secretary of state

posts about #secretaryofstate more →
Albright Says U.N. Ambassador Appointment, "Gave Me A Great Excuse To Shop"
Tina Brown-Style "Tide Of Trivialization" Threatens To Swamp Clinton Trip
Standing On Ceremony
A Head For Diplomacy
Hillary Is Pulling U.S. Foreign Policy Out Of The Shadows
Hillary Clinton Greets Her New Job, Staff With A Smile
Hillary Gets Official
Hillary Heads To The Floor
Hillary Clinton Talked The (Girl) Talk At Senate Confirmation
It's Going To Be An Oprah-guration!

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AndPreciousLittleofThat
10/22/09

In reply to Albright Says U.N. Ambassador Appointment, "Gave Me A Great Excuse To Shop"
I LOVE Madeline Albright for her collection of kickass and sometimes intimidating brooches. #madeleinealbright
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morninggloria
10/22/09

In reply to Albright Says U.N. Ambassador Appointment, "Gave Me A Great Excuse To Shop"
When I think "professor clothes," I think mortarboard and monocle. #madeleinealbright
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Kitten is an 80s rocker
10/22/09

@morninggloria: I believe you are thinking of Mr. Peanut. Or the Monopoly man.
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morninggloria promoted this comment Edited by Kitten is an 80s rocker at 10/22/09 10:39 AM

morninggloria
10/22/09

@Kitten is an 80s rocker: The Monopoly man and Mr. Peanut wear top hats, not mortarboards. Plus, they probably have their MBA's, so they wore those weird grad student caps. #madeleinealbright
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theKP
10/22/09

In reply to Albright Says U.N. Ambassador Appointment, "Gave Me A Great Excuse To Shop"
What's wrong with professor clothes? Or maybe I should ask, when did professor become code for masculine? #madeleinealbright
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haus_frau
10/22/09

@theKP: Maybe the professor clothes weren't formal enough? My professors wore anything from jeans to all Anthropologie-ish clothes.

It sounds more like the suits were more masculine feeling to Albright than the professor clothes. #madeleinealbright
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lermanzo
10/22/09

@haus_frau: i had some pretty frumpy female professors. lots of roomy cardis and ill-fitting skirts. i'm imagining that's what she means by "professor clothes" #madeleinealbright
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legs benedict
10/22/09

@haus_frau: I had a professor once deliver his economics lecture in black jeans and a black hooded sweatshirt, with the hood up. It was kind of great. #madeleinealbright
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ucelluccia
10/22/09

@legs benedict: I went to class one day dressed for a job interview, and my professor and I were wearing the exact same pants and fairly similar shirts. It was excruciating. #madeleinealbright
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ucelluccia
10/22/09

@lermanzo: That was my thought, too -- just enough above jeans and a t-shirt to not be casual, but not so much on the stylishness or proper fit. #madeleinealbright
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Clare116
10/22/09

@theKP: Pretty much anyone, man or woman, would be well-advised to ditch the professor look. Academics are the worst dressers in the whole wide world.

I went to Georgetown (where Albright taught) and there were a lot of bad dressers on the faculty. It wasn't so much that the women dressed too staid, but just a lot of ill-fitting stuff and specious "matching" of things in the same color that didn't really go. Professors aren't really trying to project power and confidence in the way that a diplomat needs to.

I am currently a sportswriter, and I would still say they dress better than academics. Believe me, that is a damning criticism.

Unrelated: I generally regard the Secret Service agent stationed outside Albright's house during the Clinton years as the One Who Got Away. We'd make eye contact and say hi everyone morning and once I turned around and peeked back and he was totally watching me walk away! Le sigh. #madeleinealbright
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theKP
10/22/09

@haus_frau: Ah, interesting. I was reading Albright's response about looking masculine as being about rejecting her professor clothes, but now that you say that, I can see the other reading. There's no dress code when we teach the way there is in the corporate world, but most of us own professional clothes that we wear at conferences. Maybe it's a generational thing, but I don't know of any female professors my age who don't own suits, which is why I was confused, since we already wear them. We just can't afford very many or to have them dry cleaned often. But the older generation of female profs came along before Banana Republic had perfected the female pantsuit, so maybe that's the difference.

It doesn't give me much hope for my ability to convince my graduate students not to worry about trying to afford a special teaching wardrobe on their meager stipends when even women as kick-ass as Albright have to get a new wardrobe as part of her job description. I know, I know, all people in the national spotlight have to be presentable and blah, blah fishcakes, but most instructors don't have that kind of money and really, the quantity of fretting that goes into dressing intellectual women is a huge emotional suck. I'm a hypocrite, and I do it to myself. I spent eight years getting an MA and a PhD, and what do I usually spend the night before my first classes fretting about: the syllabus? my lecture? whether I'm up on the latest research? Nope, whether I'll look professional enough in whatever outfit I've picked out. And what does it get me? At best a comment on an evaluation that I have cute skirts. Thanks? #madeleinealbright
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lermanzo
10/22/09

@ucelluccia: plus, if your the UN ambassador, you gotta look like a total badass ESPECIALLY as a woman. also, it shows respect for the office to dress for it, IMO #madeleinealbright
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theKP
10/22/09

@Clare116: I might resemble that remark.

