Democratic voters should draft Hillary Clinton for 2012, authors say. AP Photo

New Hampshire voters should draft Hillary

By PATRICK H. CADDELL and DOUGLAS E. SCHOEN | 12/18/11 10:15 PM EST

We argued in a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed piece that President Barack Obama should stand down and let Secretary of State Hillary Clinton run as the Democratic presidential nominee in 2012.

We are now calling on Democratic voters nationally — particularly in New Hampshire — to organize a write-in campaign for Clinton. This is something that New Hampshire voters have a long history of doing.

We advocate this Draft Hillary movement not because of the desire to make political mischief — but to put the country on the right course.

It’s clear that Obama has been unable to build consensus and, with the polarizing campaign he is now running, will be unable to govern effectively even if reelected. Only Clinton can commit the Democratic Party — and, indeed, the nation — to a unification and healing process. This could allow Washington, in a bipartisan manner, to finally address the economic and governmental crises that now grip America.

We are facing a crisis of national leadership, so citizens should step up and take charge of their country the way demonstrators in the Middle East did earlier this year. And, stunningly, as the people of Russia are now doing.

It’s time to take the decision about America’s leadership out of the hands of the established powers and return it to the citizens of our country. That opportunity to change U.S. politics will appear in the second week of 2012 in New Hampshire.

To seize this moment two things are required:

First, and most important, ordinary Democrats and independents in New Hampshire should mobilize behind a grass-roots effort to write in Clinton’s name during the Jan. 10 Democratic primary.

Second, a committed group of Democrats with resources and stature needs to help facilitate an authentic citizens’ movement — independent of party structure, Clinton and organized interests — to support a massive New Hampshire write-in campaign and put this before a deeply disaffected electorate.

Read more.)

Can I get my heart into it? Do I want to?

I still think she is the strongest, smartest leader we could have. But she has turned me off in many ways the last few years. If I can wrap my arms around the fact that she is a party animal and some of what she has said and done was under orders, then I can perhaps throw my support behind a fun try at a Write-In vote.

It might mean divorce for me, but then again maybe not. My little O’bot wife is perhaps a sign that this could work. She, the staunchest supporter of his O’liness I knew in 2008, she never ever listens to his speeches anymore. She avoids political news and has shut her ears to the disaster that is his Presidency. Our Vermont O’bot friends who you may recall I had to suffer through the Christmas before the 2008 NH Primary, well I was speaking to one on the phone recently and she flat out told me that Obama is a failure for the Democratice party.

They won’t admit their horrendous mistake of 2007/2008, but they know in their hearts they were so very wrong.

This could be interesting. But like the movements around the world, we’d need a name and it should not include Hillary. This is about bringing America back to the people. This is about Occupy Wall Street and the one former candidate who spoke up about a looming financial crisis when nobody would listen.

Take Back The Party, Renew America Now

RUN – Renew USA Now

My dear old friend Bronwyn wrote today and asked me what I’ve been up to and what I think of the prospects for 2012. My short reply got me a suggestion to cross post something I wrote at Partizane back in July.

First, let me assure you that I no longer hate to visit my site. It is much less active since I wrote the following but it is also slowly but surely coming back to be my blog, my place to vent or pontificate. What you are about to read, or not, was written specifically for and about my blog Partizane.com. It is not in any way meant to reflect on NoQuarter as I don’t rule here. That line sort of sounds like “any resemblance of characters in this book to others living or imaginary is purely coincidence.”

For those who care, here is my reply to Bronwyn’s query.

My honest opinion of 2012 is that whoever wins we’ll have a Republican in the White House, just like we’ve had since 2009.

If it comes down to it though, I may have to vote for His Oliness as the lesser of two evils. The Republican party gave us endless wars to feed the war machine, a lost decade for any in my boomer generation who planned on retiring someday, an endless recession and absolutely nothing of value other than redefining the use of the word NO.

************************************************************************
Originally posted at Partizane.com on July 14, 2011

Why I hate to visit my own website and …

I check in most days to make sure nobody has bombed the joint, but I rarely stay around anymore and I find it difficult to comment on most of the posts. I honestly hate what my own home has become.

