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Clinton the Campaigner Moves to State—for Good or Ill

By Gabriel Winant,  Newser User

Posted Feb 18, 2009 7:47 AM CST

(Newser) – As Hillary Clinton takes over the State Department, it's worth remembering that her train-wreck presidential campaign followed an "audacious 2000 run for Senate" and an excellent record as a legislator, Michael Crowley writes for the New Republic. "The question—not only for Hillary's legacy but for US foreign policy—is which of these models she will bring to" her new job, Crowley observes.

Dispatching special envoys to the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Iran—an idea Clinton pushed for before she even had her new gig—frees up the secretary to concentrate on Asia as well as the department's role in the Obama administration. Writes Crowley: "The number of outsized personalities within the State Department, as well as the number of strong wills outside it with whom she will have to coordinate, will require Hillary to be a diplomat among the diplomats."

President Barack Obama meets with Middle East special envoy George Mitchell, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington.
President Barack Obama meets with Middle East special envoy George Mitchell, Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2009, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington.   (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton talks with Indonesian junior school upon her arrival at Halim Perdanakusuma airport in Jakarta, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton talks with Indonesian junior school upon her arrival at Halim Perdanakusuma airport in Jakarta, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009.   (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana, Pool)
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton waves as she leaves for Indonesia, at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton waves as she leaves for Indonesia, at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2009.   (AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara)
U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke, center, briefs journalists after holding talks with India's Foreign Minister in New Delhi, India, Monday, Feb. 16, 2009.
U.S. special envoy Richard Holbrooke, center, briefs journalists after holding talks with India's Foreign Minister in New Delhi, India, Monday, Feb. 16, 2009.   (AP Photo/Saurabh Das)
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What this does is free Secretary Clinton up to deal with the issues that we have completely neglected. - Nina Hachigian, former National Security Council aide, on Clinton's special-envoy system

Think of her slogan for the world being a variation on It Takes a Village . Every time she says 'diplomacy,' she says ' and development. - Strobe Talbott, Clinton friend and former deputy at State

Occasionally he has to be, you know, brought down to earth and reined in. - Clinton, on special India-Pakistan envoy Dick Holbrooke

She has been systematically calling people who have direct, and relatively recent, experience in the place and really drilling down on all kinds of questions. - "Someone familiar with the process"

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