A Really Cool Choice

Which would you pick?: Vice President or Secretary of State.

One has more prestige, one has more influence.
One stays in the District, one travels the world.

This was the choice awarded Joe Biden following the election, and what a choice to have to make. I'm curious as to what my choice would have been. What would your choice have been? Despite all the increases of power that Al Gore and Dick Cheney added, being VP is in the end a very limited position. Truth be told, Secretary of State is an unappreciated but far more influential position than Vice President. Not an easy choice, but definitely a win-win for anyone in that position.

Now, supposedly, Obama made this offer to Biden -- but apparently he always wanted Biden to be his running mate and always wanted Clinton to be his Secretary of State -- but did ask Biden if he was interested in being the other.

That Dr. Jill Biden had so much influence in the decision is interesting as well... and who else got the scoop on all of this, but OPRAH (#6 on my top list of really really rich people that could be Batman): READ ON.

The Rodham Redemption

As Hillary Rodham Clinton is now being considered for the position of Secretary of State for the Obama Administration, it's difficult not to see the great struggle that is Rodham's life. A win for the Presidency would have been the ultimate victory of course, but that loss paints an entirely different picture on her legacy.

Could this be her last shot at redemption?

Hillary's reputation doesn't necessarily hinge on this potential designation. But it might.

Impossible as it is to believe, the hawkish Hillary has transcended from a comedy of errors into a dynamic figure in American history. She had, for a brief moment in time, the chance to upstage her husband's legacy and become a true icon. The couple had scratched and clawed their way to the top of the political sphere when Bill won the presidency. After that was a series of public humiliation.

Hillary's universal health care plan dubbed "Hillarycare" was shot down and burned with great fury. Then the Monica Lewinsky thing happened. That was in 1998. You know the rest there.

A presidential win would have changed everything. She would have gone from being the most active First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt, to becoming perhaps the most powerful woman in the world. Her universal health care plan would at long last be implemented, and the embarrassment of the Lewinsky days 10 years earlier would at long last be nothing but history.

In the end, Hillary specifically asked Obama to not even vet her for the VP position.

How will history judge Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton? If she attains the position of Secretary of State, the nation's highest diplomatic position, her legacy will surely be secured as perhaps the greatest female politician ever: a powerful political lawyer, a powerful First Lady of Arkansas, a powerful First Lady of the United States, a powerful Senator of New York, and (a powerful, to be sure) Secretary of State.

But another loss? No redemption for Rodham? Will she go down in the books as a winner or a loser in American history? Obama - your move.