Via Taegan, here is an excerpt from Richard Wolffe’s new book Renegade: The Making of a President:
“His decision to offer her the job of secretary of state came surprisingly early. Well before the end of the primaries, when his staff and friends still felt hostile to her, Obama decided that Clinton possessed the qualities to carry his diplomacy to the rest of the world. ‘We actually thought during the primary, when we were pretty sure we were going to win, that she could end up being a very effective secretary of state,’ he told me later. ‘I felt that she was disciplined, that she was precise, that she was smart as a whip, and that she would present a really strong image to the world… I had that mapped out.’
“Recruiting and managing a team of rivals would not be easy, and Clinton came with her own set of issues. Chief among them was her campaign debt, which she wanted eliminated before she took the job of secretary of state. Would the president-elect go out and help her to do so? ‘I’m not begging her to take this job,’ Obama told his senior aides. ‘If she wants it, I could help. But I’m not willing to go out in these difficult economic times to do a flashy fundraiser in California.’ As it happened, plenty of people in the Senate were begging Obama to offer Clinton the job. Obama’s aides believed that many Senate Democrats thought Clinton had extended her presidential campaign far beyond the point where she had lost the election. Her negative advertising wasted Democratic money, threatened to undermine the party’s nominee, and suggested that she was disloyal to the party. They were unwilling to offer the junior New York senator a position ahead of her lowly rank, and she stood little chance of becoming majority leader. ‘There was a lot of encouragement from inside the Senate to get her into this job,’ said one senior Obama aide. ‘They wanted her out of there.'”
I knew there was going to be a problem when Obama won the endorsement of more senators than Clinton. She demonstrated that she had massive support within the Democratic Party, but she also demonstrated a tenaciousness that would give pause to anyone considering making her their boss. Her road to power in the Senate was blocked by the way she handled the end of the primary. I think Obama was wise to offer her a way out and a large department to pay off her supporters. I think she’s been doing a good job as Secretary of State. I personally would have dealt with her harshly, but Obama is smarter than I am.
