Anatomy of an Outburst: Why Did Hillary Clinton Get Angry in Africa?

Aug. 12, 2009— -- Seemingly insulted, Hillary Clinton bristled Monday when a Congolese student, speaking through a translator, asked her to state her husband's opinion -- rather than her own -- on a trade deal between China and Congo.

The outburst made headlines mostly because it was such a rare moment for Hillary Clinton, known for a steely control of her temper.

While most of us can't relate to being one half of America's most powerful political couple, or to even having an opinion on Chinese trade contracts in Congo -- let alone a husband with opinions on them, too -- we can certainly relate to feeling upstaged or put down.

There Clinton was in Kinshasa, sweltering away in nearly 100-degree heat, recovering from a broken elbow, expounding on just the sorts of things Americans don't want to read about when they drink their morning coffee and pick up the paper: wartime rape, illegal mining, the World Bank.

On this, her longest overseas trip as secretary of state, she looked and sounded very much like America's senior diplomat. Until, that is, she was asked to convey her husband's opinion on the trade agreement.

Adding insult to injury was Bill Clinton. Fresh off retrieving two American journalists from the indignities of the North Korean gulag, and still basking in the headlines and accolades that followed, the former president was in Las Vegas Monday living it up in the conditioned air of one of the city's most expensive steak restaurants as he celebrated his 63rd birthday (several days early).

One cannot help but understand why Hillary Clinton got angry. But nor can one be expected to ignore a senior diplomat whose statements were anything but diplomatic.

"Now she's secretary of state and the world still wants to know what HE thinks about the World Bank. She's the nation's chief diplomat, and HE's the one who gets to save damsels from North Korea's Mr. Evil," wrote conservative columnist Kathleen Parker in an e-mail.

"As secretary of state, obviously, she needs to keep her cool. But as wife of Bill, who can blame her? That little eruption has been a long time coming. The only surprise is that the student who posed the question didn't suffer any burns," she wrote.