I truly love the few people here but why do we think there are so few compared with a year ago? I think my old HillFighter masslib put it best sometime ago. It may have been during a chat session because I can’t find it but the gist of what she said was, “You people are crazy”.

Now I dearly miss masslib. She came to NH during the last week of the primary and helped Hillary pull off a surprise win. I met her in person and hugged her at the Salem office while I was picking up some NYC volunteers and their totem pole signs, I delivered them to a busy intersection in Londonderry.

Masslib, rentarainbow, Pacific John, Izarradar, Cal, Catfish, ProudMilitarymom, KenoshaMarge, Banshee, madamab, LSekhmet, lizpolaris, TeakWoodKite, Tellurian. The list goes on and on. Old friends from as far back as DemocraticUnderground, DailyKos, Alegre’s Corner and even NoQuarter. Old friends that stopped by for a bit and then for their own reasons left. Many are still liberal dems and many are/were middle of the road Hillary folks. Some I know for fact left because of me and the tactless things I said or did.

I knew that action here would lessen over the years following the emotional 2008 campaigns. That was to be expected as we have no central focus other than a disdain for Obama. The focus of Partizane has been to not be focused, to be a place for all, therefore a home to none. I’ve tried to focus us on Women, yet even I have failed to keep that going. I, by my own rules, have tried to bring together opposing views for civil discussion. That worked to a point. But if nobody reads us, if nobody cares, have we succeeded?

Worst of all, I hate to have my name, Newhampster (Don Schwartz), associated with some of the garbage that is being posted here. I am embarrassed to think that someone searching for NewHampster might come here first and think I stand with the insanity written here.

I am a LIBERAL or in the modern sense a CONSERVATIVE. I believe that our country, our society, was and is meant for the good of all. We are a tribe that came together in the wilderness. We came together for the protection of numbers. We only survive when the weakest among us know the strongest have their back. We survive as a people because my helpless 93 year old veteran dad will never be put out on the street to fend for himself.

Things are about to change for Partizane.

I’ve tried to make it “our site” but as Cal told me once, it is ultimately my site and i am the one who has to take responsibility for it’s direction.

This is my site. i could do like Uppity and threaten to shutdown or I can just say, Fuck it, the experiment failed and it’s time to move on.

• First off I plan to find a lower cost hosting option and move the site, which will mean some downtime during the coming month.
• Secondly, I will be attempting to focus the entire site on my core values. Please don’t confuse that with Democratic values.
• Third. Front page posting will once more be restricted to what I deem worthy.
• Fourth. In order to accomplish number 3 some administrative rights are being rescinded.
• Fifth. I hope to find the time to redesign and possibly re-build the entire mess.
• Sixth. Sourcing of information from lying scum like Rupert Murdock and his henchmen will no longer be tolerated. I seriously plan to remove any future posts which use known right wing mouth pieces for reference.

I realize that one very old friend in particular thinks I’m mad only at her. I also realize that much like some of those old friends, I may lose you and your prolific posting because of what I’m saying and doing today. I want you to know that I love you, welcome you and hope you will look in the mirror for a bit before thinking of saying goodbye. Please consider staying around to engage me in civil discourse over intelligent stories and ideas.

My apologies to any I’ve offended. Please know that this has been gnawing at me for months and rather than lose more sleep I’ve decided to do what I think is right. I would be much happier shutting down the site, saving cash too, than to let Partizane go down the path it has been on for the last year or more.

Later my friends. nh

Cross posted from my nest over at Partizane.com

Listening to our local FOX 25 this morning, a fill-in for the off-the-wall winger VB surmised that this weekend we witnessed the successful outcome of a kid raised with true family values, rather than talk.

Think about it.

Shy Chelsea moves into the White House when she’s 12. She lives through the glare of the cameras, the onslaught of the rightwing witch hunt of her mother and the scandal of her dad’s affair. Yet, she turns out to be a wonderful woman who marries the guy she met in high school.

