The World

Now that the presidential election is over, pundits and political junkies have to find new ways to amuse themselves. So the new guessing game is “who will be in the Obama administration?”

Today’s FT has a good rumour – Hillary Clinton for secretary of state. I think this is reasonably plausible. The Obama people didn’t want Hillary for vice-president because she would have been a little too close for comfort – and they also didn’t like the idea of Bill hanging around the White House. But with Hillary safely across town in Foggy Bottom (or even better, in perpetual motion, flying around the world), Obama would be able to put the people he really trusts into the National Security Council, and run foreign policy from there.

The obvious candidate for Secretary of State used to be Joe Biden. But with Biden otherwise engaged, all the remaining leading candidates have some drawbacks. Richard Holbrooke is tough and experienced, but seems to be distrusted by the Obama team who think he is “not a team player” – and who have never quite forgiven him for backing Hillary. John Kerry and Bill Richardson both pass the experience and the “loyalty to Obama” test – but are regarded as, respectively, a little bit lightweight and a little bit flaky.

So, by a process of elimination, one arrives at Hillary Clinton. And, politics aside, there is another reason to consider her for the job. She might actually be quite good at it.