The big Obama transition news of the past few days is that Hillary Clinton could be Secretary of State. In fact, according to a front-page New York Times’ article both today and yesterday, it’s all but a done deal– except for the matter of Bill Clinton’s philanthropic work and ties to questionable foreign leaders.

Don Van Natta and Jo Becker take a look today at the Clinton Foundation, which has netted the former president almost $100 million since it began in 1998. Yesterday, Peter Baker reported on the still-secret foundation donor list and Clinton’s friendships with, among others, the Saudi royal family and King of Morocco.

On returning to D.C. from a few days mostly away from the news, I find it odd that Bill Clinton’s postpresidential dealings have become the deciding issue of Hillary Clinton’s future. Hillary Clinton spent 17 months as a top tier presidential candidate and yet even her top rival, Obama, never found it relevant to bring up her husband’s career.

Certainly the source of the Clinton’s money is somewhat important. But not as much as other issues about Hillary Clinton, Obama did bring up: she followed the conventional wisdom on the "war on terror" every step of the way, including a vote for the Iraq War. 

It’s okay to have people in your cabinet who disagree with you. But Obama (fairly persuasively) presented Clinton as representative of stale Washngton thinking and defensive Democratic posturing on foreign policy. Is the ever politIcally adaptable Hillary Clinton now expected to echo Obama’s views toward diplomacy?-MB

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