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Politics | 11/26/2008 8:00 am

Report: Clinton Aides Made up Original Secretary of State Offer

By The Staff at wowOwow.com
© AP

Hillary Clinton’s advisers played a key role in fanning speculation that the senator will be our next secretary of state.

While some said that President-elect Barack Obama offered Clinton the role during their meeting in Chicago two weeks ago, Elizabeth Drew’s new report in New York Review of Books suggests they were jumping the gun. Obama had met with Clinton – and another former rival, John McCain – to set things straight in the Senate. That is, he wanted to woo them a bit and make sure they wouldn’t complicate his presidency too much.

Though the subject of secretary of state did come up when Obama and Clinton sat down, there was no offer, as some of the senator’s aides claimed:

Obama’s meetings with Hillary Clinton and John McCain about playing important roles in his presidency indicated his imagination and his shrewdness, although sources close to Obama say he did not offer her the job of secretary of state when they met.

Mrs. Clinton’s and her closest advisers’ turning a suggestion by the president-elect that she might, among other things, head the State Department into an "offer" and reports that she was agonizing over whether to accept it, did not please officials in Chicago, some of whom hoped that issues over disclosure of Bill Clinton’s post-presidential record might block the appointment. But the former president’s camp blocked that by promising to cooperate with requests for information and to accept limits on his activities, including clearance of speaking engagements abroad. Statements by the Hillary camp on November 21 saying that "she’s ready" for the position but then backtracking, saying that some matters were "under discussion," typified the whole mess, the only snag thus far in an otherwise unusually smooth transition involving impressive choices — an object lesson to Obama (which he had reason to know already) that getting involved with the Clintons is rarely uncomplicated. 

That may be true, but now things seem to be "on track" for Clinton to take the spot.  

