I wouldn't be surprised if this was promised to her a long time ago.

Obama, Clinton meet to talk about her future


(CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama met with his former rival Sen. Hillary Clinton to see if she would be interested in a role in his administration, two sources told CNN Friday.

Obama also will meet with the man he defeated in the general election, Republican Sen. John McCain, on Monday, the Obama transition team announced Friday.

On Friday, Clinton responded to the latest rumors at a transit policy speech in Albany, New York.

"I'm very happy there is so much press attention and interest in transit," Clinton said to laughs.

"In the off chance that you're not here for this important issue and are here for some other reason, let me just say that I'm not going to speculate or address anything about the president-elect's incoming administration."

She added: "I'm going to respect his process and any inquiries should be directed to his transition team."

Clinton went to the meeting Thursday with Obama because "she knew Obama wanted to talk about whether she would have a role in the administration," one of the sources knowledgeable about the meeting said.

Obama and Clinton met in Chicago, Illinois, at the request of the president-elect, the sources told CNN.

The two sources said Clinton was surprised to hear rumors she was being considered for secretary of state position. The sources could not confirm that the she and Obama discussed the nation's top diplomatic position or that it was offered.

This is not the first time Clinton has been rumored to be under consideration for a position on Obama's team.

The New York senator was said to be on Obama's short list of possible vice presidential picks this summer, but Obama ended up picking Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware.

That source said Clinton thought the speculation that she would be tapped to be Obama's secretary of state was "silly" because of the earlier buzz about her becoming Obama's running mate. iReport.com: Who should Obama pick?

A spokesman for the former presidential candidate and first lady, Philippe Reines, said "any speculation about Cabinet or other administration appointments is really for President-elect Obama's transition team to address."

On Monday night, while walking into an awards ceremony in New York, Clinton was asked if she would consider taking a post in the Obama administration.

"I am happy being a senator from New York. I love this state and this city," she said. "I am looking at the long list of things I have to catch up on and do.

"But I want to be a good partner and I want to do everything I can to make sure his agenda is going to be successful."

Other names that have been mentioned for the top diplomatic role include Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, the Democrats presidential nominee in 2004, and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. and energy secretary in the Clinton administration.

Latino groups are championing Richardson for the top State Department slot. If picked, Richardson would be the nation's first Latino secretary of state.

A source close to transition team tells CNN that Obama is also trying to build a diverse Cabinet that includes women and minorities and that works as a team.

Obama's transition team is expected to announce some high-level staff positions on Friday.

Obama campaign spokesman Robert Gibbs is widely expected to be named White House press secretary, and Obama chief strategist David Axelrod is expected to be picked as a White House senior adviser.

I wonder why?

Obama to meet with McCain on Monday
Former presidential rivals to discuss ways to work together
The Associated Press
updated 12:57 p.m. ET, Fri., Nov. 14, 2008

CHICAGO - President-elect Barack Obama will meet Monday with John McCain in talks that Obama's transition office said would focus on ways they can cooperate on an array of troublesome issues facing the country.

The meeting will be the first since Obama, the Democratic Illinois senator, beat McCain, the Arizona Republican senator, by an Electoral College landslide in the Nov. 4 election.

"It's well known that they share an important belief that Americans want and deserve a more effective and efficient government, and will discuss ways to work together to make that a reality," Obama spokesman Stephanie Cutter said in announcing the meeting.

Advisers to both men say they do not expect Obama to consider McCain for a position in his administration, as he is with former primary rival Hillary Rodham Clinton for secretary of state. But he'd like to have McCain as a partner in the Senate on legislation they both have advocated on the campaign trail, like climate change, earmark reform and torture.

Cutter also said the two will be joined at Obama's Chicago transition office by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, a McCain confidant, and Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois Democrat whom Obama has chosen to be his White House chief of staff.

In his first two weeks as president-elect, Obama has struck a bipartisan tone. He paired a Republican and a Democrat to meet with foreign leaders this weekend on his behalf in Washington, for example, and his aides emphasized the bringing together of both sides in announcing the meeting with McCain.

Republican and Democratic officials say Emanuel and Graham arranged in a postelection conversation to have Obama and McCain meet at the earliest possible time and Monday was it. Emanuel and Graham have worked together before on issues on Capitol Hill, and Graham jumped to Emanuel's defense when Republicans criticized his appointment as Obama's chief of staff.

Since the election, McCain has had few public appearances. He appeared on the "Tonight Show" with Jay Leno on Tuesday and campaigned in Georgia for Sen. Saxby Chambliss, who faces a runoff next month.