So, the commentator on TV wanted to give Bill and Hillary props for their undeniable family values. In comparing Chelsea’s parents and Bristol Palin’s parents, he said something to the effect, that the “party of family values” could learn something from these two who actually practice it.

Bill and Hillary Clinton raised their daughter to be a woman that girls of every party and every religion can admire and emulate.

Here’s Chelsea through the years in photos below.

Cross-posted from the hampster nest over at http://www.partizane.com

Arkansas days

Young Chelsea

Family

Chelsea and Marc

Chelsea and Marc later

The smiling couple

The Eleventh of September was Solemn
Scenes of Sadness..Suffering..Smoke and Fire
As The Cameras Rolled Relentlessly On
Showing the Death Dance of the Twins…..

Airplane Arrows Pierced Their Hearts and Ours
Sta…ring in Wonder At the Madness of Madmen
Called Terrorists and Ji Hadists…and Extremists
Killers Whose Heaven is Hell .Making..

War with Little Children and Innocent Souls..
Of People Who Never Even Wished Them Harm
But who Died Horrible Deaths From Atrocious Acts
As the Twins Crumbled with Broken Backs…

Fuel Fed Flames consuming People and Pentagon
Crashing Chaos of Death and Destruction of Life …

But Not The Spirit You See..The Flag of Liberty

Still Flying Among the bloody Scene of Inhumanity….

originally posted with honor, at Partizane

I was getting a birthday card for my 92 year old dad when this card just jumped off the shelf. Nearly a year since she withdrew and American Greetings and Shaw’s see fit to keep this crap on the shelf. I wonder how many they still sell. I hope folks visit both those sites and write the people in charge.

American Greetings Consumer Relations consumer.relations@amgreetings.com

Shaw’s Super Markets feedback@shaws.com

We could just boycott.

*I must confess to owning an unopened Hillary Nutcracker given me by my o’bot son-in-law. It might be worth a few bucks someday.

Cross posted from Partizane.com

To paraphrase the President’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel "Never waste a good crisis".

Now I don’t think they started this flu epidemic, nor do they control the WHO, but they do control the media that is trying so hard to over play this seemingly mild flu.  The timing was so good that my distrusting mind does wonder if they did have a hand in releasing the bug in Mexico.

Here we have his Oliness speaking out of both sides of his mouth and getting all tongue tied when TOTUS went too fast. He was trapped between a rock and a hard place, smack dab in the middle of the Torture episode.  Yeah. Remember that torture thing that was all over the news just before Swine Flu pushed it to page 3?

Somehow this crew running our country, always finds or constructs a good crisis to distract us when the news is not going their way.  We saw Hillary’s NH win become the discussions of the Bradley Effect and rotten polling while the media ignored the fact that a woman won a major primary for the first time.  Like flipping off Hillary the day after a good debate for her.  It pissed us off, pissed off the bots because we made a big deal of it and completely distracted us and the media from his crappy performance in the debate.

The examples are numerous and well documented elsewhere.  Obama messes up or there is something they want taken out of the news, then bingo we have a crisis.  Heck, I think Joe Biden is VP just so he can keep putting his foot in his mouth and distracting the press from real issues.

My only real problem here, speaking as a true ADHD speedster, is I have no idea how the sane among us can counter this.  They are really good at what they do.  Rahm and crew make Danny Ocean look like an amateur.  They conned their way into power and will continue to con their way into another 4 years of lining their wall street friends wallets.  But how and why does all this help the bama boyz club?  Prediction.  Rahm Emauel is CEO of Bank of America in approximately 9 years.

Cross posted once again from my home at Partizane.com

Stay at home locked in a bubble. 

Touching me, touching you.   How many ways are there to touch each other?

Seriously.

Yes, I am a Red Sox fan and Sweet Caroline is our song that replaced the dearly loved Tessie due to political correctness.

But today I wanted to write to those who fear the touch.  In reality you are screwed so why bother.

