Show me the money!

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Let's discuss the Secretary of State issue with Keith Olderman

See? Why spill the great capacities of Hilary Clinton on a field where she is less qualified, even less more than Sarah Palin? Meeting foreign heads of state in ceremonial circumstances is not the same as making politics and she did not show to understand that and her husband is also palling around with such foreign hotshots, but with other interests.

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Pointer's choice te be Obama's Secretary of State: Bill Richardson

First of all Bill Richardson is the most successful governor and the only Hispanic in the USA apart of Puerto Rico. Wikipedia says:
Richardson was elected governor of New Mexico in November 2002, having defeated the Republican candidate, John Sanchez, 56–39%. During the campaign, he set a Guinness World Record for most handshakes in eight hours by a politician, breaking Theodore Roosevelt's record. He succeeded a two-term Republican governor, Gary E. Johnson. He took office in January 2003 as the only Hispanic Governor in the United States, other than then-Governor Sila María Calderón of Puerto Rico. In his first year, Richardson proposed "tax cuts to promote growth and investment" and passed a broad personal income tax cut and won a statewide special election to transfer money from the state's Permanent Fund to meet current expenses and projects. In early 2005, Richardson made New Mexico the first state in the nation to provide $400,000 in life insurance coverage for New Mexico National Guardsmen who serve on active duty. Thirty-five states have since followed suit.
Working with the legislature, he formed Governor Richardson's Investment Partnership (GRIP) in 2003. The partnership has been used to fund large-scale public infrastructure projects throughout New Mexico, including, through the use of highway funds, a brand new commuter rail line (the Rail Runner) that runs between Belen, Albuquerque, and Bernalillo. He supported LGBT rights in his career as governor; he added sexual orientation and gender identity to New Mexico's list of civil rights categories. During the summer of 2003, he met with a delegation from North Korea at their request to discuss concerns over that country's use of nuclear energy. At the request of the White House, he also flew to North Korea in 2005, and met with another North Korean delegation in 2006. On December 7, 2006, Richardson was named as the "Special Envoy for Hemispheric Affairs" for the Secretary General of the Organization of American States with the mandate to "promote dialogue on issues of importance to the region, such as immigration and free trade."
He was named Chairman of the Democratic Governors Association and announced a desire to increase the role of Democratic governors in deciding the future of their party.
In 2003, Richardson backed and signed legislation creating a permit system for New Mexicans to carry concealed handguns. He applied for and received a concealed weapons permit, though by his own admission he seldom carries a gun.
As discussed frequently on CNN, Richardson supported the New Mexico policy of giving driver's licenses to illegal immigrants.[citation needed]
In 2006, Forbes credited Richardson's reforms in naming Albuquerque, New Mexico the best city in the U.S. for business and careers. The Cato Institute, meanwhile, has consistently rated Richardson as one of the most fiscally responsible Democratic governors in the nation.
In December 2005, Richardson announced the intention of New Mexico to partner with billionaire Richard Branson to bring space tourism to the proposed Spaceport America located near Las Cruces, New Mexico.
In March 2006, Richardson vetoed legislation that would ban the use of eminent domain to transfer property to private developers, as allowed by the Supreme Court's 2005 decision in Kelo v. City of New London. He promised to work with the legislature to draft new legislation addressing the issue in the 2007 legislative session.
On September 7, 2006, Richardson flew to Sudan to meet Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir and successfully negotiated the release of imprisoned journalist Paul Salopek. Salopek had been charged by the Sudanese with espionage on August 26, 2006, while on a National Geographic assignment.
Richardson won his second term as Governor of New Mexico on November 7, 2006, 68–32 percent against former New Mexico Republican Party Chairman John Dendahl. Richardson received the highest percentage of votes in any gubernatorial election in the state's history.
In December 2006, Richardson announced that he would support a ban on cockfighting in New Mexico. On March 12, 2007, Richardson signed into law a bill that would ban cockfighting in New Mexico. Puerto Rico is now the only part of the United States where cockfighting is legal.
In January 2007, at the request of the Save Darfur Coalition, he brokered a 60-day cease fire between al-Bashir and leaders of several rebel factions in Darfur, the western Sudanese region. The cease-fire never became effective, however, with allegations of breaches on all sides.
During New Mexico's most recent legislative session, Richardson signed a bill into law that made New Mexico the 12th state to legalize marijuana for medical reasons. When asked if this would hurt him in a Presidential election, he stated that it did not matter, as it was "the right thing to do."
Richardson's current term in office ends in 2011 and he is term-limited from a third term as governor.
Before his election as governor of New Mexico, Richardson served in the administration of Bill Clinton, first as US ambassador to the United Nations, later as Secretary of Energy. He became the first Energy Secretary with a plan to dispose of nuclear waste. He created the Director for Native American Affairs position in the Department in 1998, and in January 2000 oversaw the largest return of federal lands, 84,000 acres (340 km²), to an Indian Tribe (the Northern Ute Tribe of Utah) in more than 100 years. Richardson also directed the overhaul of the Department's consultation policy with Native American tribes and established the Tribal Energy Program.
Richardson was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for the 2008 presidential election but dropped out on January 10, 2008 after lackluster showings in the first primary and caucus contests. Despite his long history with the Clinton family, Richardson endorsed Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination on March 21, 2008. Commentator and Clinton ally James Carville famously compared Richardson to Judas Iscariot for the move. Richardson responded in a Washington Post article, feeling "compelled to defend [himself] against character assassination and baseless allegations."
Richardson was a rumored Vice Presidential candidate for Senator and Democratic presumptive nominee Barack Obama and was fully vetted by the Obama campaign, before Obama chose Joe Biden on August 23, 2008.
In the wake of Obama's victory in the 2008 presidential election, Richardson has been mentioned as a possible Cabinet appointment in the upcoming Obama Administration, particularly as Secretary of State.
The day after Obama's election, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, "There's no one more qualified to be part of the president's cabinet than Bill Richardson and I would hope that he's under consideration." Richardson has yet to publicly comment on the speculation. On November seventh, Obama met with Richardson to discuss a Cabinet position. He is in line with Senator and Former 2008 Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton, says the Washington Post.
If Richardson were to accept a position as Secretary of State in the Obama Administration, he would be the first Mexican-American and Hispanic individual to hold the position. Also, if he accepts before his current term expires, he would be succeeded as New Mexico Governor by Lieutenant Governor Diane Denish.

