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Mediamatters.Org -
Discussing reports that President-elect Barack Obama is
considering naming Sen. Hillary Clinton secretary of state, several media figures have responded
with smears, including 1) speculation that Clinton would pursue her own agenda
as secretary of state and not Obama's,
with at least one pundit speculating that she would attempt to set up a
"parallel government" and another suggesting she might use the job to position herself to deny
Obama the Democratic nomination in 2012; 2) references to
Clinton as Obama's "enem[y]" with invocations of the adage from The Godfather: Part II that Obama is
considering the nomination out of a desire to "keep[] his friends close and his enemies closer"; and 3) speculation
that Obama is considering the nomination because if Clinton remains in the Senate, she poses a
threat of challenging him for
the nomination in 2012 and can "mak[e] trouble" for him in the
Senate.
Examples of media figures suggesting that Clinton would pursue her own agenda as secretary of state and not Obama's
During the November 14 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, MSNBC contributor Michelle
Bernard asserted
that Clinton "will run a parallel government" as secretary of state and "could give him [Obama] some
cover, and she could also walk -- go around the world acting as if she is not the
secretary of state but the United States -- the president of the United States.
That's a huge danger for him. It's a very, very high-level job." Host
Chris Matthews then asked Jennifer Donahue, political director of the New Hampshire
Institute of Politics, "[W]ould you trust her to be a loyal subordinate,
or believe she would be a bit too aggressive as a colleague?" Donahue
responded:
DONAHUE: Well, let's take past as
prologue. I mean, how did she handle herself during the nominating fight? How
did she handle it when Obama was coming up upon her and then lapped her? She
didn't handle it very kindly. She didn't allow him to have his piece. She went
negative. She tried to bury him. And I think that he should take a lesson from
that. I mean, I understand this idea of hug your friends tight, hug your
enemies tighter. I think that's often true. If you look at it, you and I were
talking about [Nicolò] Machiavelli and The Prince.
Absolutely true stuff in there. And I think it's smart to do it. But what will
she do overseas? Will she be laying out the groundwork should Obama have only
one term? Will she be, in fact, trying to create only one term for Barack
Obama?
Fox News
host Greta Van Susteren
suggested that if Clinton is named secretary of state, both she and Bill
Clinton pose a threat of "freelancing."
During the November 14 edition of her show On
the Record, Congressional
Quarterly reporter Jonathan Allen asserted that the
appointment "would also give Barack Obama complete control over Hillary
Clinton's political future because she would be serving at his pleasure."
Van Susteren responded:
"Except for the fact that you've
got her potentially --
any Cabinet candidate
member freelancing, and you've got her husband out there freelancing."
James Taranto, editor of The Wall Street Journal's OpinionJournal.com, suggested during the November 14 edition of
CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight that Clinton was interested in the
secretary of state position because
"[i]t would also put her in the
line of succession."
Examples of media figures referring to Clinton as Obama's
"enem[y]"
Media figures and political analysts also asserted that
Obama might be following the strategy of Michael Corleone from The Godfather: Part II
-- that Obama might name Clinton secretary
of state to "keep[]
his friends close and
his enemies closer." Such
figures include Donahue, Fox News chief White House correspondent Bret
Baier, Fox News political contributor
and managing editor of The Washington
Times' digital media
operations Jeff Birnbaum, CNN anchor Rick Sanchez, and CBS sports
commentator Boomer Esiason (during an appearance on the
November 14 edition of Fox & Friends Weekend).
Examples of media figures suggesting that Clinton might cause
trouble for Obama if he does not include her in the administration
Media figures also asserted that Obama might name Clinton secretary of state because she might otherwise challenge him for the presidency in
2012 or cause "heartache" for him in the Senate. Such figures
include the following:
On the November 14 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, chief Washington correspondent
Jim Angle said,
"President-elect Obama,
of course, would have
every reason to consider her for secretary
of state, because having her serve in
his administration would neutralize his chief Democratic rival."
Also on the November 14 edition of Special Report, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer stated,
"I would agree with Fred
[Barnes, fellow panelist] -- she's a reasonably good choice. But what's so sort of cynically brilliant and impressive
about this is that with her out of the way, Obama is not going to have to show
up in Iowa or New Hampshire in 2012. He has now cinched
the renomination."
