Cabinet post for Clinton roils Obamaland

[Beacool]

Ben Smith – Tue Nov 18, 4:51 am ET

Barack Obama's serious flirtation with his one-time rival, Hillary Clinton, over the post of secretary of State has been welcomed by everyone from Henry Kissinger to Bill Clinton as an effective, grand gesture by the president-elect.

It's not playing quite as well, however, in some precincts of Obamaland. From his supporters on the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, to campaign aides of the soon-to-be commander-in-chief, there's a sense of ambivalence about giving a top political plum to a woman they spent 18 months hammering as the compromised standard-bearer of an era that deserves to be forgotten.

"These are people who believe in this stuff more than Barack himself does," said a Democrat close to Obama's campaign. "These guys didn't put together a campaign in order to turn the government over to the Clintons."

An overlooked theme in Obama's primary victory was his belief that the Clinton legacy was not, as the Clintons imagined, a pure political positive. The Obama campaign had no compunctions about poking holes in that legacy and even sent out mailings stressing the downside of the last "8 years of the Clintons" – enraging the former president in particular.

And the clearest opposition to the Clinton appointment comes from Obama's backers on the left of his own party, whose initial support for him was motivated in part by a distaste for the Clinton dynasty, and who now view her reemergence with some dismay.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20081118/pl_politico/15703

The last phrase sounds exactly what's going on here. Who's going ape-shit over a potential Hillary appointment? Not the right, but the left. Though, the last sentence of the article is the most interesting:

One person who apparently has shown no ambivalence: Obama. "It's not like he hedged his bets in conversation with her," said a person involved in the process. While both sides say the situation remains fluid, this person said Obama was quite direct: "He offered her the job."

:eyes: