Hillary Clinton makes her not-quite-unanticipated return as Secretary of State

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Political opponents make for interesting bedfellows.

Less than two years ago, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and then-Senator Barack Obama were trading verbal blows in the midst of the Democratic primaries.

Fast forward to today. Obama is president-elect and he has just selected Clinton to be his Secretary of State.

Despite the intricate wrangling involved with forming a transitional government, it seems odd for both Clinton and Obama to be cool with working in the same building, let alone the same branch of government.

But that’s the trade-off that Clinton must make if she wishes to advance her ambitions beyond a Senate seat in one of the most economically crucial states in the Union. Despite the possibility of her receiving a leadership spot with the Senate Democrats, she seems eager to take on the quicker and guaranteed returns she will earn from becoming America’s most powerful diplomat.

The issue with this turn of events is not whether Clinton will work well with Obama, but whether Vice-President-Elect Joseph Biden will work well with Clinton, considering he was brought on originally for his foreign policy expertise.

Crowding the deck is often never a good idea, especially when some of the edges get a little furled.

However, the real problems facing the Obama Administration will be domestic and economic.

The seriousness nature of the financial crisis is too important to jeopardize over squabbles between two Democratic Party heavyweights looking to make a foot race across the country, mending fences and formalizing relations as they go.

The Obama Administration transition team that is being assembled is a hoping to make as much of a positive impact as it possibly can.

What’s sure to be the focus of the political media is the inevitable disagreements between Clinton and Obama. And the role of Bill Clinton and his, ahem, baggage. No matter how much it seems like the Clintons are looking to continue their Washington legacy, we must remember that Obama chose her for a reason.

Picking a cabinet means (unless you’re George W. Bush) that you gather the best available to you for the purposes of what they offer to their country.

As for Hillary Clinton’s performance as Secretary of State, I think she will do well in patching up the holes that the Bush Administration left behind. The six-shooter mentality of international relations has to go. Incendiary foreign policy has gotten us into a lot of tight spots.

Clinton will have to apply the ointment on the burns we’ve received since 2001.