NBC News political director Chuck Todd said on the
November 15 edition of MSNBC Live
that if Obama names Clinton
secretary of state, "there is a lot
of upside politically for Senator Obama. You bring -- you get one of your chief rivals, somebody
who could cause you a lot of heartache in the Senate, Senator Clinton, and you
get her inside your administration. You
take somebody that could be a potential rival to you in 2012 out of the picture
as well."
During the November 14 edition of CNN Newsroom, Sanchez asked Patricia
Murphy of CitizenJanePolitics.com,
"Is there something to do with wanting to have Hillary Clinton as your
secretary of state if
you're Barack Obama here?"
Murphy responded:
MURPHY: Well, there could be.
Certainly, the question is, do you want the Clintons inside your tent or outside your
tent? Do you want your
rival outside making trouble for you or do you want to bring them in? You must have 100 percent
trust with your secretary of state.
You cannot have somebody out there advocating for themselves and not for you.
From the November 14 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:
MATTHEWS: Well, here's the question.
Because of the very reason that Jennifer mentioned -- she is a notch or two to
the right of this guy Barack Obama. She did vote for the war resolution. She
did oppose -- or support naming the Iranian Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist
organization. She has spoken positively of keeping permanent bases in Iraq. She's a
bit of a hawk on the Middle East. She could
give him some cover on any Middle East deal that is struck with Israel and
Middle Eastern countries.
BERNARD: She could give him some
cover, and she could also walk -- go around the world acting as if she is not
the secretary of state but the United States -- the president of the United
States. That's a huge danger for him. It's a very, very high-level job.
MATTHEWS: Jennifer, would you trust
her to be a loyal subordinate, or believe she would be a bit too aggressive as
a colleague?
DONAHUE: Well, let's take past as
prologue. I mean, how did she handle herself during the nominating fight? How did
she handle it when Obama was coming up upon her and then lapped her? She didn't
handle it very kindly. She didn't allow him to have his piece. She went
negative. She tried to bury him. And I think that he should take a lesson from
that. I mean, I understand this idea of hug your friends tight, hug your
enemies tighter. I think that's often true. If you look at it, you and I were
talking about Machiavelli and The Prince. Absolutely true stuff in there. And I
think it's smart to do it. But what will she do overseas? Will she be laying
out the groundwork should Obama have only one term? Will she be, in fact,
trying to create only one term for Barack Obama?
MATTHEWS: [unintelligible] You guys
are so suspicious. Look, I think that since she lost the fight for the
nomination, Michelle and Jennifer, she has been not just a good soldier, she
has sang the tune of this guy. She's been illustrious, she's been admirable.
She -- her spirit seems to be with him. Bill's a little more troubled,
obviously, by what happened. But she's been totally with him, and that's why
he's obviously thrown her name out. Why would he even be thinking of her if he
thought she might be insubordinate?
BERNARD: Well -- well --
MATTHEWS: Why would he think of it?
BERNARD: -- because there are a lot
of people out there, particularly women, who are saying, "We've had
Madeleine Albright, we've had Condoleezza Rice, let's have another woman in the
-- you know, in the top post at the State Department." There will be
people also, I will tell you, who will be saying, "Why not Susan
Rice?" She was one of his chief foreign policy people --
MATTHEWS: OK -- OK -- this is so hot
--
BERNARD: -- throughout the campaign.
[...]
MATTHEWS: We're back with Michelle
Bernard and Jennifer Donahue for more of the "Politics Fix."
Jennifer, you're up there in New
Hampshire, we're down here. I have to tell you, it's
amazing to watch how these things develop. First of all, the word comes out
tonight -- here we are on Friday night -- that Hillary Clinton has been offered
the job if she wants it. That's the word that's floating around. And then she's
coming back, the senator from New
York, and saying, "Well, I want to look at a
couple things like, is Joe Biden gonna get in my way as vice president?" I
would assume that among her other concerns are, which are stressed here in the
news reporting, is who's gonna get Defense, who's gonna get CIA, who's gonna
get NSC, the national security adviser. In other words, she's sort of dictating
terms here in what looks to be a proffer of a job. Jennifer, it's an
extraordinary position of power she's in, in what normally would be considered
one of the great prizes in the world she's being given.
