COMMENTARY: Sam Donaldson on Clinton as Secretary of State
Examining the connection between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Nov. 18, 2008— -- The following is a commentary by ABC News' Sam Donaldson. Click here to view a video version of his latest essay.
The affair "Clinton" is a bit curious and creates a slight "tremor in the force" Obama. Of course, even as I post this blog the entire matter may be resolved.
Offering the job of secretary of state to Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., strikes me as a good move... provided she signed on wholeheartedly without reservation to loyally serve her principal, the president. I think she would. To do otherwise, certainly as long as he is the 10,000-pound gorilla, would be most unwise.
And let's not hide behind the napkin that the job hasn't formally been offered... the moment she was summoned to Chicago for the chat and the whole political world began buzzing it was "offered" in the sense that the president-elect certainly was not "teasing," running the risk that all her many fans in the party and elsewhere would take umbrage over such an act.
No, he had to be serious about her taking it if -- and here is the point that perplexes me -- if her husband, the former president, could and would pass muster on all the many requirements concerning "conflicts of interest," problems that were in his case absolutely foreseeable.
It seems to me the way to have done it was to send word through a trusted intermediary as follows: would Clinton be interested in discussing the job of secretary of state with the president-elect assuming her husband, the former president, would agree to all of the conflict-of-interest requirements, a copy of which I now hand you.
No one comes to Chicago to talk, nothing is leaked to the press, unless the reply is, yes, the former president would agree to follow the conflict-of-interest rules.
Apparently, that's not the way it was done -- discuss first, check the small print second. ... And so as I write this everyone (with some embarrassment to all) is "twisting in the wind."
My hunch is it will be resolved in favor of job offered, job accepted. ... But there should be a conclusion either way quickly.
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