President Obama is meeting with Rice on Friday afternoon, at which time it would be most appropriate to announce that she will be his White House National Security advisor in his second term.
Personally I doubted she would be appointed Secretary of State. She obviously has the credentials, the intelligence, the experience and the contacts. But she is the public face of the U.S. abroad and sadly that face cannot smile, at least not convincingly.
I fully sympathize. I can't either anymore. But in terms of ceremony and confidence, the job requires somebody who has the look and the political skills. Secretary Clinton is a perfect example. Sure, the job has had its share of stiffs in the past, but this is a different world. The way Susan Rice was hounded from the nomination was despicable and dishonorable. But maybe she wasn't right for that public part of the job. I don't really know, of course. But that's how it looks from a distance.
Nevertheless, she is a brilliant, capable woman, and President Obama should bring her to the White House--and stick it in the eye of the GOPer critics.
Now a little credit for not making a single rice pun.
I heard several voices on TV suggesting that not nominating her after defending her so passionately makes President Obama appear weak. We'll see what they say after tomorrow. And we'll see what they are saying after the fiscal cliff nonsense is over, and in particular after the congressional GOPers take refuge in their delusional "leverage" by threatening not to approve the required rise in the debt ceiling.
When defending Ambassador Rice, President Obama said that if he decided she were the best for the job, he would nominate her no matter what her GOPer critics said. But on the debt ceiling he was not at all conditional: he said "I will not play that game" over the debt ceiling, adding that he would stop negotiating with GOPers on budget etc. if they even suggested that the debt ceiling vote was on the table.
Apparently GOPers were not as sure as I was what he meant, because they are still talking about doing it. Ezra Klein spells it out:
"Whatever House Republicans might think, the White House is all steel when it comes to the debt ceiling. Their position is simple, and it’s typically delivered in the tone of voice that Bruce Willis reserves for talking to terrorists: They’re happy to raise the debt ceiling on their own, as would be the case under their proposal to take authority for the debt ceiling away from Congress. But if Congress rejects that offer, then the debt ceiling is Congress’s problem, and the White House will not help.
The Obama administration is utterly steadfast on this point: They will not suffer a repeat of 2011, when they conducted negotiations over whether the United States should default. If Republicans go over the cliff and try to open up talks for raising the debt ceiling, the White House will not hold a meeting, they will not return a phone call, they will not look at the e-mails. They will move to an entirely public strategy, rallying voters and the business community against the GOP’s repeated brinksmanship."
It would be unfortunate if GOPers saw their disgusting political character assassination as a success, and an indication that President Obama doesn't mean what he says on the debt ceiling. This is December 2012/January 2013, not any other time or circumstances. Taking the world economy hostage is not going to be a successful strategy.
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