GOOD MOVE FOR HILLARY – AT 6:01 P.M. ET:  We wonder if this cleared the White House, amidst all the speculation this week that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are, inevitably, drifting apart.  Hillary herself said that she wouldn't serve in a second Obama administration, a statement that didn't arouse much surprise.

She couldn't get to the left of Obama politically.  There isn't much room.  But she could get to his right on foreign policy, while maintaining her liberal credentials in domestic affairs.  That was the pattern for the Democratic Party at the height of its power.  Now Hillary makes a firm move in foreign relations, as reported by The New York Times:

PARIS — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton warned China on Friday that it would face economic insecurity and diplomatic isolation if it did not sign on to tough new sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program, raising the pressure on Beijing to fall in line with an American-led campaign. 

Speaking to students at the École Militaire, the prestigious French war college, Mrs. Clinton said, “China will be under a lot of pressure to recognize the destabilizing effect that a nuclear-armed Iran would have in the gulf” — referring to the Persian Gulf — “from which they receive a significant percentage of their oil supplies.”

Firmness toward China has not been a distinguishing feature of American foreign policy, and this is refreshing.  The Chinese have acted quite belligerently recently, and must understand that Americans are not marshmallows.  Well, not most of us.  Bush 41 was a notable appeaser of China, sending the "realist," Brent Scowcroft, to make nice to the Chinese while the blood from the Tiananmen Square massacres was still drying.  That set an embarrassing tone that has gone on too long.

Mrs. Clinton — in a flurry of meetings this week in Europe, including one with the Chinese foreign minister — has tried to build momentum for new measures against Iran. Britain, France, and Germany back the effort, and Russia, which has often blocked previous efforts, now seems ready to act.

Only China, which imports crude oil from Iran and has large investments in its oil and gas sector, has said it would prefer to continue negotiating with the Iranian government. With a veto in the United Nations Security Council, it could block a move to impose additional sanctions.

“We understand that right now it seems counterproductive to you to sanction a country from which you get so much of the natural resources your growing economy needs,” Mrs. Clinton said in comments after a speech on European security. “But think about the longer-term implications.”

COMMENT:  It still remains to be seen what kind of real pressure can be applied to China.  But the Chinese, with their burgeoning international trade and influence, certainly wouldn't want to be isolated at the UN on behalf of a rogue nation like Iran.

It will be intriguing to see where Clinton goes with this issue, and whether any daylight will open, in the off-the-record paragraphs of the nation's media, between and Hillary and Barack.

January 29, 2010