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Obama, Clinton and Machiavelli
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We have known for weeks that President-elect Obama was going to offer the Secretary of State position to Senator Hillary Clinton. In the official announcement today, Obama has laid those rumors to rest, but has intensified another round of questioning; why would Obama offer this prime post to his formal rival?
As I pondered this question, my thoughts became centered on “The Prince” by Niccolo Machiavelli, not on the overused phraseology of “the end justifies the means” but on a little known excerpt I have typed below:
“I will merely say that these men who at the beginning of a new government were enemies, if they are of a kind to need support to maintain their position, can be very easily gained by the prince, and they are the more compelled to serve him faithfully as they know they must by their deeds cancel the bad opinion previously held of them, and thus the prince will always derive greater help from them than from those who, serving him with greater security, neglect his interests.”
In layman’s terms, Machiavelli is saying that Obama will be served faithfully by Hillary Clinton because she has her reputation to mend. It is a win-win; Obama gets a faithful Secretary of State while Hillary recovers any lost ground in public perception because of the long and sometimes ugly primary battle between the two former opponents.
See Mom, I told you that political theory course would come in handy someday.
