Clinton Redux

01 December 2008 |permalink | email article

Today’s announcement by President-elect Obama that Hillary Clinton will be Secretary of State was best summed up by Bob Woodward on CBS yesterday: “They’re never going away.”

It was an unsubtle hint, with C42 finally agreeing to release a long-secret list of 208,000 donors to his library/foundation by year’s end, about a Clinton restoration—however implausible at the moment—in American politics.

The secret list was part of the former president’s nine concessions to Obama’s transition team to avoid “even the appearance of a conflict of interest” between the work of Clinton and Hillary Clinton’s nomination and confirmation as secretary of state—fifth in succession to the presidency.

Obama will also announce the retention of Sectary Robert Gates at the Pentagon and retired Marine Gen. James Jones as national security adviser, selections which have drawn wide bipartisan support despite growls from some purists on the left.

But it’s the Clinton announcement that will attract global attention, partly because of her husband’s presidency and Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book, “Team of Rivals,” which has become Obama’s Lincolnesque penchant for appointing former political adversaries.

A recent Los Angeles Times editorial suggested that “a canny and charismatic secretary of state can be useful, however, only if allies and adversaries see her as the president’s absolute alter ego.”

In regard to the Times’ proviso it’s clear that despite Clinton’s 3 a.m. campaign ad call to the White House implying Obama was not ready to be commander in chief, foreign policy will be run out of the Oval Office, not at State.

While Clinton will have direct access to, and speak for Obama on critical international and national security issues Vice President Joe Biden and Gen. Jones will be part of the troika and carry significant clout in the clash of ideas.

Next: From State to White House

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