Not exactly OT, since Kerry is mentioned

interested in comments. http://www.newsweek.com/blogs/the-gaggle/2010/09/08/hillary-rising.html?from=rss

But to me it looks like prime HRC self-aggrandizing (at the expense of everyone else in the world) propaganda and it makes me ill.

Biden is doing a f...ing good job IMHO.

You guys are so great. :)
Also, IMH (tin-foil) O, the Hillary-for-VP campaign feels orchestrated somehow. By whom, I have no insider info. But it continues to smell bad to me.

There are factions pushing for her, but I'm guessing they won't be anymore successful this time than they were last time. Even so, it makes me just as ill as the Chuck Schumer propaganda because it's so damn dishonest and underhanded and so focused on putting other people down.

that's exactly what's wrong with this group of folks

which is not a minor assignment.

As to Hillary, it is clearly George Mitchell who has done the work here. Her one early foray into this area led to the WH issuing a explanation - that was when she praised Israel on the settlements program - as they slightly moved in the right direction. (This was after she annoyed Pakistan. In addition, after Hillary was at Karzai's swearing, there were similar HRC stories that she was the person with the best relationship with him and she would deal with corruption. Yet, when needed, who was there? (Before that there were the bizarre stories after Kerry got Karzai to accept the election results, that used the exact details KERRY gave to HRC - saying she convinced him.

This constant need of some to make HRC more than she is gets old. Never has someone done less and been assumed to be as much as she is. I am not saying she is not a good SoS, but she really has yet to have a real accomplishment that is genuinely hers - except pressuring Armenia to sign the agreement with Turkey.

The saving grace is the HRC herself knows the truth - and so does Obama - even if neither will say so.

.. and I hated the JK aside, too

It is saying that, unlike the SoS (supposedly the top diplomat) he has actually been a diplomat. That is pretty damning for HRC, not JK. He has succeeded in both Pakistan and Afghanistan in delicate diplomatic missions - even without the title and constrained by the Senate schedule. HRC has been SoS for a year and a half. Yet this is saying that she will be doing this for the first time. The fact is that George Mitchell is the one who has been working this. (The article also implies that it was her choice not to be the hands on diplomat - yet, it seems that is precisely the way Obama designed the job.

This is really a smear job on Obama.

I know Condi Rice was. It's just silly to compare Hillary with Obama on popularity. Hillary is NEVER the subject of any cable tv controversy. Right there that keeps her positives high and her negatives low. Had she become President and gotten health care passed the way Obama did, she would also have been completely attacked and vilified. And then her negatives would have skyrocketed.

The thing about politics is that when no one sees you, they stop hating you. When Hillary is shown on TV, she appears as a statesman talking largely about (domestically) noncontroversial subjects. Which is what the job of Sec. of State is. Those of us who have paid more attention know she has fumbled abroad, but since Obama is such a strong figure internationally, those mistakes have not been fatal.

Sadly, people who read Newsweek will believe what has been written.

I compared Clinton and Albright and Bush and Powell and Rice - all higher. I agree that people will read this and many will believe it. Many here do. There are many good people who always say she's a great SoS. My view is that she is doing a pretty standard job. Given the expectations of the superstar Clinton, she has not really met them. In a way, I kind of feel sorry for her in that she often looks extremely weary and not very happy. Early on, there was a period where she looked like she was enjoying herself, but that was pretty long ago.

Now it is clear that she has influence - she clearly did on Afghanistan. There she simply was a "me too" to Gates. She clearly desperately wants a signature accomplishment. Something she really does not yet have - not as First Lady, not as Senator, and not as Secretary of State.

Frankly, I don't find her remarkable at all as SOS. But, apparently, everything she does that is remotely positive must be brought to the attention of the American citizens by the media and her operatives. I would respect her more if she didn't need to promote herself so much.