…is it even remotely possible that some of the op-research stuff that her people dug up on him but didn’t use during the campaign is damaging enough to use to wrangle herself this job? Or, did his more thorough intelligence briefings (post-election) scare The One [tm] badly enough that he wanted another big name on board to share the blame with if something catastrophic happens? yes, I’m just guessing (wildly), but for a guy who ran such a smart (though thoroughly dishonest, of course) campaign, this move seems awfully dumb.

“What you see is what you get”
What a fantastic way to encapsulate the stupidity that Obama commits.

…to a top job, and there was no other credible and available candidate for SecState. He also needed to appoint a black, already taken care of at AG – possibly the only explanation for why he would take on Holder’s baggage. There were no credible non-white, non-male candidates for Defense and Treasury.

Gender politics is a b*tch, in more ways than one.

I honestly think Obama said on Nov. 5, “My God, I’m preseident-elect. What do I so now?”

Obama has never really run anything and has a very thin resume (although the media managed to cover this up while working to expose Palin, who in reality is much more experienced).

In Obama’s eyes, Clinton’s presidency was successful, so he is bringing in many of the old Clinton staff, which he views as safe. It’s kind of like voting present.

I think Obama feels that by making Hillary Secretary of State he is removing her from the political picture. If the economy continued to fall apart or other things go wrong, she could become a powerful opponent in the senate and seek the presidency again in 1912. As Secretary of State, she’s part of the Obama team and shares the responsibility if things go wrong.

If I were Hillary, I would have stayed in the senate.

“I honestly think Obama said on Nov. 5, “My God, I’m preseident-elect. What do I do now?”

I flash on the ’70s Robert Redford movie, “The Candidate”, wherein he’s managed to defeat a far more experienced incumbent, and after doing so says to his campaign manager, “What do we do now?”.

Oh, and the “WHAT HAVE I DONE?” look on that manager’s face.

(Obviously a fantasy, showing such reaction from a campaign manager.
Can anyone conceive of such a reaction from David Axelrod?)
.

…that Obama will soon be sunk in DC if he doesn’t wise up.

Matthews was perplexed a week ago when Joe Lieberman wasn’t sufficiently chastened. Matthews said something to the effect of “the campaign is over–it’s time to start cracking heads and getting folks in line”.

While I’d like to believe the President-elect can stand up to poweful interests within his party, he hasn’t ennumerated any guiding principles to hold fast to in the tempests that await him.

Choosing a team with personal agendas is premeditated frustration.

Barack Obama is a private man. I suspect he discloses very little to very few. It’s the old trick of the trade: when you speak a lot, people assume you’re saying all there is to be said, when, in fact, there may be much you’re not disclosing.

Aides who have eyes only for their leader often display a kind of college intern naivete about how politics really works. They went full guns for Hillary during the primaries. But when the primaries were done, Obama knew it was time to pay the leftist illuminati piper. He could not guarantee a win without a unified party: he needed the Clinton endorsement.

But with the Clintons, nothing is free.

Just because this topic is new to the public, new to the press, doesn’t mean it’s new to Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton. The D.C. elites know how to get what they want.

You said there are other candidates, which is true, but who would you choose out of curiosity? Of the names I’ve heard about, I prefer Clinton.

Personally, I strongly believed 5 months ago that he would bypass her as VP and would instead choose her as SOS.

The reasoning is that, had he chosen her as VP, she might have upstaged him and appeared as if she were the one running the show. He needed to vanquish her. So, after he vanquished her and clearly established who’s the president, it was then relatively safe to give her an important job, since she is, as most people agree, highly competent and tough.

Like a chess game, the order of the moves makes all the difference between check-mate and being check-mated.

Sticking with the chess analogy, 2 players can open with the first 5 moves (let’s say it’s the Queens Gambit), but again, the 6th move may make all the difference between a disaster and a win.
Which is why, in general, I’m not reading much into the fact that he is opening with the ‘Clinton Gambit’, so to speak.

People who play chess may have something to say about how this reasoning does or does not apply to politics.

Back to Hilary, I think he will give her a long leash to do her own thing as SOS, since their goals are likely aligned. She has a chance to do something historically huge in the Middle East. I think she’ll be more intereted in bagging a Nobel Peace Prize for herself (figuratively speaking, but maybe not entirely), than creating drama.

But, we shall see.

In December 2006, Lewinsky graduated with a master’s degree in Social Psychology from the London School of Economics[15] where she had been studying since September 2005.[16] Her thesis was titled “In Search of the Impartial Juror: An Exploration of the Third Person Effect and Pre-Trial Publicity.”