Today I got to work and made my coffee grabbing the bag of Pete’s.  Who may have touched that bag while it was on the shelf?  When the coffee was ready i retreated to my office, sat down and pulled out the banana I brought from home.  Who touched that banana, what snotty nosed kid picked it up and put it back?

Come on, let’s all think of what we touched today.  I even used my Purell today after putting the gas nozel in my car.  Then I went into the store and grabbed a coke from the cooler and a pre-packaged sandwich(fresh today).  I touched the handle of the door walking into the store then the handle of the coke case and the coke bottle itself.  Then i picked up two or three sandwiches before deciding to take the roast beast.  3 more touches.  Then the real biggie.

I reached in my pocket and pulled out my cash.  Yeah, that stuff must be real clean.  Gave the check out guy my $10 and took change back.  A couple of bucks, a nickel and a penny or two.  Oy how many touches was that encounter with a guy who touches a boatload of people every day?

But back to work.  I touched my bosses keyboard when I had to fix his latest brain fart then I touched my intern’s keyboard in order to start a new process i was showing him. 

I came home to meet a plumber who is here now trying to take my last dollar.  While he’s fixing a toilet for more than it would cost to replace it, I went and got the mail.  Ah, the mail person touched my mailbox handle but the mail peeps along the way also touched my mail.  Better put on gloves before I open the mail.

Is it just me or do you see the futility of trying to avoid the flu?  No I won’t be touching strangers in the subway or asking the person in the elevator to cough my direction but beyond the extremely obvious I think there is only so much we can do.  It’s like the WHO official I heard on the radio said.  Perhaps the only really truthful thing I’ve heard this week.  He said that trying to contain the virus is a waste of resources, we have to put our money into the comfort of those who catch it.

I’ll go further.  I never wash my coffee cup at work.  I rinse it.  I don’t wash the coffee pot either.  Growing up, my family had a community cup in the bathroom that we all used to rinse our mouths with.  Now that is gross.

I rarely get sick and I am convinced that those who raise their kids and themselves to avoid germs are the ones who get sick most often.  We are social animals and we need to share our immunities and our pathogens.

Oh yeah.  I never wash my hands after using the public restroom because one, I’m a lazy ass guy and two, I think the towel holder or hair dryer are both filthier than my dinky.

Cross posted from Partizane.com

Yes folks!  I finally did it.  I’ve been saying since last June that I would change my registration to “Undeclared”, the New Hampshire version of Independent, and today I finally had the time.

WooHoo!  I’m Free, Free at last

Had me a docs appointment right down the street from Town Hall and I limped in on my bad knee and asked the nice woman if I could change from Democrat to Undeclared.  One little form and 30 seconds later, I was freed of the shackles that I’d worn since I first registered to vote in 1972.

I have been a Democrat my whole life and most recently a Vice Chair of the local Dem Committee.  I called it chairman of vice but that’s another story.

I also hopped upstairs to get a replacement recycle bin since the duck tape on the 20 year old plastic just didn’t beautify the neighborhood.

So, NewHampster is now an Independent voter and I do like the word Undeclared.  It seems to say that I no longer, publicly declare where I stand or how I’ll vote.

Freedom sure feels good.

Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose…

I will always know that I saw Janis live at the Bushnell in Hartford, CT two weeks before she took her final trip.  She walked on stage with a 5th of Southern Comfort, put the bottle on the piano and by the end it was empty.

Damn she was good but a lost soul too.  Miss you Janis!

March 25 is now Independence Day

Cross posted from my home at Partizane

Thursday, March 19
President Barack Obama will be making his first sit-down talk show appearance since becoming elected.

