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Hillary Clinton is a lot of things, "diplomatic" is not one of them

By Scott Ross

| Monday, Dec 1, 2008 | Updated 8:27 AM EST

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The world was a safer place when these Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama hated each other.

He once begrudgingly called her "likable enough," she dismissed his foreign policy views as "irresponsible and frankly naïve." So why is it that Barack Obama's is nominating Hillary Clinton to be his secretary of state?

They spent nearly two years locked in a bitter contest for the Democratic nomination, and now she's supposed to be the chief diplomat of the Obama administration? Foreign leaders are expected to believe that when they speak to her, they're speaking to the president of the United States?

It's possible they didn't follow the campaign, though not likely.

In March Clinton introduced what would become an oft-repeated refrain, that the entirety of Obama's candidacy was based on a single speech.

"I have a lifetime of experience that I will bring to the White House. I know Senator McCain has a lifetime of experience that he will bring to the White House. And Senator Obama has a speech he gave in 2002."

And that 2002 speech isn’t even the one that made him famous. It's the speech he gave in opposition to waging war in Iraq.

Christopher Hitchens, a seasoned Clinton hater, has observed that her chief foreign policy experience consists of "making a fool of herself in fabricating a story about Bosnia."

That story, of course, was her recollection – on more than one occasion – of her plane being forced to land due to sniper fire. She later explained away the gaffe by saying she was tired. Did she tell that story at 3 a.m.?

And now she's going to travel the world, meeting with heads of state on Obama's behalf.

One can barely wait for the first time Clinton makes a demand of a foreign leader and is told that her views are "irresponsible and frankly naive."