DONAHUE: Yes, and I think this
reflects how she behaved in the idea of who was gonna be the vice-presidential
candidate that Barack Obama picked, so she's got a competition going on with
Biden. Biden's the vice president. Her strength: HHS, Supreme Court -- there's
plenty of places -- education, children. These are things that are near and dear
to her. I just don't see where she's a foreign policy expert to the extent of
Chuck Hagel. Team of rivals? Chuck Hagel. Colin Powell. Both sides of the
aisle. Sam Nunn.
MATTHEWS: Right. Well, Jennifer, do
you think -- do you think there's an ingenious Machiavellian streak in Barack
Obama, who wanted her to hang herself with these public demands, the fact that
they're being leaked --
DONAHUE: Ah -- I think --
MATTHEWS: -- and therefore he tried
to bring her aboard, but she set too many standards, too many conditions. He
just couldn't do it. He couldn't give away his presidency.
DONAHUE: Yeah, I think that's a
really good point. I mean, this man can think two steps ahead of any opponent,
and that's what we've seen. We see it with him meeting with McCain, Lindsey
Graham, and Rahm Emanuel, sort of brokering this big meeting. This guy thinks
way ahead of anybody else. That's how he got here; he'll continue to do that.
He picked Rahm Emanuel not to be someone who could bring people in every party
together but to keep his own party in line. That's what Rahm Emanuel knows how
to do. Are they going to keep Hillary Clinton in line? Yes. Are they going to
keep watch on her? Yes.
BERNARD: No, they're not going to keep
her in line if she's secretary of state. If she's secretary of state --
DONAHUE: Well, that's why she's not
gonna get it.
BERNARD: -- she will run a parallel
government. It will be a huge problem.
DONAHUE: I don't believe she'll get
it.
MATTHEWS: If he hires her, he cannot
fire her.
DONAHUE: She's not gonna get it.
[crosstalk]
BERNARD: Well, he could fire her,
but it would look horrible. He can't do it.
DONAHUE: He can't do it.
MATTHEWS: That's the prob -- well,
we'll decide --
DONAHUE: Michelle, you're right.
MATTHEWS: -- I think you two are
probably the toughest people in the world who are on it.
From the November 14 edition of Fox News' On the Record with Greta Van
Susteren:
ALLEN: Well, I think, obviously, there's
only one person that
makes this decision, and it's President-elect Obama. And he'll choose who he
thinks is best for that job regardless of who he thinks owes him or who he
believes he may owe.
VAN SUSTEREN: Do you believe that? I mean, is that how these
decisions are always made?
ALLEN: I certainly hope so.
VAN SUSTEREN: I mean --
anyway, I mean --
ALLEN: It's not how
these decisions --
VAN SUSTEREN: That's how the decision -- we all say
that's how the decision should be made
--
ALLEN: It's not --
VAN SUSTEREN: -- but sometimes you make political decisions.
ALLEN: Well, but the political decision may, in fact, be
Hillary Clinton for a number of reasons. One is that, obviously, the Clintons are well-known around the world and
well-respected around
the world. It would send a message about how Barack Obama wants to do business
in a sort of team of rivals kind of way. And it would also give Barack Obama
complete control over Hillary Clinton's political future because she would be
serving at his pleasure.
VAN SUSTEREN: Except for the fact that you've got her
potentially -- any Cabinet candidate member
freelancing, and you've got her husband out there freelancing, as well, so you could --
From the 3 p.m. ET
hour of the November 14 edition of CNN
Newsroom:
SANCHEZ: Is there a little
Machiavellianism going on with
this, because look, think about it.
MURPHY: Who would accuse somebody of
that?
SANCHEZ: Well, you know the
expression, keep your friends close, but you want to keep your enemies closer?
MURPHY: Yes.
SANCHEZ: Is there something to do
with wanting to have Hillary Clinton as your secretary of state if you're Barack Obama here?
