President Obama and Secretary Clinton: The Complete 60 Minutes Interview (VIDEO)

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For all of you speculating what this means for 2016...do us all a favor, don't.

Look, it's pretty simple if you think about it. The President and Secretary Clinton went through a bruising Primary process that...ironically left the party stronger as a result, going into the 2008 elections. Neither wants things to get quite that nasty again, so the President is going to great lengths to make sure his top Lieutenants, the one's who might run in 2016, get some time in the sun, complete with a very public pat on the back.

Look at Vice President Biden: he cut the Debt Ceiling Deal (though only temporary), he led the commission on guns, he even dropped the hint on the President's position on Marriage Equality (albeit a bit too early). He made sure the world saw him as the "Happy warrior" running back and forth during the Inaugural Parade.

Dude's running. He's totally running.

And all of that time in the spotlight came courtesy of President Obama.

Now, to balance out the ledger, President Obama has to make sure that his other top Lieutenant got a Grade A going away gift, aka a Prime Time lovefest on 60 Minutes. Not a lot of policy discussed there, but right now...if you really look at it, now both Biden and Clinton can both claim the mantle of the inheritor of Barack Obama's legacy, with Barack Obama's blessing. Let the 2016 contest begin...

...but let it begin closer to 2015, okay? We've still got @#$% to do.

This Sunday! 60 Minutes interview with both President Obama and Secretary Clinton!

All kinds of awesome:

President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will appear together in their first joint interview this weekend.

The president and Clinton, who is expected to leave the State Department within days, will tape the interview Friday at the White House with "60 Minutes" anchor Steve Kroft. It will be the president's first dual interview with anyone other than first lady Michelle Obama.

Obama and Clinton forged a strong working relationship over the past four years — and former President Bill Clinton played a vital role in Obama's reelection campaign last fall. But Obama and Clinton were also bitter rivals during the 2008 Democratic presidential primaries.

The joint interview comes just after Clinton testified before House and Senate panels regarding the administration's response to the terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya. Republicans have been highly critical of the White House's handling of the attack.

The President's appearance on the Tonight Show (VIDEO)

Which I forgot to DVR last night, so here we go. (And be prepared for a lot of commericals)...

Here's the cold open, which was funny in a...ehhh, Jay Leno way (but made its point):



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Part 3:

The quick video of Hillary learning of Gaddafi's capture (which eventually led to his death) (VIDEO)

I never though I'd say it, and it cannot be said enough: Hillary Clinton is going down as one of the great Secretaries of State in our history.

Markos: For anyone thinking Hillary Clinton would've been better than Obama...

From today's Huffington Post.  Remember, this was the guy running Hillary's campaign (right into the ground):

Strategy Corner: Obama -- Don't Bring Back Class Warfare

TPM: Remembering McCain and Clinton, slamming then Senator Obama over trying to kill OBL... (VIDEO)

Hell, somebody got it right. Any guesses as to who?



I guess he meant what he said.

Then again, one of the people that should be labeled as "wrong" in this video is, errr...ummm...the current Secretary of State. She'd be the one gasping in that famous photo.

"To prepare the full range of options..." (VIDEO)

This is not the President saying it's "go" time, rather it's the President saying "I'm trying to determine whether or not it's "go" time".

When it comes to turning to Mercenaries from Chad, and using Air Power on demonstrators, I hope the Colonel's memory hasn't failed him.  There's are things America can do about that...and it can involve the user of cruise missiles.

Julian Assange remains a clown - Part V. An unfortunately ongoing series.

My low opinion of Julian Assange remains.  He's a clown and an asshat.  He gets people killed, but he doesn't care, as long as he gets his fifteen minutes.

Apparently, he told TIME in a SKYPE interview:

"[Hillary Clinton] should resign, if it can be shown that she was responsible for ordering U.S. diplomatic figures to engage in espionage in the United Nations, in violation of the international covenants to which the U.S. has signed up. Yes, she should resign over that."

So let me get this straight.

Low-down, snake-oil, underhanded, borderline illegal behavior should get Hillary Clinton fired...

...but low-down, snake-oil, underhanded, borderline illegal behavior should result in Julian Assange being hailed as a hero.

