Rumors are swirling that Clinton’s transition team is favoring Joe Biden for Secretary of State in a Clinton administration.
A Politico article published this morning broke the news that “Joe Biden is at the top of the internal short list Hillary Clinton’s transition team is preparing for her pick to be secretary of state.”
The Clinton campaign has maintained that it is wholly focused on winning the election rather than figuring out potential Cabinet appointments, but it would be highly unusual for a presidential campaign team to not be discussing possibilities at this point.
"He'd be great, and they are spending a lot of time figuring out the best way to try to persuade him to do it if she wins,” a source familiar with the transition planning told Politico.
America is, on the whole, very fond of Vice President Joe Biden. He has favorability ratings of close to 51%, according to Huff Post Pollster, and it was much to the Clinton campaign’s relief that he ultimately decided against a run in the Democratic primary.
But it would be a mistake to think that this competition-that-never-was between Clinton and Biden would be a source of tension. Biden has campaigned enthusiastically for Clinton, and let’s not forget that Clinton accepted her own appointment as Secretary of State from Obama after their tense run against each other in the 2008 Democratic primary.
Biden also has some serious foreign policy chops, with Obama relying on him more and more over the past eight years to helm diplomatic visits and tense international affairs, including Iraq and Ukraine. Prior to the Obama administration, as a Senator from Delaware, he served three terms as the head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
As the Politico article notes, the sensitive issues Biden has been entrusted with will “carry over to the next administration, as will a concern within Clinton’s circle and throughout the current White House that Donald Trump’s campaign has created lasting damage to America’s relationships around the world.”
Biden was also warmly received in Ireland this summer, when he traveled with his family to learn more about their Irish ancestry and play a few rounds of golf with Taoiseach Enda Kenny.
The Vice President has not yet indicated whether he would be interested in the Secretary of State role, though after announcing his decision not to run for president he said that he would devote the rest of his career to a cancer moonshot, as he continues to grieve the devastating loss of his son Beau to brain cancer in May 2015. He has also said he may write a book.
Those would both be excellent uses of his time, but could a man who has spent 44 years in political office really stay away if the opportunity presented itself? We shall see.
Would you want to see Biden as a part of the potential Clinton Cabinet? Do you think he would make a good Secretary of State? Share your thoughts in the comment section.
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