November 15, 2008

Striped Pants-Suit Update

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STRIPED PANTS-SUIT UPDATE….Martha Raddatz of ABC News reports that Barack Obama really does want Hillary Clinton to be his Secretary of State:

A source with knowledge of the transition process describes the meeting as not a hard offer. Obama is more cautious than that….He said that he knew how much she cared about health care but said there are other challenges, and wanted to reach out to her about secretary of state.

….Obama does not want to be seen as being rejected by her, but it is “hers to turn down,” one source put it.

If this is really true, I’m astonished. Since when do sitting senators give up their seats to become Secretary of State? Muskie did it at the tail end of his career, but I can’t think of anyone else. It’s crazy. Hillary can basically be senator for life if she wants, and we’re supposed to believe that she’d give that up for a cabinet post that probably won’t last more than four or five years?

And why would Obama feel like this was a great idea? I don’t believe for a second this business about him being afraid that Hillary will sabotage his legislative agenda. She wouldn’t. And anyway, presidents have to deal with powerful interest groups all the time, including senators with agendas of their own. The Obama-Hillary relationship wouldn’t be anything new or unusual.

As for Hillary allegedly seeing this as a steppingstone toward another run in 2016, I can only say: huh? I mean, who was the last person to use Foggy Bottom as a springboard to the presidency? Thomas Jefferson? John Quincy Adams? Give me a break. No Secretary of State for over a century has used it as a way to move up the political ladder.

Plus you’d have Bill and all his globetrotting to contend with too. The whole thing is crazy. I guess that doesn’t mean it’s impossible, but I’ll eat my hat¹ if it turns out to be true.

¹Note to the literal: I don’t own a hat. However, if I turn out to be wrong, I’ll eat a chocolate cake shaped like a hat. If you provide the cake.

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It is astonishingly hard keeping a newsroom afloat these days, and we need to raise $253,000 in online donations quickly, by October 7.

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