Secretary of State Hillary Clinton missed tonight's State of the Union address given by President Barack Obama because of a busy schedule of international conferences. Clinton is currently in London, discussing options on policies toward Afghanistan and Yemen with other world leaders. As State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said this afternoon "He (President Obama) made it clear given the importance of these issues that her place tonight was in London, rather than here in Washington. " Clinton was scheduled to attend a conference on Yemen today and meet with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai tomorrow. This is obviously the right decision, as it's more important for Clinton to attend to her duty of foreign relations than it is for her to see Obama's speech. This might also be sending a message to the other countries Clinton is negotiating with that the U.S. means business when it comes to Afghanistan. As Crowley said, it's been a while since a Secretary of State missed the State of the Union, but Clinton has more pressing concerns right now than listening to our president speak for and hour. Read more at http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/01/27/secretary-clinton-misses-state-of-the-union-speech/.
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