Hillary was a good choice for secretary of state
Former senator has the right skills to serve well as secretary of state
Hillary Clinton made it here so, according to the song, she can make it anywhere. Her journey from a successful Senate career to the State Department may have detoured through a failed presidential campaign, but she is a good fit for her new and vitally important international job.
Looking back, it should be encouraging to remember how the nation’s new chief diplomat has a history of winning people over. May that be a talent that serves her, and us, well as she becomes the nation’s 67th secretary of state.
There are, after all, a great many people around the world who need to be convinced.
A little more than eight years ago, Clinton got herself elected to the U. S. Senate from New York, even though she had never lived here before. Six years later, she was resoundingly re-elected. She had adamant critics. Obviously, she had far more supporters.
The name recognition that came with her eight years of being President Bill Clinton’s first lady didn’t hurt, especially the first time. But it was her on-the-ground work for her constituents that got her re-elected and set the stage for her history- making run for the White House.
Those accomplishments included sticking up for the preservation of the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, winning funding for projects as varied as Buffalo’s Artspace and the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, and offering support for waterfront renewal as well as help for expanding Internet service to rural New York and for reclaiming the canyons of Lower Manhattan after 9/11.
No, she didn’t create, help create or watch while someone else created 200,000 new jobs in upstate New York. The fact that that promise from her first campaign was not fulfilled should surprise no one except those who take campaign talk waaaaay too literally.
After that, she came tantalizingly close to being the first woman to secure a major party nomination for president of the United States, was seriously considered for the vice presidential slot by the man who had to work so hard to beat her, was picked by that same rival to head the State Department and won Senate confirmation by a vote of 94-2.
As secretary of state, Clinton will now be on the phone, on secure videophone conferences and in the air on another, global campaign. This one won’t be for her own benefit, so much, as for the benefit of all Americans. She brings to this post the ability, the drive and a world-recognized and respected name to help her succeed.
Clinton said as she left the Senate that, even though she hadn’t always been a New Yorker, she would always be one now. That means that her future successes, in whatever endeavor, will be our successes, too. Because, in part, we knew her when.
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