I was really skeptical at first (who wouldn’t be?), but now that HuffPo is reporting that Obama has offered the Secretary of State position to Clinton, I think it’s a pretty good idea. Not only would it be a nice fit, but it’s a win-win for both Obama and Clinton. Here’s the upside for Obama :

The best reason for Obama to be looking for a place in his cabinet for Clinton is simple: to get her out of the Senate. Just ask George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter what it was like to have a once or future presidential rival in the Senate serving as a one-person Roman tribunal. Remember how easily the press gravitated to John McCain in ‘01 or Bob Kerrey in ‘93 or Ted Kennedy in ‘77 to allow them to be one-senator judge/juries on Administration proposals? The upside for Obama putting Clinton at State (or even the Pentagon) is that it gets her out of the Senate and gets her out of the domestic policy debates.

For Clinton, if she’s really interested in making another run at the White House in 2016, then this will be the perfect setup for her. Taking on a high-profile, nonpartisan role like Secretary of State would keep her name in the news and do so in a much more positive light than the vapid “he said, she said” press-manufactured drama that largely defines her public persona now.

Additionally, if she wants to be President, getting out of the Senate would be a much better long-term career decision. Of the dozens of Senators over the past half century that have tried to make the jump into the White House, the only two who have been successful have had relatively short careers (Kennedy 8 years, Obama 4 years). I get the impression that the longer someone serves in a legislative role, the more they’re opened up to the “he/she has never run anything” executive experience argument or silly attacks like “Senator X has voted against puppies and ice cream more than 900 times”.
It seems to me that the longer you stick around the Senate, the harder it is to escape.