Obama met in Chicago with Clinton Thursday afternoon, said a Democratic official, who asked not to be publicly identified the information was not authorized for public release.

The motorcade of Clinton, who receives Secret Service protection as a former first lady, was seen leaving the office complex shortly before Obama left for the day. Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines would say only that "Senator Clinton had no public schedule yesterday."

Obama has surrounded himself with several former staffers of Bill Clinton's presidency. Others are thought to be under consideration for secretary of state, including Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.

Fox News just used the same analogy.

Fox News can't be all bad then.

I watch Fox News during the day, but can't watch it at night when O'Reily and Hannity come on.

Same here. I enjoy Brit Hume and Shephard Smith. But I do watch Greta later on.

Loved Smith the other day when those neocons were bitching about how Obama won simply because of the Mainstream Media's bias, and he quips this:

"If so, how did George W. Bush win twice?"

Key Democrat wants Lieberman ousted as chairman
Vermont Democrat said Lieberman should lose committee chairmanship
The Associated Press
updated 4:56 p.m. ET, Fri., Nov. 14, 2008

WASHINGTON - Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman's chances of holding onto his committee chairmanship suffered a blow Friday when a key New England Democrat came out against him. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said Democrat-turned-independent Lieberman doesn't deserve to keep his Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs chairmanship because of his campaign attacks on President-elect Barack Obama.

Lieberman angered many Democrats by supporting Republican John McCain and criticizing Obama during the presidential contest.

Liberal activists are urging the party's caucus to strip Lieberman's chairmanship when caucus members meet next week. Senate Democrats are scheduled to meet next Tuesday to decide what to do.

"I am one who does not feel that somebody should be rewarded with a major chairmanship after doing what he did," Leahy, D-Vt., said in a Vermont Public Radio interview on Friday. "I never ask people, well you must vote for this person or that person. Everybody has to make up their mind."

The issue of whether to punish Lieberman is a sensitive one for Democrats, given Obama's calls for bipartisanship during the 2008 race. Lesser penalties are also being considered involving Lieberman's committee and subcommittee posts.

Some of Lieberman's attacks on Obama "went beyond the pale," Leahy said.

"I would feel that had I done something similar that I would not be chairman of Senate Judiciary Committee in the next Congress," Leahy said.

Lieberman, who was Democrat Al Gore's running mate in 2000, was re-elected in 2006 as an independent after losing his state's Democratic primary. He remains a registered Democrat and aligns himself with Senate Democrats.

Obama has told Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada it would hurt the message of unity that he wants for his new administration if Lieberman leaves the Democratic caucus. Reid with met with Lieberman last week and was initially inclined to strip him of the Homeland Security Committee chairmanship, according to a leadership aide.

Since then Reid has been working to find a compromise with Democratic supporters of Lieberman, including Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. Dodd and Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Ind., have said would be a mistake if any punishment by the party causes Lieberman to bolt to the Republican side.

Obama has more threats than other presidents-elect
By EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press Writer Eileen Sullivan, Associated Press Writer 1 hr 40 mins ago

WASHINGTON – Threats against a new president historically spike right after an election, but from Maine to Idaho law enforcement officials are seeing more against Barack Obama than ever before. The Secret Service would not comment or provide the number of cases they are investigating. But since the Nov. 4 election, law enforcement officials have seen more potentially threatening writings, Internet postings and other activity directed at Obama than has been seen with any past president-elect, said officials aware of the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because the issue of a president's security is so sensitive.

Earlier this week, the Secret Service looked into the case of a sign posted on a tree in Vay, Idaho, with Obama's name and the offer of a "free public hanging." In North Carolina, civil rights officials complained of threatening racist graffiti targeting Obama found in a tunnel near the North Carolina State University campus.

And in a Maine convenience store, an Associated Press reporter saw a sign inviting customers to join a betting pool on when Obama might fall victim to an assassin. The sign solicited $1 entries into "The Osama Obama Shotgun Pool," saying the money would go to the person picking the date closest to when Obama was attacked. "Let's hope we have a winner," said the sign, since taken down.

In the security world, anything "new" can trigger hostility, said Joseph Funk, a former Secret Service agent-turned security consultant who oversaw a private protection detail for Obama before the Secret Service began guarding the candidate in early 2007.

Obama, of course, will be the country's first black president, and Funk said that new element, not just race itself, is probably responsible for a spike in anti-Obama postings and activity. "Anytime you're going to have something that's new, you're going to have increased chatter," he said.

The Secret Service also has cautioned the public not to assume that any threats against Obama are due to racism.

