Clinton vs. Biden

It's not exactly news at this point, but as part of his record-time staffing of key Cabinet posts, President-Elect Obama has announced his picks for key members of his national security team, including Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, Robert Gates to continue as Secretary of Defense, and General James Jones as National Security Advisor. The selection of Hillary Clinton, who will come burdened with several kinds of political baggage, has raised eyebrows; Politico has offered a reasonable explanation for the choice, focusing on the "team of rivals" philosophy. Here is a quote:

"A possible clue to Obama’s willingness to consider Clinton for chief diplomat can be found in a January interview he gave to Katie Couric, anchor and managing editor of the “CBS Evening News.” As part of her “Primary Questions” series, she asked him what books besides the Bible he would considers essential if he were elected president. “Doris Kearns Goodwin's book ‘Team of Rivals,’” Obama replied. “It was a biography of Lincoln. And she talks about Lincoln's capacity to bring opponents of his and people who have run against him in his cabinet. And he was confident enough to be willing to have these dissenting voices and confident enough to listen to the American people and push them outside of their comfort zone. And I think that part of what I want to do as president is push Americans a little bit outside of their comfort zone. It's a remarkable study in leadership.”"

This sounds good, but it raises the obvious specter of a potentially unproductive conflict between Clinton and Biden; while Clinton will nominally be the top foreign affairs advisor to the President, the presence of a VP with real-deal foreign policy experience and a habit of asserting his own ideas could potentially set up a tug of war. Along related lines, Global Dashboard picked up a post from the Atlantic Monthly's Marc Ambinder about the fate of Clinton's foreign policy advisors. Ambinder writes:

"So where does Hillary Clinton's foreign policy cabinet hang its hat for the next four years? Her main team consists of:

Richard Holbrooke, the former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Dayton Peace Accord broker; Clinton's chief defense adviser, Bob Einhorn, a Clinton administration veteran and non-proliferation expert, Andrew Shapiro, Clinton's chief foreign policy adviser, Wendy Sherman, a senior adviser to Madelieine Albright and Warren Christopher, and Melaine Verveer, a former Clinton chief of staff and longtime Clinton confidante.

Now -- signing up for Team Obama, especially when things were not looking so hot in late 2007, was a real act of professional courage for many Obamaites. And there was quite a bit of tension between the two camps -- although it's not clear whether the principals listed above were involved.

Tensions have cooled; Clinton advisers are assisting Obama's transition team and serving on several advisory committees. But staff is destiny, and there are conflicting reports about how much latitude Clinton will have to bring her own team aboard."

We will look forward to seeing how this all plays out.