Stabby? Moi?

President elect Barack "He whose middle name may not be uttered" Obama has selected Senator Hilary Clinton as his secretary of state. I haven't commented on this until it became official because it struck me as being incredibly improbable, though not outside the realm of possibility, given that Senator Clinton did not fight for the nomination to the last drop of someone else's blood and this is not a woman who does something for nothing.

Don't get me wrong, this is a brilliant move–for Senator Clinton. After she lost the Democratic nomination her career was toast and I was chewing my pen as I worked on her political obituary. In the last election she used every debt the Democrats owed her, called in every favour and used every threat in what would have been her only hope of gaining the presidency. Having lost, there was no hope of her keeping her political machine together or Bill on a lead for four years when she would have been an old lady (fair or not, it counts in politics) without a marker to call in. Now, as the third most powerful person in the country after the President and Speaker of the House, she has a real chance of building a power base and she's in a position to issue favours and threats as suits her. So, 2012, here she comes.

Regarding what she will actually do as secretary of state: First, it will be whatever accrues the most power to her personally and second, there is no second.

As for Mr. Obama? He's just handed the most power-hungry woman in the world a bayonet and asked her stand behind him.

Somebody had better tell him that Kevlar is very "in" this year.