Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Rumor has it that Hillary Clinton could go from being the Senator of New York to the Secretary of State. This is quite an interesting turn of events.

Is she qualified for the job (as far as Barack Obama's concerned at least)? Probably. But the question remains, is it a a smart political move? Is it keeping a political rival close, or giving that same rival a venue in which they can undermine you?

In his column today Dick Morris recounts this bit of history that President-elect Obama should keep in mind when thinking about this:

Obama would do well to remember the history of Harry Truman and Jimmy Byrnes in 1944. Byrnes, known as the “assistant president” in FDR’s third term, was widely thought to be Roosevelt’s choice to replace Henry Wallace as his running mate on the 1944 ticket. At the last minute, FDR re-considered and decided Byrnes, a South Carolinian, was too conservative and went with Truman instead. But the Democratic Party establishment clearly was disappointed. While they wanted to get rid of the almost-Communist Wallace, they wanted Byrnes not Truman. (Just like the party establishment really wanted Hillary, not Obama, to be the presidential nominee).


So Truman named Byrnes to be his Secretary of State after he took office on Roosevelt’s death in 1945. Byrnes, who thought he should have been president, proceeded to make his own foreign policy. He flew to a meeting in Europe with the allied foreign ministers and barely kept President Truman posted on the deliberations. He became a loose cannon who thought he was the president. After a year of this nonsense, Truman fired him and brought in George Marshall to take the job.

If Obama nominates Hillary, he will put himself in the same position as Truman was with Byrnes and the results will be just as predictable.

So the question is, is Barack Obama, who I believe to be an intelligent man, going to make the same mistake as Harry Truman, a mistake that could undermine his presidency, or not? Hillary Clinton is intelligent, and could bring a lot to the table, although does her baggage or flaws outweigh the benefits?

Also, some are saying it's a way of neutralizing a rival, although, what's to stop her from challenging him in 2012 if she so wanted? Personally I doubt being Secretary of State would. In fact it might just give her the launching pad to further her ambitions.