President-elect Barack Obama, Secretary of State

Designate Hillary Clinton, and the national security

Adviser nominee, General James Jones: Will this

be a winning foreign policy team?

 

 

Financial Times Deutschland, Germany

Naming Hillary 'May Be One of Obama's Great Achievements'

 

"Unless the 'Clinton Enterprise' fails and she succumbs to the temptation of injecting her own agenda into the most important U.S. government agency, this may well end up being one of Obama's great achievements."

 

-- EDITORIAL, Märkische Oderzeitung (Frankfurt)

 

GERMAN REGIONAL EDITORIAL ROUNDUP

 

Translated By Ulf Behncke

 

December 3, 2008

 

Germany - Financial Times Deutschland - Original Article (German)

With the appointment of his former rival Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, Barack Obama has shown that he wants to build bridges. But Clinton's power base in Washington as well as her husband Bill's, may also involve risks, commentators in Germany's daily newspapers judge.

 

Der Tagesspiegel (Berlin)

 

"A Secretary of State Clinton does bring her own set of problems. She called Obama's plan to withdraw from Iraq, negotiating with Iran and speaking with Pakistan "frankly naive." Moreover, husband Bill's activities remain a risk. The advantages of integration outweigh the disadvantages, however. Around the cabinet table Hillary will be compelled to show loyalty and it will be almost impossible for her to muster a campaign against Obama in 2012.

 

Clinton, Gates and Jones are considered foreign policy "hawks." It is precisely this that will make it easier for Obama to pursue his objectives - far easier than if he had appointed "doves." If Gates supervised the withdrawal from Iraq after having organized Bush's deployment of additional troops and Hillary negotiates with the mullahs in Tehran, who could accuse Obama of lacking the needed toughness?

 

 

Neue Ruhr Zeitung (Essen):

 

"The appointment of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state demonstrates Obama's statesmanship and stature. He had plenty of good reasons to keep his strongest rival at bay, some distance from the White House. But as president he must also build bridges across the trenches dug over the long two-year campaign.

 

But Clinton's appointment involves risks. For the first time, a secretary of state brings her own remarkable power base to the office. Nearly 18 million supporters from the primaries and large sections of the Democratic Party are behind Hillary. Indeed, it will be gripping to observe just how the former first lady, along with her energetic husband, President Bill Clinton, will return into government. Even though the State Department is perhaps just a consolation prize, she will enter the world stage as a star."

 

 

Tageszeitung (Berlin)

 

"One learns from Hillary never to take a defeat, even the most bitter, personally. Clinton demonstrates: if you want to achieve your goals, you must weather defeats like you weather a storm. Humility and enormous self-confidence are her key competencies. This is the only way to survive politically and personally, when your husband cheats on you in front of the entire world. Only then can rivalries be transformed into strategic partnerships. This is the only way one can get up every morning. If not as president, then as secretary of state.

 

 

Sächsische Zeitung (Dresden)

 

"At least the approach sounds reasonable: 'America cannot solve these crises without the world, and the world cannot solve them without America', the future Secretary said yesterday  . This is recognition of the fact that an insight long prevalent across the globe has now arrived in Washington. It has now arrived in Washington. The fact that the U.S. needs more allies and fewer adversaries, as Hillary Clinton put it yesterday, is undoubtedly correct. The question however remains: allied for what - and which policies?

 

 

Der neue Tag (Weiden)

 

"There is a bit of eye-rubbing going on. Barack Obama promised change, bit now we find so many old faces cavorting in the vicinity of the future U.S. president. Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates and James Jones  for foreign- and security policies, as well as 81-year-old Paul Volcker , who will head a panel of experts charged with overseeing the financial and economic crisis [The Economic Recovery Advisory Board ]. What is Obama trying to tell us? He wants change, but without disruption."

 

 

Obermain Tagblatt (Lichtenfels)

 

"The woman is far too intelligent to be insulted. She already proved that when she forgave Bill for the Lewinsky Affair . Whenever Hillary Clinton fell down, she just stood up again stronger than before. The State Department is the second-best outcome for her - far better than being a senator. 

Posted by WORLDMEETS.US

 

Obama is lucky; Clinton could have won. Not only because she has the political experience that he lacks. By integrating her - and Republican Gates at the Pentagon, Obama has managed to draw in his opponents. A government of national unity, if you like; willing and hopefully able to pull off the tour de force that America so badly needs."

 

 

Märkische Oderzeitung (Frankfurt/Oder)

 

"The nomination of Hillary Clinton, his 'toughest campaign opponent,' as he said of her yesterday, will not be well received by all Democrats. But his decision to choose the New York senator is prudent. It is the attempt to integrate a potential future opponent, who has impressed with her extensive political experience and considerable intellect.  … Unless the 'Clinton Enterprise' fails and she succumbs to the temptation of injecting her own agenda into the most important U.S. government agency, this may well end up being one of Obama's great achievements."

 

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[Posted by WORLDMEETS.US December 8, 3:45pm]