It looks like it could really happen and Barack Obama will name one time rival Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. It would be a smart move on his part.
There have been a lot of criticisms of Hillary Clinton on just about every front and she clashed bitterly with Obama in the nomination race, but they have both moved on. She campaigned hard for Obama when she was needed (harder than some defeated candidates have done so previously) and her role in ensuring that her support stayed with the Democratic Party was important to the final result.
It looked briefly like she might be vice president, but this is a much better job for her and for Obama and maybe neither of them really wanted her as VP.
Bill Clinton will obviously be in the background, as both an asset and a possible area of contention, but she has already shown she can run her own show quite apart from her husband and having her as the US’s number one foreign diplomat sends out a strong positive message.
Her appointment would demonstrate a political maturity on Obama’s part and it would unite the Democratic Party. He needs all of that going into what is going to be a bumpy political and economic first term in the Oval Office.
Yes they have disagreed on issues of foreign policy, but since the election much more has come into focus particularly regarding Iraq with a confirmation of a US withdrawal by 2011.
The only thing standing in her way could be Bill Clinton’s business dealings. I hope it’s not a deal breaker.
