Here's a piece of advice for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: I'm sure it's been frustrating being cut out of decisions by the Obama White House. But it's not worth currying favor with your boss by following in his footsteps and, when abroad, boosting him and his administration at the expense of the country. You're Secretary of State of the United States of America, not just an operative of the Obama administration. Speak for America. And that means don't say, as you did in Bangkok yesterday, "The United States is back." The AP explained, presumably based on guidance from Clinton's staff, "By that she means the administration of President Barack Obama thinks it's time to show Asian nations that the United States is not distracted by its wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and intends to broaden and deepen its partnerships in this region." This is ridiculous. The Bush administration did a fair amount of broadening and deepening relationships in Asia. And there was never much partisan dispute about Bush Asia policies, or criticism of them. The Obama administration is basically continuing them in virtually all major respects (which is mostly for the good)--and it would be hard today to say what major differences exist between Bush and Obama policies with respect to India, China, Japan, Indonesia, etc. In fact, the Bush administration probably had more Asia-focused policy-makers at high levels--Rich Armitage and Paul Wolfowitz, to mention two--than the rather Euro-centric Obama administration. But that's not the point. The point is that it's simply inappropriate for an American Secretary of State, when abroad, to trash the recent policies or alleged recent attitude of her country--especially of course when her administration is pretty much continuing those policies. But even if her administration were making changes, the self-promoting comments at the expense of her predecessors would be inappropriate. Ronald Reagan and George Shultz certainly spent time at home explaining how Reagan's foreign policy differed from Carter's. Where there were serious policy changes, I'm sure they also made those clear when abroad. But I'd be surprised if you can find Reagan or Shultz, when traveling abroad, gratuitously dumping on their predecessors' foreign policies for no purpose other than to promote themselves. If only for the sake of her own self-respect, Secretary Clinton should stop doing so.