The Obama administration: The buzz is with Hillary

15 November 2008

Chicago: A Thursday afternoon meeting between president-elect Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has the media buzzing about the likelihood of Hillary Clinton being asked to take over at the State department. Media sources, such as CNN, quoted unidentified Obama aides as saying that Hillary had indeed been offered the position.

Other sources, close to both rivals, said their conversation was also about other cabinet positions and that no job was offered.

Although Clinton had stressed in the past that she would not be interested in a cabinet position, her response in an interview on Monday at the Glamour Women of the Year Awards appeared to mark a shift. Queried if there was a role she could play in an Obama administration, she said:

"I am happy being a senator from New York; I love this state and this city. I am looking at the long list of things I have to catch up on and do. But I want to be a good partner and I want to do everything I can to make sure his agenda is going to be successful."

On the night results of the presidential elections were finally declared, CNN's Wolf Blitzer, queried Hillary Clinton if she would be interested in a cabinet position, and received a tactical response. She said senators ought to be left in the senate, ideally, and only a very few taken in for cabinet positions. She said it was the experience of the Democrats during the Clinton administration that missing numbers at the senate cost the party dear when it came to getting legislative work done.

So far, the Obama transition team is chock-a-full with staffers from the Clinton administration, including newly appointed chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, who served as a top advisor in Clinton's White House and John Podesta, who is co-chairing the Obama-Biden transition team. He is a former White House chief of staff to Bill Clinton.