"Tomorrow will be better" (VIDEO)

Found this on Andrew Sullivan's site. I never heard the White House or the State Department promote this video. It doesn't have the same impact as Joel Burns' statement from a couple days ago, but the fact it was done without any fanfare gives it a lot of credibility in my book:

Carl Bernstein: "There's no there--there." (VIDEO)

It's amazing how hard Carl Bernstein (yeah, that Carl Bernstein) is working to debunk the story about Hillary swapping jobs with Joe Biden.  (Carl says it's a non-story puffed up by the chattering class and ex-Hillary supporters seeking a cure for boredom).  It's just as amazing how hard Lawrence is working to keep it alive.  It's all Carl can do from pounding his fist on the table and yelling out: "BULLS#$%!!!"



I also don't know about Lawrence's "theory", isolating the entirety of the vote in favor of Obama in its historical context kinda misses the point.  (The War in Iraq and the Economy played much bigger roles than history.)

Theories work wonderfully in a vacuum.  Lawrence's point is salient, assuming the country doesn't react with mass panic over the prospect of a Sarah Palin or a Newt Ginrich running for President.  I have the feeling that once the country gets a load of them, it may not matter what the President does.

Also, Lawrence made a mistake in his interview with Joe Klein. President Obama did not start the Bank Bailout (aka TARP). Joe Klein said he did.

Benen: "Nearly as annoying as Limbaugh's racism is his ignorance"

Limbaugh goes off on African-Americans claiming that the Fourth of July is no big deal.

Only thing is, the Fourth of July wasn't celebrated that much in the South, as it was considered a "Yankee" holiday.

President Obama annouces the new Start Treaty (VIDEO)

Half the time, I'm posting video of speeches and/or Town Halls I don't think are going to get coverage...even on supposedly Democratic-friendly MSNBC.

This speech is one of them. (As I type this, this story is fourth on the Washington Post's headlines, behind the Iraqi Elections, Abstinence Funding, and Bart Stupak's Editorial justifying his vote for Health Care Reform).

Oops, now it's number five, changing the ways of the Senate jumped ahead of it.

Hillary vs. Rep. Christopher Smith (VIDEO)

It's been a productive day from the Congress. I think we're starting to throw elbows.

Hillary vs. Pence (VIDEO)

Everyone's been talking about Hillary's "exchange" with the worthless Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), but her pushback against Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) (A 2012 wannabee) was ten times better. Professional. Firm. Honest, and best of all...she threw an elbow.

Hillary is good...

Not too long ago, in the waning days of that "other" President, things were bad with Russia...and I mean, bad. Hell, we spent pretty much all of August shaking our fist helplessly at them as they invaded the Georgian Republic.

Then, we decided that it'd be a great idea to put elements of a missile shield (radar stations, I believe) in Poland and the Czech Republic.

This of course prompted a hostile reaction from the Russians, who were...you know...kinda threatening war over the missile shield. (Okay, just a Nuclear Strike on Poland, same diff.)

I wouldn't say that our relationship with Russia was on a war footing, but it wasn't far off. (By the way, thanks Joe Lieberman and Lindsey Graham for all the warm thoughts!)

Well, the new guys finally moved into the White house. And almost immediately, a frosty relationship seemed turn, uhhh...frostier.

On top of that, the nation of Kyrgyzstan terminated a deal allowing us to use their airbases to resupply our forces in Afghanistan, seemingly at Russian direction.

But then Joe Biden went to Europe and gave a little speech saying that we needed to hit the reset button on U.S. Foreign Policy.

And we let the Russians know that, while we're going ahead with our plans for the shield, we don't necessarily need the dang thing.

This apparently made the Russians feel better...

And then our new Secretary of State Hillary Clinton added an interesting litle kicker. "Gee, of course, if we had help with the Iran-going-nuclear-problem, it'd make this whole missile shield thing go away even faster."

And on top of that, get this...now the Russians are talking about letting us use their airbases as a way for us to resupply our troops in Afghanistan. But, they still want that Missle shield outta there, and won't take any steps unless we physically deploy the dang thing.

See, Previous President? This is the power of talking...

Taking the time to actually read Team of Rivals past its cover...

The Media has been getting itself into a twist over Doris Kearns Goodwin's Book: Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. I'm happy. I'm a fan of the book, and I've been a big fan of Doris's since her appearance in Ken Burns's Baseball Miniseries. I'm glad that the attention has gotten her a couple more sales.

Now, if these same people would only read what she wrote...

...and I mean read past the cover.

Granted the book tells how a relatively unknown and untried Lawmaker from Illinois rises up and wins the Presidency against a well known, well regarded Senator from New York who was supposed to take the thing in a cakewalk. The Lawmaker from Illinois turns around and hires that rival from New York to be his Secretary of State.

