Loyalty versus Practicality

Hear that President-elect Barack Obama has asked Hillary Clinton to be his Secretary of State, a spot Senator John Kerry was aspiring to. Clinton showed utter disdain for Obama during the primaries calling him ‘unelectable’ and naive, while poor Kerry campaigned for him right from the New Hampshire days. But Clinton has worldwide name recognition, and her hawkish image may allow Obama to make some peace overtures through her, without looking soft. Also, as President Lyndon Johnson crassly put, ‘it is better to keep your enemy inside your tent pissing to the outside, than to have him outside, pissing into the tent!’ I understand that a national book seller, ‘Team of Rivals’ by Doris Goodwin, which narrates Abraham Lincoln’s success by appointing his rivals in his cabinet, has impressed Obama. I hope he is right in his selection of Hillary Clinton, although I feel that having a loyal, but dull, John Kerry as Secretary of State would have been better a choice.