Secretary of State Clinton?
The word is floating around that President-elect Obama has offered the job of Secretary of State to Hillary Clinton. Well, when Hillary's Secret Service motorcade goes sailing through the streets of Chicago it's sort of hard to keep the word quiet.
Which makes me think the story is true. I just can't believe that Obama would invite Hillary to Chicago for a meeting -- that is sure to be public -- unless he was serious about the offer.
It's also hard for me to believe that Hillary would go to Chicago to have such a discussion unless she were seriously interested.
That's not to say that she's made her mind up...just that it must intrigue her.
It would be a hard choice for her -- whether to stay in the Senate to possibly help pass a good health care plan, a long time dream of hers...or whether to, in a sense, mold the world.
The Senate thing is a little iffy. She's not a senior Senator. She doesn't run a committee. She's not part of the leadership...a leadership that can sometimes take years. To have a chance to be Secretary of State and go change the world...now that's pretty exciting.
She has proven to be a team player...there shouldn't be any doubt that as Secretary of State she would advance Barack Obama's policies around the world, not her own.
I think she'd make a great Secretary of State. With the economy still tanking, Obama will be preoccupied next year with domestic affairs. He needs somebody who could hit the ground running as Secretary of State...who knows all the players around the world, players who are familiar with her. She could concentrate on rebuilding our image abroad...she and Bill are beloved around the world.
Yes, we would get two for the price of one. But surely Bill will return to being engaged in international affairs through his Clinton Global Initiative...fighting AIDS and helping tsunami victims, etc.
You really have to hand it to that Barack Obama. It is a strength of his that he wants to go for the best...that he's not worried about former rivals, or who is associated with prior administrations. He wants the best.
Obama is a student of history, and it's been widely reported that he studies Doris Kearns Goodwin's book, "Team of Rivals." A book about the political genius of Abraham Lincoln and how he selected his Presidential Cabinet...how he asked heavyweights, who were much more prominent than he was at the time, to come join his Cabinet. As it turned out, his secretary of State, who was a rival, became his closest ally.
People are saying that Obama, like Lincoln, is "keeping his friends close and his enemies closer." But you could also say that with Hillary as part of his Cabinet, he is establishing the Democratic Party as Barack Obama's party...eliminating any claim the Clintons may have to a "Clinton wing of the Democratic Party."
One smart cookie, that Barack Obama.
