If you have to demand that people respect you, it comes off as either pathetic or a joke. Neither Madeline Albright nor Margret Thatcher had to go around demanding that people respect their authority. In some of her public appearances, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appears bristle over the idea that someone might not respect her power and position.
It does not really help to have Bill Clinton and Bill Richardson intervening in the one of the most important matters of war and peace on the planet-namely North Korea. To be fair, a former President has a cache and a presence that can be achieved in no other way. And Bill Richardson was born to be a diplomat. It is not unusual for an administration to use back channel avenues and special envoys to get deals done. It just looks bad for Hillary because she seems thin skinned.
It also did not help that Hillary broke her elbow and was out of commission for a little while or that the press which has spent entirely too much time on Hillary's pant suits, cleavage and hair, wonders aloud if she is being made irrelevant.
When an African translator botched a question from an audience member to Hillary Clinton she was furious. The translated question sounded as if the questioner had no interest in what Hillary's opinions were, but he was keenly interested in the opinions of Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Hillary reminded the male questioner that she was the Secretary of State and that she was not a ventriloquist's dummy.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had a point. Much of what is wrong in the third world stems from the ill treatment of women and if women were given greater respect and primacy in the world only good could come of it. However, in the world press, Hillary came off sounding shrill and thin skinned. It was as though the bad old Hillary, the imperious First Lady who did not want her staff members to approach her or look her in the eye, had re-emerged.
In her better moments Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seems the happy warrior. Going from country to country spreading Barack Hussein Obama's messages of peace, apology and capitulation. Being the top diplomat in a world where many nations treat women as second class citizens is not an easy task.
When Hillary Clinton lost the race for the Democratic nomination many of her constituents wept bitter tears. They were older women who did not think another woman would have the chance to be president in their lifetimes. Part of the frustration Clinton and the press may have is that realization. But for the most part, Hillary Clinton seems to be making the best of the hand she was dealt.
Maybe Hillary is setting things up to run against Barack in 2012?