One of America’s greatest strengths is its potential for redemption and renewal. We saw that again Tuesday during Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton ’s confirmation hearing to be President-elect Barack Obama ’s secretary of state.

After eight incredibly self-destructive years — when President Bush bullied and alienated this country’s friends and enabled far too many of its enemies — Senator Clinton promised a return to a foreign policy based on “principles and pragmatism, not rigid ideology; on facts and evidence, not emotion or prejudice.”

To a Congress bitter about the Bush administration’s arrogant disregard of its opinions and its constitutional powers, she pledged full consultation. Mrs. Clinton also pointedly forswore “petty turf wars.” We, too, recall how Donald Rumsfeld insisted on controlling every aspect of the Iraq war — and the disastrous cost.

At any other time, talk of pragmatism, principle and cooperation might be dismissed as boilerplate. After the last eight years, it is cool water in the desert.

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