Time Enough At Last

Hey Ryan,

I'm sorry I haven't written for a while. I've been trying to get some creative and paying projects together and haven't had the chance to sit down and write.

Now that the election is over, my sense of urgency at updating the blog every single day has diminished (much like my finances). From here on out, I think I'll probably post one or two times per week, unless the headlines demand otherwise.

At this moment, though, I'm not sure how many times I could conjure up anything remotely interesting about who might be going into Obama's team and why.

What I will say about the whole Hillary-Clinton-as-Secretary-of-State story is that I'm not sure about it.

The fact that she voted for the Iraq War doesn't bother me. And I would tell people who are huffing about it to find a qualified person in Washington who didn't vote for the war and put that name in the ring. That qualified dove is probably pretty hard to find...just like coming up with qualified Dems who weren't involved in the two Clinton terms.

Hillary's as intelligent as they come, but I don't know if she's the right person for the job...not when you consider that John Kerry and Bill Richardson are supposedly up for it, as well. Their foreign policy Rolodexes trump a spectral sniper shootout in Bosnia any day in my book.

I understand that if you take Hillary, you also get Bill's connections, but how savory are those contacts? How would Bill's previous and future business deals impact Hillary's negotiating angles and tactics? While I know that she is her own person, for sure, I also know that the Clintons are shrewd when it comes to their own interests, and I wonder how that will play against Obama's foreign policy vision.

The other issue that bothers me is the dynastic angle. Let's say, for the sake of argument, that Hillary takes the job. If Obama is reelected, let's say she stays on for the second term. That means that our country will have had a Bush or a Clinton in a position of influence in the Executive Branch of government for 36 years! In a democracy, that just doesn't seem right to me.

Now, some might say this is a wrong-headed (or even stupid) way of looking at the situation. I was called a number of things on other sites for conveying this idea during the primaries. But it still nags at me. To me, involving Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State signals that in our democratic system, that there are families who serve as gatekeepers to legitimacy.

Sure, the Kennedys could be viewed that way, but when was the last time a Kennedy was picked as a pivotal team member of the Executive Branch or a Cabinet position? (Of course, here's hoping RFK, Jr. is tapped for the EPA. Does that shoot down my credibility?)

All I'm saying is that I don't feel like Clinton needs to be included--especially when she may not be the most qualified person for the job-- just to heal some wounds. Obama making the break from the Clinton name and doing just fine on his own would reconnect any divisions among Dems soon enough, without his having to pander.

But, with all that said, I'm not going to bash him if chooses to go with Clinton. As far as I'm concerned, we hired this guy to govern and now we've got to let him do it. And I'm not going to kick his ass up and down Pennsylvania Avenue before he even gets into the big house at 1600.

So, now, I think we should just take some time and enjoy the fact that our country has better shot at survival than ever before by doing this:



Charles