If Bill Clinton can secure the release of the two women taken hostage by the regime in Pyongyang, it will be fantastic news, and worth every awkward “Bill Clinton Goes to North Korea for Women” headline.

Still, one can’t help but wonder how the Secretary of State feels at this moment. First her duties are limited by a slew of special envoys; now her husband is given responsibility for the most tense and dramatic diplomatic mission of this young presidency.

UPDATE: Bill Clinton’s transition into his most recent Democratic predecessor is complete: Word is that Clinton met personally with Kim Jong-Il.

Obama may not have held a face-to-face summit with a dictator without preconditions, but he got another American president to do it for him.