About a week ago the big question was “Will he or won’t he?” Will President Elect Barack Obama offer former Democratic nomination party rival Sen. Hillary Clinton the Secretary of State job or not? Then reports surfaced that he did.
Now the question is: “Will she or won’t she?” Will Hillary Clinton ACCEPT any firm offer that’s made? Some think the Clintons are injecting drama into the No Drama Obama operation. Others argue that’s Clinton derangement syndrome.
But the bottom line questions are: would Clinton likely make a good Secretary of State? Most think she would. And would the American public welcome Clinton in that post or consider it a grave Obama mistake? A new Gallup poll finds widespread support for Clinton:
A new Gallup Poll finds a majority of Americans (57%) in favor of Barack Obama appointing Hillary Clinton as the secretary of state in his administration. Thirty percent oppose it.
The support comes from the same kind of winning coalition that could dog the Republicans in elections to come:
Democrats strongly endorse the idea of Obama making this move, with 79% in favor of it. Most Republicans, not surprisingly, oppose the idea, while a majority of independents (57%) favor it.
Still, the political drama is hardly over yet. The Obama team is looking into a variety of Clinton-related factors such as her husband’s financial dealings. Reports based on Democratic sources say Bill Clinton is working to help his wife get the job, by offering some concessions on how he’d operate in the future.
The bottom line: if she gets the post, it’ll be a big story.
If she REJECTS IT — it will be an even bigger story.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.