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Clinton would be great for State

November 23, 2008

She is perhaps the most widely known woman on the planet, with the brainpower and the steely toughness to match her celebrity. A Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would be a powerful voice for the United States abroad, at a moment in history when the election of Barack Obama as president has the world listening to our nation in a new and hopeful way.

Clinton has been an excellent senator for New York, and now she may have a chance to become one of the best and most effective secretaries of State in the nation's history. If, as reported, she has agreed to Obama's offer, she has chosen wisely in accepting it - just as he chose well in making it.

This would be the ultimate "Team of Rivals" appointment, in the spirit of Abraham Lincoln as described in the Doris Kearns Goodwin book about the Civil War president's decision to stock his cabinet with strong-minded people who had opposed him.

Obama and Clinton, of course, fought a famously intense primary struggle - too often exacerbated by former President Bill Clinton's volcanic campaign oratory. The president-elect would be showing that, like Lincoln, he fully grasps the gravity of the moment.

As Obama prepares to take office, the global fiscal crisis and continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, plus an endless parade of other challenges, from global warming to the renewed competition with Russia, demand a strong president and a strong team.

One of Obama's best traits is his ability - even eagerness - to hear sharply expressed views that differ from his own. He'd hear Clinton and others out and take their views into account. Once he makes his decision, he obviously feels confident Clinton would close ranks and run with the policy he has set. They'd often agree, but when she disagreed she would have to represent Obama's policies as authoritatively and persuasively as if they were her own idea.

We are confident that she and the president-elect have had good conversations on exactly this point, and that she fully understands how this relationship would have to work. That leaves two caveats about her appointment:

The first is her husband. The former president obviously wants her to succeed in this job. By all accounts, he has worked hard to assure the Obama transition team that he can disentangle himself from any foreign relationships that would complicate or conflict with the secretary of state's role.

Once she takes office, Bill Clinton would have to keep working hard not to interfere. At minimum, that means he should not be a part of her official entourage at meetings overseas, creating a larger-than-life distraction. That doesn't mean she couldn't tap his brains and experience - but only privately.

The other concern is that Hillary Clinton would need a strong deputy to manage the department as she circled the globe. Obama wants to restore the power of diplomacy, and that will require a solid day-to-day manager to help with recruitment and restructuring.

By picking key cabinet members such as Clinton, New York Federal Reserve Bank President Timothy F. Geithner as Treasury secretary, and others so quickly, Obama demonstrates again a sure sense of the fierce urgency of now.

If she accepts the job, Clinton would give up politics for now, to serve the nation in a challenging new way. Together, she and Obama would be a formidable team.