File photo Aaron D. Settipane/WENN
We had heard it was coming. Yet, I was still a little surprised when it actually happened. Today, President-elect Barack Obama introduced more nominees for his administration; among the players, presidential rival New York Senator Hillary Clinton as the new Secretary of State.
My, my, my what a difference a few months can make. On the campaign trail, Senator Clinton slammed Barack with everything she had for practically everything he said. Later, Clinton swallowed some of those nasty words and accusations and campaigned for Obama during the last leg of the presidential race. Now apparently, all is forgiven and the former adversaries have become tight running buddies bent on changing America together.
For those who wanted a Clinton/Obama or Obama/Clinton presidential ticket — this probably is a good second choice. I’ll have to see how Clinton performs as Secretary of State before I applaud this political union.
The other Obama nominees today: Washington lawyer Eric Holder as attorney general, Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano as homeland security secretary, retired Marine General James L. Jones for national security adviser, and Susan Rice as U.N. Ambassador.
The president-elect says he wants “strong personalities and strong opinions” in his administration to avoid the pitfalls of “group thinking.” Obama insists all the players on his team share his core vision for the country and that the bottom line is he makes policy or in his words, borrowed from President Harry Truman, “the buck will stop with me.” That is so true. Obama will be praised if his team succeeds and hammered with blame and criticism if it stumbles or fails.
