Secretary of State

Of all the things that can be laid at the doorstep of Barack Obama, as serious as some of them are, this one has the potential to cause us plenty of trouble down the road.

The world is populated with a fair number of dictators, petty and otherwise, who are watching Obama’s every move with anticipation. They are now able to openly scorn the country which has, for so long, been the hope of freedom for the world.

Whether we like it or not, our President and our Secretary of State are the faces of our nation to the world most of the time. We are reflections of them, whether we like it or not. Most of us don’t like being seen as weak, ineffectual and indecisive. But that, and worse, is how we are being viewed throughout the bad-guy world.

Barack Obama has fumbled, bumbled and genuflected his way across the middle east and most of the rest of the world, displaying his ignorance of world politics and economics for all to see. When the US appears weak and indecisive, the entire world is more unstable. The bad guys get badder and uglier, and the big bad guys get bolder and more scheming.

This is a very dangerous world and Obama is in way over his head. We are going to come to a point where the ineptitude of this president is going to put this country at grave risk.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2011

The state of the State Department can be best described as useless, in any practical sense. ‘Foggy Bottom’ pretty aptly describes the decision making process in our State Department.

I really hope that Hillary keeps to her stated intention not to run for president in 2012. She’d have a pretty rough time defending her performance as Secretary of State. Garbage in… garbage out. But then, Foggy Bottom is a garbage pit.

Its ‘new mission statement’ reeks of weakness and accommodation. It sounds like Obama and his spectacularly inept and naive prosecution of this nation’s foreign interests. Like the government of its leader, our State Department doesn’t work. No surprises there, but it hasn’t been serving the purposes for which it was created and instead has become an instrument for advancing the progressive agenda of its masters.

It’s not that there are not some good people at State, but they are far overshadowed by the politically inspired hacks and toadies. Democrat administrations have no problem getting the fogs to implement the wishes of their masters. A Republican administration would receive no such dispensation or cooperation from the denizens of murky places. As has been noted by previous Republican administrations, cooperation in the implementation of policy was grudging at best, and if it was something the left was against… good luck at getting anything through.

Our State Department needs a thorough cleaning and examination of its role in the security picture of a nation at war.

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2011

From the Columbus Dispatch, three staffers for Vote Today Ohio have plead guilty to illegally registering and voting in Columbus during the so-called Golden Week - a seven day period when Ohio residents could register to vote and cast a ballot at the same time.

This will likely be a footnote it what was a monumental disaster perpetrated by the Ohio Secretary of State and supporters of Barack Obama.  But it highlights three important realities:

• The extreme vulnerability of Election Day Registration
• The enormous influence one highly partisan election official can have on the process
• The need to invest in ballot security programs

For those who have forgotten, Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner unilaterally re-interpreted Ohio Election statutes governing the overlap of the voter registration deadline and the start of early vote to create a de-facto seven day window of Election Day Registration whereby residents could fill out an application and immediately cast a vote.

She ordered the unprepared and understaffed County Election Boards to set-up voting centers that would ensure a massive turnout. Then Brunner amazingly banned all pollwatchers from the vote centers.  Chaos without witnesses.

Many County Election Boards balked and the Ohio Republican Party unsuccessfully sued to stop her, but it was too late.

From the beginning, stories of fraud and misconduct were widely reported.  The Obama Campaign, ACORN, Vote Today Ohio, and Vote From Home were all linked to voter fraud during Golden Week. See here, here, here, here here here here here here here here 

But, as is the case when elections aren’t close, Obama’s victory overshadowed the widespread fraud of Election 2008.  But it happened in Ohio and it happened on a much larger scale then what is being reflected by three guilty pleas.  It will be interesting to see if any of the other groups named above will face similar charges.

This should be a wake up call to any state that is considering EDR without significant safeguards in place,  any political party that isn’t heavily investing in Secretary of State races, and any campaign that doesn’t have a ballot security program. 

The three who plead guilty are:

Amy Little, 50, of New York. (Ms. Little was a consultant for Congressman John Hall (D-NY) until news broke in October that she illegally voted).

Daniel Hausman, 32, of New York.

Yolanda Hipplesteele, 30, of California.

crossposted at www.electionjournal.org

Quin Hilyer doesn't think Hillary Clinton should be confirmed as Secretary of State, for a variety of reasons.  Others suggest the emolument clause of the Constitution or the Clinton's foreign entanglements could create problems during Senator Clinton's confirmation hearing.  Maybe, but I doubt it.  Most of the potential problems seem basically unrelated to the role of Secretary of State, or have been addressed long ago.  Perhaps more relevantly, relationships matter and by all accounts Hillary Clinton has good relationships with her Senate colleagues.  I very much doubt her fellow Senators (especially in a large majority Democratic Senate) will play hardball against a colleague.

But there's a more interesting aspect to Hillary Clinton's appointment as Secretary of State.  Consider...

• Hillary Clinton's major interest and specialty has been a domestic policy: universal health care.
• Hillary Clinton's 1993 health care reform was a famous failure.
• Universal health care will be one of the top, immediate priorities of the Obama administration.
• Obama has appointed Hillary Clinton to a foreign policy position.
• This will take Hillary Clinton entirely out of the picture - even out of the country - during the upcoming legislative fight over health care.

Hillary Clinton is a very polarizing figure on the subject of health care.  It may not have been a major factor, but I doubt this went unconsidered by either Obama or Clinton.