Hillary: The Next Secretary of State

Rahm Emanuel, where are you when we need you? It is time for the elders of the Democratic Party, especially those not committed to either Clinton or Obama, to get off their duff (while staying on the fence) to figure out the best way to end the intra-Democratic contest. Even if Obama continues to garner a majority of the delegates, Clinton will be left with a substantial number of delegates committed to her. Such situations tend to lead to prolonged and bitter conflicts. As the Republicans are unifying around their candidate, it is time to float ideas to end the Democratic contest.

If Hillary does somehow manage to marshal a solid majority, without such a tricky and unsavory maneuver as relying on the disqualified delegates of Florida and Michigan, she can offer Obama the Vice Presidency. He is young enough (and would benefit from even more seasoning) to be able to plan to run another day on his own. In contrast, given that she is much closer to the end of her political career, and that this job is often largely ceremonial, it is hard to imagine that Hillary would agree to serve as Obama’s VP.

Instead, Hillary would make a fine secretary of state—a very important and powerful job. Moreover, making a clear commitment to choose her for this position would add much to Obama’s appeal, given that his experience in foreign policy is particularly short. (The main difficulty is how to make such a commitment in a way that it cannot be revoked.  Since Obama would hardly be inclined to start his term by violating a commitment he made on national TV and during the nominating convention, such a commitment could be taken as an almost sure thing.)

Most important, it is best for the Democrats, and ultimately for the country as a whole, that the intra-Democratic contest not be dragged-out and further embitter whole segments of the voters. The time is now for floating ideas about the best ways to end the contest so that when the time is ripe, the candidate with the highest number of delegates can find ways—which have been previously aired—to unify the party and to focus for on the real showdown.

Comments

[Fred]

Prof. Etzioni,

I'm not sure if its fair to say that Hillary Clinton is approaching the end of her career. Should she not win the nomination or the Presidency, she would still have a significant Senate career to look forward to. At the moment she is right at the average age of a U.S. Senator (about 60), and could easily serve two more terms.

In fact, in that case, considering how well she's done in the Senate, combined with the reality of more than likely continued Democratic majorities, I'd say she has a good chance of becoming Senate Majority Leader in the future. To be honest, I'd like to see her in that position, I think she'd be good at it.

- Fred

[Norman]

Given recent events, your words here might be quite prescient indeed.

[Adam]

Looks like you called it!!

-Adam-

[Compton32Mindy]

It's good that we are able to take the credit loans and that opens new possibilities.