Will They Have Chemistry?

Foreigners want to know if SoS speaks for Prez
By Gabriel Winant,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 2, 2008 11:15 AM CST
Will They Have Chemistry?
Sen. George Mitchell is applauded by Hillary Clinton and Irish PM Bertie Ahern, left, after receiving the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work in the Ireland peace process March 17, 1999.    (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

We’ve seen this buddy movie before: to succeed, former fierce competitors Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will need to put away their rivalry to become not just partners, but friends, write Michael Abramowitz and Glenn Kessler in the Washington Post. Secretary of State Clinton has to be able convince foreign leaders that she’s the trusted delegate of the person who introduced her yesterday as a "dear friend," the future president.

Presidents have tended to avoid high profile secretaries of state, presumably for this reason. (The last time a major rival got the job was 1881.) But Clinton and Obama have discussed the risks. “She learned the importance of there not being sunlight, if you will, between the secretary and the president in terms of foreign policy,” says a former Clinton aide.
(More Hillary Clinton stories.)

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