Reports suggest US president-elect Barack Obama is considering naming Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton as his secretary of state. Several names have been mentioned by US media as possible Obama secretaries of state, including another former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, New Mexico governor and former UN ambassador Bill Richardson, former Georgia Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn, and moderate Republican Senator Richard Lugar.

The Obama Transition Team has made no official comment on the reports and has insisted no announcements would be made this week. According to NBC, Clinton was in Chicago on Thursday where Obama is holding daily transition planning meetings, but an adviser said it was on personal business.

Clinton’s office says that any decisions about the transition are up to the president-elect and his team. Her supporters say it would be an interesting position for her, but she would probably want to stay in the Senate.

Mrs Clinton frequently criticized Mr. Obama during the Democratic primaries for his relative inexperience. She assailed as “naïve” his willingness to speak to the leaders of hostile regimens without preconditions. Mrs Clinton criticized Obama’s public discussions about Pakistan, saying that he “basically threatened to bomb Pakistan, which I don’t think was a particularly wise position to take.” On the other hand, she said she expected to remain in the Senate and she wanted to be a “good partner” to the Obama administration. Clinton has been mentioned as a possible Supreme Court appointee or candidate for other cabinet post.

Hillary Clinton, currently the junior United States Senator from New York, was a candidate for the Democratic nomination in the 2008 presidential election. After a long campaign, Sen. Barack Obama became the party’s presumptive nominee in June 2008 and Clinton endorsed him, urging her supporters to vote him.

When she was asked at a New York event if she would consider a position in the Obama administration, she said she was happy being a senator from New York, a city she loves, according to CNN.

In 1997 and 1999, Hillary Clinton played a key role in advocating for the establishment of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Adoption and Safe Families Act, and the Foster Care Independence Act. Her election as senator for New York State in 2000 marked the first time an American Lady had run for public office. Clinton is also known for her work on international women’s issues and human rights.

In the federal government of the United States, the Secretary of State is the official responsible for foreign policy. The U.S. Secretary of State is head of the United States Department of State. In other words, the secretary of state is America’s face to the world, as George Bush said at the ceremony in the White House Roosevelt Room when he nominated Condoleezza Rice as his secretary of state. She was the first black woman and the second woman ever chosen as the most senior in the cabinet.