Yikes. Let's give the ex-president's wife the secretary of state job so the ex-president won't undermine the current president's diplomatic engagements with foreign nations?

Yikes.

(semi-repost):

Obama is consolidating power, it's of a piece with the Lieberman move.

The media's (and especially TNR's) Clinton derangement obsession is getting absurd, she'll likely make a perfectly fine S.O.S.

Why should Obama get caught up in relatively benign bickering when he has this opportunity to change the course of a nation?

Me? I only care about what he DOES with this consolidated power.

(I thought of Scheiber's reasoning here too, but I'm dismissing the cynical angle out of hand.)

Here's a clue, one of Obama's 5 favorite movies is 'Lawrence of Arabia,' note the scene toward the end when Faisal throws Lawrence under the bus, Obama might be doing the same thing here with Liebeman/Clinton, i.e., consolidating power, but this time by co-opting them. Why risk powerful and popular Dems arresting his agenda?

Just finished reading Lizza's piece in the New Yorker on the campaign, and among the stuff that stood out was Obama standing up to the supposedly invincible Clinton team after he said he'd talk with Iran et al. without preconditions and they pounced on it. Instead of backpeddling, Obama threw it right back at his attackers.

There may be advantages in restricting Bubba's behavior, but Obama doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who gives a shit: he's got other fish to fry. He'll basically tell Bill, we can do this the easy way or we can do this the hard way.  Which also means that, if all those old Clinton hands newly hired to help Obama have any doubts about for whom they work, they'll figure it out pretty quickly.

Bill Clinton needs Barack Obama far more than the reverse. The latter knows this, even if it hasn't dawned on the former yet. It will. Clinton's too smart to allow himself to degenerate into Norma Desmond, ready for her close-up. I'm betting he'll get with the program whether his wife runs State or not.

why does he have to do such maneuvering, can't he just throw them in the bastille?

What is Obama going to do to limit Carter's foreign policy escapades?

"why does he have to do such maneuvering, can't he just throw them in the bastille?"

nah, he can't. It's just easier this way, path to power with least resistance.

Has anyone considered this whole round of speculation is just the O-Team throwing a raw steak in the opposite direction so the dogs chase after it, while they pursue their actual candidates in leakless peace?

Noam, come on. You lot are just trying to fill server space at this point.

Clinton's global initative as a threat to the new President's FP.

Please.

Looking at it from Obama's view, he will be preoccupied with domestic/economic issues for at least the next 4 years. That's what he was hired to do, not foreign policy. Plus, there are no easy winners among Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Russia, Israel, etc. Why not keep Hillary busy pounding sand while you actually do the job you were elected to do? The real question is why Hillary would take it. I guess she doesn't want to be a back bench senator with little authority and no major committee chairs. They each get something out of it. That is the way most human behavior works even at this level.    

Hillary's acceptance of SecState means farewell to any future candidacy for US presidence.

On the question of how much trouble Bill Clinton will cause if Hillary goes to state: I wouldn't