
 |
|
June 17, 2013
June 12, 2013
Stephanie Hanes: Little girls or little women? The Disney princess effect
Fred Weir: In tweak to US, Russia would 'consider' asylum for Snowden
June 10, 2013
The Kosher Gourmet by Anjali Prasertong: A tart filling so good it might not make it to the crust
June 5, 2013
John Rosemond: Mom, Dad: Talk More and listen less
Kristen Chick: Egypt court sentences 43 pro-democracy workers to prison
June 3, 2013
Molly Hennessy-Fiske: Military judge to consider letting Fort Hood shooting defendant represent himself
May 29, 2013
Andrew Connelly and Helene Bienvenu: The Little Synagogue that Refused to Die
May 24, 2013
Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb: When I didn't so 'humbly disagree'
May 22, 2013
John Thorne:
They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman
May 20, 2013
Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?
Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star
The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting
|
| |
Jewish World Review
Nov. 18, 2008
/ 20 Mar-Cheshvan 5769
A steamroller aimed at Barack Obama
By
Wesley Pruden
| 
|
|
|
|
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
Barack Obama is getting his first lesson in the on-the-job training course for the presidency. If he can stand up to Hillary Clinton and her sidekick, we'll all feel a little better about his coming conversations with Vladimir Putin, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Kim Jong-il, with or without preconditions.
Henry Kissinger might be correct, that Hillary would make an "outstanding" secretary of state, that such an appointment would be an act of manly "courage" by the president-elect. He should know. "To appoint a very strong personality with an independent constituency into a Cabinet position," he says, would be "a symbol of a new approach." All perhaps true.
But "courage" is sometimes fool's courage. Far back in another century Bubba warned us that he and the missus come bundled as one: "Buy one, get one free." Mr. Obama himself no doubt knows this. When he was asked Sunday night on "60 Minutes" about the prospect of Hillary and Bubba moving in with the Obamas at the White House, he said the right things, but he looked like a man who had just learned that his mother-in-law is coming for Christmas to stay through the Fourth of July.
This is a headache he didn't order and doesn't deserve. The Hillary buzz has all the earmarks of something media-made, the inevitable work of aides, reporters and pundits with too much time on their hands and desperate for something to disturb the quiet tranquility of the morning after a long campaign. The frenzy all started when someone quoted an Obama "aide" - anonymous, of course - saying that Mr. Obama was "considering" appointing Hillary as the dowager queen of Foggy Bottom. Maybe the aide was having a little sport with a reporter, maybe the author of that first dispatch was merely taking his imagination out for an evening stroll. The media, having created a president, now wants to "help" the president-elect create his administration. Heady stuff, and if it creates only a headache for Mr. Obama, well, he owes 'em, big time.
Mr. Obama has been here before, and we've heard how bright he is and how swiftly he learns from mistakes (not that he ever made any). He resisted Hillary and Bubba when he chose his vice president, all but cleaving the party into irreconcilable factions, and if he hasn't learned from that, Hillary and Bubba surely have. They have mounted their battered steamroller once more, and the inevitable nominee rides again in demand of the lesser prize.
Bubba's take on the progress of the ride, given to Agence France-Presse at an economic palaver in Kuwait, tells a lot to anyone paying close attention: "If [Obama] decided to ask her and they did it together, I think she'll be really great as a secretary of state." Notice that the president-elect and Hillary are cast here as equals; other presidents don't have to make an appointment "together" with anyone. There's more: "She worked very hard for his election after the primary fight with him, and so did I ... " Everything is always all about the "Big He," as Monica Lewinsky famously called him.
The Big He will only want to help the president-elect at every turn, furnishing not just a secretary of state but advice and consent on everything else. Once he and the new secretary of state move their things back to Pennsylvania Avenue (Barack and Michelle get the Lincoln Bedroom) he'll always be close by, the man who came to dinner. The Obama transition team rightly professes concern about Bubba's global financial entanglements, some more mysterious than others. His Clinton Global Initiative has set out to cure AIDS, malaria and poverty in Africa - not by this Christmas but surely by the next - and is collecting billions of dollars from foreign governments to do it.
So far the Clintons are resisting efforts to inspect the particulars of these gifts and questions about whether a secretary of state with a husband hustling billions from governments a secretary of state deals with is such a good idea.
But not to worry. Bubba would never fib about important things, like money and sex. If he says everything is OK, that ought to be good enough. Nevertheless, the best advice Barack Obama has heard about his most important appointment comes from John Bolton, the former ambassador to the United Nations: "Obama should remember the rule that you should never hire somebody you can't fire."
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
JWR contributor Wesley Pruden is editor in chief of The Washington Times. Comment by clicking here.
Wesley Pruden Archives
© 2007 Wesley Pruden
|
|

