The critical pick: secretary of state (John Hughes, Christian Science Monitor)

[Muttocracy]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0818/p09s01-coop.html

The next secretary faces huge challenges. McCain and Obama must choose carefully.
By John Hughes

from the August 18, 2008 edition

Provo, Utah - As the party conventions draw near, there has been a flurry of media speculation about the McCain and Obama choices for vice president.

Yet an arguably more important choice is the next secretary of State.

For the most part, the vice presidency is a kind of understudy-in-waiting job, charged with a few ceremonial chores.

To be sure, Dick Cheney has wielded considerable influence and power behind the scenes as VP. But it is doubtful whether either Senator McCain's or Senator Obama's No. 2 would exert the same kind of authority. Mr. McCain is a confident practitioner of politics and foreign policy. Mr. Obama is a superstar who keeps his advisers under tight control. Neither man will seek a VP likely to upstage him.

The world the new president will confront is a restless one. India and China are ascendant. Russia, as we have seen recently in Georgia, seeks renewed territorial influence. Islamic lands simmer. Iran threatens.

That's why the secretary of State – the individual who has the president's ear on foreign policy, and who implements it – is so important to the next administration.

Who might fill this vital role?

continues...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2008/0818/p09s01-coop.html

[grasswire]

1. my blood was already boiling

I thought it was going to be an article by Karen Hughes.

[Muttocracy]

2. ooh, I should edit that. It's like people mistaking

my user name for JoeLie, which never crossed my mind. :banghead:

That happens less since I have Biden's photo in my sig.

[Motown_Johnny]

3. I think that if Biden isn't VP then he will be Sec Of State.

[Muttocracy]

4. I think Richardson is another one in the mix for VP/State/U.N. nt