Posted By Josh RoginWednesday, November 10, 2010 - 1:06 PM Share
Maybe Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been hiding her sense of humor all this time,
or maybe she was just feeling relaxed and relieved as her two-week tour of Asia
reached its conclusion. But whatever the reason, she loosened up in
a Nov. 7 interview with Australian radio hosts Hamish and
Andy, pontificating on gravy chips, the Kardashians, Chinese food, and her
"Goldilocks theory" of how to deal with foreign governments.
"If you look at American TV as much of the rest of
the world does, you would think we all went around wrestling and wearing
bikinis," she told the radio hosts, who were asking her about the difficulty of
explaining the United States to a world youth culture that gets its information
from cable television shows, such as Keeping up with
the Kardashians.
Clinton also described how she interacts with
foreign governments who aren't living up to their responsibilities to their own
people. Too much pressure can be counterproductive, she said, but letting poorly
performing governments off the hook is just as bad.
"I've got this Goldilocks theory of foreign
relations," she said. "It's not too hot; it's not too cold. You've got to get
it just right."
She also described the delicate discussions she
often has with husband and former President Bill Clinton over their take-out dinner decisions.
"We practice different models of negotiation around
important issues like that," she said. "Because if I were to say to him, as I
have on many occasions, ‘What shall we have for dinner tonight?' If he says to
me, ‘Oh, I don't care; you choose,' I know that's a really bad answer, because
then I'm stuck with the responsibility."
The hosts pointed out that if those dinner
negotiations were overheard and taken out of context, they could cause a diplomatic
row.
"You want to make sure people don't know that he had half of the
conversation, because you've got [a] former president talking to the current secretary
of state: ;‘How do you feel about Chinese?' ‘I don't know. I don't really like Chinese.'
That could be catastrophic," one host said.
"That's why we have our rooms swept [for listening devices] every day,"
Clinton shot back.
Read More
(0)
HIDE COMMENTS LOGIN OR REGISTER REPORT ABUSE