Arnold Ahlert
Mitch Albom
Jay Ambrose
Michael Barone
Barrywood
Lori Borgman
Stratfor Briefing
Mona Charen
Linda Chavez
Richard Z. Chesnoff
Ann Coulter
Greg Crosby
Larry Elder
Suzanne Fields
Christine Flowers
Peter Funt
Frank J. Gaffney
Bernie Goldberg
Jonah Goldberg
Julia Gorin
Jonathan Gurwitz
Paul Greenberg
Argus Hamilton
Victor Davis Hanson
Betsy Hart
Ron Hart
Nat Hentoff
A. Barton Hinkle
Jeff Jacoby
Paul Johnson
John Kass
Jack Kelly
Ch. Krauthammer
David Limbaugh
Kathryn Lopez
Rich Lowry
Michelle Malkin
Jackie Mason
Ann McFeatters
Dale McFeatters
Dana Milbank
Jeanne Moos
Dick Morris
Jim Mullen
Deroy Murdock
Judge A. Napolitano
Bill O'Reilly
Clarence Page
Kathleen Parker
Star Parker
Dennis Prager
Wesley Pruden
Tom Purcell
Sharon Randall
Michael Reagan
Robert Robb
Cokie & Steve Roberts
Heather Robinson
Debra J. Saunders
Martin Schram
Greg Schwem
Culture Shlock
David Shribman
Roger Simon
Lenore Skenazy
Michael Smerconish
Thomas Sowell
Mark Steyn
John Stossel
Cal Thomas
Dan Thomasson
Bob Tyrrell
Diana West
Dave Weinbaum
George Will
Walter Williams
Byron York
Cathy Young
Mort Zuckerman

Eric Allie
Robert Arial
Chuck Asay
Baloo
Nate Beeler
Lisa Benson
Chip Bok
Dry Bones
John Branch
Daryl Cagle
Patrick Chappatte
John Cole
Paul Combs
J. D. Crowe
John Darkow
Bill Day
John Deering
Sean Delonas
Brian Duffy
Everything's Relative
Randall Enos
Mallard Fillmore
David Fitzsimmons
Glenn Foden
Jake Fuller
Bob Gorrel
Walt Handelsman
Joe Heller
David Hitch
Jerry Holbert
David Horsey
Lee Judge
Steve Kelley
Mike Keefe
Jeff Koterba
Dick Locher
Chan Lowe
Jimmy Margulies
Gary McCoy
Rick McKee
Jack Ohman
Jeff Parker
Milt Priggee
Michael Ramirez
Rob Rogers
Steve Sack
Bill Schorr
Drew Sheneman
Kevin Siers
David Ray Skinner
Jeff Stahler
Scott Stantis
Danna Summers
Gary Varvel
Kirk Walters
Christopher Weyant
Larry Wright
Dan Wasserman
Adam Zyglis

Tech Q&A
Mr. Know-It-All
Ask Doctor K
Richard Lederer
Frugal Living
On Nutrition
Bookmark These
Bruce Williams
|