Obama keeping a campaign promise? (Nov 21)
By Chuck Doud
The Madera Tribune
Back in the middle days of the presidential campaign, after Barack Obama had been nominated as the Democrat standard-bearer, he held meetings with Sen. Hillary Clinton to curry her support for the rest of the campaign. Some of us wondered at the time what he promised to do for her if he became president.
Well, that question has been answered. He promised her at least a chance of being the U.S. secretary of state. She is still being vetted, or we should say her husband, former President Clinton, is being vetted, so the deal isn’t completely done. But there’s no question she is front runner.
The people at the State Department must be praying something will be found during this vetting to get her name off the table. Aside from the fact she ran for president and is a U.S. senator, she brings nothing to the job.
President Bush’s two secretaries of state were eminently qualified to lead the State Department and help the president conduct his foreign policy. Colin Powell had been chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and had broad experience in foreign affairs; Condoleeza Rice was national security advisor and before that was one of the most respected foreign-affairs scholars in the country.
If Obama had signalled that Clinton was a front-runner for secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, nobody would have been surprised because those subjects are the ones nearest her heart and to which she would bring a portfolio of activism and understanding. But the State Department? She really would contribute more by staying in the Senate, where she reportedly is respected and does a good job representing the state of New York.
