After revealing that Obama and Hillary Clinton have met to discuss the Secretary of State position, the change team let out this release today:
“On Monday, President-elect Barack Obama and Senator John McCain will meet in Chicago at transition headquarters. It’s well known that they share an important belief that Americans want and deserve a more effective and efficient government, and will discuss ways to work together to make that a reality. They will be joined in the meeting by Senator Lindsey Graham and Congressman Rahm Emanuel.”
Is there a cabinet position in play here? Is there some other kind of involvement that Obama will offer McCain in the Administration?
The fact that Lindsay Graham will be in on the meeting (offset, of course, by Rahm Emanuel) leads me to think that a “proof of offer” situation is in place. Certainly, nothing relating to the Iraq or Iran situations is n the offing… McCain’s position on a warring America just does not tally with Obama’s position.
The economy, however, has a more complementary aspect to it. I hope energy is not what they are talking about… McCain is too oil oriented – remember “drill, baby, drill.”
It remains to be seen where Obama is going with this. His expressed reverence for “Team of Rivals”, Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book on Lincoln and his cabinet appointees, many of whom felt they deserved the Presidency more than Lincoln, but made his administration successful, has been widely discussed in the press.
In fact, McCain seems, at least in potential relationship to the President if not in this particular area of expertise, to be a lot like Licoln’s Treasury Secretary, Salmon P. Chase:
Chase never ceased to underestimate Lincoln, nor to resent the fact that he had lost the presidency to a man he considered his inferior. His frustration with his position as secretary of the treasury was alleviated only by his his dogged hope that he, rather than Lincoln, would be the Republican nominee in 1864, and he steadfastly worked to that end. The president put up with Chase’s machinations and haughty yet fundamentally insecure nature because he recognized his superlative accomplishments at treasury.
.I don’t think McCain is planning to run again, but it was clear during the campaign that he considered Obama his inferior and my guess is that there is a good deal of resent here.
Monday will be something to watch with real interest. My guess? McCain will probably feel he can accomplish more as a Senator than as an underling of Obama.
Under The LobsterScope
