The "Smart Power" List

Brendan Hoffman / Getty Images The reigning philosophy in Washington is Smart Power—a subtle combination of brains and the wisdom to use them to get things done. Hillary Clinton embodies Smart Power. So do Michelle Obama and David Gregory. Who else makes the grade?

At her Senate confirmation hearing in January, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton uttered a phrase that was pitch-perfect for the Obama administration: “smart power.” This, said Clinton, represented the seamless merging of raw muscle with the more subtle art of persuasion– the twinning of the powers to coerce and convince, wielded together with deftness and savvy. Smart Power quickly became an Obama-era catchphrase, not only at home but around the world (“Le "smart power", nouvelle matrice de la diplomatie américaine” “A Hora do "smart power"” “Der deutsche Außenminister reist wieder gerne nach Amerika” “Хиллари Клинтон при Обаме превращается в Штайнмайера”) and portended a new foreign-policy era. Neither too hard nor too soft, Smart Power seemed just right—representing a sharp break from (and fairly clear dig at) the Bush administration, invoking Change and Hope and A New Way Forward, as opposed to Shock and Awe and Putting Food on Your Family.

Could anyone embody Smart Power more than Hillary Clinton? By all rights, she should have been toast after this election—yet there she was, being confirmed as secretary of State, a critical ally of the president. Clinton learned over the primary process just how far the brute force of Team Clinton would—and wouldn’t—take her, so instead she redefined the kind of power she held by becoming one of Obama’s best soldiers. From a candidate whose campaign began rooted in the loyalties and legacies of the past, Clinton retrenched and consolidated what she had built in the present—with a canny eye on the new realities of the future.

More broadly, Smart Power applies across the board to the new realities of 2009. To put it bluntly, the old way of doing things doesn’t work anymore—for anything. Every reality from a year ago seems hopelessly out of date—a thriving auto industry, actually owning a home, wanting to date an investment banker. Thriving and surviving in this brave and weird new world takes more than just the raw brute power of, say, money—Lehman Brothers learned how quickly that can go—or feeling smug over a print byline (especially if the article can’t be found online). How can Smart Power apply to those of us who don’t have to negotiate trade treaties or appease mad dictators? The Daily Beast asked Suzanne Nossel, the former Clinton-era deputy to UN Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, who coined the phrase in a 2004 article in Foreign Affairs. Nossel, now the chief operating officer at Human Rights Watch, could see how the concept might apply beyond the foreign-policy world, recognizing that applying Smart Power required that special game-changing extra spark. "It's not just about putting smart people in place—the Bush administration had many smart people, which didn't always make for smart policies," she said (cough, Iraq, Afghanistan, Katrina, cough). “We should exercise our power in ways that are sustainable instead of draining." So how does that apply to, say, media companies, or a junior senator? Simple—by being practical instead of ideological; by looking ahead and planning accordingly; by convincing others to support you. All of these things make for Smart Power, says Nossel: “Who uses tools hard and soft, who combines them in a supple way, who does it in a way that proves sustainable, who mobilizes others behind their ideas, who has a longer view."

In this Age of Obama, who does that describe? (Besides the bald eagle on the Presidential Seal, who holds 13 arrows in one claw and an olive branch in the other.) Here are some top picks for those who speak softly and carry a big stick—and an even bigger brain:

Getty Images Claire McCaskill—The junior senator from Missouri is not to be messed with—that much was made clear last month when she ripped Wall Street executives as being “a bunch of idiots” and proposed from the Senate floor that any executive taking government aid should have their salary capped to that of the president. It was a brilliant rollout—practicality plus shame plus the highest office in the land—and two weeks later, it was done—a big win for a freshman senator whose very election came down to a nailbiter back in 2006. Now she’s the president’s trusty go-to surrogate (there she is on Meet the Press!), her cherubic face calm and confident as she explains just how it’s gonna be. Oh, and she’s also on Twitter, telling you—and Paul Krugman!—how it’s gonna be there, too. She’s like that teacher you love but you do not cross.

AP Photo Michelle Obama—If you think the first lady doesn’t know how to use her power, just ask Ty Inc.—the Beanie Baby-manufacturing toy company which quickly recalled its Sasha and Malia-inspired dolls after a disapproving quote from their mother. Michy O. will not be bullied—not by black designers sulking about her fashion choices, not by designers hoping to get her out for Fashion Week—and we know she’ll have no problem telling Barack exactly what she thinks at any given moment. That doesn’t make her smile off the cover of Vogue any less beatific—it just reminds you that there’s a lot more to her than that.