Hillary @ State

It looks like Obama's going to offer H. Clinton the Secretary of State cabinet position. Andrew Sullivan, for one, likes the idea. I'm not so sure. It would be hard for any politician, especially one as self-assured and ambitious as Clinton, to become suddenly obsequious when you've just come off a hard fought and bitter campaign. Especially when you were passed over for VP.

As for Obama, it will be nice to have someone of Clinton's stature negotiating with foreign powers, although Bill Clinton's ties to multinational corporations and shady foreign leaders makes me nervous. Plus, I thought the whole point of Obama winning the primaries was that we wouldn't have to deal with the Clintons in the White House this year. So Obama had better be a really good people-manager if he wants to take advantage of Clinton's leverage without sabotaging his own position.

And in all honesty, I really wanted to see Bill Richardson get State. I think he's a straight up guy, he was an early supporter of Obama after he dropped out of the race in spite of his close ties to the Clintons, and he's a link to the Latino demographic that helped get Obama New Mexico and Colorado.

Maybe the final question for Obama was where he wanted his biggest rival: in the Senate, where he'd have little control over what she did but where her attacking position might be limited; or in the White House, where he could control her more effectively but where she has the potential to do some real damage.