Actually, I'm now pretty convinced that this is a generational thing. If someone describes "dressing like a professor," I think of a woman in a black skirt suit with knee-high boots. The outfit is professional, but the boots make it just a little off from what would pass in the corporate or political world. Well, pre-Sarah Palin, that is. She wears knee-high boots. Dear God, I'm pretty sure Sarah Palin dresses like my idea of what it means to dress "like a professor." I'm going off now to throw out my boots. #madeleinealbright
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Perhaps Not
08/13/09

In reply to Tina Brown-Style "Tide Of Trivialization" Threatens To Swamp Clinton Trip
Ah, Tina Brown. Forever putting the "former" in "former New Yorker editor."
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whynotshesaid
08/13/09

@Perhaps Not: I still have no idea how she held such a post. The New Yorker is so intellectual, and she is so vapid. The two just don't mesh.
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momo
08/13/09

In reply to Tina Brown-Style "Tide Of Trivialization" Threatens To Swamp Clinton Trip
Tina Brown should consider a position at the daily mirror, with a hairbrush in hand.
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NigelAstydameia
08/13/09

In reply to Tina Brown-Style "Tide Of Trivialization" Threatens To Swamp Clinton Trip
Wow, if a man said that...way to stick up for the ladies, Tina. The fact is, Hillary is Secretary of State, and Tina has been reduced to calling her fat on "Morning Joe" while odd clarinet music plays in the background. Your life has really gotten sad, Tina, but you earned it.
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Cicada
08/13/09

In reply to Tina Brown-Style "Tide Of Trivialization" Threatens To Swamp Clinton Trip
Fat thighs never kept Henry Kissinger from being taken seriously. Suck it, Tina.
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Little Green Frog (Wise Latina)
08/13/09

In reply to Tina Brown-Style "Tide Of Trivialization" Threatens To Swamp Clinton Trip
Of course she needs to get back to the gym. She needs to get purty like Sarah Palin. The Democratic Party needs a nice looking lady too.
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dummyfakeroller
08/13/09

In reply to Tina Brown-Style "Tide Of Trivialization" Threatens To Swamp Clinton Trip
How is Hillary Clinton supposed to land the cover of Self or Shape if she doesn't tone up her arms? Brown is obviously just looking out for Clinton's best interests...
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lijakaca
08/13/09

@dummyfakeroller: If it's Self, they can just Photoshop them out - no need to work out at all!
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YourScreenplaySucks
08/13/09

In reply to Tina Brown-Style "Tide Of Trivialization" Threatens To Swamp Clinton Trip
I was wondering why Tina Brown, whose successes are largely far, far behind her was being invited to opine on this matter at all. Then I hear that she is currently writing a book on the Clintons. I know can hardly wait to see what this slightly more upmarket version of Kitty Kelley has to say about them. This book will surely be as sober & incisive as her biography of Princess Diana.
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jezebelacious
08/13/09

In reply to Tina Brown-Style "Tide Of Trivialization" Threatens To Swamp Clinton Trip
I watched these this morning, and was bummed they didn't read my STFU, JOE (or similarly stated) email. I think the tone TB is taking is increasingly unnecessary - I do not think she was basically calling HRC fat but was referring to the idea of rejuvenating/getting your mojo back - and Joe really IS a fan of hers as SOS, even if he is a lunkhead. I gave serious props to Mika for calling shenanigans on this this morning and would love for us to be talking about echoing support vs. wtf is wrong with these people? I know, I know, we have to call BS when we see it, and Mika consistently raises the point of "if she were a man, this would NOT be an issue," let us underline that point!
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lionboy
08/13/09

@jezebelacious: Poor Mika has to constantly call crap on so much, only to be tut-tutted and laughed at by the menfolk. One day, I hope, she will have had enough of being treated like a secretary on Mad Men and start slinging boiling hot cups of Starbucks coffee into Scarborough's eyes.
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morninggloria
08/13/09

@jezebelacious: I bet that punching Glenn Beck in the face would help her get her mojo back.
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jezebelacious
08/13/09

@lionboy: @morninggloria: Punching Glenn Beck in his doughy (body snark on an a-hole) man-parts would return ANY thinking person's mojo. Mika's gonna effing burst one of these days btw Joe and Pat, I don't blame her...
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PhillyLass
08/13/09

@lionboy: Well, the boys might not tut-tut her if she made an articulate counter-argument. Her huffing and puffing sounded like the beginning of an anxiety attack. Are any intelligent, pulled-together women allowed on this shitfest of a show?
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ekrub
08/13/09

In reply to Tina Brown-Style "Tide Of Trivialization" Threatens To Swamp Clinton Trip
Part of HRC's effectiveness lies in her ability to focus on the task at hand. The opinions of window dressing like Brown, Dowd, et al. are never part of the calculus, and wishing won't make it so.
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yellow_dog
08/13/09

In reply to Tina Brown-Style "Tide Of Trivialization" Threatens To Swamp Clinton Trip
In the last six months I've just started to appreciate how smart and tough Hillary Clinto really is. She is so far above Tina Brown and Ann Coulter and their ilk, they can't even see her ankles from where they are.
Just keep on truckin', Hillary. You are awesome.
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WashingMyHair
08/13/09

In reply to Tina Brown-Style "Tide Of Trivialization" Threatens To Swamp Clinton Trip
Joe Scarboro needs to make me respect him by shutting his mouth and going away for a long, long, long, long time!
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NefariousNewt
08/13/09

@WashingMyHair: I second that.
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RStewie
08/13/09

In reply to Tina Brown-Style "Tide Of Trivialization" Threatens To Swamp Clinton Trip
I think it's a shame that so many in the media would rather body-snark Mrs. Clinton than do some actual reporting on what she is in Africa about. What we need here is a moderator, Jeze-style, that will disemvowel them as soon as they start down that road. All subsequent comments will have to be reviewed before airing.
And I can name several commentators that ought to just be banned.
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