The service investigates threats in a wide range. There are "stated threats" and equally dangerous or lesser incidents considered of "unusual interest" — such as people motivated by obsessions or infatuations or lower-level gestures such as effigies of a candidate or an elected president. The service has said it does not have the luxury of discounting anything until agents have investigated the potential danger.

Racially tinged graffiti — not necessarily directed at Obama — also has emerged in numerous reports across the nation since Election Day, prompting at least one news conference by a local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in Georgia.

A law enforcement official who also spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly said that during the campaign there was a spike in anti-Obama rhetoric on the Internet — "a lot of ranting and raving with no capability, credibility or specificity to it."

There were two threatening cases with racial overtones:

• In Denver, a group of men with guns and bulletproof vests made racist threats against Obama and sparked fears of an assassination plot during the Democratic National Convention in August.

• Just before the election, two skinheads in Tennessee were charged with plotting to behead blacks across the country and assassinate Obama while wearing white top hats and tuxedos.

In both cases, authorities determined the men were not capable of carrying out their plots.

In Milwaukee, police officials found a poster of Obama with a bullet going toward his head — discovered on a table in a police station.

Chatter among white supremacists on the Internet has increased throughout the campaign and since Election Day.

One of the most popular white supremacist Web sites got more than 2,000 new members the day after the election, compared with 91 new members on Election Day, according to an AP count. The site, stormfront.org, was temporarily off-line Nov. 5 because of the overwhelming amount of activity it received after Election Day. On Saturday, one Stormfront poster, identified as Dalderian Germanicus, of North Las Vegas, said, "I want the SOB laid out in a box to see how 'messiahs' come to rest. God has abandoned us, this country is doomed."

It is not surprising that a black president would galvanize the white supremacist movement, said Mark Potok, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, who studies the white supremacy movement.

"The overwhelming flavor of the white supremacist world is a mix of desperation, confusion and hoping that this will somehow turn into a good thing for them," Potok said. He said hate groups have been on the rise in the past seven years because of a common concern about immigration.

Super Obama Bros.!!

There's actually a bridge to nowhere!

Well, Senator Leahy was in THE DARK KNIGHT.

The First Presidential Address on YouTube

He's not President (yet), but Senator Obama has put this week's Democratic Radio Address on YouTube, a first and as reports had indicated, a sign of what his administration will do in the future.

Yes, this is the future folks.

Re: Hillary as SOS, I guess she'd be a good pick. I lost respect for her during the campaign, but think shes capable and it's probably a good political move. Yet, part of me wants Obama to not offer her anything.

With Leiberman, I too think he should get the boot but I read that if he was to get the boot, the GOP with treat him as a hero. Yet, is that reason to keep him on? Again, I guess one must always think poliically on these things.

With McCain, I wonder if Obama will be really reaching across the isle as he promised to do. McCain was never really the GOPs choice, and he and Obama may find common ground on certain issues. I don't know him real well, but give Chuck Hagle credit for going against the grain (so to speak). I think maybe he should be included in some form, no?

Btw, I didn't see it, but hear tht Obama will be running a weekly "address" on YouTube. What a great way to continue his mass appeal....look at especially the youth. I tell ya, the "internet President". We are in a whole new age as far as technology goes. This campaign, I believe, is only the beginning, not just for Obama but in general. Newspapers will soon be passe'...ya think?


TIS

You have to consider this: Despite her reputation and recent Presidential run, Hillary isn't that powerful of a Senator in reality.

She runs no committees despite being there for over 7 years (compared to Obama, who got the subcommittee on European Affairs, but never held any meetings) and senior Senators like Ted Kennedy have told her flatly that they will own the Healthcare issue, not her.

The Senate Majority Leader in Reid aint going nowhere anytime soon, despite being in my opinion fucking worthless, so that aint an immediate option.

Plus, lets not forget, she's power hungry. SOS is the best Cabinet job, and certainly would feed her and Bubba's Ego.

Then TIS, look at the difference between the GOP and Democrats right now. The GOP Governors' Conference down in Miami this week was a mess, where you had the press fawn over Sarah Palin's incoherent press conference, and Charlie Crist trying to give a speech for the GOP to spread out of its social-conservative base.

If Obama can get the Clintonites under his thumb, compare that with the GOP, who have NO strong leader currently. Their Senate boss nearly got beat 11 days ago, their House leader is facing a serious challenge from within his ranks, and Dubya is a lame duck.



Thing is, what gain is there to boot him for Obama/Democrats? Even if Lieberman jumps to the GOP, the Republicans won't give him any serious minority positions on committees, and probably try to run a candidate to beat him in 2012. Joe is a lonely man right now, and Obama probably understands that this an opportunity worth exploiting.



