(Richmond Times-Dispatch, 12-02-08)

William Seward and Salmon Chase contended against Abraham Lincoln for the 1860 GOP presidential nomination. After his election, Lincoln named Seward his secretary of state and Chase his secretary of treasury. Their nominations suggested not only Lincoln’s magnanimity but his leadership.

Yesterday, a president-elect from Illinois made his chief competitor for the 2008 Democratic nomination his secretary of state. Obama does not mind sharing the spotlight; this is a gesture of supreme self-confidence.
Hillary Clinton will serve in the Cabinet’s most visible position. As the nation’s ranking diplomat, she will project America’s face to the world. During the primaries, she questioned Obama’s experience; she tried to sound more bellicose. Primaries tend to exaggerate differences, and, indeed, the two were closer than their rhetoric and postures may have led their more enthusiastic supporters to suspect. Their differences related not to world-view but to emphasis.

Regarding Clinton’s nomination, George Shultz — Ronald Reagan’s secretary of state —says: “I think she could be a very good secretary of state. She is well-informed, she’s got lots of energy — intellectual energy and physical energy — to do the job. She’s curious. She reads. She works very hard. She can listen. And she’s known around the world, so she has standing. All those things would stand her in good stead.”

Foreign policy during her husband’s administration was notable for missed opportunities. That seems unlikely to recur, if only because the Obama team will confront a slate of vexing global issues. Global economic crisis, twin wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, deteriorating circumstances in South Asia, Russian mischief: These cannot be avoided. Obama and Clinton might fail, but they seem unlikely to miss things, except for the inevitable unanticipated events.

The next four years will see a U.S. more amenable to international organizations such as the United Nations. Yet it would not be surprising if, when Obama-Clinton believed vital interests were endangered, the U.S. acted unilaterally. Much of the “change” involves image, although in foreign policy image can assume substance.

We would have preferred to see national security in the hands of John McCain and Joe Lieberman. We also like what a team of Clinton, Robert Gates (retained as secretary of defense), and Marine Gen. Jim Jones (national security adviser) says about Obama personally. The two dominant presidents of the 20th century — Franklin Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan — shared first-class temperaments. Obama apparently does, too.