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The Note: Clinton Drama Haunts Obama Transition
November 19, 2008 8:35 AM
ABC News' Rick Klein reports in Wednesday's Note:
Which of these items should surprise us:
- The fact that Vice-president-elect Joe Biden is still a member of the United States Senate? (Albeit one with no intentions of actually casting another vote.)
- The fact that Sen. Ted Stevens is still a member of the Republican caucus? (Albeit one with very few votes left to cast.)
- The fact that Sen. Joe Lieberman is still a member of the Democratic caucus? (Just with one fewer subcommittee chairmanship that no one knew he had.)
- The fact that it there might be more old Clinton hands in the incoming Obama administration that there would have been if Hillary Clinton had won?
- The fact that conventional wisdom on Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton at State has shifted from why-would-he-want-her to why-would-she-want-it? (Is this all part of a power-play dance?)
- The fact that President-elect Barack Obama hasn’t had complete, leak-proof control of any of his major appointments so far in the transition process? (All this before he names a single member of his Cabinet . . . )
Read the rest of The Note -- and get all the latest on the 2008 election, Congress, the White House and the wide world of politics every day -- from Rick Klein by bookmarking this link.
Forgiveness is in the air on the Hill, and maybe in Chicago, too.
Add Eric Holder, Obama’s choice for attorney general, to two running lists: worst-kept appointment secrets, and former top Clinton administration officials filling out the Obama team.
If Holder gets the nod, this means we know there will be at least one (if not a dozen) confirmation fights that reopen the old battles of the Clinton years.
This while Sen. Clinton plays out her internal fight over whether she wants to be Secretary of State. (Sorry, did someone mention drama?)
“While Mr. Obama has yet to name any of his cabinet secretaries, his early choices for White House staff positions and the names currently at the top of the list for staff and cabinet jobs suggest that his administration could be heavily stocked with Democrats who served under Mr. Clinton,” The New York Times' Eric Lichtblau and John M. Broder report.
This storyline, again: “President-elect Barack Obama repeatedly is turning to the Clinton administration for his Cabinet and staff, the latest example coming yesterday when Eric Holder emerged as the leading candidate for attorney general,” Bloomberg’s James Rowley and Julianna Goldman write. “To be sure, some of the problems that beset the Clinton administration could follow as well.”
Obama “wants the best people for the job, and he’s willing to overcome that chatter if he determines that anyone he appoints is the best person for the job, even if they did serve in the Clinton administration,” ABC’s George Stephanopoulos said on “Good Morning America” Wednesday.
Continue reading today's Note by clicking HERE.
ABC News' Hope Ditto contributed to this report.
November 19, 2008 in Biden, Joe, Bush, George W., Clinton, Bill, Clinton, Hillary, McCain, John, Obama, Barack, Palin, Sarah, Washington, White House | Permalink | User Comments (38)
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The voters voted for the inexperience and now the inexperience is relying on the experience. Are we to say that voters have no common sense? Obama seems to understand Logic, to bad the voters didn't. The Clintons are part of that two party rule that have help devide this nation. Again, voters have no common sense.
Posted by: CHARLIE | Nov 19, 2008 1:12:43 PM
The only drama surrounding the Clintons is the media's rampant speculation! Hillary Clinton has said NOTHING but "no comment" at a NY Transit conference. Bill has said NOTHING but "I think Hillary would make a good SoS." Obama has said NOTHING period. WHERE IS THE DRAMA?
In the last week, the media has simply argued and contradicted itself, through pundits and it's own "unnamed sources". None of it has been confirmed by the actual people involved! Now the big story is "oh, there's all this drama" - and the public sheep buy into it. Sad.
Posted by: Over it | Nov 19, 2008 1:14:05 PM
Why is Capitol Hill so much like high school?
Posted by: Joe Bachana | Nov 19, 2008 1:16:58 PM
YOU media people are the drama. Reporting every single sentence between Hillary's people and Barack's people. Barack hasn't even official said he offered it to her but you want to make it look like she is turning him down or upset. If he did offer it to her can she please have a couple weeks to determine what will likely be the rest of her political career. If she accepts and Obama keeps her on 8 years she is done after that if he fires her she is in 4 years and no senate seat.
Posted by: rachel | Nov 19, 2008 1:35:32 PM
Ok, so if picking people from the Clinton admin is not change, picking people from Bush's admin would not be change, wait, maybe it's actually not about the people he chooses, but the policies and how he will govern.
What...should he have picked Joe the Plumber??
Posted by: LovingLife | Nov 19, 2008 1:44:42 PM
Stand by for Change and real drama. Even before the election, Obama is downsizing his tax promises. First he advertised that nobody would pay higher taxes unless they earned over $250,000 a year. Now his TV ads say the threshold is $200,000. And in campaign remarks in Pennsylvania, running mate Joe Biden lowered it again, to $150,000.
It all parallels the gradual tax plan changes Bill Clinton started making shortly before his election. Then, after his election, the gradual changes turned into dramatic transformation.
