We would love to be a fly on the wall during the first meeting of President-elect Obama’s potential Cabinet!

In addition to getting the inside scoop on policy and national directives, it would intriguing to see how things pan out between Hillary Clinton, who has been tapped as our next secretary of state, and Bill Richardson. Multiple news outlets and sources are reporting today that Obama has chosen Richardson as the next commerce secretary. Though many thought the well-traveled, former Clinton energy leader Richardson would be picked as secretary of state, his tenure as governor of New Mexico proves he is prepared for the job, especially in terms of bridging the private and public sphere.

[Richardson’s] record suggests that Commerce could push for a much bolder role in supporting such strategic industries as renewable energies, nanotech and green vehicles by investing alongside corporations and universities.

Richardson is one of the nation’s most aggressive proponents of public-private economic partnership. After he became New Mexico’s governor in 2003, he launched one of the most rule-bending development programs in the U.S., toppling old barriers between the private and public sectors.

Richardson also has intimate knowledge of our nation’s energy institutions — he once worked as President Bill Clinton’s energy secretary, as well as an ambassador to the United Nations, which brings us back to Hillary Clinton. Though his own candidacy precluded him from endorsing his old friend Hillary early in the Democratic presidential primary, Richardson turned heads — and raised ire — after he dropped out and backed Barack Obama, who was at the time fighting Hillary for the nomination.

Insiders everywhere spoke of how Hillary and Bill would forever hold the "betrayal" against Richardson. Richardson said at the time, in March, 2008, he wouldn’t get involved in the back and forth, but that didn’t stop him from taking a dig at the former First Lady and her followers: "I’m not going to get in the gutter like that. And you know, that’s typical of many of the people around Sen. Clinton. They think they have a sense of entitlement to the presidency." Things thawed a bit in August, when Richardson hosted two fund-raisers to help Mrs. Clinton pay back some of her campaign debt, but many suggested that he was there "in name, not spirit," simply because Obama asked his supporters to help the senator.

Hopefully Richardson and Clinton will be able to put their past behind them and work together. If not, Richardson can always buddy up with potential Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, a governor from Arizona, which neighbors Richardson’s own New Mexico.