81 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Mugsy Peabody
Pi, there’s an apartment opening up across the hall. Maybe you could move in and we’d just go down to Peet’s every morning and read the paper and pretend for a little while that we are the universe?
By Mugsy Peabody on 11/27/2008 11:51 pm
Buh- Bye
lol Mugsy. great idea. I’m ready for a change… of course selling the house in this market will be a bitch… but I’m up for it. wouldn’t hurt to decrease the nut right now :)
By Buh- Bye on 11/28/2008 11:27 am
Marjorie C.
Mugsy: Bashing Hillary must be fun for you guys. More like never ending. From my point-of-view, there is an upside to all this, although I realize you don’t agree: they’re leaving Sarah Palin alone for a few days.
By Marjorie C. on 11/28/2008 6:50 am
Mugsy Peabody
Actually, Frank, the “Hillary bashing” I was referring to is by the wOw staff. Why are they continuing to pull up and print every negative thing they can think of about Sen. Clinton? It just goes on and on and on.
By Mugsy Peabody on 11/27/2008 11:50 pm
Buh- Bye
I think Wow would get just as many hits if they said something positive about Hillary, because all the haters would come out in force to dispute it. (It’s all about hits, isn’t it?)
By Buh- Bye on 11/28/2008 12:02 pm
lynn burghoff
Hillary is power hungry and just outfoxed Obama into making her SOS. Obama thinks he is in charge but its the Clintons who will run this show. All the Clinton people that Obama just appointed will be more loyal to her then they will be to him.
By lynn burghoff on 11/28/2008 1:21 am
Mugsy Peabody
Lynn, this is just silly. We as Americans have such a narrow view of things, what much of the world thinks is spoiled and silly. Right now, the partition of India is still going on, as Gandhi said would happen in 1947, i.e., people will learn to live together or the bloodshed will never end. Senator Clinton has the awesome and heavy burden, together, of course with Pres.-Elect Obama, of figuring out what our position will be in this never-ending war on the subcontinent. We sit here while they’re doing that going “natter natter natter.” Almost everything today in the Middle East can be laid at the British doorstep from that period. There is nobody “running this show,” other than forces of history. Most of which Americans are woefully and proudly ignorant.
By Mugsy Peabody on 11/28/2008 5:32 pm
Frannie Em
Mugsy Well put.
By Frannie Em on 11/29/2008 2:42 am
Buh- Bye
Lynn “All the Clinton people that Obama just appointed will be more loyal to her then they will be to him.” My hope is that they are loyal to all Americans.
By Buh- Bye on 11/28/2008 10:49 pm
Michael Salling
As a Clinton supporter and lover I’m happy that you give them so much credit. Of course after seeing the flawless campaign that the Obama team ran, with our PE at the helm, I think it’s foolish to believe they could be “outfoxed” in such a way. It’s obviously a “win-win” for all concerned, and for all America. The Obama appointees will not be part of a beleaguered administration victimized by a vast right wing conspiracy, but will come into office with a mandate for far reaching change. I think a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians will be achieved in the first four years. Remember, Hillary Clinton had the courage to call for a two state solution at a time when it was not considered “poliitcally correct.” Her State Depatment will have the gravitas to deal with the Israelis, including Bibi Netanyahu.
By Michael Salling on 11/30/2008 1:59 am
Michael Salling
In response to Mr. Frank Marks, the Obamaphobe: Any information available on Obama would be distorted and falsely characterized by you and your ilk - that’s the reason Obama’s campaign was as scrupulous as it was in terms of providing information. McCain’s team was equally circumspect when it came to providing ammunition for the other side to fire at them. Why else were only a very few members of the press given such extremely restricted access to the medical records of the spoiled brat admiral’s son who became a “war hero” by getting his fourth U.S. government aircraft destroyed? As for “misdoings” — nothing in Obama’s background can compare to the Keating scandal that McCain and his wife were involved in up to their eyeballs!! Likewise, McCain’s aiding and abetting in manufacturing the lies that were told to get the Iraq invasion launched should be grounds for impeaching him along with the rest of the Bush cabal. Come on Pelosi, you’ve still got time!!!
By Michael Salling on 11/28/2008 5:38 am
Okpulot Taha
Elaine writes, “…I have two ass cheeks you can kiss and I let you take your pick of which one.” I will take you up on your offer, both sides, multiple times! This could prove to be a lot of fun! Reminds me of a story, short version. Uncle Luther, Uncle Herschel and I are down in Texas, some cow fart town, probably West Texas, working the oil fields. Guess I am around ten, twelve, maybe early teen. Drought year, crops are not doing so well, we need extra money so I am sent along with my two uncles. I am to be their maid, errand girl and head chef. Other words, I run errands, fetch them beer and fix them dinner and supper, with dinner served out on the oil field. Dinner is what most of you know as lunch except our version is served in a dinner bucket, literally a small galvanized bucket. We are staying at this really cheesy hotel, specifically for oil field workers. Nice enough, I suppose, two beds for them, a pallet on the floor for me. Our room even has a hot plate and a small refrigerator. Good enough for living for a few months while my uncles earn money to take back home to our farm. Every Friday, a maid comes in with fresh towels, any laundry and gives our room a good cleaning and sweeping. I am sitting around listening to rock music on an AM station out of Dallas while the maid works. Part of her routine is moving furniture around while cleaning and sweeping. She uses a really interesting vacuum broom thing, like an upright vacuum cleaner but no motor and spinning brushes when pushed along; an automatic something broom. Right fancy wheeled broom. Friday night, uncles come back to our room really late and smelling of white lightning. They are totally plastered. Luther and Herschel are swapping lies about these hussies at a cowboy bar, a buxom red headed hussie to be specific. Quite the dancer based on their bragging and lip puckering. Luther fetches a beer from our fridge, he is talking up a storm, not paying attention, goes to sit down in his favorite chair, the one in front of our radio, but his chair is not there rather is about four feet back; the maid moved his chair. Down he goes right on his butt, slinging beer on himself. Boy howdy, Luther is mad, “Girl, you pulling tricks again? You moved my chair.” I turn away from listening to our radio, “No, sir, the maid moved the furniture around.” This makes him even more mad and he calls downstairs to the lobby to bitch. He is yelling at some poor boy on the other end who really does not care based on my uncle not getting anywhere except more red faced and more tight jawed. Finally, my uncle gives up and yells at the boy on the phone, “Well kiss my ass and I’m just the man who can do it!” I take to laughing so hard I have to leave our room before Luther can catch me then pinch my head clean off. Okpulot Taha Choctaw Nation
By Okpulot Taha on 11/29/2008 4:04 am
HA BIBI
LOL Okpulot, I So love your stories, you are truly a breath of fresh air. Hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving! :)
By HA BIBI on 11/30/2008 8:22 pm
Okpulot Taha
Marjorie quips about life, “You do have a way of bringing comical adventures to life.” This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer. — Will Rogers Amongst my favorite of humorists are Will Rogers and Samuel Clemens. Both men are icons of salt-of-the-earth humor and both men had their feet well planted in reality. This commoner humor touches the many with comical humility, touches with a bittersweet ring of truth. Whether roping wild horses or roping in winnings from a wild game of poker on a riverboat, both men never lost touch with their own humanity. This is quite the gift of ordinary hard working peoples. Never look a gift horse in the wrong end — Okpulot Taha Okpulot Taha Choctaw Nation
By Okpulot Taha on 11/29/2008 2:19 pm
sibelle daubigne
Where are you?
By sibelle daubigne on 12/01/2008 5:23 pm