Report: Obama offered Clinton Sec. State job

In their meeting, the president-elect reportedly offered his former rival a position as his secretary of state.

Published November 14, 2008 9:23PM (EST)

The Huffington Post's Nico Pitney is reporting that Barack Obama offered Hillary Clinton a job as secretary of state during their meeting on Thursday.

Pitney sources his report to two unnamed "senior Democratic officials," who also told him that Clinton "requested time to consider the offer."

Separately, Politico's Glenn Thrush has spoken to an anonymous "person close to" Clinton who says she would seriously consider an offer if one were made. Thrush reports:

Clinton, the person said, had been hearing rumors about the State Department job for about a week, but didn't take it seriously -- until Obama's transition team initiated serious discussions in the last day or two.

"She didn't ask for it," added the source. "It was all from their side."

One of the interesting things about these reports, true or not, is that until recently -- and even during much of the transition -- the Obama camp has been notorious about cracking down on leaks, and has even been willing to punish those who appear to be publicly pushing for a job by not giving it to them. So the question is: Who's doing the leaking this time around?


By Alex Koppelman

Alex Koppelman is a staff writer for Salon.

MORE FROM Alex Koppelman


Related Topics ------------------------------------------

Barack Obama Hillary Rodham Clinton War Room