As IF Times

link Can John Kerry top Hillary Clinton as secretary of state? – The Week.

The notion that Hillary Clinton is deserved of praise and admiration for her term in office as Secretary of State is like a parent at their 10 year old’s music recital jumping to rapturous applause after a tortuous 3 note rendition of Amazing Grace.   At best, it’s tone deafness and at worst, it’s revisionism.   Other adoring parents will likely join in with the swooning admiration of the special and talented performance.  On the other hand,  passers by outside the school could easily mistake the sounds as cats being made into violin strings.

The state of journalism has devolved into the more commercially successful direction of being fans  and apologists for favored politicians and news-makers.   Like Joan Rivers at the Oscar red carpet parade, politicians are treated as celebrities known as much for their shoes, their hairstyles and their dates rather than for any genuine talent for their jobs.  “Hillary! Hillary! Was that an Armani pantsuit you were wearing while watching the Benghazi riots?”  Or, “How do you stay so slim after logging all those flight miles?”   Some may remember years ago a “celebrity” by the name of Rula Lenska, internationally known and acclaimed actress that no one had ever heard of.   She did a number of Alberto VO-5 commercials and was billed as famous….well,  for being famous.

Hillary inherited that mantle from Ms. Lenska.  Hillary became “internationally known and acclaimed diplomat”.  During her time as Secretary of State, there were constant photo ops of Hillary de-planing in some area of conflict in the world, or huddling at some microphone laden meeting tables with goofy looking politicians.   If nothing else, at least these goofy politicians took the time out from their life and death conflicts for these photo ops.  How often do you get to meet with a rock star? “Hey, Mohammed, turn on channel 5, I’m on TV with Hillary Clinton!”

But after the staged photo ops and earnest speeches, the fighting typically resumed and mayhem continued.   She used the same playbook as the ex UN secretary Kofi Annan who was famous for his standard line of “both sides must show tolerance” especially as it applied to one sided conflicts.   If absolutely nothing at all of significance was resolved because of Hillary’s term in office, that would be acceptable, since the bar set for political fixes is low anyway.  But the fiasco that was Benghazi, the subsequent fake narrative explaining the incident and the kabuki-like congressional questioning should give real journalists pause before they anoint her as a rock star politician.

It’s as if you took your car into a mechanic who then allows it to be vandalized and destroyed but then explains it away by talking about the features of the new Corvette.  Journalists today allow that kind of misdirection and obfuscation so politicians are not held accountable by their actions.  Just the other day, Hillary was interviewed jointly with the President on the hard hitting news show, CBS’s 60 minutes.  It may as well have been Ryan Seacrest doing an exit interview on an American Idol contestant.

Diplomacy can be a tough gig and as described by Will Rogers, it consists of saying “good dog” until you can find a rock.  It means offering all kinds of empty platitudes and obsequious praise to tyrants and nincompoops, so the ability to speak elliptically is a desired talent.  On the basis of that skill-set, Hillary is indeed the Mick Jagger of politics.

link Al Gore stands to gain about $70 million after selling Current TV to al-Jazeera – Washington Post.

I actually applaud Al Gore for making the wise business decision; he sold out.  Hmm, maybe that didn’t come out right.  Apart from his political career, Albert Gore is at heart a businessman and a very good one if you look at the record.  Despite an undistinguished political career, he wound up being invited to the boards of Google and Apple, both gigs that soothed the hurt of not being elected President.  I don’t think we can begrudge somebody who starts humbly and then and builds himself a business empire worth hundreds of millions.  Well that’s not true, Mitt Romney was begrudged.   If you acquire you wealth through fortuitous marriages like John Kerry or Nancy Pelosi, there’s much less stigma attached to your wealth,  there’s more dignity to it.

I’m sure it must have galled Al that he didn’t receive perpetual lifetime royalties  for inventing the Internet.   Despite this setback, he was still able to get into the film business, made an eco fantasy movie and received a Nobel prize for doing so.  Heck, if Michael Moore can make money off fantasy films, so can he.  But Nobel money only goes so far when you have expenses such as private planes, limos and beach houses to upkeep.  You can’t spread the gospel about wasting resources and global calamity in a dogsled living in a two-wide trailer.   A guy starts an enterprise which, from the beginning was predicated on a ridiculous premise, makes no money at it and then sells it off for $500 million dollars?  That’s sheer genius.

In the wake of this recent successful business coup, staffers at the soon to be renamed Current TV are bewildered at what they perceive as the blatant hypocrisy and mercenary actions taken by their fearless leader.  Selling eco sensitive Current TV to Al Jazeera is akin to selling  a veggie restaurant to KFC.  Dennis Miller said it best when he noted that Gore profited greatly from the prophet business.   Staffers should have gotten a clue that something was up when the Christmas bonus included some free gas cards and prayer mats.

Keen business school students should stay tuned for Al’s next great adventure.  We don’t know what calamity will soon befall all earthlings, but you can bet it will be lucrative.