Considering how the GOP indirectly are blaming McCain, not Palin, for the election defeat....perhaps hopefully Obama will exploit this great fracturing of the GOP, and get McCain's name/support on some issues down the road. Plus, McCain could stick it to the GOP who threw him under the bus, like he did to Dubya with his Anti-Torture bill.



People have been saying that the Internet will kill the newspapers since 1993, and yet it may finally happen not because of technological innovation, but because of the economical times.

He has more gray hair than I do.

Well, he's older than you, Miggie. As a matter of fact, when he takes office, he'll be a full year older than Bill Clinton was, and four years older than JFK was, when they were sworn in.

He's hardly the man-child that the right made him out to be.

A great article written by my favorite journalist, Carl Hiaasen.

Why Obama won, and why McCain lost

By Carl Hiaasen, The Miami Herald

On Tuesday, more than 64 million Americans voted for a black guy with a strange name to be their next president. When he won, the world's view of our country instantly changed, and so did the way we view ourselves.

President Barack Obama?

Two years ago, if you'd made such a prediction in any barroom, bowling alley or beauty parlor, the response would have been laughter or puzzled stares.

Yet, against all odds, here we are. The scene in Chicago's Grant Park the other night was unlike any election celebration in memory -- an ocean of exuberant young and old faces; white, black, Asian, Indian, Hispanic, native American.

Only the coldest of souls could have watched and not been moved.

Millions of words will be written about how it happened, but one of the keys to Obama's victory is obvious. He wouldn't have won so decisively if not for the outrageous mistakes and excesses of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, whose mess will take a long, long time to mop up.

Yet it's naive to believe that anybody could have beaten a Republican this year. For Democratic candidates, there's no such thing as a slam dunk. Given half a chance, they can blow any election.

Everyone remembers what happened in Florida in 2000, but let's not forget that Al Gore couldn't even win his home state of Tennessee. Four years later, John Kerry, a true combat hero, responded like a wimp when his war record was falsely maligned by the Swift Boaters. His campaign never recovered.

This year, Obama was as charismatic as Gore was dull, and as forceful as Kerry was tentative.

Even with the quagmire in Iraq and the economic meltdown at home, Obama couldn't have won election without uncommon self-discipline, unshakable poise and compelling skills as an orator. He also put together a superior fundraising machine and a campaign operation that was deft and saturating.

Everything had to come together in a huge way for a young African-American man to win the White House -- the candidate had to be exceptionally impressive, and the timing had to be just right.

Obama wouldn't have won so handily, and possibly not at all, had his opponent been the John McCain who ran against Bush in the 2000 primaries, instead of the John McCain who morphed into a cranky, fear-baiting panderer.

The self-proclaimed maverick flip-flopped eagerly to appease nervous conservatives. Although he'd once lambasted the Bush tax cuts for favoring the wealthy, he now embraced them as a centerpiece of his economic platform. Once he'd opposed offshore oil drilling as too risky and short-sighted, and now he touted it as an answer to energy independence.

McCain didn't just edge to the right; he veered hard. He lost his way, and he also lost track of the mainstream.

He attacked Obama's inexperience and then chose a running mate who was staggeringly unqualified to step in and serve as president, if needed. Picking Sarah Palin was McCain's first and most important executive decision as the GOP nominee, and he blew it.

Voters weren't the only ones who questioned his judgment; so did many party stalwarts.

More discouragingly, for those of us who admired McCain, was how quickly he abandoned his pledge to run a high-road campaign. As the victim of a scurrilous smear by Bush's weasels during the 2000 primary in South Carolina, McCain had vowed to stick to the issues.

But it wasn't long before he surrendered the helm to those with Karl Rovian scruples, and they went negative in a large way. The plan, neither cunning nor original, was to make America afraid of Barack Obama. It didn't work.

More than 64 million people came to the sensible conclusion that the Illinois senator wasn't really a softy, a socialist, a pal of domestic terrorists, a closet Muslim jihadist, a distant cousin of Osama bin Laden or any of the other idiotic inferences that surfaced in print or on the Internet.

While McCain's camp was spending millions trying to make Obama look scary, Obama himself remained cool and focused. As a result, most voters felt they knew him better, and trusted him more.

It's impossible to say whether the election would have turned out differently if McCain had run a campaign of positive ideas, but the contest surely would have been closer. Despite the crushing weight of the Bush legacy, he still drew more than 56 million votes.

Among those were some who fell for the fear-mongering, and others who'd never have voted for any African American. But there were also many who simply believed in their candidate.

We saw a glimpse of the other McCain in his gracious and eloquent concession speech, but you also saw why he lost. His crowd of supporters at the Biltmore in Phoenix was almost all white, the shrunken core of the Republican Party.

