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  3. With all the fuss over Obama and Romney’s duelling speeches about the econom

With all the fuss over Obama and Romney’s duelling speeches about the econom

游客2023-12-15  25
问题     With all the fuss over Obama and Romney’s duelling speeches about the economy in Ohio yesterday, an intriguing political yarn hasn’t received much attention: early last year, Timothy Geithner tried to get Hillary Clinton to take his job as Treasury Secretary.
    It’s well known that Geithner has long been keen to return to New York for family reasons. (It would be surprising if he hadn’t also grown weary of all the criticism he’s received, from liberal Democrats as well as Republicans.) In the spring of last year, according to a humdinger of a story by the Washington Post’s Ned Martel, Geithner suggested that Hillary could replace him, and the White House took the notion seriously. If Geithner had quit, the Administration would have needed a heavyweight replacement who could be confirmed quickly, and the Secretary of State met both requirements.
    According to Martel, William Daley, who was then President Obama’s chief of staff, broached the idea of a job-switch with Clinton, and she "expressed cautious interest." But a source close to Clinton that Martel quoted had a different take. This person said Hillary "listened respectfully and politely."
    I bet she did. In diplomatic circles—that is, in Hillary’s circles—to say that the Secretary of State listened to somebody "respectfully and politely" is really to say that she heard the person out without gagging or tossing her paper weight. Secretaries of State are paid to listen "respectfully and politely" to Third World dictators who run countries where the U.S. has military bases, to Afghan warlords who are on the side of the U.S.-backed government, and to former K..G.B. agents who are running Russia.     Obviously, Bill Daley doesn’t fall into any of these categories, but his intimation to Clinton that she might move from Foggy Bottom to 1500 Pennsylvania Avenue must have been about as welcome as a suggestion that she have an elective root canal. As Secretary of State, Hillary might not have any great policy successes to her credit, but the job has done wonders for her popularity. While Geithner and Obama have been battered for their handling of the economy, Clinton has been donning her sunglasses and BlackBerry and flying around the globe, burnishing her approval ratings and her credentials for a possible run at the White House in 2016.
    Clinton has said that she isn’t interested in another Presidential bid and that at the end of this year she plans to retire. There’s no reason to doubt her words. But politicians have been known to change their minds and un-retire. Clinton could be another. A couple of years away from it all, with a gig at an Ivy League college, or somewhere similar, and the former First Lady might feel very differently about things. She is a Clinton, after all: politics is second nature to her.
    If nothing else, 2016 is an option well worth keeping open—and replacing Geithner could well have closed it off. As Treasury Secretary, Clinton wouldn’t have been able to avoid responsibility for the weak economy. And she wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it—no more than Geither was able to do, anyway. By the start of last year, there was little the Treasury Secretary could do: the 2009 stimulus was running down, and the Republicans on Capitol Hill were blocking virtually anything the Administration suggested.
    No wonder Hillary didn’t show any enthusiasm for Geithner’s idea, which ran into other objections, as well. The negotiations over the budget and the debt ceiling were getting serious, and, according to Martel, the White House was concerned about a big changeover in staff at the Treasury Department. Plus, the President wanted Geithner to stay in place.
    So, Hillary stayed where she was, and everybody except Geithner was happy. He tried to be a good soldier. As Martel recalled, he appeared onstage with Bill Clinton at a meeting of his anti-poverty charity, the Clinton Global Initiative. Asked by the former President about his career plans, he said he lived for the job and would be doing it for the foreseeable future. To which Bill replied: "Good for you. That’s good for America."
    And good for the Clintons, too.
                                                From The New Yorker, June 15, 2012 [br] In the author’s opinion, which one of the following would be more like Hilary’s initial reaction to Geithner’s proposal?
选项 A、calm and composed on the surface
B、disinterested in reality
C、ambiguous
D、envious
答案 A
解析 本题为推断题。从第四段I bet she did和后面的“respectfully and politely”可以看出来，作者认为，作为国务卿，希拉里被要求面对这种问题时都要表现得沉着冷静、不卑不亢，因此选A；而选项B虽然在第八段No wonder Hillary didn’t show any enthusiasm for Geithner’s idea中得到了反映，但这是作者经过分析推断出来的希拉里的想法，并没有选项A那么明显地带有作者的意见。
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