Good For Her: Hillary Clinton's Candor In Pakistan

I'm not a big Hillary Clinton fan. But I'm not a hater either. I'm not sure whether she really is being marginalized in the Obama administration despite being Secretary of State, as has been rumored. But I really liked a couple of the blunt responses she gave yesterday to some questions asked of her during her state visit to Pakistan.

She said that she believed the government there was harboring top al Qaeda leaders. ("I find it hard to believe that nobody in your government knows where they are and couldn't get them if they really wanted to.") And in response to a question predicated on the belief that new restrictions on a multi-billion dollar foreign aid package to Pakistan requiring the country not to support terrorist groups was "insulting," she said firmly, "Pakistan doesn't have to take this money. Let me be very clear, you do not have to take this money. And if Pakistan doesn't want the money, we're not going to impose it on you." Good for her.

I'm not sure how productive it will have been for our foreign policy in general (and our relations with Pakistan in particular) to have our Secretary of State say such things so openly. But you know what, it felt good anyway. Embedded below is a 2 minute segment from the CBS Evening News last night about this.

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