Hitch seems to have a visceral antipathy for the Clintons, for reasons that aren't abundantly clear. They're certainly not the first politicians to be tainted by questionable fundraising practices, by business deals that don't smell right, by association with lobbyists and favor-seekers that make you want to shower; nor are they the first politicians to blur the line between America's interests and their own financial well-being. Politics is a dirty game and the Clintons are very good at it, though the sanctimony of their credo of public service is somewhat at odds with their naked ambition. Perhaps Hitchens could further enlighten us on what, apparently, makes the Clintons such reprobates that one can almost hear him spluttering as he writes.

I suspect there are 2 reasons Obama had to appoint Hillary:

1. as payback for her and Bill campaigning for him in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida;

2. because it's important to keep your friends close, and your enemies closer.

Despite this, she's a poor choice; what American foreign policy needs post-Bush is a voice that is moderate and conciliatory, and those are not qualities that come immediately to mind when one thinks of Hillary.

Moderate and conciliatory would only not come to the mind of people not paying attention. Hillary's voting record is more toward than Obama's, and she has earned praise from many Republicans for her bipartisan work in the Senate. I can recall Senators Graham and Lott saying that they had prejudged her unfairly, thinking she'd be a partisan hack.

The inadequacies of my attention-span notwithstanding (and I must admit I have not done the sort of detailed comparison of their voting records that allowed you to conclude that Hillary's was "more toward" than Barack's), I would have thought that praise from Republicans (for any person or on any subject) is the last thing that American foreign policy needs at the moment. The rest of the world (among whose great unwashed I am numbered) hailed Obama's election because it, literally, seemed to change the face of America. But trotting out a seasoned old pol like Hillary as the face of American state-craft seems a reversion to business-as-usual, and an endorsement from Kissinger (an unindicted war criminal) doesn't help.