With Clinton, Obama loses a rival, gains a valuable loyalist

Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton's testimony was well received at her Senate confirmation hearing last week. (Gerald Herbert/ Associated Press)

WASHINGTON - Just six months ago Hillary Clinton was an inconvenient woman. Democrats fretted that her disaffected supporters could spoil the party's best chance to win the White House in a generation. Barack Obama's team worried that if she joined him on the presidential ticket she would take away its freshness, and that she and her husband would later cause mischief in the West Wing.

For Clinton herself, the options looked bleak. Having lost the closest fight for her party's presidential nomination since the days of smoke-filled rooms, she seemed destined for an epic letdown.

Much of her power in the Senate had been based on the possibility that she might one day be president, and without it she would be put in her place by more senior senators. And while other Democrats scrambled to build ties to Obama, she'd be left behind, a victim of too many tussles on the campaign trail.

But last week, as Clinton settled into the witness chair for her confirmation hearing as secretary of state, she was, once again, the woman of the hour.

Fluidly discussing foreign-policy dilemmas from all parts of the world, while forthrightly dealing with concerns about overseas contributions to her husband's charities, she cruised through the hearing with ease.

She sketched out a vision of a more cooperative, multilateral foreign policy without feeding fears of going soft on terrorism. She managed to suggest a return to the way her husband's administration handled foreign affairs, while still presenting her initiatives as a new path being blazed by President-elect Obama.

Now, with Obama certain to be tied up with urgent domestic priorities for much of his first year in office, Clinton is poised to be the most powerful secretary of state since James Baker in the first Bush administration.

During her husband's presidency, foreign policy wasn't nearly the burning concern that it is today, with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, tension over nuclear programs in North Korea and Iran, and an ongoing Israeli-Palestinian crisis. And in George W. Bush's administration, foreign policy was dominated by the White House - often by Vice President Dick Cheney - with a strong assist from the Defense Department.

Colin Powell, Bush's first secretary of state, was trumped on major decisions, while Condoleezza Rice, Bush's second secretary of state, was hamstrung by the aftereffects of those decisions.

In the Obama White House, by contrast, there will be no figure likely to challenge Clinton's supremacy on foreign policy. Vice President Joe Biden has a strong interest in overseas affairs, but has vowed not to play a Cheney-like role. General Jim Jones, the president's national security adviser, is deeply respected for his knowledge of national security. But he's not a global strategist. And the most seasoned and skilled strategists - people like Mideast envoy Dennis Ross and Richard Holbrooke, architect of the Bosnian peace accords - are in Clinton's department, not the White House.

Her ascension already has people in Washington marveling at her survival skills, and her ability to keep adjusting to changing political winds.

But while Clinton is a winner in this arrangement, so is Obama. He manages to look magnanimous in pursuing his "team of rivals"-style cabinet, while turning a potential critic into a loyal subordinate. In addition, he frees himself from some of the demands of US allies, whose expectations are as great as those of his most ardent supporters.

Under any scenario, Obama would have to focus heavily on domestic policy, investing time to make sure his big initiatives - the bailout package, the stimulus plan, his healthcare changes - have the backing of Congress and the people. But with Clinton as his chief envoy, he won't have to spend an equal amount of time flattering world leaders and delving into the painstaking details of diplomacy. She is perhaps the best-known and most respected American in the world, after him and her husband, and few world leaders would feel slighted by getting her attention instead of the president's.

Moreover, this arrangement keeps Bill Clinton on the Obama team, as well. With his wife as secretary of state, the former president must watch his words and vet his contributions carefully to avoid a possible scandal, while backing the new president's policies at every turn.

Besides, it now seems as though there never really was much of a difference between the Clintons and Obama on foreign policy, only campaign-trail bickering. By sticking together, the two biggest names in the Democratic Party should both come out ahead.

Peter S. Canellos is the Globe's Washington bureau chief. National Perspective is his weekly analysis of events in the capital and beyond. He can be reached at canellos@globe.com