Mainstream America was in Grant Park, cheering their new president.

3 questions for you PB. How old is Obama? How do you know how old I am? How old do you THINK I am?

Obama is 47. I'm guessing you're about 44, no older than 45.

When did you read my birth certificate? I'll be 45 next month I'm still 39 and holding though.

So BHO is not that much older than me.

"He has more gray hair than I do."

You call that gray???? (Thank goodness for Preference.) As my dad would say, he "earned every one of them." After dealing with the mess he is walking into, by the time the poor guy leaves office he probably will be totally gray.

Obama is youthful and that's part of his personal appeal. I think his youth (to me he's young)was a plus. People perhaps saw him as young/new and went for it instead of the same ol'/same ol', only emphasizing how much we really want something new.


TIS
aka PSA (Polk Salad Annie)

I think Hillary gave him some of those grays.

I really wish McCain would have stuck to his guns and ran a campaign like he could have and should have. If he could have picked a competent VP and stuck to his guns as the kind of person he was or could be I would have voted for him. I would have voted for the McCain of 2000, but the McCain of 2008 was just not even close to Obama.

To the Future!

"For all the perquisites and power afforded the president, the chief executive of the United States is essentially deprived by law and by culture of some of the very tools that other chief executives depend on to survive and to thrive. Mr. Obama, however, seems intent on pulling the office at least partly into the 21st century on that score; aides said he hopes to have a laptop computer on his desk in the Oval Office, making him the first American president to do so."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/16/us/politics/16blackberry.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

From now on I am sure every President will have a laptop. Our kids and grandkids will look back and say, "what's so odd about having a laptop" (or whatever other modern invention may be the thing)


65 days and goodbye, adios, arreverdecci GWB. But then who's counting?



TIS

Anyone watching the 60 Minutes Obama interview?

He clearly said, when asked if there would be any Republicans in his cabinet..."yes."

He acknowledged what we all know, that he can't snap his fingers and all will be well, but says the people can expect a President to be honest with them. What a novel idea.

He is very close mouthed on his meetng with Hillary Clinton saying only that he sought "counsel" with her. And, he did say the he wanted to create a bond of trust between the President and the people that he felt had been lost.



TIS

Obama interview sets '60 Minutes' viewership record

Barack Obama's first televised post-election interview gave Sunday night's "60 Minutes" its biggest audience in at least nine years.

The CBS News program was seen by 24.5 million viewers and earned a 6.4 preliminary adults 18-49 rating. That marks the show's largest viewership since 1999.

Veteran correspondent Steve Kroft interviewed Obama about a range of domestic and foreign policy issues in the show's opening 15-minute segment, then he spoke to Obama alongside his wife, Michelle, for two more segments covering how the election has impacted their family.

Obama said the government should help the U.S. auto industry and reiterated his plan to pull troops out of Iraq, though the president-elect largely refused to answer questions about his cabinet choices, saying only that announcements would be made "soon." Though Kroft asked significant issue-oriented questions, he also delved into territory that some viewers might consider frivolous -- such as the oft-discussed First Family's dog acquisition plans and college football.

"60 Minutes" has been on a ratings roll this season. Last week's episode interviewing Obama's top advisers gave the program its highest audience in a year. With Sunday's episode, the 40-year-old news magazine will likely be the most-watched program for the second week in a row. Even with the record-setting preliminary numbers, CBS expects "Minutes" to get even higher ratings tomorrow when the nationals are released (some time zones aired the lower-rated "The Amazing Race" during part of the "Minutes" hour).

The "Minutes" boost wasn't enough to put CBS over the top for the evening, however. NBC still won with "Sunday Night Football" (17 million, 6.5), Dallas Cowboys at Washington Redskins, and pregame shows.

CBS was second with "Minutes," followed by "Race" (12.2 million, 3.5), "Cold Case" (12 million, 2.9) and "The Unit" (9.8 million, 2.5).

ABC was third with some NASCAR lead-in going into “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” (10.2 million, 3.4), “Desperate Housewives” (16.6 million, 6.1) and “Brothers & Sisters” (10.1 million, 3.7). ABC’s shows were on par, with “Housewives” up slightly from last week.

Fourth-place Fox’s was also largely unchanged from last week, airing “The Simpsons” (8.5 million, 3.9), “King of the Hill” (7 million, 3.2), “Family Guy” (8.5 million, 4.2) and “American Dad” (6.8 million, 3.2). The CW was on par (averaging 600,000, 0.2).

http://www.thrfeed.com/2008/11/obama-interview.html