Yes, Rachel Maddow again. Now about Hilary Clinton

Hillary Clinton Obama's Secretary of State? She, Rachel, can't believe it and neither does Pointer.
What Rachel not mentioned is that the Clintons are not tied but unbreakable chained with Mark J. Penn, the darkest evil in the Democratic Party. Ai, that bad? Yes indeed! Google in Wikipedia "Mark J. Penn" +Wiki and find the name of his firm. click on that firm's name in Wikipedia "Burson-Marsteller" and view the list of "notable clients". Done? Now you know two things: First you know why Hillary has to pay Penn 5 million dollars per month during her campaign and second you know why she is out of business on foreign affairs within Obama's cabinet. Remember that Hillary could not get rid of Mark Penn when he brought her campaign in a mess.
Hillary Secretary of State? No Way!
On domestic issues Penn does not matter, so, Hillary has other great possibilities, e.g. implementing universal health care. Ted Kennedy is back in his Senate's office hard working on it, perhaps mixing the best of ideas from Hillary and Barack with his own phenomenal legislative skills. That's the way to make history.

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Stevens pollster in Alaska : Race is over Begich will win

Huffington Post reports:
Alaska-based GOP pollster David Dittman, who worked for Sen. Ted Stevens during this year's primary race, believes Democratic challenger Mark Begich is all but certain to expand his current razor-thin lead and snatch the seat.

"I don't think Stevens can come back," Dittman said, noting that he thinks the remaining trove of uncounted ballots will help Begich "increase his lead."
Even if Begich's advantage grows, however, Dittman believes it's highly unlikely that Stevens will concede the race until every last ballot is counted. "He's probably waiting in Washington," Dittman said. "I haven't talked to him since the evening of the election, when I called and just told him I was sorry for the way it turned out."
Dittman believes early and absentee ballots, which comprise the approximately 40,000 votes left to count, will likely reflect Begichs' overall advantage so far among those who took advantage of either process. Heavy early voting occurred in the period that directly followed Stevens' conviction on seven felony counts of making false statements on his Senate financial disclosure forms.
But as details of alleged prosecutorial misconduct and strange juror behavior began to leak out, Dittman says his own private polling showed a slight up-tick in regard for Stevens over the last weekend before election day. "I think Alaskans began to wonder that maybe this was a kangaroo court, maybe the Senator was not guilty, and so they came to be much more sympathetic. ... That's why we had outcome on election day. But now we're counting votes cast prior to that."
As for what Stevens will face when he returns after the loss Dittman is predicting, the pollster said, "it's not a case where he'll be in disgrace, in my opinion." Responding to one of the many rumors regarding fallout from the long-time Senator's legal predicament, Dittman said Stevens might not even accept a pardon from President George W. Bush, were one offered.
"I don't even know if he would accept a pardon," Dittman said. "On the one hand, it would be deserved, in the sense that he shouldn't have been [convicted]. But a pardon also has some connotation of guilt. I do feel certain, though, that he is gonna fight [the conviction] and go through the appeals process."
Overall, in Alaska, Dittman predicted that Stevens will remain revered in the state as a man "who did a lot of good."
"In spite of appearances, he doesn't have a dishonest bone in his body." Regarding the $250,000 of renovations on his house provided by a campaign contributor, Dittman said: "In his mind, they weren't gifts. They were things he didn't ask for, didn't want, and didn't expect. But it's hard not to be appreciative. ... If someone gives you a book or scarf for Christmas or your birthday, even if you don't read it or wear it, you're still not gonna tell people who gave it to you to get our of your life. The reality is so different from the national perception. And most Alaskans recognize that."
Dittman noted one other consequence of the Begich victory he expects. "Mayor Begich's win is gonna simplify Sarah Palin's life a lot. It'll take that option [of possibly filling Stevens' Senate seat] off the table. When it's clear that won't be an issue, she can just focus on being a Governor."

Independence or immunity of the presidency? That's the question.

Bush, Out of Office, Could Oppose Inquiries?
This is what the New York Times has to say:

When a Congressional committee subpoenaed Harry S. Truman in 1953, nearly a year after he left office, he made a startling claim: Even though he was no longer president, the Constitution still empowered him to block subpoenas.
“If the doctrine of separation of powers and the independence of the presidency is to have any validity at all, it must be equally applicable to a president after his term of office has expired,” Truman wrote to the committee.

There are a lot of issues to be investigated and the NYT doesn't count them either, but Obama himself said that people needed to distinguish “between really dumb policies and policies that rise to the level of criminal activity.”
Of course really dumb politics can be reversed as simple is that and there are enough criminal activities to keep the court busy. Inhabitants of the death rows are fond of the incumbent president because "he is one of us" and Bush43 expressed his admiration of the guillotine with the words: "Keep Them Rolling!"
You can read the article in the New York Times here, but Pointer can point this out for you: If the independence of the presidency has to be understood and expressed as legal immunity of the president, even in a case of criminal activities, the former president is not better off. The next president can - backed by the same immunity - apply a license to kill the former president and his affiliates by a secret order. It's faster, easier and cheaper, but Pointer thinks that a legal trial is preferable yet.

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