Hillary Clinton

I wrote so much that was critical of Hillary Clinton during the 2008 campaign that I want to say how much I admire the job she is doing as Secretary of State.

She seems knowledgeable about what's going on all over the world and our relationship with the various trouble spots. She seems tireless in traveling the globe and meeting with foreign leaders. There have been no serious gaffes that I know of, and she seems increasingly respected wherever she goes.

And this morning -- she taped back to back interviews for all five Sunday morning talk shows (NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, and Fox) about the situation in Egypt. Her statement seemed just right -- stressing our commitment to true and free democratic elections and institution of needed reforms, but not denouncing the current leadership or taking sides. Our commitment, she says, is to an orderly transition to a "real democracy." What we don't want is for "radical idealogues to take control a very large and important country in the Middle East."

We're in a position that needs to be carefully balanced (and characteristically hothead McCain was on TV saying Obama wasn't being bold enough). Mubarek has been way too autocratic and suppressed real democracy in his country, but he has been an important ally in helping to stabilize the Arab world and middle east tensions. We also have a great interest in seeing that his replacement (either now by his going into exile or by elections in the fall) is someone who will continue that stability, rather than have Egypt taken over by an extremist group.

Hillary's message this morning was right on target in that delicate balance.

Brava, Madam Secretary !!

Ralph