Bill Clinton's Third Term

The New York Times’ Peter Baker zeroes in on the major challenge facing Team Obama: how to balance “change” with the temptation to stock the White House with Clinton officials? So far, Bakers notes, Obama has tapped Clintonites John Podesta and Rahm Emanuel for key roles; he wants a Clinton veteran as National Security adviser. And yet Obama and the Clintons have had a tempestuous relationship, brought on, in part, by Obama’s reluctance to praise the glory days of the old administration. A Democrat tells The Times that the tension all but rules out Larry Summers returning to the Treasury Department. “You don’t want to have Clinton’s Treasury secretary,” the source says. “This can’t look like Clinton 3.”