Hillary's back -- or is she?

Lots of people cheered when they heard President-elect Obama offered Sen. Hillary Clinton the job of secretary of state -- just as Abraham Lincoln's "cabinet of rivals" famously contained Honest Abe's own vanquished opponent, William Seward. It's not clear Clinton will take the job. 

While Clinton says she's got plenty to do in the Senate on health care and other issues, Obama's advisers say the real sticking point is Bill Clinton. The former president raised $124 million last year alone against global AIDS and other diseases through his Clinton Foundation, much of it from foreign governments from whom Secretary of State Clinton might need to seek concessions. Bill Clinton, on behalf of AIDS patients, has also been involved in complex negotiations regarding patents on U.S.-made AIDS drugs; breaking the patents to let drugs be produced more cheaply is good for global health but bad for Big Pharma, and the U.S. government has hitherto opposed all such actions.

If you could advise Obama  or the Clintons, what would you say? Is this development not the change you looked for? Or is anything but POTUS not good enough for Hillary Clinton? Should she bide her time in the Senate and wait till 2012 or 2016? What do you think? 

(Photo courtesy Getty Images) 

Comments

[Robert5000]

Before Hillary Clinton can become Secretary of State, the Obama administration will certainly insist on a number of conditions which could include:

1) Bill Clinton must provide a complete listing of all donors to his foundation and presidential library.

2) Both Bill and Hillary Clinton must agree that any and all private financial dealings and other interactions with foreign leaders will not take place unless specifically authorized by the US government.

3) Hillary Clinton agrees to publically discuss exactly what her approach to the job of Secretary of State will be and clearly indicate how she will be able to perform that job without any conflict of interest whatsoever.

If Bill and Hillary Clinton are unwilling or unable to comply with whatever the Obama administration considers necessary, Hillary Clinton cannot become Secretary of State. The ball is in the Clinton’s court.

[Tim]

"3) Hillary Clinton agrees to publically discuss exactly what her approach to the job of Secretary of State will be and clearly indicate how she will be able to perform that job without any conflict of interest whatsoever."

Really? Does every person who joins President-elect Obama's cabinet have ti submit to this, or just Hillary? If not everyone, then no one.

[Glenn Lennox]

Hillary is a great person and a great politician. She will do well in any role she is given because she is incredibly intelligent and she has the drive to succeed. The Clinton's are still extremely popular abroad (where the US media has not been allowed to lie about them constantly) so she would be a great choice for Sec of State if Obama has the balls to choose her.

[Rich62]

lets hope she is not back...OMG...thought we were done with this looser....

[Mikoto]

"Looser" ... don't you mean LOSER? And born in 1962!

[Ellen]

I think if Sen. Clinton were to accept the position it would be the end of her political career. Cabinet members often times do not make it through one term let alone two terms. She could carve out a very nice career in the senate and do more good in the long run. Sen. Kennedy is a good example of that. She could become an elder stateswoman if she were to stay in the senate. Becoming Secretary of State would be a bad move on her part.

[Jason]

I think it would be a poor choice. I haven't forgotten White Water, her promise to the people of New York that if they elected her to the Senate she wouldn't run for president, and the sniper incident in Bosnia. I'm sorry but I just don't think she can be trusted.

[Johnster]

I think she's a poor choice and recall the poor judgement she displayed in stupidly supporting so many of the bad policies of her husband, including "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," and a series of unfair trade agreements that contributed to the damage of the American economy, as well as the poor judgement she displayed in her own blatantly racist presidential campaign. Barack needs to dump her and send her back to New York!

[Tommie]

I am actually kinda disgusted at the major opinion of this community that Hillary Clinton is not of her own sound mind and body, that she doesn't want to do her best for the country, and that she's not for our community. Form Prez Bill Clinton, is already on record and on nation television stating that he's 100% preparing to make sure that whatever position, whatever board, whatever head of whatever funding-he's in domestically and abroad-will be receiving his resignation such that there are no conflicts of interest with his wife's soon to be next career choice. And, then there are the following:

1.) Hillary had 3 pages of information about that which she wanted to be a part of her administration's way of responding to the issues that our community-the lgbt community, as she had us refered to on her site-have to face.

Obama-on the other hand-did not have any gay support information on his website during the democratic national election. He never touched the word gay until about 2 weeks before the Presidential Election was at its close.

2.) Hillary caught my attention by making a public connection to us in her speeches and formal statements sent out by her campaign, and that started at the beginning of 2008. I remember how huge my eyes got when she was talking directly to the gay community in her state victory speeches.

3.) Don't Ask, Don't Tell is the best job that Form Prez Clinton could do for our community, and from my recollection we were all very pleased for the progress. We were disappointed that Prez Clinton fell short of a truly equal protection bill, but we also understood the atmosphere of the country at that time. There were no openly gay people on television, there was no logo channel, there were no openly gay high ranking legislators, gay marriage was still a joke that none of us thought would be possible then. He was the President, not the President and the Congress, and they both have to come to an agreement. 15 years ago, that was the compromise; so many seem to forget that gays have only received a major boost in acceptance in the last 15 years.

4.) Like Prez Clinton, Prez-Elect Obama is also just going to be President, and he'll have to come up with a concensus that he believes will actually get passed in congress. This will take time, but I for one believe that he will get to it.

5.) We should trust Hillary, Secy of State-Incumbent-yes, she will be taking the post, and no none of you have a say in that, you got to vote already. Hillary followed every promise she made at the end of her formal campaign to become the nominated Democrat. She immediately began to support Barack wholeheartedly, she did what she needed and wanted to do for the Democratic party, and she scolded any of her own supporters that were going to change to McCain that they were doing the exact opposite that we had all been working for.

In closing, I love Hillary, and I love Obama. I think they are going to be great cabinet cohorts, and they've been doing a great job together since the DNC. Get off of her back, and get on deck, ya heathens ;-)