"Man of the Year" vs. Mrs. Clinton

There's an interesting conversation going on today over at Ben Smith's Blog at The Politico. 944 comments and counting as of The FDC post time.

The gist of it is that back in New Hampshire Mrs. Clinton made a remark about Russian President (and soon to be dictator) Vladimir Putin not having a soul. A Russian reporter asked Putin about that comment and according to Ben Smith:

"The former KGB lieutenant colonel appeared to lash out at U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton — a leading Democratic candidate for president — when one reporter quoted her as saying that former KGB officers have no soul:"At a minimum, a head of state should have a head," Putin said."

With 934 comments on Smith's blog, obviously this has struck a nerve with many people. It doesn't hurt that this blog got "Drudged" either. Putin won that exchange, no question about it. He made Mrs. Clinton look foolish.

The FDC agrees with Mrs. Clintons opinion, but just the fact that she let this remark slip out of her mouth shows that she is a dipomatic/foreign policy newbie. No matter your personal feelings (or more accurately for Mrs. Clinton, her political feelings she projects to the public) you have to use tact with what comes out of your mouth.

The left and the MSM are always portraying the Republicans as having a ham-handed screw-you type diplomacy/foreign policy. But, George W. Bush met with Putin and said that he saw Putin's "heart". Who's got the ham-handed screw-you foreign policy now? Mrs. Clinton is always touting her so-called foreign policy experience she gained as the wife of the President. If that were true, Mrs. FDC would make a great real estate broker (since she's married to one). This just goes to show that if one of the Democratic candidates becomes President they are going to have to operate in the real world. In other words, they'd have to make tough decisions, then act, speak as a leader, and live with the consequences of those decisions, actions, and words.

As much as Mrs. Clinton showed poor judgment, I fear Sen. Obama would fare even worse against the likes of Putin and Ahmadinejad. They must be licking their chops at their prospects of toying with and manipulating either Mrs. Clinton or Sen. Obama.