Obama Appoints Clinton as Secretary of State AKA The West Wing Imitates "The West Wing"

Today, in a move anticipated for several weeks, but still stunning in many ways, President-Elect Barack Obama has named former campaign rival Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State.

If this combination sounds a little familiar, perhaps you just need to venture back a few years to another election, but this one was only on the small screen.

In the second to last episode of the great TV series "The West Wing", President Elect Matt Santos (Jimmie Smits) offers the position of Secretary of State to his former campaign rival Arnie Vinick (Alan Alda).

Granted, Alda played the Republican candidate, not a challenger for the Democratic nomination, but there are many other similarities. I think it is telling to recount dialog between Alda's character, Senator Arnie Vinick as he goes over the offer of Secretary of State with his spouse:

"I disagree with him about everything...."
"You don't disagree on foreign policy. You think about it differently. You use different rhetoric but you agree on the objectives—"
"He just wants to take me out of the campaign. He's afraid to run against me again...." He looks at Sheila, "You really don't think I can win, do you?"
"Maybe if you were ten years younger.... It's not just your age.
Stevenson got the nomination twice in a row fifty years ago and he lost both times. You can enter the history books as maybe the last honorable Senator and a great Secretary of State. Or you can be the guy who just didn't know when to quit."

Interestingly, this episode was directed by Tim Matheson, who played Vice President Hoynes earlier in the series. No, I doubt Vice-President Chaney (or Al Gore or even Dan Quayle) had anything to do with directing Obama's offer to Clinton.