Secretary of State Clinton Arrives at Foggy Bottom

[Beacool]

January 22, 2009



Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived for her first day of work at the State Department Thursday, assuming the mantle of the nation’s chief diplomat and preparing to name a pair of renowned diplomats to serve as special emissaries to the Middle East and South Asia.

The morning after she was easily confirmed by the Senate, Mrs. Clinton was greeted by a crowd of more than a thousand State Department employees, cheering and whooping like a campaign gathering.

“This is going to be a great adventure,” Mrs. Clinton said to employees in a lively 10-minute address, as people craned to see her from a balcony in the flag-lined lobby of the State Department.

Mrs. Clinton said she sought a “sense of openness and candor in this building,” and invited people to “think outside the proverbial box,” which drew a yelp from a man in the crowd. She promised “robust diplomacy” and “effective development” to restore America’s standing overseas.

Mrs. Clinton walked into the building just after 9:15 a.m., to a hail of camera flashes. She was met at the door by Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William J. Burns, the top-ranking career diplomat, who introduced her as the nation’s 67th secretary of state.

Speaking for the employees, Steve Kashkett said, “As you can tell from the enthusiastic welcome, so far, we are thrilled to have you here.” Noting that Mr. Kashkett had shown wise caution in adding the words “so far,” Mrs. Clinton said, “This is not going to be easy.”

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/secretary-of-state-clinton-arrives-at-foggy-bottom/?hp

[Captain Hilts]

1. Whew!

[NYC_SKP]

2. She's kicking ass, go Hills!

You, too, beacool!

Recommended! :hi:

[Beacool]

3. Hi, Pooch!!!

How are you? I'm so proud of our gal. They received her with such enthusiasm, I don't recall seeing other previous Secretaries being received so warmly. She has a very tough job ahead of her, but I'm sure that she will do well. She's always prepared, has a brilliant mind and is a hard worker.

:hi:

[NYC_SKP]

4. Yeah, what you said and...

Who can you name in the past 40 years who was as awesome as Hillary probably will be?
I was never impressed with any in recent memory, though I kinda like Powell.

Check the list, great names way back in the day...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Secretaries_of_State_of_the_United_States

[Beacool]

6. Wow, she's in a pretty impressive group.

Six of them later on became president.

;)

What's with Jimmy Carter? He only served one term and had 8 different people as SOS.

:o

[NYC_SKP]

10. The 8 under carter, it is baffling!

Numbers 1,3,4,5,6,and 7 were just a few days each: Habib, Christopher, Newsom, Cooper, Newsom, Christopher!!!

I have no idea what was going on between April 28 and May 8, 1980, which is the span for five of these guys.

Only Cyrus Vance and Edmund Muskie served any significant time.

:shrug:

[RoyGBiv]

11. Iranian Hostage Rescue Attempt ...

Vance, who held the post from the outset, resigned over the recuse attempt using the military. In the wake of its horrible failure, there was a lot of infighting about the whole mess.

Vance and Muskie were the only confirmed SoSes to serve under Carter. Christopher was a Deputy SoS, yet he is largely credited with the negotiations that led to the Algiers Accords that actually resulted in the release of the hostages.

[Beacool]

13. Thanks for the explanation.

Carter is a fine man, but was a very ineffective president and this is one more example of it.

:(

[pink-o]

20. I am not convinced the repigs didn't sabotage Carter's hostage resuce attempt

He had amassed helicopters and ground forces to break out the hostages in April of 1980. But once the plan was put into action, the Iranians suddenly knew all about it and ambushed the rescue attempt.

Then, the day Ray-gun was inaugurated, the hostages were magically freed!! It took till 1987 and Iran-Contragate for any shenanigans to come to light--however, everyone was pardoned for all their war crimes.

Sound familiar???

[BootinUp]

9. Obama is putting together an awesome team. Go Hill!

:)

[PBS Poll-435]

5. Friggin' Awesome

:woohoo::woohoo::woohoo:

Wow an SoS that is competent!

[Control-Z]

7. She was just radiant this morning,

exuding confidence and competence. I expect great things from her and her team.

[CreekDog]

8. Nice to see her so happy in her new role

Regardless of what anyone said about her appointment, I'm getting the feeling that this is a position she really wanted.

[Cash_thatswhatiwant]

12. She looks great and so presidential. If Joe Biden chooses not to run for vp in 2012

I'm almost sure it will be Obama/Clinton 12!

[Beacool]

14. That would be an awesome team.

The team that should have been in 2008. Well, actually I would have much preferred Clinton - Obama and then Obama - ?, but one can't get everything in life.

;)

[Cash_thatswhatiwant]

15. I voted for Obama on Feb 5th but started supporting Hillary more afterward because I liked

her the more I listened. I liked them both though and was completely happy with either winning :)

[Beacool]

16. Well, I wasn't.

I have supported Hillary for years and was none too happy when Obama got the nomination. But, at least he was a better choice than the Repug team. So far he's doing a good job, so I'll withhold judgment until he's been doing it for a while. For the country's sake I hope that he has a successful presidency.

;)

[Tatiana]

17. It's clear that President Obama exercised good judgment in his SOS pick.

Hillary is going to do a fantastic job at State.

[mtnsnake]

18. K&R!

[Jennicut]

19. Boy, the state dept sure was happy to have someone with brains in charge

The people there were all so happy.