PRESIDENT-ELECT Barack Obama will confirm Hillary Rodham Clinton as his nominee for secretary of state today at a joint appearance in Chicago, finalising the incoming national security team. The announcement will end weeks of speculation and behind-the-scenes negotiation, but in turn opens the latest chapter in the Clinton drama.
For Mr Obama, after spending most of the post-election period focusing on the economy, it also enables him to move attention to his foreign policy team.
Alongside the Clinton nomination, Mr Obama is also expected to confirm his decision to continue with Robert Gates, the current secretary of defence, and to appoint retired US marine general James Jones as his national security adviser. The path to the nomination was cleared for Mrs Clinton after her advisers and the Obama transition team agreed on measures related to the activities of her husband, former president Bill Clinton, and his charity, the Clinton Global Initiative.
During the primary election campaign, the Obama team had criticised Mr Clinton as a "veteran of non-disclosure" for his reluctance to reveal details of the workings of the organisation and the Clinton Foundation. But the deal thrashed out promises to put an end to much of the secrecy.
Most notably, Bill Clinton has agreed to divulge the identities of 208,000 donors to his presidential library and foundation. He also agreed to identify all future donors. The deal also sees several measures designed to rein in the activities of the former president. Under the agreement, the Clinton Global Initiative will stop accepting donations from foreign governments and it will cease holding meetings overseas, while Mr Clinton himself will submit his lucrative speaking schedule to review, and submit new sources of income to an ethical review.
"None of these protocols is required by any law," the agreement notes, "and all of them go above and beyond the requirements of the law to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest." The potential conflict of interest between the former president's activities and his wife's new job offer was just one stumbling block to her accepting the nomination. Foreign policy was one of the major differences between Mrs Clinton and Mr Obama during their long-fought battle for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Much of Mr Obama's early campaign was centred on his position as the only major candidate to have opposed the war in Iraq from the start. His campaign made much of Senator Clinton's vote in favour of the war, while she in turn dismissed his opposition, remarking that "many people gave speeches against the war" in 2002.
Mrs Clinton's attempts during the primary campaign to portray herself as well versed in foreign policy because of her years in the White House often came across as clumsy and sometimes backfired.
In the most memorable instance, Mrs Clinton exaggerated the story of a visit she made to Bosnia as first lady. Instead of coming under sniper fire at an airport, as she described to supporters, a video of the visit showed Mrs Clinton being met by children.
In March Mr Obama attacked her directly, asking: "What exactly is this foreign policy experience? Was she negotiating treaties? Was she handling crises? The answer is no." Clinton, in turn, pounded Mr Obama for his declared willingness to meet hostile foreign leaders without preconditions.
However, once Mr Obama had secured the Democratic nomination, the awkward relations between the two gradually thawed, culminating in Mr Obama's unexpected decision to offer Mrs Clinton the secretary of state role.
"That was then; this is now," David Gergen, who worked in the White House under Mr Clinton and Mr Reagan, told AP. "Campaigns are ever thus. There is a recognition that campaigns bring a certain amount of hyperbole, and when it's over you try to find the most talented people you can find to work with you." - ( Guardianservice)