THE PLANK DECEMBER 1, 2008
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Completely idle speculation here, but Obama's decision to name Susan Rice as UN ambassador and re-elevate the post to a Cabinet-level position can be read as a clear message to Hillary Clinton: Better toe the line, because you can be replaced in a heartbeat. Rice has been a long-time Obama adviser, and early on her name was bantered about to lead State. But there were two knocks against her: inexperience and, to be delicate, a certain lack of diplomatic tact. The UN post will resolve both--as opposed to, say, deputy secretary of state or deputy NSA, which would not have given her the same training, nor put her in a direct line to succeed Clinton. Obama doesn't seem like the firing type, but merely having Rice on hand to take over Foggy Bottom gives him a powerful check against an assertive secretary of state.
--Clay Risen
3 comments
Or it could be read as a signal that Obama views Rice as a trusted and capable advisor and the position of U.N. ambassador as an important one that requires Cabinet rank. Just a thought.
- FWright
December 1, 2008 at 12:37pm
This sort of psychoanalysis in which the pundit digs down deep into the minds of all the main characters up on the stage, reminds me of the commentary I used to hear around chess matches played in the park. The mind of Barack Obama is moving his pieces [in this case Hillary Clinton and Susan Rice] around the board. What is his strategy? Are they both just pawns? Will he instead end up being their's?
Then, when the match officially begins on January 20th, we wonder: Will Obama's moves lead to an eventual checkmate with the grandmasters in Russia, Iran, Pakistan, China etc.?
Their checkmate or our own?
This sort of poitical carricature often begins as idle speculation. Lots and lots of it gets passed around inside the beltway. And who really knows if this is life immitating political discourse or political discourse immitating life.
Everybody in the op-ed community seems to be reading what everybody else has written. I think, perhaps, this is what Plato had in mind when writing about the sahows on his allegoricsal cave walls.
Only today some of us speculate that the cave is all there is. And the shadows are all we see. There is no essential Light outside to guide us to The Truth.
george walton
- iambiguous
December 1, 2008 at 1:14pm
Clay Risen speculates that elevating Susan Rice's job as UN Ambassador is a kind of shot across the
- Anonymous
December 1, 2008 at 6:54pm