“Oh joyous day!” Cried the Republican masses.
“Hillary might be out of the Senate!”
Yes folks, President-elect Obama seems to have his heart set on one Senator from New York, his former rival, Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State. It does appear that Obama has taken a page from Abraham Lincoln’s playbook, forming a “team of rivals”. If Clinton is chosen as Secretary of State, it would please those final few Clinton supporters still upset about the way the Primaries were played out and the Republicans will smile. Hillary has been a target of Republicans, possibly due to her sassy attitude, since she was simply Governor Bill Clinton’s wife. This is too much. Get her out of the Senate after only eight years AND she won’t be President? After an upsetting election season for Republicans and a party needing some reforming, this might be the best Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza gift that they could’ve received.
This might be why, despite the ‘team of rivals’ look to the cabinet, Obama may in fact skip out on Hillary and choose, let’s say, Bill Richardson instead. Part of this may in fact be the media is just trying to drum up post-election viewers or just as they called Joe Biden as Obama’s running mate, they could be right. We know that Clinton met with Obama this week in Chicago and that a cabinet position was allegedly discussed. The Republicans are desperately hoping so. Clinton represents a power presence and voice in the Senate and while she may already be in her 60s and just a second term Senator, that hasn’t stopped those like Strom Thurmond and Robert Byrd from serving well into their 90s. With Clinton chosen as Secretary of State, she would be out of the Senate come January, serve, one would think, until 2012. If Obama is re-elected and U.S. foreign policy seemingly on track, Clinton would surely be asked to serve another term. By 2016, Clinton would be turning 70 years old. Considering the scrutiny John McCain received due to his age, one can only imagine that Clinton would face similar criticism if she in fact decided to run for President. This might be the one way to stop her from running. Now if only the Republicans could figure out what to do with Sarah Palin.
The official announcement seems likely sometime near Thanksgiving, perhaps just after and we’ll see just how excited Republicans might be. Arnold Schwarzenegger already championed the choice on ABC and just last night on Real Time with Bill Maher, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) had a grin ear-to-ear upon Maher asking her feelings on the choice.
Clinton herself was probably even happier. She is given a role in which there is only one rather than one-hundred and has significant pull within the cabinet and foreign affairs. Just when we thought Hillary would go back to being the junior Senator from New York, this happens. Christmas may come a bit early for both, we’ll just have to sit back and enjoy the show. No one may enjoy this quite like Bill Clinton. Hillary would be sent all of the world on diplomatic missions, meetings with other heads-of-state, and leave Bill all to his lonesome… or will he?
Until then, here is a Bushism so that we never forget just how funny our current President really is and in honor of all “Those Shameless Hacks” out there:
“Information is moving — you know, nightly news is one way, of course, but it’s also moving through the blogosphere and through the Internets.” –Washington, D.C., May 2, 2007
1 comment:
From what I heard, ole Hillary leaked the news out early that she was it for Sec. of State, backing Obama into a corner. Maybe this is showing my bias from last year, but I seriously hope Barack Obama changes his mind and picks Bill Richardson as his Secretary of State, the one post where experince counts as well as the ability to bridge gaps. Hillary doesn't have that talent.
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