I've been tossing this around in my head for the last few days, off and on.  Hillary Clinton is offered the opportunity to head up the State Department.  Great.  I have no problems with this.  I think, frankly, she'll do a fine job, and have no concerns about her abilities as a team player in an Obama cabinet.  Obama's not looking for yes-men/women, he's looking for capable people.  So that's great.  But I keep returning to the plaguing question of why she would accept this, and not only accept it, but seemingly work hard to make sure it happens.

Hillary Clinton is not yet a very powerful member of the Senate, but Reid's slowly working on remedying that.  With another term, she'll be getting up there and ready to head up some real committees.  This launches her into a better position for a 2016 run than she had this year.  With the legacy of Bill well enough behind that she can just be Hillary, with a presumably still strong Democratic party, etc., there's very little that'd be in her way, except the prospect of another young star, though hopefully by that point we'll be wanting a stay the course prez, and not the change prez we were all craving this year, which makes a young and inexperienced someone much less attractive.  When things are going well, we like someone grounded in the past.  So what the hell?

Then it hit me; the only possible explanation.  For clarification, the State department has not been a good launching pad into the presidency since the 19th century, so we can rule out that she'd be hoping to make the leap directly.  For the last century, it's been pretty well established that best place to be to maneuver into the presidency after the term limitations are up on the current president is to be the veep.  Joe Biden was picked as the veep, though, you say.  Joe Biden, I respond, is older than God.  By the time even 2012 rolls around, he'll be almost as old as John McCain was this year.  He strikes me as a one-term VP.

You see where I'm going with this; I know you do.  If Hillary is able to earn the trust and respect of those that put their faith in Obama this year through a stint at State, she would make a formidable choice for VP in 2012.  This puts her exactly where she'd want to be to run in 2016.  This assumes that Hillary's primary motivation would be ambition.  I don't think this is a bad thing, as it was often cited as being throughout the primary season.  I believe it's a righteous ambition; the ambition to truly serve the people of the country.

I also think that this isn't some scheming on the part of the Clintons, but a part of Obama's rationale as well.  We'll see what happens, though, I guess.