Putting It Together

November 18, 2008 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under American Politics, Obama administration 

With the Clinton/State nomination having reached near-obsessional status, some news stories supply some context.

Agence France Presse reported:

Former US president Bill Clinton said on Sunday that his wife Hillary will be a “great secretary of state” if president-elect Barack Obama named her to the post.

“If he (Obama) decided to ask her and they did it together, I think she’ll be really great as a secretary of state,” Clinton told an economic conference in Kuwait hosted by the National Bank of Kuwait. “She worked very hard for his election after the primary fight with him, and so did I, and we were very glad that he won and we have a lot of confidence that he can do a good job.” (AFP)

The New York Times reported:

A team of lawyers trying to facilitate the potential nomination spent the weekend looking into Mr. Clinton’s philanthropic organization, interactions with foreign governments and ties to pharmaceutical companies, a Democrat close to both camps said. While Mr. Clinton has used his foundation to champion efforts to fight AIDS, poverty and climate change around the world, he has also taken millions in speaking fees and contributions from foreign officials and businesses with interests in American governmental policies.

And now The Daily Beast supplies a colorful detail:

The National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) has paid $500,000 to Bill Clinton for a single lecture he delivered in Kuwait City on Sunday on his assessment of Barack Obama’s foreign and economic policies. It was delivered the day after the Kuwaiti stock market resumed trading after it was suspended by order of a Kuwaiti court on Thursday to avoid a total collapse.

Without mentioning reports that Clinton’s finances were coming under close scrutiny as his wife, Hillary Clinton, is being vetted for the job of secretary of state, the Arab-language Kuwaiti newspaper Awan published a front-page story under the headline “Clinton’s lecture at NBK cost $500,000.”

In other words: at a time when he knows that his finances are one of the major stumbling blocks to his wife being nominated Secretary of State, the former President expresses public support for her from the place where he is about to be paid half a million dollars to talk about his predictions regarding the Obama administration’s domestic and foreign policies.

So what conclusion(s) are we expected to draw?  There are four possible explanations.  (1) The former President is clueless.  (2) His greed is uncontrollable.  (3) He has a passive-aggressive attitude towards the State gig.  (4) He wants to sink the State gig. 

(1) can be ruled out a priori.  Which leaves (2), (3), or (4), or any combination thereof.

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