Has Obama Intentionally Relegated Hillary Clinton to Third-Class Status?

By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street Blog

Hill, we barely knew ye. So funny that Secretary of State Clinton is back in the news again, after what seems like a prolonged absence. I remember being offended when hearing that last month ABC News Sunday talk show host George Stephanopoulos asked her exactly what her portfolio was, or words to that effect, since V.P. Joe Biden and other Obama administration males have succeeded in carving up large, juicy parts of the international issues territory.

Turns out he was right!

Secretary Clinton has been all but invisible since ascending to one of the most visible cabinet posts, and one wonders whether this was done on purpose. She had to resort to carping about the length of time it's taking to get her U.S. AID lieutenant in office in order to make headlines—that after her commander in chief globe-trotted back from Africa, Italy, and other parts of the world these past couple of weeks.

Tina Brown has an interesting take at thedailybeast.com:

It's time for Barack Obama to let Hillary Clinton take off her burqa.

Consider the president's Moscow trip a week ago. In a cozy scene at Vladimir Putin's dacha, the boys enjoyed traditional Russian tea and breakfast on a terrace. Sitting on Putin's right was the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. Where was Lavrov's counterpart? She was back home, left there with a broken elbow to receive a visit from the ousted Honduran president, José Manuel Zelaya.

I don't put it beyond President Obama to have purposely buried Secretary Clinton and denied her visibility. He strikes me as a politician who will say or do anything to get himself elected in the first place and re-elected in the second place. So he cut a deal, quieted down the Clinton contingent, and then went on to consign her to not second- but third-class status in what is normally a high-visibility post. So what else is new?

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