NM Gov Bill Richardson to replace Hillary Clinton at State Dept?

Numerous sources are pointing toward New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson as possibly replacing Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State in 2011. Governor Richardson will be ending his term as Governor on December 31st after eight years in office and has just returned from North Korea after working in an “unofficial” capacity to defuse tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Richardson recently stated that he would like a position in the Obama administration after he leaves office. This is not an unreasonable request in that he had been previously nominated by President Obama to be commerce secretary in 2009. However, Richardson had to withdraw his nomination because he was under investigation for alleged “pay to play” activities as Governor. He was cleared of any wrongdoing in August of 2009.

Richardson also traveled to Cuba in August of this year under the guise of arranging trade for products from New Mexico. However, he admitted that the U.S. State Department asked him to press Cuban officials for the release of U.S. contractor Alan Gross who has been held in a Cuban jail since last December on suspicion of spying. Richardson met with Cuba’s Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez about the case.

This was not Richardson’s first exposure to diplomatic relations. He served as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Energy Secretary under President Clinton. In 1996, he met with former Cuban President Fidel Castro to secure the release of three political prisoners. In addition, he traveled to war torn Sudan that same year to successfully negotiate the release of an American pilot and two other Red Cross workers who were taken hostage in the Central African nation.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton has been Secretary of State under President Obama since he took office. Her high profile role has been diminishing since just before the November elections, as evidenced by the fact that she has not been in the forefront of media coverage of involvement in several high level international issues. Of particular note are the recent revelations by Wikileaks of unflattering comments in State Department records and communications that many say has caused a major blow to international relations.

To add to the fire, Secretary Clinton has recently stated she would not be seeking elected office in the future and will be looking to spend more time as an advocate for women. In addition to this, it appears from recent interviews that the high stress job of Secretary of State has required her to travel extensively, which has kept her from spending time with her family.

Considering her that her husband, Bill Clinton, had open-heart surgery in 2004 for heart disease and a hospitalization in February of 2010 to have heart stints installed along with the marriage of her daughter Chelsea, Secretary Clinton’s resignation to spend more time with her family is logical.

Finally, Obama advisor David Axelrod said yesterday that there would be “significant changes” announced in the Obama Whitehouse after the President returns from his vacation in Hawaii. Axelrod went on to say, "This is a bubble. It's been an intense couple of years, and there's an advantage to bringing in folks who have a fresh set of senses -- smell, touch and feel -- about what's going on out there.”

To add to this speculation, President Obama was seen with a copy of "President Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime," a biography by Lou Cannon, a former Washington Post reporter. The book is regarded as the best book on President Reagan in print and is touted by many as a must have book if one wants to learn anything about President Reagan. Given the President’s sudden shift toward working with conservatives and his extensive meetings with Bill Clinton, it leads one to speculate that President Obama may be seeking advice on how to remake his administration as he looks toward the next two years.

Whether or not these significant changes will translate into new faces in Cabinet positions or other administration officials outside the West Wing, remains to be seen. However, if Secretary Clinton is going to make her exit, now is the time to go. She certainly has a reasonable reason for leaving and her departure would not disappoint those who were upset about the things revealed in the Wikileaks documents. Likewise, the natural replacement who could step into her role without missing a beat would be Governor Bill Richardson.

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In addition to the Classical Conservative column, Dr. Michael Williams writes columns as a national Conservative Examiner and as a local Albuquerque Family Examiner. You can follow him on Twitter: @drmlwilliams or @classicon00. He can be reached by email at: contact@classicalconservative.com.