Clinton: A politician's touch in a diplomat's job 

Source: ReutersUS Secretary of State Hillary Clinton smiles

The politician's art of balancing combat and compromise should prove to be a crucial asset for new US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as she tackles a daunting array of foreign policy.

The former first lady and US senator traded two-party politics for six-party talks when she took the role of top US diplomat, but many of the same skills apply - sharp elbows, loads of patience and the ability to close a deal.

"To be successful, politicians have to be comfortable in the use of power and know when it's time to sit politely and listen and when it's time to make something non-negotiable," Hunter College professor Kenneth Sherrill said.

"The legislative process takes lots of bargaining and lots of work to establish credibility and trust. She will get plenty of that in her new job," he said.

President Barack Obama's choice of Clinton, his fierce rival for the Democratic presidential nomination and a well-known global figure, was a throwback to a bygone era when presidents frequently made prominent politicians their secretary of state.

In recent decades, the job has more typically gone to lawyers, academics, business leaders and, in Colin Powell, a former military officer. The last elected official in the job was former senator and presidential candidate Ed Muskie in 1980 in the final months of Jimmy Carter's administration.

Clinton's work in the Senate, where she won respect even from Republican foes for her willingness to reach across the aisle, and eight years in the White House, where the spotlight never left her and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, give her a rare background for the post.

Decades of campaign experience, including her grueling 17-month nominating struggle with Obama, also give her an instinct for the political pressures that inform foreign policy debates over areas like the Middle East.

Any peace initiative there will face intense examination by Jewish voters at home and by Israelis, who hold their own elections next month, and Arabs throughout the region.

'Unique vantage point'

"She has a unique vantage point to understand the political requirements of the job. A politician's touch can only benefit her and the United States," said Democratic consultant Doug Schoen, a White House pollster for Bill Clinton.

The personal experiences of a campaign - months of public scrutiny, long travel days with little sleep, and hours spent dealing with a fractious staff and shifting political allegiances - also could prove a good warmup.

Newly named Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell, a former senator who headed peace negotiations in Northern Ireland, is the most recent model of a successful politician turned diplomat.

"I once heard Mitchell credit his ability to sit through periods of intense disagreement between the two sides in the Irish peace talks to his years of sitting through legislative debates," Sherrill said.

After her Senate confirmation last week, Clinton plunged into a broad strategic review of US foreign policy in hot spots like Iran, North Korea and Afghanistan, proclaiming a larger role for diplomacy and development in US foreign policy.

At State Department welcoming ceremonies that had the feel of campaign rallies, she said her political experiences gave her an appreciation for debate and opposing views - up to a point.

"Maybe because I have been in the public eye and in the political world for what seems like a very long time now, I welcome debate and I am respectful of dissent," Clinton told workers at the US Agency for International Development during her second day on the job.

"Then I expect everybody, once we've made a decision, to work as hard as you can to get the job done," she added.

Analysts said Clinton's contacts and high profile could help her expand the State Department's clout at home, where it steadily lost ground to the Pentagon under former President George Bush, and give her more weight in internal administration battles over policy.

"She has one terrific Rolodex. You can see with the envoys she has appointed, some of them go back a long way with her. She knows the players," said Stephen Hess, an analyst at the Brookings Institution.

Her experience and global celebrity also could help open doors for her in foreign capitals, Schoen said.

"She'll understand how far she can push people, she'll understand the requirements of the international community, and being a Clinton and having run for president gives her a stature that means she will be taken more seriously than any other secretary of state since Henry Kissinger," he said.