Washington was abuzz with speculation yesterday that US president-elect Barack Obama is weighing former Democratic primary rival Senator Hillary Clinton to be a heavy-hitting secretary of state.
Sources close to Clinton and Obama did not deny reports that the New York senator and former first lady met Obama in Chicago on Thursday, and was in the frame to become the top US diplomat and fourth in line to the presidency.
Obama also has met with Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico to discuss the secretary of state job, the New York Times reported yesterday, citing unnamed Democrats.
The reports came as Obama’s team announced that the president-elect, who will take office on Jan. 20 during an intense economic crisis and with two foreign wars raging, would meet former Republican rival John McCain tomorrow.
The Clinton reports spurred talk that Obama would assemble a “team of rivals” uniting his former political foes, like that framed after the 1860 election by his hero Abraham Lincoln.
Aides to Obama and Clinton refused all comment on the rampant speculation.
“I’m not going to speculate or address anything about the president-elect’s incoming administration. I’m going to respect his process,” Clinton said in a speech to the New York Public Transit Association.
Democratic strategist James Carville told CNN he believed that talks with Obama were “pretty far advanced.”
“She knew she was not going there [to Chicago] to have tea with the president-elect,” said Carville, who remains close to both Clintons.
But ABC, quoting an anonymous source, described the talks between the two in Chicago on Thursday “as not a hard offer. Obama is more cautious than that.”
Obama told Clinton that he knew how much she “cared about healthcare but said there are other challenges” and he wanted to reach out to her about secretary of state, ABC reported.
Meanwhile, in their first post-election interview, the Obamas described to CBS’ 60 Minutes the moment when they realized Barack Obama had won the election.
“I remember, we were watching the returns and, on one of the stations, Barack’s picture came up and it said, ‘President-Elect Barack Obama,’” Michelle Obama said, in a excerpt released ahead of the full interview to be shown today. “And I looked at him and said, ‘You are the 44th president of the United States of America. Wow. What a country we live in.’”
Obama spent much of Friday closeted in his transition headquarters in Chicago in meetings about his future administration, fleshing out priorities following his historic Nov. 4 victory.
With the Obama administration inheriting two wars and the pressing need to restore the country’s damaged global reputation, the post of secretary of state will be key.
Clinton, 61, has extensive foreign policy experience, having traveled widely when her husband was president from 1993 to 2001, and from her time in the Senate, where she serves on the Armed Services Committee.
After Obama narrowly beat Clinton in the bruising Democratic primaries this year, her legions of loyal supporters were disappointed when she was not approached to be his running mate.
Also See: Surely Obama’s new team won’t be Clinton redux?
Also See: Obama as global motivator
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS