Saturday October 31, 2009, 8:45 pm
Hooray! Hillary Clinton has taken her gloves off! The blue headscarf she wore in Pakistan was becoming (great look, solves the hair problem), but she has finally doffed her metaphorical burqa.

Her sharp words on Thursday when she told a bunch of Pakistani journalists that she found it "hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they [al Qaeda] are and couldn't get them if they really wanted to” was a burst of candor that we’d like to hear more of.

"There is a perennial frustration in our reactions to women of power: we want them to do more, get tougher, fight harder on behalf of their own gender."

Or think we’d like to hear more of. There is a perennial frustration in our reactions to women of power: we want them to do more, get tougher, fight harder on behalf of their own gender. Allison Samuels’ article about Michelle Obama in this week’s Newsweek picks at the first lady for risking “failure” by “playing it safe,” and concludes that “some of the first lady's reticence may stem from a desire to avoid the missteps of her predecessors, especially Hillary Clinton.”

On Thursday night I found myself pitted against Samuels on Campbell Brown’s CNN show, with me cast as the nice one defending all those photo ops of Michelle wielding her scissors at recalcitrant parsnips in the White House vegetable garden. I argued—out of sisterly wish fulfillment, I now realize—that the first lady was just biding her time before a power surge next year. She has, after all, always been good at pacing herself. “Not my plan” is a recurring Michelle phrase in interviews when she reflects on how her husband’s political stardom had intruded on her own conception of what constituted a true partnership. But she is such a big, red-blooded star herself that we yearn for her to take center stage.

• Fatima Bhutto: Hillary’s Visit to Pakistan Is a Charade! Now we’re told that next year she will be the White House point person on childhood obesity. That’s nice. Plus, she visits the veterans a lot. So far, so traditional. But that power surge of frank speaking we hunger for is hardly realistic in a media culture where a flying sound bite can impale your agenda for the next six months. When Michelle showed her kick-ass side on the campaign trail ("For the first time in my adult lifetime, I'm really proud of my country") it caused so much flak for her husband that she was pretty much sent into hiding for two months...

Do we really expect her to stick her neck out again and start sounding off on all the things Samuels wants her to raise hell about, like condoms and AIDS prevention as part of the already-contentious healthcare debate, or a full-scale attack on the junk food lobby? After all, if a first lady whose approval ratings are higher than the president’s raises an issue as a big national problem, isn’t she implicitly demanding that he do something about it? Is he going to thank her for that as he spends his long, grueling days shoveling out his predecessor’s economic Augean stable?

Hillary is more of a quandary to the still-devoted sisterhood. It’s a constant irritant to them not just that she lost the primaries to Obama, but that she was then denied the vice presidency because, again, of a man. In his new book The Audacity to Win, Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe describes his boss’s musings about whom to tap for the second spot on the ticket. “I think Bill may be too big a complication,” Plouffe quotes his boss as saying. “If I picked her, my concern is that there would be more than two of us in the relationship.” Now that she’s in the third-biggest job, at the State Department, there remains an insidious carping vibe that she’s boxed in by boys who steal her thunder—not just the jostling high-profile envoys she helped to choose, but by preening grandstanders like Senator John Kerry, recently dispatched to Kabul to broker the election rerun with Karzai.

But those who long for Hillary’s big, rebellious moment forget that she is by nature a cautious politician, more like this president than the one she is married to. There is nothing radical about Obama except the fact of who he is. The same could be said of Hillary, who is by nature judicious and incremental and very pro-military, at times a little too dazzled by the medals and broad chests who come to give her briefings. Let's not forget it took an ugly Pakistani reception and a car bomb to rattle her from her smiling script.

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Hillary is "the would be President" but is NOT!...She stabbed Obama in the back during the 'run ups' and he was kind enough to employ her anyway...But why?...She openly sides with Israel on expanding their "settlements" into land that does not belong to them. Obama does not. Is this one loose cannon that America does not need in respect to peace for all?

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Tina Brown (The authour of this article) is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Daily Beast. She is the author of the 2007 New York Times best seller The Diana Chronicles. Brown is the former editor of Tatler, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and Talk magazines and host of CNBC's Topic A with Tina Brown.

