Many claim that there would be a Clinton vs Obama 2. I would not go that far, but Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is clearly venting her frustration at the length of the vetting process of nominees appointed by President Obama. She feels that President Obama is not pushing them fast enough through Congress.

First, lets put ourselves in Secretary Clinton’s shoes. Who would not be angry when six months through the Presidency, you have got to tell other countries that a lot of the nominations like the Surgeon General of America or the head of USAID positions are not filled up? Especially so when there are other democracies that can do it within weeks or even days.

However, as I said in a few articles ago, the United States has one of the best systems of government in the world, or even the best one, because of all the check and balances in place. One of the best things about the American form of governance is that every nominee that is nominated by an elected President goes through 2 separate chambers of government that are all elected by the people. In this way, there is assurance that the President does not have too much power in his hands.

In some cases, the Republicans requested some time. E.g. They requested that they be given 3 months for the nomination of Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor. This is on the grounds that when President Bush was around, he gave Democrats that amount of time for vetting his nominee. I believe that that is a very fair.

Also, in this era, there is a good amount of openness when it comes to non-classified information. We can easily follow what Congress is doing with CSPAN or in sites such as www.thomas.loc.gov or www.opencongress.org. The very notion that an American can see and know what is going on, is a sign of a very great country that United States is to me.

I think that on this case, Secretary Hillary Clinton is very wrong on this issue. I also wonder what kind of President she would have made, if she is already impatient and bothered with decisions that has nothing to do with her appointment. In my opinion, I think she would have been an iron lady, someone that is of similar mold as the late UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and the late Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.

President Obama should be careful though of not tick off Secretary Clinton. He still needs her to win another term. Make her more mad and he would pay the price, as I do not think he is able to sideline her politically.

That being said, I hope that President Obama does not take Secretary Clinton’s advice at all. I think that that would be a big mistake and a stepping on of democracy in America.

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There is an international support for ousted Honduran President Manuel Zelaya. He is considered by the world to be ousted by a coup d’etat. But looking at the facts again, you would see a much different picture. It is still illegal, but it might not be that wrong.

There are not many things that can unite the world, but the ousting of President Zelaya is one of them. That is sad to some extent.400 000 people died in Darfur and that split the world, but when there is a bloodless coup in Honduras, everyone seems to agree on this.

To put it flatly, President Zelaya is a power lusting leader. This entire thing would not have started if he could control his power urge. He disobeyed his own courts and pushed for a referendum that was illegal. He wanted to change the constitution because he wanted a third term. President Zelaya wanted power that he was not supposed to have, but he did not care.

There is also another thing that has not been told by any other media or opinion sites. The Supreme Court of Honduras and the Attorney General wanted to arrest President Zelaya for going ahead with a referendum which he renamed as a “opinion poll”. Yet, the military took over and flew him to neighboring Costa Rica. That is something that is really fishy. Why couldn’t law enforcement just arrest him? The Courts demanded it and it was not illegal at all.

I like that President Obama has left this to the Organization of American States. But I am really uncomfortable with the fact that US is supporting a President that every politician in Honduras want out. He must have done something wrong that made him so unpopular and that is his power grabbing mannerism. I worry that history repeats itself. Leaders that seem to stand on local support rather than foreign support usually wins. The best example of this is the Russian Civil war between the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks.

I do not think what the Honduran government did was right at all. I think that they should have followed their Supreme Court’s order and arrest the President. The army should not have jumped the gun and fly him out of Honduras. If Honduran politicians got a problem, they could have done it legally. They could have done to him what the people in Illinois did to Governor Rod Blagojevich. They could impeach him, which political process had already begun. They had the right to arrest him. But they did not have any right to launch a coup de’tat.

I think that Honduras should also take note, that no matter how decent the intentions of the Honduran army is, allowing a coup to happen could start a trend in Honduras. Thailand is a great example of this. There is every chance that the Army has tasted power now, and would want more of it later.

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