Hillary Clinton Accepts Obama Offer, New US Secretary of State ?
Hillary Clinton, who has represented New York in the US Senate for eight years, will have to give up her seat to become Secretary of State. That would make her only the third woman in US history to hold that post, after Condoleezza Rice and Madeline Albright.
New York Senetor Hillary Clinton has accepted an offer from president-elect Barack Obama to become US secretary of state, joining her former Democratic rival to help guide US foreign policy, the New York Times said on Friday.
Hillary emerged as a frontrunner for the secretary of state job late last week, transfixing a country which had seen her compete hard against Obama to win the Democratic nomination for the presidency.
Both as a former first lady and in her own right as a senator, Hillary Clinton
already has international stature. Her supporters refute charges that she is too large a personality, too independent and politically ambitious to be an effective team worker.
Obama clinched that nomination in June and then beat Republican John McCain in the November 4 election.
Democratic Party sources have recently said Hillary, was on track to be nominated, with an official announcement expected after the November 27 Thanksgiving holiday.
NBC news meanwhile also reported two other key Obama appointments: New York Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary, and New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson as commerce secretary.
NBC said official announcements on the appointments were expected on Monday.
Officials with the Obama transition team had no immediate comment.
Hillary has a global profile both as a political leader in her own right and as the wife of former US President Bill Hillary.
Policy analysts say her selection as secretary of state could mean a more hawkish US stance, noting that she has been more reluctant than Obama to commit to a firm timetable for withdrawing US troops from Iraq.
By putting Hillary in his cabinet, Obama is gambling on keeping the intelligence and experience of the person, who is still his strongest rival, within his own party, on his side. It’s a high-risk, high-reward move, but that’s what the Obama campaign has been about all along.
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