Don't Do It!

President-elect Obama is floating the idea of naming New York Senator Hillary Clinton to be our next Secretary of State. Big mistake.

If I can offer him a wee bit of advice: Keep her out of the Executive Branch if you value your Administration (and your sanity)!

The simple way to look at this is you have three large planetary masses orbiting each other: Obama, Hillary and Bill Clinton. These three masses have tremendous gravitational pull on each other and on millions of smaller masses. If these masses are brought closer together it would make the Big Bang look like a firecracker.

Here's a scenario: President Obama is having some trouble with, oh I don't know, Iran. He decides that, without preconditions, he's going to send SecState Hill over to talk to our new friend Mahmoud. She stumbles and says the wrong thing or doesn't wear the proper head scarf or whatever and the press gets wind of it. Who do they go running to for a comment? Big Bill. You know the press LOVES controversy, so this could turn into a great story!

Bill: "Heck, I don't know what she was thinking, but if I was over there..."

You see Mr. President, you are asking for a lot of trouble and a lot of leaks if the Clintons are anywhere near the White House or your foreign policy apparatus.

Leave her in the Senate and help pay off her debt. If she starts jet-setting around the globe she'll only be making more friends to help her in 2012 and you don't want to face that possibility do you?

Oh, and one more thing Mr. President: If your main reason for mentioning Senator Clinton for the most important cabinet position in the government is to bring the Democratic Party together, shame on you. Now is the time for a professional diplomat with an understanding of the geopolitical minefields that await us as we move further into the 21st Century.

Managing the problems brought by Venezuela, Russia, China, Afghanistan, Iraq, India, Pakistan and all of Africa are a bit more important than political party unity don't you think?

Great way to start

First off, congratulations to President-elect Obama. I am disappointed that the election turned out the way it did, but, for the sake of the country I truly wish him and his new administration the best.

Well, now that that's over, let's get to the good stuff!

On Friday, at his first press conference as the soon-to-be most important man in the world, President-elect Obama managed to insult two groups of people. In ONE press conference.

I don't understand why this would even be in his mind at such a critical media event, but, when asked if he had spoken to all of the former "living" Presidents, he said, "I didn't want to get into a Nancy Reagan thing about doing any seances". Wow. Great start.

Then, speaking about the puppy he promised to get for his two daughters, he said, 'Our preference is to get a shelter dog, but most shelter dogs are mutts like me". (emphasis added)

Ouch.

I don't imagine David Axelrod or Rahm Emanuel told him it would be a good idea to make fun of an elderly widow (and millions of Reagan supporters) and scores of mixed race people across the country (well, Emanuel may have liked the Nancy Reagan dig).

He later apologized to Mrs. Reagan, but quite an auspicious start for such a sharp, articulate and intelligent wordsmith such as him wouldn't you say?

Let's hope he does better at his next press conference and doesn't make fun of a disabled child or Hispanics.

Talk soon.