Top Ten Reasons Obama is Appearing on Jay Leno

10 – Letterman was an early supporter of Hillary Clinton

9 – John Stewart is too busy fixing the economy

8 – He’s itching for a tour of Jay’s garage

7 – Axelrod refused to lower himself and go on the show

6 – Now that she’s covered up her arms, Michelle is no longer sexy enough for prime time

5 – The handlers think he’ll look good to fat guys watching over their huge bellys

4 – W lowered respect for the position so far, Obama figures who cares if he’s on a joke show

3 – Right leaning Jay is just so compatible with Bambi

2 – He was invited and cannot pass up any chance to hear his own voice

And the number one reason his Oliness the Foist is appearing on Jay Leno

1 – He’s auditioning to replace the weekly address with a nightly Hour in the Oval with Barack

The guy just can’t sit still and actually govern.  I mean some of us knew he was nothing more than an excellent student of teleprompter but to continue to campaign is well, odd.  But I know why.  He is smarter than us.  He’s known all along that he has no skills to do real work so he is following in the lead of Ronny the Great.  Obama is a figurehead, pitchman for the incompetent ones who are trying to run the country.  He is the over paid CEO.

Cross posted from Partizane

CNN, in the url, calls it a “Shooting Spree”. You know, like a fun time shopping before the wedding. http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/03/11/alabama.shooting.spree/index.html

Personally, I think these insane incidents involving guns are completely avoidable.

I also know that we have a mixed crowd here and I’m pissing off some friends. Too bad because I want you to for once, just to humor old Hampster I’d like you to ask yourself this question.

Would he have been able to go from house to house killing all those people with a Knife?

Or maybe if he used a machete or a high powered hunting bow.  How about that ancient weapon sometimes called the partizane?  I know.  If he had no access to guns he would have used his fancy bullwhip he picked up in Mexico.

By the time McLendon ended his rampage, he had fatally shot his mother and set fire to her house, and killed his grandparents, his aunt and uncle, the wife and child of a sheriff’s deputy, and three other people, according to King and the coroners of the two counties where the shootings occurred.

“He was shooting at just ordinary people going about their business” said Alabama state Sen. Harri Anne Smith.

Yeah, I know the lie "People kill, not guns".  Bullshit!  Guns are enablers.  Guns are the modern machine which enables a crazy person to step over the edge and commit mass murder.  We would not have had Columbine, Virginia Tech or any number of mass killings, if it was not so easy to get a gun in this country.  You can say I want to take away your guns and you wouldn't kill anyone.  Then I say there is no other reason to have a gun which has only one purpose, killing.  That argument sits no better with me than the asshat who refuses to give up his gas gussler, or recycle at his home.  I work for one of those and the obstinance is quite funny.  "I don't believe in recycling"  I can afford the gas" etc.

I think it is time for this country to put the ball in the gun owner's court.  If you want to keep hunting or even target shooting, then find a way to develop single shot weapons for those purposes.  We must do away with automatic or repeating weapons in the hands of anyone but professionals.

Wait.  I think I hear someone saying, "If you take away the guns only the crooks will have guns".  More bullshit from the industry.  If we stop manufacturing them then nobody will have them.

I was about to be funny and say Please don't shoot me.  Then I remembered something else.  How liberal talk show hosts and gay mayors tend to get shot.  Because people with guns use them while the rest of us shut up and hide.

Cross posted from my home at Partizane.com because somethings are too important to keep to oneself.

This started in the car last night while listenning to the replay of Diane Rehm and guests discuss the weekly news roundup and they kept coming back to that phrase, “too big to fail”. 

Too Big to Fail.

Most notably they mean Citi Group and GM.  Now I for one think that size does matter and these huge banks should never have gotten so big.  But we have them and their 100s of millions of depositors to deal with.  That does not mean the Obama administration won’t break them up before they’re done and I do hope they do so I can get my little NH based bank back.

But these entities are so large and effect so many town’s and people that we have to save them.  I really believe that.  Once again saving GM for instance does not mean it won’t be broken up and the pieces sold to Toyota.  More realistic is that Chrysler, not too big to fail, will be broken up with Jeep going to one of the Japanese firms that needs 4x4s. 

But back to California.  I speak from a mini, wee little state that would barely be missed if it was to be covered by the next ice age.  Most of our states are like that, but certain ones are too big to fail.  I’m thinking of New York, California and maybe the industrial heartland as a region.