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Ayers says 'secret link' with Obama is a 'myth'

Republicans pushed Democrat Obama's "association" with Ayers, a founder of the Weather Underground, which bombed the Pentagon, the U.S. Capitol and other targets in the early 1970s.
Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin repeatedly accused Obama, who met Ayers in 1995 when the former 1960s radical was a professor at the University of Chicago, of "palling around with terrorists." Sen. John McCain frequently called on Obama to "come clean" about his relationship with the "unrepentant terrorist."
But in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America," Ayers told anchor Chris Cuomo that he doesn't know Obama any better than "thousands of other Chicagoans" and that "a secret link" between the two men is a "myth."
"I became an issue unwittingly and unwillingly in the campaign, and I decided that I didn't want to answer any of it at that moment because it was such a profoundly dishonest narrative," Ayers said.
Asked about the issue in his final debate with McCain, Obama, who was 8 years old at the time of the Weather Underground bombings, said he has "roundly condemned those acts."
"Mr. Ayers is not involved in my campaign, he has never been involved in this campaign, and he will not advise me in the White House," he said.
During the campaign, Republicans zeroed in on Ayers' 2001 quote, "I don't regret setting bombs; I feel we didn't do enough" to stop the Vietnam War, and accused Obama of launching his political career in Ayers' living room -- at a 1995 coffee gathering as he began his campaign for the Illinois state Senate.
"We had him in our home, and I think he was probably in 20 homes that day," Ayers said, also refusing to back down from his previous comments.
"I don't think we did enough," he added, "just as today, I don't think we've done enough to stop these wars, and I think we must all recognize the injustice of it and do more."
Since the coffee meeting, Ayers and Obama served together on the boards of the Woods Fund of Chicago and the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Ayers said the relationship was never more than civic-minded and professional.
"This idea that we need to know more, like there's a dark hidden secret, a secret link, is just a myth," Ayers said. "And it's a myth thrown up by people who kind of wanted to exploit the politics of fear, and I think it's a great credit to the American people that those politics were rejected."
On Wednesday, Palin told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that Obama's relationship with Ayers is "an association that still bothers me."
"I still am concerned about that association with Bill Ayers," Palin said. "And if anybody still wants to talk about it, I will, because this is an unrepentant domestic terrorist who had campaigned to blow up, to destroy our Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol."
"I don't buy the idea that guilt by association should be any part of our politics," Ayers said Friday. "And the interesting thing is ,as much as this was created as an issue in the campaign, it appears for most people it was -- it had no traction; it had no meaning."
Ayers turned himself in to federal authorities in 1980 to face charges of inciting to riot and conspiring to bomb government buildings, but charges against him were dropped.