MURPHY: Well, there could be. Certainly,
the question is, do you want the Clintons
inside your tent or outside your tent?
Do you want your rival outside making trouble for you or do you
want to bring them in? You
must have 100 percent trust with your secretary of state. You cannot have somebody out there
advocating for themselves and not for you.
SANCHEZ: And then there's the Bill
Clinton effect, which we don't get a chance to talk about.
MURPHY: The effect, yeah.
SANCHEZ: Boy, that would have been
good.
It's great having you on.
MURPHY: Thank you.
SANCHEZ: You're fabulous. It's
fabulous. Thank you so much.
From the November 14 edition of CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight:
TARANTO: Well, Mrs. Clinton pretty much
can't run for president till
2016 anyway, because it's unlikely she will take on President Obama in 2012, and it's unlikely that he'll -- that he
will not seek re-election. So this may actually be the most sensible course for
her, assuming that he's interested in giving her the job, and if she wants a
high-profile position.
I would also note --
Michael mentioned that it would get her out of the country. It would also put her in
the line of succession.
From the November 14 edition of Fox News' Special
Report with Brit Hume:
BAIER: Coming up next, is
President-elect Obama operating under the idea of keeping his friends close and
his enemies closer? What's behind the meetings with Hillary Clinton and John McCain? Some breaking news about
that after the break.
[...]
BAIER: Jeff, politically smart move?
BIRNBAUM: I think it's a very
smart move. As you pointed out, as the old adage goes, you want to keep your
friends close and your enemies closer,
and by bringing in Hillary Clinton,
he keeps an eye on Hillary Clinton.
In fact, she has to
work with him. This is very much like
another president from Illinois, Abraham
Lincoln, who filled his
cabinet with rivals.
[...]
KRAUTHAMMER: If she is secretary of
state, he [Vice President-elect Joe
Biden] won't be. That's how the Clintons operate, and I'm sure if she accepts the job, it's going to be under those terms. She
is not going to split the job with the Sage of Wilmington.
What's really ironic here is that, if you remember, for
about half a year, she was touting her credentials in foreign affairs and Obama
was ridiculing them. And you remember,
there was this little episode about her being shot at in Tuzla? But I guess change has come
to America,
and now all of that is behind us.
I would agree with Fred -- she's a reasonably good choice. But what's so sort of cynically brilliant and impressive
about this is that with her out of the way, Obama is not going to have to show
up in Iowa or New Hampshire in 2012. He has now cinched
the renomination.
In the Carter administration, [Sen. Ted] Kennedy [D-MA] challenged him as his
presidency weakened. The Clintons
have owned the party for 16 years;
it's now Obama's.
He knows that if he weakens and if he ever has a challenge, it would be her.
And now, if she accepts, it won't be her.
From the November 15 edition of Fox News' Fox
& Friends Weekend:
ALISYN CAMEROTA (co-host): Let's look at another top
story that we're covering and that is, what's going to happen with
Hillary Clinton? Has President-elect Barack Obama offered her the secretary of state job, and if so --
ESIASON: Yes.
CAMEROTA: -- would she
take it?
ESIASON: Is my neighbor Bill
O'Reilly around here somewhere
now that we're getting down into this? I like it.
CAMEROTA: No, you were telling us that you have some thoughts on this.
ESIASON: You know what? I think she should take it. You
know what? She's 61 years old. And
just think: Bill and
Hillary traveling the world. And now, all of a sudden --
CLAYTON MORRIS (co-host): Wait, you
think Bill's
going to go? He has the house all to himself.
ESIASON: Well, he can go one way, she can go the other. That'd be fine. But, you know, I think that she's --
DAVE BRIGGS (co-host): When the cat's away.
ESIASON: -- intimately qualified to become secretary of state, and I guess it goes
back to the old adage, if you're Barack Obama, you know, keep your
friends closer, but
your enemies even closer than your friends. So I think this is going to be an
interesting thing, and it would be --
I think it would be good for her. You know, they'll name a bridge after her around here for some of the
stuff she's done in the Senate, as a state senator of New
York.
MORRIS: And now, you're known as a tough guy,
obviously, NFL legend. Now,
she's a tough woman, OK?