But when we rescue GM we in essence rescue the heartland.  Heck, by rescuing GM we’ll be helping a few smaller manufacturers in NH who supply the auto industry.  Those suppliers all over the country are the main reason to save GM.  I saw the figure once but can’t find it, how many non-GM jobs are there for every GM employee.  It’s a big number and they all pay taxes to their states.

And what of New York?  New York reaps billions in tax revenues from the financial bailout.  So do CT and NJ.  Those multiple bailouts don’t just trickle down, they are like a waterfall of cash for New York.

But California is not one industry that we are rescuing.  I don’t hear about saving the CA defense contractors because they are already busy building for Iraq, Afghanistan and our future planes.  The Silicon Valley?  Nope, I don’t think we’re rescuing anyone there.  The central valley where my lettuce comes from?  Nah.  And Hollywood is having a great year as they tend to do in bad times.

California has nothing we will be pouring zillions into that will pass the dollars down to the state and local governments.  Nada, zilch.  Yet California is the 5th largest economy on Earth!

We should take seriously what Governor Schwarzenegger jokingly said.  If some states truly can’t use portions of the stimulus funds, send them to California.  If we can throw $850 billion into the stimulus package it seems like we can manage another 50 or so for California.

I’m hoping someone with more economics sense than me will jump in because all I can think is to replace that old saying with this, What’s good for California is good for the country.

Cross posted from Partizane

I Refuse to Participate in a Recession!

While you cannot control the economy or your competition, you can control your response to the economy. Referrals can keep your business alive and well during an economic downturn.  During the last recession, I watched thousands of businesspeople grow and prosper. They were successful because they consciously made the decision to refuse to participate in a recession. They did so by developing their networking skills and learning how to build their business through word of mouth.

Don’t let a bad economy be your excuse for failure. Instead, make it your opportunity to succeed. While others are looking at the problems, those of us looking for opportunities will not only get through a bad economy but will prosper.

Click that link above or better yet, try this Google Search

In business, in life, Words do Matter.  This time of true economic recession will become a depression because it becomes depressing.  We can avoid the depressing crap by refusing to participate.

In my particular business, our customers are laying off people as they lose engineering or design contracts but we’ve remained positive and treated it as the opportunity it is.  Our business is sort of booming as the customers have begun to realize we offer an alternative to participating in the recession.

Yeah, my biz is lucky and not all are like it but damn it, we have to stop participating in Obama’s Recession.  He owns this sucker now because he bought into it rather than rejecting it.  It is Obama’s Recession and I refuse to participate.

Let him be Mr. Doom and Gloom, I refuse to Participate in Obama’s Recession.

He’s talking it down, lowering expectation but I refuse to Participate in Obama’s Recession.

Repeat after me..

I refuse to Participate in Obama’s Recession.

I refuse to Participate in Obama’s Recession.

Proudly cross posted from my hamster wheel at Partizane

Dateline Afghanistan – The war continues on two fronts today.  American troops under the command of General Emanuel, have reached the outskirts of the Taliban stronghold of Kabul.  You might remember that the 16th army reached this same point back in 2025 only to be repelled by the forces of the Talibanni.  The Eastern front continues to confound the leaders of America’s Satellite Asia Command (ASAC), in geosynchronous orbit above India.  Even though Osama Bin Laden died of old age over 20 years ago, his forces fight on.  Quoting General Axelrod of ASAC, “Catching these mountain bred terrorists is like trapping rats in the sewers of Obama, D.O.”

Federal Move to Obama, D.O. almost complete – The long move is almost over.  Yes, there were unforeseen snags over the preceding 10 years of the move, but we at Daily Kos National News are proud to predict that the last employees will be re-settled by the end of March.  This has been a trying time for our government agencies but I think we can all agree that Washington, D.C. had outlived it’s usefulness and it is time we move to the former Chicago, Obama, Disctrict of Obama.  Little did Chicagoans’ guess that the name change back in 2013 was a premonition of great things to come.

