Al Giordano pretty much puts paid to the whole idea of Hillary being considered for Secretary of State today:

The speculation over Senator Hillary Clinton as a possible Secretary of State in the Obama administration did not begin - as many are reporting - with Andrea Mitchell's report yesterday on NBC, based, she said, on "two Obama advisors."

(Obama has more than 700 titled advisors on foreign policy alone. There's good reason why they received a memo that instructed "do not under any circumstances speak to the press." You can't shoot a cannon ball up Pennsylvania Avenue these days without hitting two or three of them, but that doesn't put them in the loop, and the ones that are in the loop aren't talking to Andrea Mitchell or anybody in the press about inside information.)

No, it was not Mitchell that first floated this Hindenburg balloon. It was former Clinton White House aide (and reliable media spinner for all agendas Clinton) George Stephanopoulos on who first dropped HRC's name for Foggy Bottom last week. ABC's Jake Tapper reminds:

George Stephanopoulos reported Clinton's name being in the mix last week on Good Morning America

The whole thing is a media freak show being served up by members of the Clinton factions in the Democratic party and obliged by a national media (some of them also Clinton noisemakers) in search of a story. The speculation is not because Senator Clinton wants the job, but because her people so desperately want to muddy the waters and throw up a roadblock to either New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson or Massachusetts Senator John Kerry - two of the leading contenders - serving in the post, whom they consider turncoats for having endorsed Obama vs. Clinton earlier this year.

[...]

The US Department of State's budget for FY 2009 is $11.4 billion dollars.

What makes anybody think that somebody that so mismanaged her presidential campaign and its finances - still millions in debt - is going to be tapped to manage an 11 billion dollar budget with Embassies across the globe?

President-elect Obama is going to meet, in Chicago, on Monday with Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham: the same courtesy he's reportedly given Senator Clinton. Shall we read into it that one of them will become Secretary of State? (No, we won't, because their people in the media won't be pushing such rumors.)

The conflicts of interest of former President Bill Clinton and his Clinton Global Initiative - a "charity" with a $208 million dollar surplus, undisclosed donors, many of them foreign - signify that before Senator Clinton could hold the post of Secretary of State, Bill Clinton and Terry McAuliffe would have to disband their own "shadow state department" that is the Clinton Global Initiative.

Given Al's 100% track record on such matters, and Mitchell repeatedly being conned by the Hillary campaign during the primaries, I'll go with Al on this.

As you put it yesterday.

"Breaking: Obama Worked Out This Morning, Reporters Couldn't See Him"

This all gets sillier every day. Further evidence that there isn't enough news to fill up all of the publishing space.

A couple of unidentified sources supposedly whisper in a WP speculators ear and the reports goes viral and somehow becomes credible.

Joe Biden is 66 and in 4 years will be 70 and I suggest he will step down and Hillary (now 61) will step in as VP in Obama re-election campaign.

Her role in current Obama administration or staying in Senate will be to prepare for that spot.

Assuming Obama is 2 term - Hillary will be 69. If she wants the Pres. job at 69 - it's hers.

Also selecting her as next VP will take the wind out of any gender-play Republicans wish to make.

Umm, once again, I think it needs to be pointed out that one of the few policy-related attacks Hillary made against Obama in the primary was on his philosophy of diplomatic engagement...now who in their right mind things that that would make her a good choice to carry out that very same philosophy on behalf of Obama??

http://www.thepersonalispolitical.com/2008/11/hillary-clinton-as-secretary-of-state.html

Give me a goddamn break.

After reading Al's analysis, i don't think i want Hillary as Secretary of State. The conflict of interest is just too much to bear.

I don't like the Clinton's drama. The country want a break from this mess

This make no sense what so ever. I'm disappointed in Obama if he chooses her for his SOS. She'd be better as Attorney Gen or Sec of Health.

We shall see...

Most likely explanation: 1) Hillary is being considered for (or offered) something big. I'd say that is pretty much a given, in fact. 2) Sec'y of State is the biggest/most visible 'plum' hanging out there and the current focus of the media's/public's attention. 3) Obama camp is, as usual, NOT providing any leaks. ..... Therefore ..... media/public put 2 + 2 together and get 5. He must be considering her for Secy of State, right?