Stop me if this sounds familiar.

This makes for nice media soundbites, and it certainly makes it look as though you've read the book.

...but it also reveals that you haven't.

We've even had some pushback from rival historians, kinda sorta pissing on the book for missing key details and simplifying things.

"Lincoln basically pulled in all the people who had been running against him into his Cabinet," is the way Obama has summarized Goodwin's thesis, adding, "Whatever personal feelings there were, the issue was how can we get this country through this time of crisis."

That's true enough, but the problem is, it didn't work that well for Lincoln. There were painful trade-offs with the "team of rivals" approach that are never fully addressed in the book, or by others that offer happy-sounding descriptions of the Lincoln presidency.

True enough, but the problem is...that paragraph's not quite true either.

While it takes a Lincoln Historian to write a paragraph like that, as Matthew Pinsker did in the Los Angeles Times of November 18th, 2008; the fact that Mr. Pinsker has his own Lincoln book out on the market (and not doing as well as Team of Rivals) should be noted in the interests of accuracy.

Team of Rivals is all about the Cabinet clashes, disagreements, hirings, firings and arguments that helped Lincoln lead the Country during its darkest hour. The reason that the book carries the subtitle of "The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln" isn't the fact that he hired these people in the first place, it's the way he manipulated them after.

Sorry, the way he handled them after...

The Press would have you believe that Lincoln hired his rivals, the White House became an early version of the Algonquin Round Table, and together in patriotic lockstep shepherded the Country through the Civil War.

Not so. Not remotely.

The Cabinet was contentious, sniping, backbiting and certainly argumentative, but the trick of it was that's kinda the way Lincoln wanted it.

In a deviation from current Republican practice, Lincoln wanted a balance of opinion. He wanted opinions that diverged from his own. He wanted a debate over what to do, and how to do it happening in front of him. He picked people he knew would light that spark.

Of course, he made a mistake or two. Lincoln's first Secretary of War comes right to mind. He was so corrupt, he had to be shipped off to be Ambassador to Russia.

If only the current (temporary) occupant of the White House had read the book.

Even Bill Richardson dumped on the comparison a little bit during his press conference this morning. "Former competitors, yes. But Rivals suggests something harder edged."

Bill Richardson, I think, read the book.

When the President-Elect dropped that now-famous line, that the change "will come from me," I was certain he had too. In thinking about Christopher Hitchens' recent Hillary panic attack, a passage from the book immediately came to mind, from pages 363-364.

With more than enough troubles to occupy him at home, Lincoln faced a tangled situation abroad. A member of the British Parliament had introduced a resolution urging England to accord the Southern Confederacy belligerent status. If passed, the resolution would give Confederate ships the same rights in neutral ports enjoyed by Federal ships. Britain's textile economy depended on cotton furnished by Southern plantations. Unless the British broke the Union blockade to ensure a continuing supply of cotton, the great textile mills in Manchester and Leeds would be forced to cut back or come to a halt. Merchants would lose money, and thousands of workers would lose their jobs.

[Secretary of State William] Seward feared that England would back the South simply to feed its own factories. While the "younger branch of the British stock" might support freedom, he told his wife, the aristocrats, concerned more with economics than morality, would become "the ally of the traitors." To prevent this from happening, he was "trying to get a bold remonstrance through the Cabinet, before it is too late." He hoped not only to halt further thoughts of recognition of the Confederacy but to ensure that the British would respect the Union blockade and refuse, even informally, to meet with the three Southern commissioners who had been sent to London to negotiate for the Confederacy. To achieve these goals, Seward was willing to wage war. "God damn' em, I'll give' em hell," he told Sumner, thrusting his foot in the air as he spoke.

On May 21, Seward brought Lincoln a surly letter drafted for [our Ambassador to the English Court] Charles Francis Adams to read verbatim to Lord John Russell, Britain's Foreign Secretary. Lincoln recognized immediately that the tone was too abrasive for a diplomatic communication. While decisive action might be necessary to prevent Britain from any form of overt sympathy with the South, Lincoln intention of fighting two wars at once. All his life, he had taken care not to send letters written in anger. Now, to mitigate the harshness of the draft he altered the tone of the letter at numerous points. Where Seward had claimed that the president was "surprised and grieved" that no protest had been made against unofficial meetings with the Southern commissioners, Lincoln wrote simply that the "President regrets." Where Seward threatened that "no one of these proceedings [informal or formal recognition, or breaking the blockade] will be borne," Lincoln shifted the phrase to "will pass unnoticed."

