Clinton’s exit not quite as planned
Illness, attack in Libya weren’t on departing U.S. secretary of state’s agenda for 2013
Hillary Rodham Clinton’s plan for 2013 was simple.
She’d embark on an epic swansong around the world as U.S. secretary of state, a dizzying itinerary that would take her past 1.6 million kilometres in the air at the helm of American diplomacy and perhaps break her own record of 112 countries visited while in the post. Then, there would be a long rest, time and work with her husband, former U.S. president Bill Clinton, on development issues and a sequel to her 2003 memoir, Living History.
Finally, she’d make a destinydefining decision: whether to try again to become the first female U.S. president.
Her health got in the way: a nasty stomach virus while returning from a weeklong trip to Europe, exhaustion, severe dehydration, a faint, a fall and a concussion that led to a brief hospitalization when doctors discovered a blood clot near her brain. The woman who’d seemed to lay the perfect groundwork for another presidential bid was sidelined by circumstances beyond her control.
It was a rare sign of vulnerability in what had been a carefully charted four years, where as a peace mediator, international enforcer and global ambassador of America she fully emerged from the shadow of her husband. But it was not the only sign.
The deadly terrorist attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012, revealed an episode of State Department miscommunication on her watch that could feed into her diplomatic legacy and give future political opponents an opening to exploit.
At times emotional and frequently combative, Clinton rejected Republican suggestions in two congressional hearings that the administration tried to mislead the nation about the attack that killed Chris Stevens, the U.S. ambassador to Libya, and three other Americans. She insisted the State Department is moving aggressively to strengthen security at diplomatic posts worldwide.
In the final spectacle of a diplomatic career that ended Friday when John Kerry succeeded her, she would not be browbeaten.
Pressed perhaps once too often on why the terrorist assault was miscast as a public protest in the days afterward, Clinton went after her Republican inquisitor with her voice rising and quivering in anger. “What difference, at this point, does it make?” she demanded. “It is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, Senator.”
On Thursday, Clinton denounced those who still insist the administration lied about the attack.
“There are some people in politics and in the press who can’t be confused by the facts,” she told The Associated Press in her last one-on-one interview as secretary of state. “They just will not live in an evidence-based world. And that’s regrettable. It’s regrettable for our political system and for the people who serve our government in very dangerous, difficult circumstances.”
Clinton’s responses confirmed she had lost none of the vigour that had taken her from defeated Democratic Party presidential candidate to one of the world’s most popular and recognizable women.
Even before her ailments, people close to her were debating the pros and cons of another presidential run. Would it be worth the cost in time, energy and especially money — her 2008 campaign debt was just retired in January — and would it spark a new round of personal attacks on her, her husband and her character?
Polls show her as the popular favourite for 2016; no Democrat is better placed right now to unify the party. With instant national appeal and the highest approval ratings of her political career, she would also presumably have a head start on any Republican candidate in a general election. And at age 69, she’d hardly be too old to lead. She’d be five years younger than Vice-President Joe Biden, a possible party rival.
Yet any sense of inevitability is decidedly premature. After all, Clinton was considered the favourite for the 2008 Democratic nomination for several years, right up until Obama beat her in Iowa.
Some of that hard-earned respect would vanish the moment she re-emerges as the face of the Democratic Party and becomes a critical player in rancorous debates over immigration, abortion, debt, taxes, health care and more.
Asked on the eve of her departure from the State Department if she still had contributions to make, she replied “Absolutely,” but stressed that the how and when were not yet clear.
“I haven’t decided yet,” she said. “I have deliberately cabined it off. I am going to be secretary of state until the very last minute when I walk out the door. And then I am going to take the weekend off and then I may start thinking about all the various offers and requests and ideas that have come my way.”
Oftentimes she made a splash in the world without even trying.
In Italy, an impromptu 2011 shopping expedition to the Salvatore Ferragamo store with her aide de camp, Huma Abedin, caused a major traffic tie-up in central Rome. A visit to ancient ruins at Cambodia’s famed Angkor Wat temple complex turned the heads of hundreds of other tourists.
Photos of her drinking a beer at a bar in Colombia made newspaper front pages. A video of her dancing at a dinner in South Africa became a hit online as did the “Texts from Hillary” meme, featuring a photo of a stern-looking Clinton peering through sunglasses at her BlackBerry while aboard a military plane en route to Libya.
A village in India is named for her. In 2010 in Kosovo, Clinton’s motorcade made an impromptu stop at a store called “Hillary” just a stone’s throw from a statue of her husband on the main road from the airport to the capital of Pristina. She happily posed for pictures there with her entourage.