Clinton in Jakarta, Eye on Muslim World

Secretary of State right at home on 'world stage'

(NEWSER) - On her trip to China, Japan, South Korea, and Indonesia, Hillary Clinton is making the most of long experience and enthusiastic crowds, the Washington Post reports. The secretary of state is on a listening tour, aiming to rehab the country's image. “There is a hunger for the United States to be present again,” she said. "Showing up is not all of life—but it counts for a lot." More»

Clinton a strong secretary, but not yet administration's voice

(NEWSER) - Ask Hillary Clinton or her staff about President Obama and they’ll praise him and tell you the relationship between the two really is strong. But the tensions between the State Department and White House are starting to show, writes Joe Klein . The president’s foreign policy hasn’t yet yielded results, and on her recent Pakistan trip, Clinton gave the first hints that she’d like to assert her independence—and move beyond what Klein calls “the Rodney King ‘Can’t we all just get along?’ phase.” More»

(NEWSER) - Sarah Palin's resignation speech on Sunday showed how far she's fallen, writes Maureen Dowd: "Once a blazingly confident media darling," the now-former Alaska governor has become a ranting, whiny "Nixon with hair extensions." It's a marked contrast from Hillary Clinton, who on the same day gave an hourlong interview to Meet the Press. Her trajectory has been just the opposite—once "paranoid and press-loathing," the secretary of State is now radiating self-assurance. More»

Facing do-everything White House, Hillary reasserts herself

(NEWSER) - Yesterday Hillary Clinton delivered an ambitious, muscular speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, in which she warned Iran of further sanctions while defending Barack Obama's policy of multifront diplomacy with rogue states. After months in the shadows, writes New York Times reporter Mark Landler, the secretary of State wanted to make a splash. Faced with a strong White House, Clinton reasserted her allegiance to the president, but also defended her turf as the nation's top diplomat. More»

Retiring secretary of state has won Obama's admiration

(NEWSER) - Hillary Clinton has kept a low profile at the G20 summit, ceding the spotlight to Barack Obama and Tim Geithner, and when she and the president travel to NATO summit and EU meetings over the next few days she may not utter a single word in public. But while the secretary of state is out of the spotlight, her influence in the Obama administration is rising. As the New York Times reports, Clinton's pragmatism and collegial approach have greatly impressed her former rival. More»