Hillary cabinet talk gets shockingly serious
Now that finding out whether or not Hillary and President-elect Obama met face-to-face when the junior Senator from New York was in Chicago this week is out of the way - they did - the “breaking” stories and breathless reports of the pending insertion of Hillary as the chief head on Obama’s “Team of Rivals” totem are popping up everywhere. You can’t help but chattering about the possibilities with everyone, including the publicly tight-lipped Obama transition team and Sen. Clinton’s equally modest office.
Huffington Post says they have cracked the code around Hillary at State and have confirmed from two anonymous Democratic sources that Obama personally offered the job of secretary of state to Hillary at that Chicago meeting.
President-elect Barack Obama offered Sen. Hillary Clinton the position of Secretary of State during their meeting Thursday in Chicago, according to two senior Democratic officials. She requested time to consider the offer, the officials said.
Multiple reports have indicated that Clinton was under serious consideration for the nation’s top diplomatic post, in addition to Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry and Chuck Hagel, the Republican Senator from Nebraska.
A longtime aide to the New York Senator argued to the Huffington Post that there are strong reasons why Obama would be inclined to make the post worth Clinton’s time.
“She is a beloved figure around the world. She has visited over 80 countries, as first lady and senator together,” the aide told the Huffington Post. Noting the fact that Clinton learned as first lady how to be effective as a “backdoor diplomat,” the former White House assistant said Clinton mastered “a lot of the intricacies of these issues before ever joining the Senate’s Armed Services committee. She’s tough; she had meetings with some Prime Ministers and Presidents where she had to deliver some blunt messages for us.”
CNN is reporting similar reports from Dem insiders, although they have stopped short of saying Hillary has been offered the job and instead only mention that Obama has asked his former primary foe “if she is interested in the secretary of state post.”
Multiple Democratic sources tell CNN that President Elect Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton had a “serious discussion” Thursday to gauge Clinton’s interest in the post of Secretary of State, if she were offered it. Senator Clinton’s response is unknown, although multiple sources agree that Hillary Clinton was left with the impression that if she were interested in the post, it would be hers.
“There was a serious discussion to determine whether, if offered Secretary of State, she would accept it,” said a source close to the Obama transition.
In these circumstances, that source added, a president-elect does not meet with potential cabinet secretaries unless they are serious about making an offer.
Another source close to the Obama transition team told CNN, “this (asking Clinton to be Secretary of State) has been of great interest to Obama for awhile. You’ve got to assume that Hillary Clinton did not come to visit the city of Chicago.”
There is no question that this Obama/Hillary chess game has livened up what had been n orderly transition bereft of any real scintillating drama; good for the country, bad for pundits. Nice that things have changed…
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…more like, SHOCKED AND SADDENED by the latest Clinton for Sec of State speculation….
Obama SHOULD THEN OFFER Sen McCain the Secretary of Defense position…. ’cause it was ALL B>S> anyways……..