Campaign Diaries

And just like that, the deed was consummated. Barack Obama formally nominated Hillary Clinton to be his Secretary of State, bringing a stunning close to one of the most hardly contested primary battles in modern politics.

All of this has been repeated ad nauseam over the past month, but it is too remarkable a story for us not to linger over it a bit more. Just a year ago, the two were busy attacking each other’s health care plan and trading leads in Iowa polls. And that was before New Hampshire, the tears and “you’re likable enough,” the nastiness of the South Carolina campaign and of its brutal debate, the Bosnia controversy, bittergate, accusations of racism, the Snub and the fight over superdelegates. The end of the primary battle did not silence PUMAs and Hillary’s alleged resentment remained a storyline until the Democratic convention.

Any posts touching the Clinton-Obama battle invariably sparked dozens of comments - some of them uncivil enough that I had to start policing the comment section! Never did the general election generate as much controversy on here - making me miss the time I got 86 comments just by mentioning the word “Hillary.”

And now, Clinton is preparing to work with Obama, giving new meaning to Barack’s contention in last December’s Iowa debate that he looked forward to Hillary’s advising him.

Of course, none of this is that surprising. While the two went after each other ferociously for months, there was little fundamental disagreement between the two, particularly on policy details - not enough differences, in any way, to prevent collaboration between the two. Obama’s team had always been made up of many former Clintonites, and the President-elect had always been closer to Bill’s tactics and legacy than he cared to admit.

That some speculated that Hillary might help McCain always betrayed a misunderstanding of this fiery partisan who has been a loyal Democrat since her party’s hopeless 1972 campaign. It made as little sense to think that Clinton might challenge a President Obama in the 2012 primaries. She might have attempted a presidential comeback had Obama lost against McCain, but his victory clearly left her no path to oppose her party’s de facto leader.

The only thing that truly surprises me in Clinton’s nomination is that she accepted to leave her Senate seat for an inherently unstable position that might last as little as four years. Many foresaw a long career for her in the Senate - and her name was circulating as a possible future Majority Leader. However, Clinton is fairly low in Senate seniority, and she must have realized that she wasn’t even going to be able to take a leadership role in crafting health care legislation.

Moving to Foggy Bottom allows Clinton to emerge as a stateswoman and craft a legacy of her own instead of staying stuck among 100 Senators without any obvious responsibilities - that might be an enviable position for most, but not for a politican who got so close to the presidency.

There is also some talk that New York’s Governor David Paterson might appoint a placeholder, or at least a Senator who is old enough that he or she will retire soon, giving Hillary a chance to reclaim her seat if she so chooses. This scenario appears fairly improbable, however, as the names that have been circulating over the past few days are comprised of younger Democrats who would be likely to want to stay in the Senate. And would Hillary want to go back to the Senate at the bottom of the seniority ladder?

Whether Obama and Clinton have a warm relationship or whether tensions emerge will have to be seen, of course. But those who expect fireworks between the two will likely be disappointed. For one, their foreign policy worldviews are not as different as some are suggesting, and it is not obvious that Clinton is that much more of a hawk than her former rival. While Obama attacked Hillary for her vote on Iraq’s war resolution, there was little daylight between the two on other Iraq-related issues; on Iran, Clinton took a more explicitly hawkish stance, but Obama was not far behind. (He did oppose Kyl-Lieberman, but he favored its most controversial provision - the labeling of the Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist group - putting him at odds with many of his fellow Democrats.)

The past few months have shown that their personal animosity has been largely overstated; at the very least, it is not intense enough to stand in the way of political cooperation.