Hillary Clinton has decided to step down as Secretary of State. Who will succeed her to run the State Department?
So far, it’s widely believed that United Nations Ambassador, Susan Rice, will get the call. It’s one of the most powerful positions in the administration, and her candidacy is controversial, so it’s time to get up to speed and get to know Susan Rice.
That is, if she gets nominated and if she can survive Republican opposition.
Who is Susan Rice?
Currently she’s the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, which means she represents the U.S. in nearly all UN General Assembly meetings.
Rice got her B.A. from Stanford and Ph.D from Oxford. She has served on the National Security Council for the Clinton Administration, managed a think tank and worked on the Obama campaign. So she’s pretty much a foreign policy superstar.
She was inspired to go into politics partly from witnessing genocide in Rwanda, Africa:
“I saw hundreds, if not thousands, of decomposing corpses outside and inside a church. It was the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen. It makes you mad. It makes you determined. It makes you know that even if you’re the last lone voice and you believe you’re right, it is worth every bit of energy you can throw into it.”
How would Rice approach the job? It’s likely that she would emphasize diplomacy and cooperation.
No word yet on whether Rice texts, though.
Hold up. What does the Secretary of State do?
The Secretary of State sits in the president’s Cabinet as the highest-ranking appointed official in the Executive branch. The focus is foreign affairs, diplomacy, and representing the United States around the world.
Sec State’s duties:
1. Negotiate and meet with world leaders on issues that concern the United States.
2. Represent the United States to foreign governments.
3. Advise the President on anything foreign policy-related, from appointing diplomats abroad to dismissing representatives.
4. Oversee the State Department which is responsible for the international relations of the United States. (The State Department has over 265 embassies and missions all over the world.)
What is ‘diplomacy’?
Basically, this:
How do you become Secretary of State?
People with deep foreign-policy or military knowledge and experience usually make the most attractive candidates for Secretary of State.
It’s not an elected position. It’s appointed. The process, which can take weeks or months, goes like this:
1. The president considers potential candidates, which usually involves making background and conducting interviews.
2. When the president makes his choice, he releases it to the public and formally notifies the Senate.
3. The Senate Committee on Foreign Relations holds a hearing. The candidate can be approved or rejected. If it’s a rejection, the process starts over. If it’s an approval, the candidate is debated on the floor of the Senate.
4. Finally, the Senate votes. A simple majority confirms the nomination, and the new Secretary is sworn in and gets to work.
With Democrats holding a majority in the Senate, it’s likely Obama’s choice will be approved.
Who is Rice up against?
Well, there’s no official “short list,” but people in the know say Rice has at least two pretty well-known competitors.
Jon Huntsman, former Republican presidential candidate (and father of the Huntsman girls), has just about as much experience as Rice.
He has served as the U.S. ambassador to both China and Singapore, and helped develop trade and commerce development in East Asia.
And then there’s Senator John Kerry, who chairs the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee. In 2004 he was the Democratic presidential candidate, and lost a fairly close race to George W. Bush.
Fun facts: Kerry’s predecessor as committee chair was Joe Biden, who, natch, Obama tapped for VP. And another former chair, Dick Lugar, has also been mentioned as a possible Sec State. If Kerry is passed over for State, he’ll be in the position of leading the hearings to confirm … someone else.
In another sense, Rice is up against some Senate Republicans, who are not happy with the idea of her taking over State after remarks she made on TV about the attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi.
The GOP says she misrepresented the incident on a morning talk show, calling it a “spontaneous” attack fueled by anger over an anti-Muslim video.
She’s come under heavy fire for those remarks:
And Obama has defended her:
Republican leaders in the Senate have met with Rice this week, and they’ve all voiced concern about and even opposition to her candidacy.
Aside from those TV remarks about Benghazi, there are some other factors that will also play a role in Rice surviving the nomination – if Obama nominates her.
Whoever it is, the next Secretary of State has some big shoes to fill, right?
Definitely.
Hillary Clinton will step down from the position of Secretary of State after having traveled over 867,196, miles, according to the State Department’s tracker.
Aside from texting, Hillary is a very powerful diplomat who is also a former Senator, First Lady, and presidential candidate. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the Arab Spring are just two hot issues she’s had to deal with – and that the next Secretary of State will have to address too.
But now she’s taking a break instead of continuing to serve in Obama’s administration for another four years. (Rumor has it that she might return to politics for the 2016 presidential race.)
Other famous Secretaries of State include Henry Kissinger – known for his work with China, the Soviet Union, the Middle East, and the Vietnam War – as well as Madeleine Albright, the first female to hold the job, and Colin Powell, who was the first African-American in the role.
There’s one thing for sure: who ever gets the nomination will have to deal with a long list of the foreign policy challenges, and they aren’t pretty.
The Kicker
Now that you’re up to speed on the Secretary of State story, here are some things you can do.
Small:
Follow Ambassador Rice on Facebook >>
Subscribe to the statevideo YouTube channel >>
Medium:
Express your views by writing to your senator >>
Or write to President Obama >>
Large:
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