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A reluctant Hillary Clinton resigned her Senator’s position and took oath as the Secretary of State. The former First Lady became the first one to be in the United States cabinet. Her husband, the former President Bill Clinton, had to sign off on many conditions to relieve concerns about potential conflicts of interest. By January of 2009, her approval rating had soared to more than 65 percent, the highest she had reach since the Lewinsky scandal that rocked the White House at its very foundation.
On the other hand, this was not going to be an easy task for Clinton despite her acceptance rating. There were a number of issues she needed to address and devise a plan of action that could potentially put U.S. foreign policy back on track. This was not going to be like convincing a potential buyer that you have the best prices for new cars, Clinton was going to have to convince foreign soil that the U.S. was behind, not only her views, but her gender as well.
Secretary Clinton spent the first few days and months talking to global leaders and giving them a sense of direction that the U.S. foreign policy would take. This included a candid message that there was a lot of damage to be repaired. She proposed and secured not only an expanded role of the US State Department but also a 7 percent increase in its budget.
Despite an elbow fracture in June, Secretary Clinton did not slow down. She made great reforms in the way the State Department was managed and reviewed by setting specific and measurable objectives for each of the diplomatic missions abroad. She also came out with the Global Hunger and Food Security Initiative at the yearly meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative run by her husband. Fighting global hunger became part of the U.S. foreign policy. This was a major shift from just reacting to food shortages across the globe. She also gave a boost to the cause of women farmers.
As part of her “repair the damage” tours she also faced a barrage of direct questions in the worldwide tours she undertook. She earned a lot of respect by her bold and blunt dialogues with the people and leaders she interacted with. Secretary Clinton is probably the best thing that happened to the United States since the second Gulf war.