My first thought was that they're just floating this to prove to Hillary fans that they take her seriously or something. But I'm with TPM on this one. I seriously cannot understand why Hillary, Obama, or anyone else would think it would be in their interest to remove her from the Senate. She not only has tremendous power there, but she can also support an Obama agenda while giving credibility to legislation as a sort of in-party "loyal opposition." Plus, I think she'd be a terrible Secretary of State. Not exactly known for her stellar diplomatic skills.

Someone shoot me down for this thought-- why not Bill?

When I think "smoothing the international waters post-Bush" I do not picture Clinton. I have confidence in her ability to be firm when needed, but I'm not so sure of her ability to do the delicate negotiating without overly compromising I think we'll be needing to do a lot of in the near future. We desperately need a skilled emissary to send to the global community, and it needs to be someone who signals a new era of foreign policy. I'm not sure she can be that. Maybe.

And I also think her skills would be most useful in the Senate. It seems like losing Clinton the Senator would be a pretty big blow. My interpretation of recent events is that Obama is showing signs of trying to build a coalition of allies to reduce partisan gridlock, and as polarizing as Clinton is for Republican voters, I am under the impression that she has the respect of senior Republican colleagues in the Senate. Maybe that's inaccurate, but if it's true then she could be extremely important there. I suspect Obama is reconciling with people like Lieberman partially because his agenda has a lot of items that will die in committee if Republicans in the Senate dig their heels in. He needs every ally he can get.

I dunno about Bill. I think he has trouble being anything other than in charge. I'm not sure he'd deliver Obama's agenda without trying to muddle it with whatever he'd try to do in Obama's place.

Why not let somebody new have a kick at the can?

Not that any positions have been nailed down yet, but there seem to be a lot of Clintonites being talked about for them. Yes, they're the ones with experience, but it does nothing for Obama's message of Change.

I would be afraid that naming Bill or Hilary would only further entrench the vascillation between the two parties and their halves of the population. Naming someone new might lessen that, in the sense of 'let's give the new guy a chance'. Surely, there's some other capable person out there.

I wonder how Bill Richardson would do in that job. His name and Kerry's are also making rounds in rumors. He impressed me during the early primary campaigning because he seemed to have a very level and considered approach to the issues. I had never heard him speak before but it was like a breath of fresh air. There was one debate round where he was the only person whose answer made any sense and also addressed the question asked. But then after that he just seemed to be one among several people who I might've liked more if I'd gotten to hear more from him before everything became Clinton Clinton Clinton hey who's this Obama guy?

Seconding Richardson. And Capt. Renault, I'm totally with you— I feel like a lot of the time, the Executive Branch is always either Team A or Team B, just with a different captain— look at how many in the Bush administration are from his dad's administration, or Reagan's, or even Nixon's. While I understand that these people do have the qualifications and the experience, obviously, it seems little wonder the country is split in two.

I confess a certain degree of discomfort with a career politician like a senator or governor as SecState. I'm more comfortable with a career diplomat, and wouldn't hate it if I personally had never heard of the person. It seems like every name floated for all these positions are "celebrity" picks. I mean, John Kerry? That seems way out of left field to me. Is this because that's who is being considered to the exclusion of others, or because the Obama team is doing it's usual preternatural discipline thing and no one actually knows who is on these "short lists" so they just go on the names at the tips of their tongues?

It feels to me like the media are just saying, gee these people ran for president once, so they and their backers have to be appeased. Do we really appoint cabinet members over such self-serving and shallow reasons (wait, don't answer that)?

I was kinda hoping she'd become Attorney General, just because watching the right-wingers freak out when they realize that their hated nemesis had the power of the Patriot Act at her disposal would be pretty entertaining.

Wonkette calls bs on the Hillary rumors.

Considering how Hillary ran her campaign, I'm not so sure she should be managing any government agency.

She should stay where she is and do her job. She's used the people of New York long enough. It's about time they actually had two full-time senators.

NPR has a nice blog entry on this.

Baggage issues aside:

I can't see it happening, if she still wants to take a shot at the Big Chair later. If she takes a job with the administration, she'll be forever associated with it. If she retains her Senate seat, she'll have some independence and plausible deniability later on. She can be her own boss.

Not to mention that Teddy's position as the liberal lion is going to become vacant. If she plays her cards right, she can easily become the Dem's first-among-equals.

I say her future is much brighter where she is. But what do I know?

Reasonably, she's pushing it if she runs after 8 years of Obama. I'd expect her to stay in the Senate and see how the first Obama term goes, just to give herself room in 2012, just in case.

Besides as SoS, she'll be taking orders from Obama. I don't see her liking that too much. It just doesn't add up.

Bill is hot for Hillary to get the job, even going so far to release info about past donor contributions and business associations. Mind you, he won't be releasing all information, just "major" stuff, whatever that means.

NPR: Tom Daschle will be the Secretary of Health and Human Services nominee.

Since this seems like it's going to be one long train of leaked-yet-not-announced nominees for each position, I'm going to start linking to multiple sources.

Reuters.
Washington Post.
AP.
Fox News.

All right. I dug a little more. I admit I'm not all that familiar with his approach on health and science issues, mostly having heard him in reference to when he was majority leader in the Senate.

But I think I approve. Quite a bit actually.