Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State?

Oh, God, I hope not.

People who had wanted the Clinton-Bush foreign policy agenda to continue seamlessly as the Clinton-Bush-Clinton foreign policy agenda could have given her the Democratic nomination, which she failed to secure.

The attempt to set up a non-contest between Clinton-Bush-Clinton and Clinton-Bush-McCain was mercifully unsuccessful. And Clinton-Bush-McCain was then defeated by Obama.

However, not wishing to see Hillary The Hawk as Secretary of State is not the same as not wishing to see her as anything at all.

The creation of a Senate vacancy in New York could well be very good news indeed for a Democrat whose economic populism and whose foreign policy realism had secured the nomination of the Working Families Party.

A Democrat whose moral and social conservatism and (one trusts, now that Bush is as good as gone) whose foreign policy realism had secured the nomination of the Conservative Party.

A Democrat whose economic populism, moral and social conservatism, and foreign policy realism had united the warring factions of the Independence Party in unanimous nomination.

The election of such a Democrat, especially in place of Hillary Clinton of all people, would send exactly the right signal.

Speaking of signals, I will, where possible, keep you posted.