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Speech Led To Thaw

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The New York Times

Published: November 24, 2008

WASHINGTON - The thaw in the resentful relationship between the most powerful woman in the Democratic party and her younger male rival began at the party's convention this summer, when Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton gave such a passionate speech supporting Barack Obama that his top aides leapt out of their chairs backstage to give her a standing ovation as she swept past.

Obama, who was in the first steps of what would become a strategic courtship, called afterward to thank her. By then, close aides to Clinton said, she had come to respect the campaign Obama had run against her. At the least, she knew he understood like no one else the brutal strains of their epic primary battle.

By this past Thursday, when Obama reassured Clinton that as secretary of state she would have direct access to him and could select her own staff, the wooing was complete.

"She feels like she's been treated very well in the way she's been asked," said a close associate of Clinton, who like others interviewed asked for anonymity because the nomination will not be formally announced until after Thanksgiving.

Few are predicting that this new relationship born of mutual respect and self-interest will grow into a tight bond between the new president and the woman who will be the public face of his foreign policy, though some say it is not impossible. They argue that a close friendship between the two powerful officials is useful but not essential, and is not a predictor of the success of the nation's chief diplomat.

While James A. Baker III was extraordinarily close to the first President George Bush and is widely considered one of the most successful recent secretaries of state, Dean Acheson was not a friend of Harry Truman, and Henry Kissinger did not particularly like Richard Nixon.

"Two of the nation's greatest secretaries of state in the modern period, Dean Acheson and Henry Kissinger, were not personally close but were intellectually bonded to their presidents," said Walter Isaacson, the author of a biography of Kissinger and the co-author, with Evan Thomas, of "The Wise Men," a book about America's postwar foreign policy establishment. "I think that Obama and Clinton could form a perfect partnership based on respect for each other's view of the world."

COMMERCE SECRETARY

Transition team officials said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson had emerged as a likely pick as commerce secretary, although he had hoped to be secretary of state. He was a rival of Obama's for the Democratic presidential nomination last winter. He dropped out early, though, and threw his support behind the eventual winner. The officials spoke only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the anticipated appointments.

The Associated Press

OBAMA'S ECONOMIC TEAM

President-elect Barack Obama will announce the leaders of his economic team today, naming Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary and Lawrence Summers to direct the National Economic Council. Geithner and Summers were scheduled to appear with Obama at a news conference in Chicago today.

Timothy Geithner

•Now president of the New York Federal Reserve, the 47-year-old would be the top Cabinet official in charge of leading the administration's response to the global economic crisis.

•Word of his likely selection Friday helped send the Dow Jones Industrials soaring 500 points after several days of steep losses.

•He served as a Treasury Department official during the Clinton administration, where he played a major role in negotiating assistance packages for South Korea and Brazil.

Lawrence

Summers

•Summers, 53, a former treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton and one-time president of Harvard University, will advise Obama from the White House.

•He would coordinate the federal response to the economic meltdown across several agencies, including a plan Obama announced Saturday to create or save 2.5 million jobs by rebuilding infrastructure and modernizing schools while developing alternative energy sources and more efficient cars.

•During the Clinton administration, Summers helped craft the U.S. support program for Mexico during its 1995 financial crisis. He later helped lead the U.S. response to the Asian financial crisis of 1997.

The Associated Press

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