The Whole Hillary Thing

There's two schools of thought on Hillary Clinton as SecState:

1) The Sopranos Theory -- Much like Tony Soprano did with his the relatives he had to keep an eye on, Barack Obama is wisely putting Hillary Clinton in the post where Obama appears to be the most magnanimous and the Clintons end up causing the least actual damage. If she accepts, it means:

• her fate is now tied to Obama's success,
• she can't turn around and run against him in 2012,
• Bill's legacy is on the line as much as hers is,
• she's duty-bound to implement Obama's foreign policy, not her own,
• the most popular US Presidential couple living is America's new face abroad,
• the Clintons are a lightning rod taking needed pressure off Obama,
  
• and Hillary really does want this job, and wants to do well internationally.
  

Obama's got her right where he wants her, and he knows this is the best way to neutralize Hillary Plan 2012. Keep your friends close, keep your enemies in your cabinet.

2) The Sandbag Theory -- Obama's telling the netroots on the left to go screw off just two weeks into his transition, he's going straight down the middle with this Village centrist stuff and the reason Clinton is his SecState is because his foreign policy isn't going to be different from hers. Obama's just hung a huge "Open For Business, Neocons Wanted" sign up on Foggy Bottom and his policy on Iraq is to reduce troops there so they can be deployed to Afghanistan, Pakistan, and eventually Iran. Progressives has served their purpose and now will be abandoned as Obama and the Democrats angle towards the center-right. They find out the hard way Obama's foreign policy is the same as Dubya's only with the competence and slickness of the Clintons behind it. The Left has been totally had and Obama will now be operating to stay in power and pleasing the GOP, having learned the Power of Triangulation from the master himself. The key to winning GOP support will be his Neocon foreign policy, and in the end it's Clinton's third term and Obama's going to throw the Left under the bus.

Which theory is true? I don't know, it's only been two weeks. But the arguments are there, the appointment of Clinton means "No Drama Obama" either is brilliantly tapping the Clintons, or he's already turned on the netroots.