only when it’s convenient, isn’t something to commend or support.

This column has been updated.

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Dem Lawmaker: Obama Budget Nervous Breakdown on Paper

By on 13 February 2012

**UPDATED**

“This budget is a nervous breakdown on paper,” said Cleaver during an interview on CNN’s “Starting Point” Monday morning. “We’re still in a recession, we’re still struggling. Unemployment is still too high,” he said. – The Hill


Pres. Obama is also campaigning for the payroll tax cut to be extended, as you’ll see in the video.

As for the budget, Republican austerity star had a different take, of course:

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) accused the White House on Sunday of “failing … to articulate how their upcoming budget would lift the crushing burden of debt and tackle our nation’s most pressing challenges.”

…and the beat goes on.

UPDATE 3: Obama’s chief of staff Jack Lew misspeaks on Senate numbers to pass budget.

UPDATE 2: Reuters covers the $800 million for the Arab Spring.

UPDATE: Obama’s budget remarks have been added above. Politico has a rundown, which includes “an additional $593 million proposal to do away with tax deductions for conservation easements on golf courses.”

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