"Hillary Clinton will be the next secretary of state, unless she’s not." That's what John Koblin wrote last night in The Observer. Has the story advanced since then? Nope. Obama offered—but not formally offered—Hillary the job. She's considering. They're vetting Bill. Bill promised to stop taking money from foreigners. Hillary hasn't accepted because it hasn't been offered formally. Ted Kennedy wants Hillary to stay in the Senate. And hey, the news-starved press dragged Obama into the Clinton drama machine! As we all remember, the Democratic primaries were way more fun than the general election. A black guy versus a woman! The Clinton Machine versus Hope! Jeremiah Wright! Shouty angry Bill! Snipers in Bosnia! Bittergate! Whee! Once Hillary conceded, the Democrats closed ranks and the Obama machine stopped playing with the press entirely. McCain's campaign didn't get interesting until Palin showed up and didn't get fun until they all began infighting. But just like everyone had to make up some news about Bill not loving Obama enough during the primaries, now everyone has to figure out what the Clintons are up to with this SecState nonsense. It's fun to speculate about which sneaky Clinton players are leaking what to whom, and is Bill's camp pushing it, and does Obama know what he's getting into? In truth, Obama probably just told Hillary the job was hers if she wanted it, depending on how Bill's vetting goes, and she's weighing her options now that Bill's seemingly acquiescing to Obama administration requests. Meanwhile, Tom Daschle just agreed to head Health and Human Services and act as Health Care czar and no one cares! As we've said, we've never been convinced that Hillary has any particular insight or expertise, foreign-policy-wise, or at least any more than any other Senate Democrat (and why pick from the Armed Services committee and not Foreign Relations?). We quite like her views on domestic policy. And with Ted Kennedy on the way out, it would be awesome if she spearheaded the Senate side of the upcoming sure-to-be-insane health care war. But she wouldn't be a bad Secretary of State, and she'd surely run a better State Department than Rice and Powell did. So sure, go for it. But on the whole, the media's going to need a new way to cover the Obama administration, as this has just been madness.