The passage of health care reform was very nearly as important to the Clintons as to President Obama and the Congressional Democrats. Hillary herself was working the phones in the final hours, and the former President's "buck up" speeches to both Senate and House Democrats--Speaker Pelosi called them "master class"--helped them all hang in there.
After meeting with Senate Democrats last week, the Big Dog was asked how he would feel if health care reform passed. He replied that he's be "one happy fella," then said: "Maybe Hillary'll be the happiest person in America, I'll be the second happiest person," he said. "Even more than President Obama."
She certainly looks happy in the photo above. The White House took the photo and posted it on their website.
If the long article on Clinton and Obama in the Times is anything to go by, I would expect her to be out of the Administration by 2012. They get along well enough but apparently she is left out of much of the foreign policy making. It's looking very clever of Obama to have gone against his more hysterical followers to bring her into the fold. She might have been a powerful voice in the Senate now and as it is she seems to have been neutralized successfully. And with Harry Reid likely out of a job next year, who knows what might have been? Oh, well.
Posted by: Hypatia | March 25, 2010 at 03:32 PM
Yeah, that's one big reason I had qualms about the Sec of State deal. I think she's said herself that she doubts if she'd do more than one term. She looks to have a pretty firm alliance with Gates.
Posted by: John Petty | March 28, 2010 at 04:39 PM