I’m aware that some of my colleagues have been depressed about the notion that the Clintonites are taking over the Obama Administration. I’m certainly disappointed by the expected nomination of Hillary Clinton to be the next secretary of state. But I was encouraged after reading Scowcroft Protégés on Obama’s Radar in the WSJ today, and especially this

The relationship between the president-elect and the Republican heavyweight suggests that Mr. Scowcroft’s views, which place a premium on an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, might hold sway in the Obama White House.

And this

Mr. Scowcroft said his biggest piece of advice for the new administration was that it should make a renewed push to help broker an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. He also endorsed Mr. Obama’s call for diplomatic engagement with Iran.
“Compared to the other alternatives we face with Iran, we ought to give it a really good, sincere try,” Mr. Scowcroft said. “I have a hunch that we’ll be more successful than a lot of detractors think.

In fact, I have a contrarian view on the Hillary nomination. I think that Obama wants to take some bold steps on Israel/Palestine and on Iran and knows that such moves could put him on a collision course with supporters of Israel. Now…Hillary as an independent Senator from New York could have ended up exploiting possible pressure on Israel and opening to Iran and even use his foreign policy as a way of running against Obama in 2012. By getting her to work for him, Obama co-opts her and could even use her to sell his Mideast policy to skeptical American-Jews, etc. UPDATE: But of course that might be just wishful thinking on my part…