Senator Clinton plans to accept Secretary of State offer

The Guardian reports that Senator Clinton has decided to take President-Elect Obama up on his offer:

Hillary Clinton plans to accept the job of secretary of state offered by Barack Obama, who is reaching out to former rivals to build a broad coalition administration, the Guardian has learned.

Obama’s advisers have begun looking into Bill Clinton’s foundation, which distributes millions of dollars to Africa to help with development, to ensure that there is no conflict of interest. But Democrats do not believe that the vetting is likely to be a problem.

Clinton would be well placed to become the country’s dominant voice in foreign affairs, replacing Condoleezza Rice. Since being elected senator for New York, she has specialised in foreign affairs and defence. Although she supported the war in Iraq, she and Obama basically agree on a withdrawal of American troops.

Clinton, who still harbours hopes of a future presidential run, had to weigh up whether she would be better placed by staying in the Senate, which offers a platform for life, or making the more uncertain career move to the secretary of state job.

If Senator Clinton is considering a second run for the presidency, eight years as secretary of state in a popular Obama administration (assuming all goes well) would — again — make her the frontrunner for the presidential nomination, and would probably make her a shoe-in for the presidency.  As for whether or not she’s actually well-suited for the job, I’m not actually sure.  By all accounts, she has been an exemplary member of the Senate Armed Services committee, and has a formidable knowledge of foreign affairs*.  Moreover, she’s a team player, and will probably not try to undermine Obama, especially considering that her future success is now largely dependent on Obama’s current success.  On the other hand, she is a little too willing to jump ahead with the hawkish rhetoric, and during the primaries, situated herself firmly to Obama’s right on foreign affairs (she was the one who first blasted Obama for suggesting to meet unilaterally with “our enemies”).

At the moment though, I’m not entirely certain as to what this means for Clinton’s ability to work as an effective advocate of Obama’s diplomatic strategy, and as I think about it more, I’ll be sure to share my thoughts.

*Especially with regards to international women’s rights, a Clinton-headed State Department would probably make good progress towards assisting women around the world.