Sunday November 1, 2009, 6:06 am
Women certainly have their place in society... but not when it comes down to try to behave like a man.. best she be keeping her burqa on - least in that we know she is still a lady

Sunday November 1, 2009, 9:46 am
Hillary makes good sense to me, 100% right. WOW. Comes a but unexpected.

Sunday November 1, 2009, 2:50 pm
Personally, I have an affection for women who do not know their place, and aren't "ladies"...

Strange, unnecessary slant on the news. Burka ? Who cares ?

Sunday November 1, 2009, 5:24 pm
Personally I have an affection with women who do know their place...Women have every right and talent to be as good as men but there are women who see their God given right is to not only be as good as men but to be better than them...I find this sad...

To me Hillary is symptomatic of this...A VERY power seeking woman, with few scruples, an overwhelming desire for power and a "To hell with everyone but ME" attitude...

Sunday November 1, 2009, 5:34 pm
Why did I say that?...Hillary recently condoned Israel's expansionist "settlement" policy...Obama does not...Has Hillary overstepped her power seeking mark?...Peace in the middle east does not matter to Hillary...How does Obama and the rest of the world feel about that?...

Hillary is a loose cannon, thinking only of Hillary...Do we really need that?

Sunday November 1, 2009, 6:38 pm
I think that she has done a commendable job so far. I like that she presents strongly, and candidly. That she holds positions that I'm in opposition to, uncomfortable, but so far she is presenting appropriately to policy. Is she a loose cannon? I'd agree that there is potential, but I don't see her going rogue. (sorry, it was the word I chose to use)

Sunday November 1, 2009, 9:15 pm
I wish we could get rid of all this ridiculous role playing crap and just be who the heck we are!!!!!! I don't follow those rules I am who I am ain't nobody going to change that. Been there done it never going back!!!!!!

Sunday November 1, 2009, 10:54 pm
Tierney, I believe that I agree, if I'm understanding you. By role playing do you mean being identified by gratuitous sexist remarks and attitudes? Rather than based on your record? We can espouse positions and beliefs that may seem to contradict our {this is pathetic} expected gender responses, but to be judged, likely misjudged, by this chauvinistic standard hardly seems fair.

If she oversteps and actually attempts to set policy, as compared to expressing her opinions, then we would certainly have a problem.

Monday November 2, 2009, 12:18 am
Hillary Clinton is a warmonger, she has blood on her hands.

Monday November 2, 2009, 1:54 am
One simple question to Mrs. Clinton
You are surprised that the government of Pakistan is unable to locate AlQaeda? Where are all the advanced,beyond imagination,James Bond,Technological tools USA possess?

Monday November 2, 2009, 2:45 am
Hillary is demonstrating that she has substance. The President may one day regret appointing her, in my opinion. Wearing the Burqa is part of conforming to the expectations of the country that she is in. I have been impressed with her actions to date but she will have substantial challenges ahead.

For those that love to refer to the US as bullies, isn't it interesting that when our officials negotiate with other countries they attempt to conform to that countries lifestyle. Does that occur, at a similar level, in the reverse?

Monday November 2, 2009, 7:17 am
I believe Hillary is a power seeker, in a way, but, she will be this way because she is one of the first. She is setting new ground. Doesn't mean anyone has to follow her lead. Her testing of the waters, will make it easier for women who are appointed to these positions next to carry out what they see fit.

Monday November 2, 2009, 11:32 am
easy people! Hillary ego is badly bruised, she is the wife of Bill, and the wronged wife too, the whole world knows what billy has done, so she has to stand up one inch taller to show that she is a tough power!
and she lost her dream position, and she didn't even get the 2ND best!
have mercy on her! :)
peace , namaste

Monday November 2, 2009, 12:24 pm
If Hillary is out for herself than what are all these other politicians out for- us? Laughing Out Loud you have got to be joking! No politician or to be fair very few are out for the people they are supposed to represent. They are a bunch of clowns in monkey suits that talk trash just more politely to the public. Why has Hillary been put on the stand? Oh thats right not the right gender different suit. She has to be tough. it takes a tough woman to make it alone in this world and basically she is alone. Bill betrayed her. She should have dumped him after they got out of the whitehouse for the mere lack of respect that he showed her. Suruna- Yes you did understand me right.