Malia Obama announces candidacy – President Obama’s daughter Malia has announced her desire to succeed her aging father when he retires from his long, and glorious career.  Said Miss Obama, “Daddy is getting on and we all think it’s time for change.  I’m throwing my hat into the ring in the hopes of becoming the first woman President of the United States.”.  President Obama, speaking from the new South Side Brick House, said he certainly endorses his daughter as she is “uniquely qualified to carry on with my lifes’ work.”

More news as it happens, only on your source for truth, DKNN.

Cross posted from Partizane

In her first trip abroad since taking office, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will travel to Asia, departing Washington, DC on February 15. Secretary Clinton will visit Japan (February 16-18), Indonesia (February 18-19), the Republic of Korea (February 19-20), and China (February 20-22).

As she prepares for her first overseas trip as Secretary of State I got to thinking of the Hillary I know, not the Hillary some imagine.

There are those, like wifebot, who are convinced she drank the Kool-Aid and is dedicated to carrying out the foreign policy goals of his Oliness.  These are the people, many former Hillary supporters too, who always ask me, “aren’t you thrilled with the new Secretary of State’, ‘What an achievement.”  I’m not here to pass on how I respond to them.

These people, IMHO, truly imagine that Mrs. Clinton realized the error of her ways and has been doing penance since she bowed out of the race last spring.  She latched on to Obama’s superior foreign policy concepts with a vengeance, then asked to be given the opportunity to sell the policies to the world.

I say Cow Patties.

President Obama is no dummy.  He knew very well that the person his team blasted as just a first lady, is in fact brilliant and incredibly well informed on world issues.  He on the other had no clue and proved it in many a debate, yet I believe he is smart enough to know he had no clue.  The policy she and he will be managing is her policy that he has embraced and not the other way around.

Now I’m not saying I trust him any more than Blago.  I’m just saying that I think she is really in charge of this game and, and the “economic crisis” has given her a window of opportunity to amaze the world and all Americans with the depth of her brilliance.  Essentially, he and a brilliant staff, framed the entire campaign, trumped her at every move leaving her always playing catch up.  Now she has the very visible ball of foreign policy to frame in her image.

But you ask, where has she been?  Why has Joe Biden been traveling and speaking about policy?

She, dear friends, has been doing what sets Hillary Clinton apart from all others.  She has been in her room studying.  Preparing and learning before jumping into the battle.

Joe Biden speaking to that security forum in Munich was the correct person to be there.  It was almost entirely heads of state or their second in command.  It was a higher level, no real work sort of deal.  Had Obama sent his Secretary of State, some would have seen that as a slap in the face, in fact I bet it was Secretary Clinton’s decision. Update: Since initially posting this at Partizane, I’ve learned that I was wrong on the count of attendees. “13 heads of state and government, as well as 46 ministers and 6 heads of international organizations have announced their attendance at the 45th International Security Conference.” http://unian.net/eng/news/news-299345.html My response to the reader who pointed out the true numbers: “typical bosses meet and would have been a real waste of Hill’s valuable time. Joe has 4 years to waste on funerals and useless meetings where no real work is done.”

And you worry about those other strong women, Rice and Power.  Rice as UN Ambassador is strickly a spokesperson for the administration.  Power on the otherhand, will be in a position to back stab but she will also be in a position to be closely watched and squashed by Obama if needed.  If those two are all Hillary has to worry about then her job should be easy.

Hillary has been quiet, Hillary has been working hard to prepare for her role and the immediate needs of the upcoming trip.  I think most of us normal people have no idea about the level of focus she will give to the countries and leaders she is about to visit.  I think those leaders are about to be amazed by the focus she brings to the table and the uncanny knowledge one can only get by hard, detailed studying.

Bon Voyage Madam Secretary.  I know you will make us proud.

Originally posted at Partizane

As I’ve said before, I think she is off limits until she does something worthy of our writing.  She is an intelligent woman I will not denigrate, without damn good reasons.

Here I just wanted everyone to read the headline, “The First Lady The World’s Been Waiting For”.

Uh, yeah, suuuuuuurrrrrrre!

Cross posted from Partizane