The transition drama unfolding before us casts Barack Obama as Abraham Lincoln and Hillary Clinton as William Seward, the defeated rival for the Republican presidential nomination who was enlisted by Lincoln to serve as his Secretary of State. Some may regard this re-enactment as hubris, but maybe it's the kind of statecraft for which only the best of presidents have had sufficient self-confidence.

Whatever the outcome—and I'm betting Hill accepts and Bill passes the vet with Obama's lawyers—it is clear that the president-elect has not only read TEAM OF RIVALS, Doris Kearns Goodwin's portrait of Lincoln's Civil War cabinet; he also seems determined to revive its central act. For the State Department post, his alternatives to Clinton have been John Kerry, who came close to being a president himself, and Bill Richardson, who competed against Obama in the primaries before endorsing him. In short, Obama has compiled a roster of rivals.

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