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Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson or John Kerry for Secretary of State?
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President-elect Barack Obama has met with a number of people over the past few days to discuss cabinet positions of course. The highest profile names being discussed in the media appear to be centered on the position of Secretary of State. The names being mentioned for this position include Senator Hillary Clinton of New York, Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico and Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts.

Obviously Obama could pick an individual with a lesser profile to head up the State Department, who is just as qualified, but let’s just take these three and look at some brief aspects their resumes.

Senator Hillary Clinton has no doubt been on her fair share of diplomatic missions in the past. Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State may make sense because she has shown her willingness to speak out about the human rights abuses committed by the likes of China and countries in the Balkans. During her Presidential bid people debated how much foreign policy experience Hillary Clinton had and whether her claims of vast first hand problem solving was true. These same questions will arise with Hillary Clinton being mentioned for Secretary of State. No matter what you think of Hillary Clinton’s point of view, very few people have ever doubted her intelligence and willingness to learn new information about complex issues.

Bill Richardson on the other hand brings a different brand of experience as a potential nominee for Secretary of State. Bill Richardson as Secretary of State may make sense because he was already the Ambassador to the United Nations. Bill Richardson’s experience as Secretary of Energy may also help with his time as Secretary of State. For those who are concerned about global climate change Richardson and other envoys may be able to educate countries like India and China to take the problem seriously.

Richardson also noted numerous times on the campaign trail about the different hostage negotiation situations he has dealt with. Richardson has dealt with former and current dictators like Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong-Il. Richardson does seem to have a disagreement with Obama on how to deal with the situation in Pakistan so this may be something that will work against Bill Richardson if he wants to be Secretary of State.

John Kerry on the other hand may be the dark horse in the race amongst the more notable candidates. Although John Kerry has made numerous successful trips back to Vietnam to address the POW/MIA situation he has shown a propensity to put his foot in his mouth. John Kerry as Secretary of State would not make as much sense as the other two possibilities of Hillary Clinton and Bill Richardson because of some of the controversial things that Kerry said back in the 1960’s. Hillary Clinton and John Kerry are both sort of viewed as children of the sixties in the sense that they still are figures of those past battles.

John Kerry obviously has state on the Foreign Relations Committee for many years and has relationships with many different world leaders. It is hard to say what foreign leaders in general would think of him. They may consider him merely as a guy who just wanted another job and to go straight to President-elect Barack Obama. It is hard to say what the future holds. I do think Bill Richardson would probably have the easiest time getting confirmed in the United States Senate. This is despite some lingering questions from his days as Secretary of Energy.

By: DeanSmithLegend
Published: 11/18/08


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3 Posted Comments:

@ 12:43 pm 11/18/08 by Topper
According to Newsweek:

President-elect Obama has decided to tap Eric Holder as his attorney general, putting the veteran Washington lawyer in place to become the first African-American to head the Justice Department, according to two legal sources close to the presidential transition.




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Interesting

@ 1:51 pm 11/18/08 by DeanSmithLegend
I am glad that he did not select a "big name" for Attorney General. I just don't want there to be a lot of personal agendas being carried out within the cabinet. The one job that I would not want right now for sure is the Treasury gig. I would usually say Press Secretary, but the Treasury spot is tougher at the moment in my view. Thank you for the news Topper.
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@ 2:39 pm 11/18/08 by Topper
It just happened that I read that on MSN's home page so thought I would let you know. We will just have to wait and see how it all plays out...and think good thoughts!
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