I hope others who aren't heading off to work can provide you with what you need to dispel this nonsense. I give you benefit-of-the-doubt, but it sounds like you've been hearing RW memes.

I'm not bashing him. I like Blinken personally. However, I can't help to wonder how things would be if Albright was alive and his position now.

by Franklin Foer and I came away being very impressed with Antony Blinken as well as Jake Sullivan. I really knew little about either of them. They both appear to be very experienced, competent, and extremely dedicated.

I highly recommend the book. Fascinating and informative look back at the first two years of the Biden presidency.

but corporate media and RWers and LWers will say he's not.

4 trillion articles especially from NYT will confirm with and polling will secure it, while they do their best to destroy democracy.

jesus, the kneejerk condemnation of the gray lady is so over the top at DU.

the SOS's job is to go around the planet and have governments yell at him. Blinken and the state dept almost had the Sauds recognizing Israel, so Iran & Hamas launched the 10/7 pogrom.

this OP is ridiculous.

He is a blessing.

What would you do differently if you had his position, in order to be more "effective"?

and expand NATO, so there's that.

The Middle East is the same nightmare it's been for quite some time now. I don't expect he can change that. I do give him credit for tamping down the reactions of the usual suspects to the ongoing violence in Israel/Gaza.

Overall I think he's been very effective.

Thank you. But it's hard to see him with no breakthroughs in the Middle East. He's going everywhere and they're just sending him back to DC with nothing to show for it.

I think Blinken has done a good job. He seems to be highly engaged in foreign relations, communicates clearly, and is working to further the administration's policies abroad.

not for his actions. We are too close in time to judge his effectiveness. If his boss is happy with him, I have to take that as a good sign.

Keeping our allies untied in support of Ukraine shows how effective he is.
Or do you think he somehow could have forced Russia to withdraw with the power of his negotiation skills?

Israel/Gaza is a mess, and NOBODY could resolve this.

The coalition backing Ukraine was led by the US, NATO was strengthened, and our allies in the Pacific are more unified in face of China.

The SoS has to deal with whatever problems erupt around the world. He heads a large department that tries to prevent things from blowing up.

The mess in the middle East is something we could not have changed. We don't have any influence over Hamas, which is by far the most to blame. We have only slightly more influence over Netanyahu and his very right wing government. It is clear that both Biden and Blinken have tried to moderate Netanyahu's response.

I assume it is the Middle East where Blinken disappointed you. Yet, I really don't see any former SoS being able to either control Hamas or keep Netanyahu from doing what he thinks is best for his personal political future or that of his VERY right wing government. That government is far more extreme than any past government, including ultranationalists and advocates for settlers in the West Bank.

Even without the extremist nature of the current government, consider that proportionately Oct 7 had more people brutally killed than we had on 911. Even a centrist government would have reacted strongly.

If Biden and Blinken are able to get a pause and keep this from becoming a conflagration in the entire region, they will deserve, but likely not get, enormous credit.

Netanyahu's brusque refusal left the hardworking Blinkin looking ineffectual at best. Netanyahu loves dissing Democrats.

A SOS isn't a "flashy" job, not being in the headlines all the time means he's doing his job and not being an idiot like everyone that orange man had.

Good grief. Let’s not bring this here.

to, what, exactly? Declare peace in the ME? Force Hamas and Nuttyahoo into submission?

And if it were public, people would not be talking about how the Administration isn't doing XYZ for the international issues abroad.
There's a lot of work being done in Middle East, in Africa, in Asia, in South/Central America that our homegrown Media Hoors and GOP mouthpieces are either ignoring or hysterically lying about for their own agendas.

Haele