Monday November 2, 2009, 3:11 pm
If anyone thinks a Clinton, Kennedy, Bush or Rockefeller represents the average citizen, might I suggest s(h)e is wearing a burga too tight -- and backwards. Hillary is just another representative of the Corporate War Party -- the Vichey Democrat faction -- as opposed to the Republican Fascist faction.

Monday November 2, 2009, 3:30 pm
True Ralph! and we are the one who are giving them the power to be who they are, and to control us! sad but its true!

Monday November 2, 2009, 5:30 pm
Some of us like the fact that women take their rightful place in Society and speak out on issues they feel strongly about. But...oh yes there is a but in the statement. But she comes with a lot of baggage...the years of playing second string to Bill...well that must rub off...and them being pipped twice on jobs she had set her heart on...the top spot or the 2 I C...both denied to her. That can make anyone mean.

But she also suffers from a lack of diplomatic expertise. The art of getting your own way is to know when to keep quiet as well as when to speak out. Twice this week she has offended people. Once with her implied criticism of the Pakistani Government and next in going right down the line of the Israeli lobby ignoring the Human Rights of the Palestinians.

Neither statement bodes well for her position as a diplomatic representative of a 'New' America dedicated to change. Nor as I understand things do they tune in with her bosse's thoughts...unless that was just rhetoric.

In one week she has been offensive to an ally and set back the cause of Middle East Peace by several years...Nice going Hilary...please do not come to the UK to try and sort out our postal dispute...we would like it settled someday soon.

Monday November 2, 2009, 8:05 pm
Hillary Clinton is the finest model of modern day woman that our younger generation of women can look to as an example of what women can accomplish when and if they have a mind to, Her deportment in every area is beyond reproach and her ability to see the picture and how she fits into it and can contribute in a meaningful way is beyond commendable.

Monday November 2, 2009, 8:56 pm
How come loud mouthed male politicians can get away with a more than occasional burst of their real thoughts, and a female one is taken to task for it!? Good old fashioned way to view things. After all the BS she has had to put up with, I think Hillary Clinton should be commended for her ever present equanimity, when faced with the "good old boys club" to this day! But this only my opinion.

Lync

Monday November 2, 2009, 10:35 pm
Hypocrits!!! The USA has killed many more people than Al Qaeda has killed - including in each and every year since Al Qaeda was created!

Al Qaeda and the Taliban and Afghanistan's "Northern Alliance" warlords were created by the CIA, anyway, in the late 1970s, as part of a U.S.-Pakistan armed and trained fundamentalist movement of rich landlords and fundamentalist mullahs who hated the land redistribution and progressive reforms in Afghanistan and wanted to fight against progressive, egalitarian and labour union movements in Pakistan....

Tuesday November 3, 2009, 2:35 am
Oh dear, here we go again, David. I much prefer Hillary doing the job she was appointed to do than have Obama show up in a burqa. Of course, now YOU in a burqa might be worthy of a pic here on Care2. Got any?

Again, stop blaming a woman, or even THIS woman on the crimes of her predecesors - all of which didn't even KNOW what a burqa was!

Tuesday November 3, 2009, 2:37 am
P.S. You know who's taking/posting all these pictures of Hillary? Rush Limbaugh, Jon Kyle, Dick Cheney and their rich ol' men's club cronies!

Tuesday November 3, 2009, 2:50 am
Hillary is not wearing a burqa only a head scarf. Will people please stop calling everything a woman wears overseas a burqa? By the way, there is nothing wrong with a head covering. Catholics in the US used to cover their hair in church. And Hillary is doing a good job...

Tuesday November 3, 2009, 11:02 am
I find it hard to beleive that we dont know exactly where Osama bin laden is and that we have done nothing to find him. I guess it is because he is on the cia payroll.