Hillary’s Monday news round-up

For all you Hillary newshounds, here’s your Monday round-up.

• Hillary Clinton is not expected to hit Davos this year, though the State Department does plan to be represented. It’s actually probably a smart idea that her first trip abroad in the midst of two military conflicts, a crisis in Israel, and a worldwide financial crisis is not to a ski resort to be photographed with Angelina Jolie.
• She attended a mid-afternoon huddle with Barack Obama and new Middle East envoy George Mitchell (who would have thought we would envy George Mitchell?) to discuss Mitchell’s upcoming mission to Cairo, Jerusalem, Ramallah, Amman, Riyadh, Paris, and London. Mitchell leaves tonight. 
• Journalist Bernard Goldberg, whose latest tome catsigating the media for its liberal bias is set to be published by a conservative publishing house, has an interview out in which he blames the media (and not the 18 million-plus-one 17.5 milion voters (updated: thanks for all the comments and corrections on that point! didn’t mean it literally, but should have made that clear) that voted for the other guy in the primaries) for Clinton not being president: 
  

  She’s the biggest single loser in all of this. If the media had done its job early on, Hillary Clinton would have been the nominee for president of the United States and probably elected president of the United States.

Not the sexism in the media, mind you, its liberal bias. Sexism is a thing of the past, obviously.

• In more interesting interviews, Madeleine Albright granted one to National Journal‘s Amy Harderin which she talked about the way Hillary is viewed by the rest of the world and the ways that cooperating with your former rival helps with the perception of American in the world.

First of all, I think she herself is a known quantity abroad. When I was secretary and she was first lady, it was very evident that she had quite a large and resounding international role. She was identified with human rights and women’s rights and generally showing a very positive side of America. I think she is so well-known abroad, and having somebody that is that well-known is very important. The other part is something that I think is essential, and that is that it is showing what democratic elections are like in the U.S. — you argue and you run against each other, but you are capable of developing a partnership.

This is similar to what Feminist Majority Foundation President Eleanor Smeal told me last week, actually. Albright also had praise for Clinton and “smart power,” which was maligned by Fox News last week.

What she said [Thursday], which I thought was very interesting, is that national security policy is like a three-legged stool — there’s defense, there’s diplomacy and there’s development, and the State Department is basically responsible for two of those three. I would advise her to really make that a very central part of what she does — is to make sure people understand that smart power, which she talked about a lot, is the way to show the best side of America.

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