Donald Trump brags a lot that if he is President the nation will win so much we'll get 'tired of winning.'
As I mentioned in an earlier piece I'm currently reading a book by John Allen about Hillary's time at the Obama's State Department-and her concurrent political rebirth.
I have to say that based on her time at State, it may be more likely under here that the country could experience some real progress and successes.
You have to reset to the time she got to State in early 2009. The Department was demoralized after the disastrous Bush years. Our standing with our allies had never been lower. The great diplomats that make up State was the abused spouse of Donald Rumsfeld's Defense Department.
Even in the best of times, GOP Administrations don't see the percentage in diplomacy unless it's gunboat diplomacy. So State had been relegated to a useless appendage of Defense for eight years.
Hillary had gotten with a school of foreign policy in 2004 called 'smart power.' In a recent debate that was her answer to a woman at a Town Hall who had asked her whether or not she was a hawk. Hillary said she believes in 'smart power.'
No doubt some saw this as 'equivocation' or just trying to hide the fact that she's a hawk. But that's not it. The idea of smart power is to be robust in both military might and diplomacy where military intervention comes last.
In her Senate confirmation in 2009 she explained her and Obama's philosophy to foreign policy as 'pragmatism and principles over ideology.' The idea that Obama has no 'doctrine' was something Hillary herself had laid out at her own hearing in early 2009.
Again, in 2009 after eight years of Bush who didn't value what State does, HRC was able to come in and revitalize the Department. Before she got there most diplomatic relations with their foreign counterparts had decayed to the point of just defending George W. Bush's not so defensible foreign policy.
With Obama leading the country and HRC leading at State, America has had a resurgence in terms of international opinion.
She was also able to totally rehabilitate State and bring back its moral. Obama had given her unheard of power by allowing her to bring in her own staff-something that some on the Obama team hated but this was what their boss chose to do.
What is particularly impressive and what may bode well for the country is she was able to facilitate a huge spike in the federal budget for State.
In 2009, OMB Director, Peter Orszag, had called for a modest contraction of budget for State. HRC had Jack Lew on her team-the one guy was a former OMB Director himself-who could deem to try to negotiate with Orszag.
She actually wanted a 10 percent increase in spending for the State Department and by going above everyone's head to Obama himself, she was able to get it.
I guess you can read this different ways. It was a great thing for State but you wonder who had to absorb the budget cuts? But if she's able to do for the US what she did for State I think it's clear there will be a lot more success in a Hillary Administration than anything Trump can promise.
As I mentioned in an earlier piece I'm currently reading a book by John Allen about Hillary's time at the Obama's State Department-and her concurrent political rebirth.
I have to say that based on her time at State, it may be more likely under here that the country could experience some real progress and successes.
You have to reset to the time she got to State in early 2009. The Department was demoralized after the disastrous Bush years. Our standing with our allies had never been lower. The great diplomats that make up State was the abused spouse of Donald Rumsfeld's Defense Department.
Even in the best of times, GOP Administrations don't see the percentage in diplomacy unless it's gunboat diplomacy. So State had been relegated to a useless appendage of Defense for eight years.
Hillary had gotten with a school of foreign policy in 2004 called 'smart power.' In a recent debate that was her answer to a woman at a Town Hall who had asked her whether or not she was a hawk. Hillary said she believes in 'smart power.'
No doubt some saw this as 'equivocation' or just trying to hide the fact that she's a hawk. But that's not it. The idea of smart power is to be robust in both military might and diplomacy where military intervention comes last.
In her Senate confirmation in 2009 she explained her and Obama's philosophy to foreign policy as 'pragmatism and principles over ideology.' The idea that Obama has no 'doctrine' was something Hillary herself had laid out at her own hearing in early 2009.
Again, in 2009 after eight years of Bush who didn't value what State does, HRC was able to come in and revitalize the Department. Before she got there most diplomatic relations with their foreign counterparts had decayed to the point of just defending George W. Bush's not so defensible foreign policy.
With Obama leading the country and HRC leading at State, America has had a resurgence in terms of international opinion.
She was also able to totally rehabilitate State and bring back its moral. Obama had given her unheard of power by allowing her to bring in her own staff-something that some on the Obama team hated but this was what their boss chose to do.
What is particularly impressive and what may bode well for the country is she was able to facilitate a huge spike in the federal budget for State.
In 2009, OMB Director, Peter Orszag, had called for a modest contraction of budget for State. HRC had Jack Lew on her team-the one guy was a former OMB Director himself-who could deem to try to negotiate with Orszag.
She actually wanted a 10 percent increase in spending for the State Department and by going above everyone's head to Obama himself, she was able to get it.
I guess you can read this different ways. It was a great thing for State but you wonder who had to absorb the budget cuts? But if she's able to do for the US what she did for State I think it's clear there will be a lot more success in a Hillary Administration than anything Trump can promise.
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