Bill may have to give up for Hillary to get on

November 18, 2008

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The former US president Bill Clinton may have to cease some of his activities for his wife, Hillary, to become the nation’s top diplomat.

“There is a lot of momentum in the direction of this happening,”

said James Carville, a friend of the Clintons.

Mr Carville said the former president’s work - past and future - was a complicating matter. “She’s not married to Todd Palin,” he said, referring to the husband of the Republican vice-presidential candidate, Sarah Palin.

Barack Obama’s transitional campaign office has confirmed it is vetting Mr Clinton’s business affairs, a sign that Senator Clinton is being considered for the job and, equally, that she is interested in taking it.

As part of that process Mr Clinton might have to disclose the names of contributors to the Clinton Global Fund, which funded his presidential library and work to combat AIDS around the world. The donor list has never been made public, but Mr Clinton had promised to disclose it if Senator Clinton became president.

Since leaving office eight years ago Mr Clinton has reportedly raised more than $US500 million for the foundation, tapping foreign governments and reportedly soliciting funds from international business figures whom he helped introduce to less savoury leaders around the world, such as the president of Kazakhstan, who granted uranium mining rights to one of Mr Clinton’s associates soon after meeting Mr Clinton.

But the more pressing issues will be Mr Clinton’s other activities. For instance, would he be required to give up making speeches, to avoid the risk of contradicting his wife and US policy? Could he continue his AIDS and climate change work while avoiding potential conflicts with the Obama government?

“She really has to sit down with her husband and work through: where does this leave him,”

said David Gergen, a political analyst for CNN who worked at the White House during the Clinton period.

“After all, he’s very deeply involved in the Clinton Global Initiative, doing good around the world. Could he continue to do that?”

Mr Obama met his former rival in the presidential race, John McCain, in what appeared a cordial meeting. They issued a statement saying:

“At this defining moment in history, we believe that Americans of all parties want and need their leaders to come together and change the bad habits of Washington so that we can solve the common and urgent challenges of our time.”

They said they would work together to eliminate waste and restore trust in government.

A friend of Senator McCain, the independent senator Joe Lieberman, a former Democrat who still attends the party’s caucus, appears to have hung on to his Senate chairmanship of the homeland security committee, despite a strong push within the party to discipline him for backing Senator McCain and publicly criticising Senator Obama.