Most important, where Seward had indicated that the letter be read directly to the British foreign secretary, Lincoln insisted that it serve merely for Adams's guidance and should not "be read, or shown to any one. " Still, the central message remained clear: a warning to Britain that if the vexing issues were not resolved, and Britain decided "to fraternize with our domestic enemy," then a war between the United States and Britain "may ensue," caused by "the action of Great Britain, not our own." In that event, Britain would forever lose "the sympathies and the affections of the only nation on whose sympathies and affections she has a natural claim."

Thus, a threatening message that might have embroiled the Union in two wars at the same time became instead the basis for a hard-line policy that effectively interrupted British momentum toward recognizing the Confederacy. Furthermore, France, whose ministers had promised to act in concert with Britain, followed suit. This was a critical victory for the Union, preventing for the time being the recognition that would have conferred legitimacy on the Confederacy in the eyes of the world, weakened Northern morale, and accorded "currency to Southern bonds."

History would later give Secretary of State Seward high marks for his role in preventing Britain and France from intervening in the war. He is considered by some to have been "the ablest American diplomatist of the century." But here, as was so often the case, Lincoln's unseen hand had shaped critical policy. Only three months earlier, the frontier lawyer had confessed to Seward that he knew little of foreign affairs. His revisions of the dispatch, however, exhibit the sophisticated prowess of a veteran statesman: he had analyzed a complex situation and sought the least provocative way to neutralize a potential enemy while making crystal-clear his country's position.

Seward was slowly but inevitably coming to appreciate Lincolns remarkable abilities. "It is due to the President to say, that his magnanimity is almost superhuman," he told his wife in mid-May. "His confidence and sympathy increase every day." As Lincoln began to trust his own abilities, Seward became more confident in him. In early June, he told Frances: "Executive skill and vigor are rare qualities. The President is the best of us; but he needs constant and assiduous cooperation." Though the feisty New Yorker would continue to debate numerous issues with Lincoln in the years ahead, exactly as Lincoln had hoped and needed him to do, Seward would become his most faithful ally in the cabinet.

We have a President who reads books now. We have a President who is curious about the world, and is unafraid of listening to dissenting opinion.

I think we remain in good hands.

God, I hate agreeing with Joan Walsh...

There is a nice list of Liberal-slash-Progressive Pundits that frankly, I don't trust: some of those people I've talked about on this blog. Joan Walsh is on that list.

I've always found her, personally, to be a wishy-washy Limousine Liberal. Someone who talks a good game, but when it comes to the brass tacks of understand certain things (race), doesn't have the first clue.

And add to all that the fact that she was, at least in my mind, a Clinton Partisan during the Campaign.

The conventional wisdom has to give Obama the best shot -- he's got the most money, the freshest story, and in a year when everyone, including many Republicans, is craving someone new, he is that guy. I'm just not sure he can shoot beyond the 25 percent or so of the Democratic electorate to grab the lead.

And:

I still think the race is Clinton's to lose, and the media, having once overstated the perfection of her campaign, is now overstating its troubles.

I also won't mention that she's been a big Barry Bonds apologist.

Boy, times have changed alright. She's become a Obama Convert in the best possible way.

But when it comes down to a match between Christopher Hitchens and Joan Walsh...man there's no contest.




From her Salon Piece this afternoon, which for purposes of this piece, is pretty much the whole thing:

I had to debate Christopher Hitchens, Clinton-hater-in-chief, on "Hardball" today. I thought I held my own, but when I watched it I caught many outright falsehoods that I missed, like his calling Saudi Arabia's Wahhabist leadership the "main clientele" of former President Clinton. Hitchens has allowed himself to be deranged by his Clinton hatred, and it's unfortunate to see a smart guy disabled by his own bias.

My bottom line is, if Hitchens is right, and Hillary Clinton is an utterly unqualified political hack who only cares about her political future and her husband's, what does her selection say about Barack Obama? Either he's naive and wimpy, and hasn't availed himself of the superior knowledge of the Clintons that Hitchens claims (or he knows and doesn't care about it); or he knows everything Hitchens does and picked her anyway for craven domestic political reasons: to get the Clintons inside his tent, not outside of it, and to co-opt a potential 2012 rival. That would be more politically venal than almost anything Hitchens accuses Clinton of doing: sacrificing our nation's global diplomatic interests to his domestic political ambitions.

