JUDITH: I think because you know that the president is listening to her. That’s a very good reason for wanting to know what she thinks and what she’s saying.

MARY: Well, I’ll tell you what I think Hillary ought to do, for whatever it’s worth. Obama is surrounded by a lot of very sharp young people who haven’t been in a lot of government, whom he has deliberately collected during his campaign. So Washington, at the moment, has the professionals who have been there and who know what to do, and he has a bunch of very sharp, open-minded young people. And I would think that if I were Hillary, I’d collect some of both groups and I would try to get some new ideas, especially about what in the world to do about Pakistan. It’s our Achilles’ heel. I think that no matter what else we may work out, Pakistan could be our unsolvable problem that’s going to eat us alive.

JULIA: I agree with Mary. The first thing that Mrs. Clinton’s doing — focusing on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. If we don’t solve that, we can just forget it. Really not a whole hell of a lot has happened since James Baker was Secretary of State and we had the Madrid Peace Conference. That formula has never really been adhered to since — under the United Nations Security Council resolutions. President Clinton tried to make progress. Even George W. Bush, in 2002, called for a two-state solution. But nobody’s put it on the line and nobody’s been as tough minded with the Israelis, especially since James Baker’s day, and it was one of the reasons I voted for George H. W. Bush the second time, because it was the first time I’d seen so much progress. If Secretary of State Clinton could channel a little of that, that’d be great. And I also think that Mary’s totally right about Pakistan — and Afghanistan.

When I was in Afghanistan about four years ago, it was a literal pile of rubble. And from all reports, the infrastructure hadn’t changed much. I remember a quote from some general over there saying, “Where the road ends, the Taliban begins.” And there ain’t no roads.