As the New York Times noted in February 1993, "... beginning about a month before Election Day, Mr. Clinton took care to say he was not making a read-my-lips pledge on middle-class taxes. He was making the more narrow pledge that he would not raise taxes to pay for his new spending programs. But the overall thrust of what he promised ran in the opposite direction."
On Feb. 15, 1993, just weeks after he was inaugurated, Clinton completed the course change in a national TV address, telling the nation, "I've worked harder than I've ever worked in my life to meet that goal. But I can't." I can't wailt to hear what Obama will say about his tax plan after Jan 20th. I didn't realize that only smart people from the Clinton era to draw from. This idea could only come from Liberals with their own agenda.
Posted by: CHARLIE | Nov 19, 2008 2:11:19 PM
I sincerely hope that Obama does not name Clinton as his SOS. They had significant differences on the war and her statement that the U.S. would "obliterate Iran" if Israel were attacked sounds like more of W's cowboy diplomacy. She would also be too headstrong, and would try to craft her own policies, instead of following the lead of the administration. Simply, her appointment would be a major mistake.
Posted by: stonyn1 | Nov 19, 2008 2:50:02 PM
If Hillary is turned down all Mexican and Asians will vote Bobby Jindal 2012. We need Change in four Years.
Posted by: Mildred | Nov 19, 2008 3:52:46 PM
I am tired of the Clintons. That era needs to be over. Obama needs to look to professionals in his campaign (the people who brought him to the party), alumni and faculty from Columbia, Princeton, and Harvard. They simply need to be smart, accomplished professionals who have run large organizations, believe in his philosophy, and can follow leadership.
Posted by: ed | Nov 19, 2008 8:31:07 PM
I agree that filling his cabinet with Clinton's isn't change.... he pretty much based his campaign off from a lie (change isn't whats happening). Hillary should have just been elected and we would have all seen this coming anyway.
Posted by: Jeff | Nov 19, 2008 9:04:10 PM
To the Obama fans...Don't be so hard on Obama for selecting former Clinton staffers. You should blame yourselves for being so naive to believe he could just pluck anybody to do the job necessary in Washington DC. For goodness sakes, the Clinton years were great years, and BC is extremely intelligent who had very smart people working for him. The press has always been obsessed with the Clintons, so everything is exaggerated beyond any sort of reasonableness. Bill and Hillary are both great!
Posted by: kmb08 | Nov 19, 2008 9:38:07 PM
Reading the comments here has convinced me that Americans are truly the least elegant and least informed individuals in the civilized world.
Posted by: Bob | Nov 19, 2008 10:53:16 PM
"but the policies and how he will govern."
At least he's not going to "rule" now I take it?
"Reading the comments here has convinced me that Americans are truly the least elegant and least informed individuals in the civilized world."
Agreed. The last national election was evidence of that.
Posted by: Grand Old Party | Nov 20, 2008 5:04:10 PM
There is no drama -- except for the drama the media, including abc news is trying so hard to create.
Hillary Clinton has said nothing. Bill Clinton has said nothing.
I can't imagine the horrors of what it must be like for the Clintons to have to be treated like sewer rats by the media and by the Clinton-hating Democrats.
It's truly terrible.
Leave them alone. They have done more for their country than most of their haters care to acknowledge.
Posted by: Danny Savoy | Nov 20, 2008 10:15:42 PM
Hillary has said nothing. Let see, she said that Obama was not qualified to be President and Bill said nothing which cause hillary to lose votes in the south during the primary's. Have you not listen to the lies that both of these Lawyers have infested our nation with. Only Liberals would love these two lawyers, correction one is not a lawyer anymore since he lost his license to practice. I guess that was the media'a doing. I don't like neither party, because they both SUCK!
Posted by: CHARLIE | Nov 21, 2008 3:03:19 PM
What has hurt Obama is he lied to the left wing of the Democratic party. Once elected he has appointed all centrist Democrats to his cabinet. Howard Dean was wanting the HHS position. He has also said he would govern from "the middle". The Democratic left is upset about all the cabinet picks; so get real.
Posted by: tlintx | Nov 22, 2008 5:35:46 PM
I agree, tlintx. The only CHANGE that happened was, changing back to the Clinton administration.
Posted by: vici | Nov 22, 2008 5:41:35 PM
Boo Hoo everybody who wanted Hill as president and Boo Hoo everybody who hates all things Clinton (I am one)Obama is 2 steps ahead of us. He knows that the problems he has to deal with are of epic proportions. He is just trying to get team together that can hit the ground running.
Please trust him to do the right thing. He has a vision a vision that says let's all work together to change the country. Let's put partisan politics aside and get to work passing universal health care, end the war, rebuild our economy. That is why he is
picking people from the Clinton admin. because that can move ahead with his agenda without having to learn the job or the system, they have been there.
So please if he had picked people from academia with no government experience we would hear people complaining about that.
President Obama will have to devote alot of his time trying to save the economy. He will have Hillary out there doing HIS bidding. He can't possible do it all himself.
I for one am 100% in his corner and we should all be so far he has done everything right.
Godspeed Obama
Posted by: margoharris | Nov 24, 2008 10:45:18 AM
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