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Hillary, Lying Low?

A blind source makes a good observation about Hillary Clinton to Laura Rozen--that she has made virtually no domestic TV appearances.

"Who is talking about foreign policy on those shows? [David] Axelrod. Who is showing up at the meeting with Obama-Peres? Axelrod. They are controlling the message.... You have not really seen the secretary of state in the U.S. media; you've seen her in the international media. Who is their main messenger on foreign policy?"

Rozen has since updated her item with strong protests from administration officials who say Hillary hasn't been muzzled and was asked to do at least one round of Sunday shows on a weekend she wound up visiting Iraq. Nevertheless, there's no doubt that she's been a conspicuous contrast with Condoleezza Rice, who became near-ubiquitous on US television at the end of the Bush years.

P.S. The mention that David Axelrod was in Obama's meeting with Shimon Peres this week underscores that Obama's top political advisor seems to have had a noteworthy involvement on the foreign policy side. I also noticed that Axelrod accompanied Obama on his to Europe and Turkey last month, for instance, although it's possible he was just there to talk about political events back home....

--Michael Crowley