Hillary Clinton: Hello and Goodbye

The parallelism of Obama-Zapatero that has tried to sell itself is more apparent than real, and is more external than internal.

We have not had a visit from Obama, but we have had one from Hillary Clinton, who might just be the first female American president, a sort of consolation prize in almost idyllic relations. All that was conflicted in the Bush administration became an “ism” of U.S. policy when Obama came to the White House. Zapatero has done everything possible to bring him to Spain and achieve what Leire Pajin called a “planetary event.” But the many and large external and internal problems that awaited the new American president postponed the visit until Zapatero reached his final agony. In fact, the only “summit” that they had was through the telephone when, in May 2010, Angela Merkel called Obama to tell him that the Spanish resistance of adopting drastic cuts could derail the European Union. Obama then called Zapatero to request that he take them; it was enough to give a complete turnaround in economic and social policy.

An echo of that call was present during Hillary’s visit when, after praising the reforms made by the Spanish government, she asked firmly for their completion. Despite all of his promises, he has not completed them.

The visit, moreover, went peaceful, with an air of farewell. The U.S. secretary of state met with the King, with Zapatero, with Rajoy, preferring to reserve herself the first night instead of having the official dinner that her Spanish colleague had prepared her. Hillary loves Madrid, as we remember from a previous visit when she bought herself a Spanish cloak. She is not the only Clinton that likes to skip the protocol, although even so, within an order.

And this is how an era is closed of Spanish-American relations marked by harmony, except in some impetuous outbursts of Defense Minister Carme Chacón, resolved immediately by Zapatero. There is no doubt that her approach has tried to sell a parallelism between the two presidents: both are young, attractive, they like basketball and they both have young daughters. But the differences are much greater and deeper: Obama had to sweat to get to where he is; meanwhile Zapatero’s presidency was basically gifted to him. More importantly, the American came into office with a huge conciliatory desire; he did retain some of the Bush cabinet members, willing to solve the most urgent problems of his country without changing his approach. Meanwhile, the Spaniard came ready to turn to Spain, rewrite its history, and leave the opposition like a leper. In other words: Obama is a man of the center. Zapatero is a radical, although he hides it behind a smile. The result is that the U.S. will solve its problems, while ours will increase.