ESIASON: She is.
MORRIS: And former U.N. Ambassador
John Bolton saying, "Look" -- I don't
know, he predicted this --
but saying, "Bringing her into the
White House" --
ESIASON: Right.
MORRIS: -- "don't
ever hire someone you can't fire." Is she too un-fireable? Is she too tough?
ESIASON: That's a good point.
You know, and I think you've
got to be really careful. But I think, also -- I would imagine that Barack Obama is
extending an olive branch and showing people that he's trying to be a
uniter, especially within their
Democratic Party.
And listen, I'm a McCain guy. I'm an
independent. I voted for John McCain. But you know what? Barack Obama is our president right now, and I
think he deserves our respect, of the office, and we have to see what he does
before we can start
really criticizing all the decisions he's making.
From the 8 a.m. ET hour of MSNBC Live on November 15:
ALEX WITT (anchor): And for a bit more
on today's top political stories, we're joined by NBC's political director, Chuck Todd. Yay
hey. Nice.
On a Saturday, some OT
for Chuck. Hello.
TODD: Good morning, Alex.
WITT: How likely is it, Chuck, that
we're going to see Hillary Clinton as secretary of state? What do you think are the potential pluses and the pitfalls
to it?
TODD: Well, I think the likelihood
is fairly high. I mean,
the -- this
wouldn't get floated out there this seriously if she weren't going
to be seriously considered,
because the last thing Obama wants to do is alienate the Clintons and somehow embarrass
her, have her considered and then say,
"Oh, we're
not going to appoint you.
We're going to
appoint Bill Richardson."
So, I think it is very serious at this point.
And there is
a lot of upside politically for Senator Obama. You bring -- you get one of your chief rivals, somebody
who could cause you a lot of heartache in the Senate, Senator Clinton, and you
get her inside your administration. You
take somebody that could be a potential rival to you in 2012 out of the picture
as well. Senator
Clinton wouldn't be able to get involved in Democratic politics very
actively at all from secretary
of state. It's just not kosher
these days to practice politics when you're at a position like State, attorney general, or the Pentagon.
So, there are a lot of political
upsides for him. The question is, what are the upsides for
her? And I think there
are more there than people realize. The
biggest: She really doesn't have
a big portfolio in the Senate. She
would like one, but I think she is struggling to get it. There's a lot of people in her way,
seniority-wise, and
going over to the State Department would, I think, give her -- would raise her profile in a way that
maybe she won't be able to do in the Senate.
From the November 14 edition of Special Report with Brit Hume:
ANGLE: President-elect Obama, of course, would have every reason to consider her for secretary of state, because having her serve in his
administration would neutralize his chief Democratic rival.
DOUG SCHOEN (Democratic strategist): He would ensure the
loyalty of somebody who
got close to 18 million votes against him in the Democratic primary and has made it
clear that she was going to speak up for her constituency and the issues that she cares about, were
she to stay in the Senate.
[...]
ANGLE: But why would Senator Clinton want to serve in
the administration of the man she ran against and may want to succeed? For one
thing, she is still the junior senator from New York with no prospect of even chairing a
committee, while the alternative is pretty attractive.
[...]
ANGLE: So, if the job is officially offered and she
takes it, many Democrats think both would benefit. He removes his chief rival
from Congress while gaining an experienced hand at his side. And she gets a
great and challenging job and yet another credential, if she decides to run
again.
Media Matters - Media react to sec. of state rumors with suggestions of a rogue Clinton agenda, Clinton as Obama's "enem[y]" {...} Discussing reports that President-elect Barack Obama is considering naming Sen. Hillary Clinton secretary of state, several media figures have responded with smears, including speculation that Clinton would pursue her own agenda as secretary of state and not Obama's, references to Clinton as Obama's "enem[y]," and speculation that Obama is considering the nomination because if Clinton remains in the Senate, she poses a threat of challenging him for the Democratic nomination in 2012 and can "mak[e] trouble" for him in the Senate. {...} Published: November 16, 2008, 1:20 am - Indexed: November 16, 2008, 12:04 pm - Page Size: 44KB |