General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Is there trolling going on here in regards to Obama? Like [View all]MADem
(135,425 posts)She carried Presidential water to all the nations with whom we have relations. Her actions and comments were constrained by PRESIDENTIAL desires. She could not act independently of the White House--she was an EXTENSION of the Executive Branch, in fact, she was Obama's most senior Cabinet member. She didn't enter into any negotiations, conversations, or discussions without having very clear parameters that were understood by her and POTUS (and VP, too--Biden has a good geopolitical head on his shoulders). She wasn't a Wild West sheriff, free to pursue her own agendas.
You're seriously trying to suggest that the SECRETARY OF STATE was TELLING THE PRESIDENT what to say and do about a national project? That she was driving the train, and Obama had to say "Wait, wait, stop....waaah! I don't wanna do this!!!!" That's like saying Obama had no control over his cabinet.
Do you realize how ABSURD that sounds?
The people who wanted--and STILL WANT--the Pipeline are the damn CANADIANS, and their rich business buddies in the USA. Cheap oil is making the project redundant and pointless--too much risk for very little reward, with most of the profit going to Canada and a couple of rich pigs--just a dumb idea.
All the SECSTATE was doing was playing the Presidential go-between with regard to those conversations--and that was her J.O.B. She wasn't there as an advocate, she was there as the person who was gathering the facts, getting the proposals, doing the cost-benefit analysis, and providing the information to her boss. She likely already had a sense of Obama's POV on the issue before she had a first meeting with anyone. In other words, she was there so HE wouldn't HAVE to be.
It is entirely inappropriate for the SECSTATE to advocate/tout for business ventures of this sort, but that doesn't stop people here from repeating, over and over, this narrative that Hillary was trying to bigfoot America with regard to the pipeline, when all she was doing was serving the interests of the nation -- and the POTUS -- by doing the homework and passing the information back and forth. For all we know, his decision to NOT go ahead with the project may have been the result of HER briefings. Regardless, there's this absurd construct that her duty with regard to the issue somehow translates into "approval" and that is just absurd. She was the token women on the Walmart Board who forced the Waltons to build their first "green" store (because they wouldn't let her do anything else), with natural light, passive heat, recycling--all before it was popular--and she's going to suddenly be enthused about a pipeline of sludge bisecting our nation?
It's probably one of the goofiest things I've ever read here.