I know that a lot of you didn't support the idea of Hillary Clinton running for president. I also know that even fewer of you thought it was a good idea for president Obama to appoint her as secretary of state. It seemed like a bad idea to put a former bitter rival in a position where she could potentially undermine the administration's agenda while at the same time positioning herself to run in 2016. Even though I was originally a Hillary supporter who switched to Obama, I for the most part agreed with you.
After seeing her testimony today in front of the House Foreign Affairs committee, I think we've once again seen just how smart Obama was in picking Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State.
I'm sure most of you have seen clips of Hillary sparring with Dana Rohrbacher of California over Dick Cheney's comments about Obama. Hillary seemed to handle herself well, and she didn't back down from her assertion that Cheney has no credibility when it comes to issues of national security. The real fireworks came, however, when Rep. Mike Pence rambled off a litany of Republican talking points about the fake outrage of the week: Obama's handshake with Hugo Chavez:
The look on Pence's face at the end is priceless. He knew that Hillary wasn't a fan of Obama's approach to foreign policy during the campaign, and he expected Secretary Clinton to give a half-hearted, mealy-mouthed answer to his question. Instead, he got what I think is the best answer we could have expected from any cabinet secretary in defense of the president they serve.
Whether you're a Hillary fan or not, you've got to admit she stood up for the president and gave an effective response to the Republican nonsense. While I still have some issues with the way the Clinton capmpaign was run, Hillary proved to me today that she's got the president's back.