Will They Have Chemistry?

Foreigners want to know if SoS speaks for Prez

By Gabriel Winant, Newser User

Posted Dec 2, 2008 11:15 AM CST

(Newser) – We’ve seen this buddy movie before: to succeed, former fierce competitors Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will need to put away their rivalry to become not just partners, but friends, write Michael Abramowitz and Glenn Kessler in the Washington Post. Secretary of State Clinton has to be able convince foreign leaders that she’s the trusted delegate of the person who introduced her yesterday as a "dear friend," the future president.

Presidents have tended to avoid high profile secretaries of state, presumably for this reason. (The last time a major rival got the job was 1881.) But Clinton and Obama have discussed the risks. “She learned the importance of there not being sunlight, if you will, between the secretary and the president in terms of foreign policy,” says a former Clinton aide.

[Images (3)]

[Quotes (2)]

Sen. George Mitchell is applauded by Hillary Clinton and Irish PM Bertie Ahern, left, after receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work in the Ireland peace process March 17, 1999. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

President-elect Barack Obama leaves a news conference with Secretary of State-designate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-NY, in Chicago, Monday, Dec. 1, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

President-elect Barack Obama and Secretary of State-designate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-NY, walk out together after a news conference in Chicago, Monday, Dec. 1, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

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"I am sure that in fact that they have worked out a way that she will have the kind of access she needs. She will give him her opinion unvarnished, but she will also be a very good team member. - Madeleine Albright, former
Secretary of State

Clinton's challenge will be to make sure her stewardship of the State Department is compatible with the views of the new president. - Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security adviser

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Will They Have Chemistry?