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Obama weighs Clinton, Richardson as US top diplomat
(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-15 11:33 WASHINGTON -- US President-elect Barack Obama has interviewed primary election rivals Hillary Rodham Clinton and Bill Richardson for secretary of state, according to Democratic officials who revealed his secret meetings with both as he weighed the decision on folding former foes into his new administration.
Obama met with Richardson late Friday afternoon, a day after conferring one-on-one with Clinton at his Chicago office, said several Democratic officials. He plans to meet there Monday with his Republican opponent, John McCain, but advisers to both of the general election rivals say they don't expect Obama to consider McCain for an administration job. The meeting with Clinton, revealed Friday, excited a burst of speculation that Obama would transform the former first lady and his fierce campaign foe into one of his top Cabinet officials and the nation's chief diplomatic voice. But where she stands in contention for the post came into question as other Democrats, also speaking on condition of anonymity about the private discussions, said Richardson was brought in as well. The two are not the only candidates Obama has talked to about the job, Democrats said. One senior Obama adviser said the US president-elect has given no evidence whom he is favoring for the post. Obama asked Clinton directly whether she would be interested in the job, said one Democrat, who cautioned that it was no indication that he was leaning toward her. Obama was deciding on his presidential staff as well, naming longtime friend Valerie Jarrett as a White House senior adviser. Jarrett met Obama when she hired his wife for a job in the Chicago mayor's office years ago and has been a close confidante to the couple ever since. Obama was silent and out of sight in Chicago. On Friday evening, he attended a birthday party for Jarrett at a high-rise building in the city. Clinton, a New York senator, addressed a transit conference in her home state and said emphatically, "I'm not going to speculate or address anything about the president-elect's incoming administration, and I'm going to respect his process." Obama's aides say he would like to have McCain as a partner with him on legislation they both have advocated, such as climate change, government reform, immigration and a ban on torture. All this fits with an idea that Obama often talked about on the campaign trail, as he praised the presidency of Abraham Lincoln as described by presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin in her book "Team of Rivals." "Lincoln basically pulled in all the people who had been running against him into his Cabinet because whatever personal feelings there were, the issue was: How can we get this country through this time of crisis?" Obama said at one point. |