I don't doubt that Obama will consider her for and offer her pretty much whatever she wants but cannot buy that she would want that particular position or that that spot is the one No-Drama Obama would want her to fill. I see him going for a SOS that has that 'milkshake' quality ... everything goes down easily and smoothly and pleasantly. HRC is a fantastic **fighter**. --- And if the chief reason he didn't want to consider her as VP was the looming presence of Bill, why put her in a Cabinet spot right in his area of conitinuing fame and influence?

Attorney General? Health care czar? Secy of Labor (JOBS, JOBS, JOBS)? Supreme Court? (I can see HRC really relishing that position -- it may not look like it, but those are the fiercest fights of all!) All of those, and probably others, make more sense than State.

Nature abhors a vacuum...and so does the news media. When there's no real news, they just take insignificant stuff and inflate it to look like real stories.

What we know is...Hillary Clinton met with Barack Obama. That's it. Everything else is idle speculation from people who really don't know anything. Nothing to see here. Move along.

The entire HRC as SOS is a plant by Clintonites. She's simply not qualified. I agree with Al - The whole thing is a "media freak show" by MSM starving for some news. I feel Obama is just giving her a courtesy meeting, similar to the meeting scheduled Monday with McCain and Graham.

I also wonder how many more Senators Obama is willing to take from Harry Reid. If he takes Kerry as SOS, that leaves 3 vacancies on the Committee on Foreign Affairs on the Dem side - Himself, Biden, and Kerry. The good news would be Russ Feingold would move up to Chairman. But if Obama takes Lugar as SOS, Hagel did not run for re-election - So there would be no centrist Republicans left on the minority side.

Although Hillary Clinton being some part of the Obama administration might be a good idea, I think the "Hillary as Sec. of State" story is just a really bad rumor.

I don't see President-Elect Obama putting someone with absolutely no diplomatic experience in such a high profile Cabinet post since the stakes are too high, and I don't think she'd take it anyway. As the nation's top diplomat, Hillary would have to give up all political fundraising and partisan positions. She'd have to take the "high road" and virtually throw away her email database. Hillary now has the opportunity to be one of the most powerful Senators on Capitol Hill. So why would she quit that job and take one where she could be fired at the drop of a hat (since every Cabinet Sec. serves at the pleasure of the President)?

Here is an interesting article about the whole story:
http://okwassup.blogspot.com/2008/11/secretary-of-state-clinton.html

Cabinet positions should not be handed out as prizes or appeasements. Cabinet positions are about policy.

I strongly supported Obama over Clinton because I thought he had very different foreign policy objectives.

Word's could not express my disappointment if Obama appoints Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.

I think Hillary for SoS is an interesting idea, and puts her under Obama's presidency instead of out there regaining power in the Democratic party over the next four years. I think SoS is the only position that would interest Hillary, she has already said she isn't interested in Supreme Court justice. And the media's obsession with Hillary shows that Obama needs to do something with her if he wants to keep the party under his leadership and direction.

I'm just grateful that Hillary has knocked Palin out of the news, Palin pales in comparison to Hillary.

Oh ... here is a link to Obama's Change.gov website. Please send him a message as to your views on this matter.
http://www.change.gov/page/s/contact

I'd love to be a fly back stroking in your soup, y'all, when Hillary accepts the SoS position. Giordano will have to squeegee his monitor when he catches the news. (Don't worry about me. I will bring a see-through umbrella with window wipers to your soup bowl so my view of your droopy jowls is not interrupted, thus destroying my schadenfreude!)

I'm gratified to learn that Obama, though probably not as smart as Hillary, is far, far smarter than you. In Hillary he knows he will have a brilliant arbitrator and negotiator who will work her TAIL off for him for as long as he needs her. She is the absolute cream of the crop for the SoS position, one requiring a quick and agile mind, a grasp of complex issues on a multitude of international stages, and empathy. With this choice in front of her, why in the WORLD would she want to hang out in the senate?

The Obama fanatics should realize the campaign is over. Obama knows Hillary Clinton is a golden treasure to be dispensed with honor and care, and she knows Obama could be a great leader. She wants nothing more than to help. If you continue to suspect otherwise, then you can anticipate years of bitter hand-wringing no better than the wingnuts who wait endlessly for the opposition to make a mistake.