Will Bill play ball, so Hillary can be Secretary of State?
James Forsyth 6:27pm
Mike Allen reports the latest on the Hillary for Secretary of State story:
“Team Obama, after all but offering SecState to Senator Clinton, is expressing EXASPERATION with the Clinton camp for the difficulty in getting a clean vet on President Bill Clinton’s many entanglements. “The ball is very much in her court, but the president's finances have been a major point of sensitivity from day one,” a Democratic official said. (“Day One!”) “Given that everyone's mystified by how deliberately public the Clintons have made this once secret process, the assumption is either that the Clintons are trying to use the public buzz to steamroll their way in, create a sense of inevitability that overcomes those concerns, or that it's just a matter of time before they … satisfy vetting somehow, some way. Otherwise, after all this speculation, there’ll be a permanent dark cloud hanging over her finances. … But generally the sense among the no-drama Obama world is: This is well on its way to winning best Oscar for drama.”
I suspect that persuading Bill to give up his commercial work will be relatively easy; his excesses during the primaries nearly all stemmed from a desire to win it for Hillary and those who I’ve spoken to in Washington expect that if she wants the job he’ll happily give it up. After all, he has cashed in handsomely since leaving the White House and they must have budgeted for a drop in the family income in 2009 on the expectation that Hillary might be president. However, the Clinton Foundation and the Global Initiative will prove trickier. Bill will be more reluctant to give these up and there are far more shades of grey involved.
What the Obama camp will be dreading is Bill agreeing to a deal now and then constantly trying to carve out exceptions to it. Personally, I hope Bill plays ball. Of the four contenders for the job—the others are believed to be John Kerry, the former UN Ambassador and New mexico Governor Bill Richardson and the Republican Senator Chuck Hagel—Hillary has the best instincts on foreign policy. I have, for instance, far more confidence in her advocating for a sufficiently tough line on Iran than the other three. Indeed, pretty much every hawk I know is for Hillary.
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David Lindsay
November 17th, 2008 6:36pm Report this commentOh, God, I hope not.
People who had wanted the Clinton-Bush foreign policy agenda to continue seamlessly as the Clinton-Bush-Clinton foreign policy agenda could have given her the Democratic nomination, which she failed to secure.
The attempt to set up a non-contest between Clinton-Bush-Clinton and Clinton-Bush-McCain was mercifully unsuccessful. And Clinton-Bush-McCain was then defeated by Obama.
However, not wishing to see Hillary The Hawk as Secretary of State is not the same as not wishing to see her as anything at all.
The creation of a Senate vacancy in New York could well be very good news indeed for a Democrat whose economic populism and whose foreign policy realism had secured the nomination of the Working Families Party.
A Democrat whose moral and social conservatism and (one trusts, now that Bush is as good as gone) whose foreign policy realism had secured the nomination of the Conservative Party, without whose endorsement no Republican has won statewide office in New York since 1974.
A Democrat whose economic populism, moral and social conservatism, and foreign policy realism had united the warring factions of the Independence Party in unanimous nomination.
The election of such a Democrat, especially in place of Hillary Clinton of all people, would send exactly the right signal.
Martin Adamson
November 17th, 2008 6:49pm Report this commentI think the whole thing has been a set-up by Obama. He never meant to give her a job, just wanted to make a show of pretending, knowing that ultimately he would be able to find a reason to turn her down.
TrevorsDen
November 17th, 2008 7:03pm Report this commentgawd 'elp us, "Team Obama"
Leaving such faint apologies for journalism aside ...
If Obama wants Hillary as Secretary of State he really is out of his mind. That an alternative is Kerry makes it even worse.
Its hard to think that he wants to undermine and shoot in the foot his presidency before its even started but thats his business.
The notion that Hillary has sound instincts on anything is risible. just who is this guy Forsyth ??
Ben Elford
November 17th, 2008 7:40pm Report this commentEven given the traditional wisdom that one should keep one's enemies closer, Obama would be extremely unwise to have this appalling woman (and her husband)anywhere near influencing policy.
On the one hand, she has form for using all her powers to try to undermine him. On the other, she has no proven political skill outside of trying to damage her rivals.
Verity
November 17th, 2008 8:50pm Report this commentHillary Clinton lied about her helicopter being under fire when she landed somewhere in the ME and said she had to disembark and run, crouching, for cover.
Not only was it a lie, but it was an childish, self-promoting lie. If there was gunfire, would they really have opened the door of the helicopter and let her leave it instead of ascending again immediately?
This was a blatant lie and she was found out.
Reg
November 17th, 2008 11:00pm Report this commentAnd now let's have an article on the Obama campaign's dodgy finances, shall we?
Austin Barry
November 18th, 2008 7:39am Report this commentThe Clintons, particularly the red-faced, slavering Priapus Bill, epitomise the venality and corruption of politics. As such they, like the nasty Rahm Emanuel, are to be welcomed as bringing a reassuring touch of reality to the precious Obama and his happy-clappy constituency.
Mary Anne
December 1st, 2008 10:07pm Report this commentVerity, What about Obama and his cronies in Chicago? They are all in jail now? So, he is being honest about being our savior, etc? What a joke!
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