Clinton Looks to Reassert Herself
Top diplomat wants to shake perception she's been kept in the shadows
Updated 9:46 PM EST, Wed, Jul 15, 2009
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will fight the perception that the Obama administration has marginalized her in a speech designed in part to help vault her back into the national stage, according to a report.
Though Clinton has positioned herself as a power-player abroad and internally, the nation's top diplomat has kept a low profile for the first six months of the Obama administration -- but the White House insists it's not trying to dim Clinton's mega-watt star power, Politico reported.
The nation's top diplomat has made on appearance on a Sunday morning talk show and had made none until last month. The White House press office tried to book her three times before but she refused the invitation twice because she was overseas and once because she was in New York, an official told Politico.
Her broken elbow also lessened her visability, preventing her from going with Obama on his most recent overseas trip.
Clinton is set to make a speech long in the making to the Council on Foreign Relations tomorrow that will frame the nation's policy abroadand also reassert herself at home -- and even weave together themes she harped on when she was first lady.
"She is bringing the concept of 'it takes a village' to foreign policy," Brookings Institute President Strobe Talbott told Politico.com.
Clinton appears more comfortable expressing her own views and will make her case domestically on Wednesday but doesn't want to be too out of sync with the Obama administration, officials said.
"It's a White House-dominated foreign policy," he said. "The president's clearly in charge."
First Published: Jul 14, 2009 6:20 AM EST
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