By DICK MORRIS
Published on TheHill.com on December 2, 2008
To
understand the central dynamic behind Obama's unorthodox selection of
Hillary Clinton as his secretary of State, one must look abroad to
parliamentary political systems where the most powerful opposition
figure routinely becomes prime minister when his party wins a majority,
while the second most potent politician is usually named the foreign
minister.
That's the model. Obama's selection of
Hillary is by no means the act of a president tapping his favorite to
hold the top portfolio in his administration. Instead, it is the
appointment by the leader of the majority party -- trying to hold it
together behind his leadership -- offering due deference to the woman
he narrowly defeated.
Barack Obama realizes that it is Hillary's and Bill's Democratic Party
he now leads. He is the new guy in town. So he has paid obeisance to
the Clintons' power by naming their loyalists to his Cabinet and their
pretender to the presidency to head the State Department.
The problem is that he cannot expect Hillary to offer the proper
quotient of gratitude for an appointment that she likely feels she has
at least earned and perhaps compelled by her success in winning votes
in her party's primaries. She serves, not as an adviser, but as a
principal, taking office as of right rather than through the sufferance
of her nominal boss.
By
way of his appointment of Hillary, President-elect Obama has set the
stage for a civil war within his administration. The rivalry between
the State Department and the National Security Council (NSC) has always
been sharp. NSC Adviser Henry Kissinger dueled with Secretary of State
Bill Rogers. NSC Adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski battle Secretary of State
Cyrus Vance. The Bush administration's first term was animated by the
rivalry between Secretary of State Colin Powell and Donald Rumsfeld at
the Pentagon. The conflicts between these two powerful poles in the
foreign policy universe have been epic. But now the push-pull between
the White House and the State Department is likely to become
particularly inflamed.
As long as Obama is riding high, everything will be fine. But should
his ratings falter, can anyone doubt that it will be Hillary Clinton to
whom worried Democrats will turn to offer an alternative in 2012?
Lyndon Johnson inherited a Cabinet with his rival, Bobby Kennedy, and
got rid of him as soon as he decently could. Obama has imported his
rival.
But the designation of Hillary is only one part of a Cabinet Obama has
assembled without any reference to the loyalty of its members to his
presidency. I doubt that he carried his own Cabinet in the primaries
against Hillary. He has appointed the identical government that one
would have expected under a President Hillary Clinton. The only
difference is that he is president.
What does this administration say about Obama? Does it, at last, offer a real clue as to who he truly is?
I believe that it reveals that he is a man who never really expected to
be president and now is rather awed by what he has achieved. Here's a
guy who was on a very successful book tour in late 2006 before his
success at signings went to his head. As long as he seemed able to draw
and dazzle crowds, he figured, Why not run for president? Knowing he'd
probably lose, he saw no harm in trying. Then, as his candidacy
developed more momentum with each speech, he moved closer and closer to
the White House. But, on arrival, he doesn't know quite what to do with
the power. So he is assembling around him the permanent government of
the Democratic Party in the hopes that they will know what to do.
Hillary might do well as secretary of State. She has the toughness and
energy that the job requires and the single-minded dedication to
achieving a goal that it demands. At last, she need not adopt a phony
pose. She has a real job that she has earned on her own. She can show
her real strengths of prioritization, skilled advocacy and
determination.
But her appointment, and that of her cronies to most of the other top
positions in the Obama government, makes it very likely that Obama will
be unable to impress his own mark on his presidency. It is not just
that he has appointed a "team of rivals." It is that he has hired the
coach, quarterback and stars of the rival team and now hopes that they
will listen to him rather than to one another
Hilary was an excellent choice for the country & a HUGE mistake for Obama. Between Hilary & Pelosi, he will just get to sit at a desk & WATCH it all happen. And, of course, appear in front of the cameras & say what those two TELL him to say.