The Weather Underground bomb at the Pentagon went off in a women's restroom on the Air Force wing, causing extensive flooding that destroyed some classified computer tapes. The Capitol bomb was set in a men's restroom and caused about $100,000 in damage. Both bombs were preceded by warnings that they would take place and caused no injuries or deaths, as was the case with about 20 other bombings for which the group claimed responsibility.
Three Weather Underground members were killed in 1970, however, when the bomb they were building exploded prematurely.

In 1997 Ayers became awarded in Chicago as "Citizen of the Year" for his great merit as an education reformer.

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Obama's Team of Rivals

By Jacob Heilbrunn, Huffington Post
If Barack Obama asks Hillary Clinton to become Secretary of State, it would be a brilliantly audacious political move. Choosing Clinton would elate her fans, soothing any lingering bruised feelings, and bring some major star power to the State Department. Clinton would possess real clout and, like Obama, serve as a kind of ambassador to the world. It would also show that Obama, like Abraham Lincoln, who, as the historian Doris Kearns Goodwin showed in her book "Team of Rivals," is unafraid of tapping powerful cabinet members.

But would it be good for American foreign policy? Would it be consistent with the kind of change Obama promised on the campaign trail? Clinton's record is markedly different than Obama's. She supported the Iraq War. In 2006, she supported legalizing the torture of an individual who knows about an "imminent threat" to millions of American, but backpedaled on the idea in September 2007. In April 2008, she said the U.S. could "totally obliterate" Iran if it threatened Israel with nuclear weapons. In essence, she decided to run as a foreign policy hawk for president, figuring that she couldn't run the risk of appearing "soft" on foreign policy. Clinton represents, or has represented, what I would call the Lieberman wing of the party -- Democratic neocons based at places like the Progressive Policy Institute and the Democratic Leadership Council. They don't believe the Iraq War was itself a mistake, but that it was simply conducted ineptly by the Bush administration.

Already there are splits in the Obama camp between those who believe that the United States needs to push for democracy and human rights abroad (Russia or China) and those who think that Obama should focus on limiting America's commitments abroad. Choosing Clinton would be a big victory for the first camp.

Also Jason Linkins has his thoughts:
As you know, today is Friday, and Hillary Clinton's been to Chicago, and Barack Obama's transition team is in Chicago, and so everyone who's got an ankle or an elbow in the newshole is straight up speculatin' that Hillary's poised to be named as the next Secretary of State. This gives everyone a chance to drop the name of Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team Of Rivals like they were the first to think of it, then immediately pivot and fret over the possibility of Clinton being nothing but a dollop of underminer sauce on the promised Hope and Change Hoagie.
It's all frightfully interesting for a few minutes, but if there's any news organization that's just caught the gollydarned vapors over it, it's ABC News' The Note, who do what they do best: take the day's conventional wisdom and dress it up with fluttery melodrama and overheated pretentiousness. Here's how they captured the moment:

So much for no drama.
Surely a certain soon-to-be-ex-senator knows this by now, but here's the thing about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton: She tends to steal the scenes she's playing in.
Until the subject of her "private business" Thursday in Chicago is resolved -- and maybe until and even beyond the press conference announcing the new secretary who's headed to Foggy Bottom -- it will be 3 am in the transition process.
The Hillary rumors are the first potential stumbling block for the smooth machine that is President-elect Barack Obama's transition efforts -- and it revolves around a storyline that seems never to get old.

We sort of want to send a valentine to The American Prospect's Tim Fernholz, who responded to The Note like so:

No, it does get old! It's old right now! I spent some time looking around for some damaging blind quote from the Clinton camp, and shot an e-mail to an Obama aide to see if I missed anything. In fact, nothing happened. ABC is just being ridiculous -- have those writers had a vacation since the primaries? Get some down-time, folks.

HA HA ZING. And, noting that John McCain is scheduled to come to Chicago on Monday to meet with Obama and all the other radicals affiliated with the Annenberg Challenge Fund, presumably, Fernholz adds this kicker:
"Possible Note headline: OMG MCCAIN SECRETARY OF DEFENSE?"

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