So now Hitchens is extending his baseless charges of corruption against the Clintons to smear Obama. This, of course, makes me admire Obama all the more: He's taken both Clintons inside his tent because he needs them and recognizes their formidable domestic and foreign political and policy skills. He's spending political capital on them, because he thinks they're worth it, and saying a big, polite "up yours" to the Clinton haters who've made a career out of spreading this garbage. Those are my words, not Obama's, of course; he's much more diplomatic.

More Hillary Mania...

It must be an addiction. They (the Media) must go into counseling...

So first we have Politico fanning the flames of a Obama Supporters vs. Hillary Supporters possible spat...

And now we have Politico saying that Hillary might turn down the damn job...

Two lame stories. Same lame website!

This in addition to one paper (in the U.K.) reporting that Hillary's accepted the damn job...

This is not what the Boss meant by "no drama"...

UPDATE (3:05pm Pacific): I have no idea what this means:

According to The Hill:

Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) designated Clinton to head a task force to develop a Senate Democratic proposal to expand health insurance coverage as part of his larger push to move a major overhaul of the U.S. healthcare system next year.

Ambinder: All the Hillary speculation may mean nothing...

...or it may not.

Atlantic Monthly's Marc Ambinder on the Hillary speculation:

Has Sen. Barack Obama ask Hillary Clinton to serve as his Secretary of State?

The Huffington Post, citing two sources, says yes, as does CNN's Gloria Borger.

I confess I cannot get sources to tell me this, which means that (a) they've got better sources than I do, which is quite possible, (b) or it isn't true, which is also possible. I know, very helpful. Sorry.

Here's what might be happening:

It is possible that Obama asked Clinton to serve, and that Clinton, hoping that it wouldn't leak, promptly told a bunch of aides, former aides and friends

It is possible that Obama asked Clinton to serve and that the Obama transition / campaign apparatus is parceling out leaks in order to service the news cycle somehow or habituate Democrats to the idea, or even to somehow float a trial balloon for world leaders who happen to be in Washington this weekend.

It is possible that Obama was solicitous; asked Clinton where she might want to serve, and that Clinton was left with the the impression that she had been offered a job.

It is possible that Obama was solicitous and genuinely interested in hearing from Clinton and genuinely wanted to know what she wanted to -- or planned to -- do over the next four years.

It is possible that Obama offered the job to her, that she asked him whether she could take a few days to think about, and that someone downstream found out about it from the principals and leaked it without authorization.

It is possible that Obama was solicitous and genuinely interested in hearing from Clinton and genuinely wanted to know what she wanted to do ... and downstream, based on what Clinton and Obama told people about the meeting, a mistranslation occurred and people became convinced that Obama had offered her something.

Ambinder goes on to speculate on the complications (all reasons why I don't think its going to be her).

Secretary Clinton...

Word has spread around the world. It's out in the wind, and it's real. Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and the President-Elect met yesterday in Chicago and talked about a role in his Administration. Appropriately, Senator Clinton is deferring all comment to the Office of the President-Elect. That's how you behave when you want the job.

So let's just cut to the chase. Pros:

The Clinton brand is still respected around the world. Having her would breathe a sigh of relief into World Capitols everywhere (except maybe Moscow and Tehran).

Senator Clinton can definitely do the job.

And it always helps to have a bridge to the Big Dog.

It also makes good Political sense in that no one can accuse Obama of dissing her now. And, if you want to build a "Team of Rivals", giving your Number 1 rival prime real estate in the Cabinet is good thinking.


Cons:

Realistically, the Secretary will serve only four years, after that...what? She wouldn't go back to the Senate. That seat'll be taken. The idea of her running again in 2016 as a Former Senator and Secretary of State? Very few Cabinet Members have gone on to higher office...if any.

Politically, she's shown more of an interest in Domestic Policy than Foreign Policy. The Big Dog's more of a Foreign Policy guy.

Also, with all due deference to Senator Clinton's many skills, aren't there better people for the job?

And what about the Big Dog, and his Business and Foundation dealings? They'll come up in Confirmation Hearings, even though I expect her to easily be confirmed. (This is the Club after all, and the Club looks after its own).

UPDATE (2:12pm Pacific): According to a widely circulated report in the Huffington Post, Hillary's been offered the Job. She's asked for time to think it over, and that request has been granted.

Another pro, for the Obama side. Nothin' like neutralizing your chief rival with a big, big job. Bush did the same thing in 2000 with seemingly his top rival, Colin Powell.