Around the Horn: The new secretary of state
To the surprise of no one whose been reading the leaks over the past few days, President-elect Barack Obama Monday named New York Sen. Hillary Clinton to be his secretary of state.
Pundits and editorializers had a few days to prepare. Here's some of the first instant analysis:
- On The Daily Beast, Peter Beinart says: Hillary is a handful, but that’s exactly what the State 
Department—and America—needs. Obama’s taking a gamble, but it just might pay off.
- The Wall Street Journal, which has never had any use for the Clintons other than as a favored punching bag, says: Barack Obama's choice of Hillary Clinton to be his Secretary of State is either a political master stroke, or a classic illustration of the signature self-confidence that will come back to haunt him. We're inclined toward the latter view, but then Mr. Obama is the one who has to live with her -- and her husband.
- The New York Times, reliably, disagrees: Declaring that he prizes “strong personalities and strong opinions,” Mr. Obama, who has limited foreign-policy experience, showed that he wants advisers with real authority who will not be afraid to disagree with him — two traits disastrously lacking in President Bush’s team.
- The Chicago Tribune: For those who feared Obama would favor an excessively dovish approach to foreign affairs, the selection of Hillary Clinton and Robert Gates alone should put their minds at ease.
- The New York Post: The team the president-elect tapped yesterday to protect the nation and represent it on the world stage seems competent enough. But make no mistake: America's national-security and foreign-policy agenda will be set by just one man - Barack Obama.
- The New York Daily News: She has a sound grasp of international relations, and, as the country learned in her losing presidential bid, she ain't no pushover.
- The Los Angeles Times focuses instead on Obama's pick for the United Nations, Susan Rice: It's hard to imagine anyone who would represent a clearer break with the Bush administration's foreign policy strategies.
And that's a good thing.
- George Pyle/Editorial Writer
