Land mines ahead for Hillary

[Beacool]

Amie Parnes, Glenn Thrush Amie Parnes, Glenn Thrush – Mon Jan 12, 2009

Hillary Clinton, ever the preparation junkie, is cramming for Tuesday’s confirmation hearing — intent on downplaying old disagreements with Barack Obama and parrying questions about her husband’s overseas entanglements, aides say.

Barring a bombshell revelation, all sides expect Clinton to be speedily confirmed as secretary of state. But her rendezvous with the Foreign Relations Committee at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday still offers its share of potential land mines.

Nobody’s fonder of huddling secretly with a close-knit, tight-lipped clutch of advisers than Hillary Clinton. And she’s been huddling plenty in recent days, gaming out defenses to possible attacks against her husband while synchronizing her policy positions with Obama to avoid embarrassing public disagreements on Iraq, Iran and Israel.

“If they hit her on any personal stuff or on the Bill s—t, she’ll hit the ball out of the park,” said a longtime adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“She’s far more concerned with the substance,” the person said. “This is the re-emergence of the non-political Hillary. The most discomfort is where she and Obama disagree — the ‘you’re naive’ stuff. She can’t show up the president, she can’t appear like she’s trying to formulate her own foreign policy.”

Clinton’s task is made easier by the fact that Obama quietly adopted many of his former rival’s more hawkish foreign policy positions by the end of the primaries.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090112/pl_politico/17334

[DevonRex]

1. She'll hit it ALL out of the park. Their disagreements were always minor

in the big picture and she's in a big picture position. She'll handle the confirmation beautifully.

[ellacott]

4. Yes she will

I'm sure she'll be ready for them.

[Beacool]

9. Yep,

the last phrase before the link is quite telling.

:-)

[wyldwolf]

2. she is so good in those settings.

[Beacool]

8. Yes, she is.

For one main reason: preparation. Hillary has always been one of the hardest working persons at any job she's ever had.

;-)

[babylonsister]

3. Landmines ahead for anyone who got that job. I'm hoping

she's a smooth navigator.

[cboy4]

5. She'll do great I bet

:)

[Jennicut]

6. She will do fine. Any Rethugs who try to give her a hard time forget who they

are messing with. She is a tough woman.

[Autumn]

7. I can hardly wait to watch,

she will be terrific and I'm sure she will WOW them all. She shines in difficult situations.

[Beacool]

10. I think that they'll ask a couple of semi tough questions

so that they are not perceived as being rolled over, but Hillary is well respected and liked in the senate. She has worked well with both sides of the aisle, they'll treat her fairly.

:D

[Arkansas Granny]

11. She will do fine. She has already rebutted most of their disagreements

when she campaigned for Obama. Their differences on policy were small to begin with. The personal remarks that were made during the primaries have already been dealt with, to a large degree.