Dems already tackling important issues

[SkinBasket]

In regards to confusion about the meaning of Hillary's well researched, Harvard crafted, self labeled "Smart Power" slogan for her new Secretary of State regime:

But Joseph Nye, the Harvard professor who coined the phrase, batted away the criticism.

"To talk about international affairs and not talk about power is like to going to Shakespeare to see Hamlet and not have the prince of Denmark present," said Nye, who authored "Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics."

Others defended the phrase too.

"I think it captures the integration of hard power and soft power," said John A. Quelch, a Harvard professor who studies global marketing and branding in emerging and developed markets. "I think the notion here it's not a either-or, but one plus one can equal three."

Branding experts are divided on whether U.S. foreign policy even needs a catchphrase. Nye said it does, and he cited the Bush Doctrine as evidence. Clinton, he said, has found the right phrase to sum up her approach.

"It's marketable," he said, "because it reminds people that America has soft power."

But Siegel said people are tired of branding.

"I help companies establish a voice," he said. "I think most people can't even identify these slogans or elevator lines with the companies."

Frankel said most people will think the phrase is referring to energy efficiencies.

But Carola McGiffert, co-director of the Smart Power Commission, launched in 2006 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies to examine how to restore America's image around the world, said the clarity of the phrase polled well.

"We've only heard positive things about it," she said.

This is how the new administration's been spending it's time readying itself for the challenges ahead? By balancing the purely academia trendy concepts of "hard" and "soft" power in a catch phrase that makes most people think Hillary is the Secretary of Energy? By finding ways to make 1 + 1 = 3?

At least it polled positively.

[texaspackerbacker]

If Hillary can apply the same combination of Clinton slickness with Clinton vindictiveness to foreign affairs as Secretary of State that she and Bill have always applied to political enemies, then the State Department is in good hands.

I see a mile-wide mean streak in her that if we can get it pointed in the right direction, will be hellaciously effective against our enemies--and spineless allies too.

I am dead serious when I call a lot of leftists "God damned America-haters". I have never seen the Clintons that way, though. They may be sleazy pragmatists, but they are generally, pro-American sleazy pragmatists, and that's exactly what you want in the "finesse" portion of our dealings with foreign countries.