I must confess at the outset to a personal fondness for US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Even as the simple spouse of a presidential candidate, then Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, Hillary already captured the imagination, breaking the mold of the traditional political spouse who stood silently by her husband and kept to a strictly domestic (meaning, household) agenda during her husband’s term.

From the beginning, the Clintons sold themselves as a “two-for-one deal.” During the campaign, Bill promised that his wife would play an important role in his administration, implying that her skills and intelligence as an experienced lawyer would be employed to help shape policy. He promptly put her in charge of health care reform soon after his first electoral victory, to disastrous consequences. Sure, there was the vicious fight mounted by the HMO lobby, but her failure to build consensus was in part due to the distaste of “middle America” for a pushy, assertive, outspoken and pugnacious woman who, it seemed, had simply married into her job.

It was in these turbulent times that I particularly took notice of Hillary, and cheered her every effort to overcome the stereotype of the political spouse. True, after the health care reform disaster, she consciously adopted a lower profile, hewing closer to what image-builders said the average American was looking for in a First Lady. But even with this softer image, she kept giving her outspoken support to causes close to her heart, including human rights and women’s rights.

At the Beijing Conference of Women, as former Sen. Leticia Ramos-Shahani said on ANC, Clinton was “the superstar” of the international meet, telling a jampacked auditorium in Huairou that “women’s rights are human rights.”

I was a supporter of Hillary’s candidacy for president, and was disheartened by the sexist coverage of the campaign mounted by American media. But her best moment, I believe, was when she gave her concession speech at the Democratic National Convention, when she exhorted her “sisterhood of the travelling pantsuits” to stand fast behind Barack Obama who would deliver on the promises of a more caring, more humane administration.

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TODAY, the Philippines is playing host to Clinton, no longer as a presidential spouse but as America’s top diplomat. In their last visit here, the Clintons were still reeling from the disastrous outcome of the mid-term elections where many of the Democratic defeats were attributed, fairly or not, to the public’s antagonism to Hillary.

It was clear the couple appreciated the rousing welcome they were given by Filipinos, surely a respite from the vicious atmosphere of Washington, D.C. During this visit, though, Clinton arrives not as a wife beaten and bruised by political pummeling, but as secretary of state, the wielder of carrot-and-stick, charm and gunboat diplomacy.

My own appreciation of Hillary’s guts and grit don’t blind me to what must be her main role: the upholder of US strategic interests, the main negotiator for American advantage. The US Embassy has made clear time and again that the reason for her visit is not the Visiting Forces Agreement, which some senators want to re-negotiate. Instead, it is to take a personal look at the devastation wrought by “Ondoy” and “Pepeng,” as well as to turn over substantial aid and assistance to the survivors. But it seems incongruous for an official of her rank and prominence to come all the way here simply to play social worker.

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IF Clinton was motivated by concern for one of the earliest manifestations of climate change, she could way better express her concern to alleviate if not prevent the coming catastrophe in Copenhagen next month, where world leaders will come together to discuss the new global climate change agreement.

Reports from the ongoing negotiations indicate, however, that the United States is standing fast on its demand for “softer” conditions, to lessen the amounts of emission reductions and to extend the timeline for compliance.

Given this tough negotiating stance on the climate talks, what can we make of the visit to Marikina but a PR stunt, a way of giving the US government an image of compassion and caring? This, despite its intention to continue having its merry, destructive way in the face of scientific evidence and the very real suffering of the poor around the world.

So I say welcome to Secretary Clinton and hope she enjoys her very brief stay in the country. But may I also add that I hope the next time she comes to visit, she will match image with substance, and bring her own personal ideology and beliefs to bear in her work as a diplomat and shaper of American foreign policy.

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I’VE received word that the public response to “Spreading the Table,” a fund-raising effort of LifestyleAsia magazine and various hotels which I wrote about in last Sunday’s column, has been very positive. Two other hotels—aside from the Mandarin, Dusit Thani, Sofitel Philippine Plaza, and Peninsula Manila —have expressed desire to participate in the program, while a credit card company and a telco have offered to “spread the word” to their customers via their statements of account.

“Spreading the Table” is a project of the magazine and the hotels, where special dishes featured in the pages of LifestyleAsia will be served in the hotels’ restaurants. For every order of these dishes, a portion of the amount charged shall go to a fund for survivors of Tropical Storm “Ondoy” and other disasters. The fund will be managed by the Metrobank Foundation.