I would be really disappointed in Obama if he picks Hillary Clinton to be Secretary of State. Hillary is to the right of Richard Holbrooke, whom I strongly disapprove of , and her foreign policy basically resembles that of Joseph Lieberman. Her comments about getting involved in a potential Israeli-Iranian conflict and supporting the second Iraq War raises serious concerns about her judgement. But for those who do not like Hillary's foreign policy we must remember that it is ultimately is Obama, who makes the decisions.

    A few new books basically describe that it is ultimately the leader and and not his advisors that make policy. In the book Lincoln and his Admirals by Craig Symonds, Lincoln rejected his naval secretary's advice to block all trade with the Confederacy, instead Lincoln  allowed a limited amount of economic interaction between North and South in order to soothe postwar tensions. While in another book Lessons in Disaster by Gordon Goldstein, Kennedy ignored the hawkish advice of Bundy and McNamara to get his involved in Vietnam, while LBJ accepted their reccomendations in deploying American ground troops in Vietnam. Finally in Carlo D'Este's book Warlord: A Life of Winston Churchill at War 1874-1945, Winston Churchill ignored his military advisors and made the disasterous decision to divert British forces from North Africa into the doomed effort in Greece in 1941. Although the British political system is different it was still the leader of the country who was responsible in conducting the war. All three of these books basically state that cabinet member or minsters, in the British case, have no real power to stop the leader of the country from implementing policy.So when it comes to dealing with Iran and Russia it will probably be Obama in the driver's seat and not Clinton.