Yeah, I could almost hear the doubts coming through my studio windows when Andrea Mitchell quoted her two sources last night as saying Senator Clinton was under consideration for Secretary of State.
I even read here earlier today that I wasn't very smart, or something, for reporting it.
Well if it was a misleading leak, it just became a misleading dam break.
President-elect Barack Obama offered Sen. Hillary Clinton the position of Secretary of State during their meeting Thursday in Chicago, according to two senior Democratic officials. She requested time to consider the offer, the officials said.
Nico Pitney's story is here.
For now, I want to stay out of the fray here, but in what I'm sure may read in some places as an arcane defense of mainstream media, honest to God even if you're Andrea Mitchell you just can't waltz on to the set of Nightly News and report what she reported last night without convincing your bosses that you (and more importantly your sources) know what they're talking about.
And here's HuffPo -- not exactly "old" media -- going still further.
Please fray when ready.
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A 7:30 EST UPDATE: Here's a brief round-up of this evening's reporting. At minimum it's obvious the meeting took place, in Chicago, theoretically in secret, yesterday, and the job was discussed.
Andrea Mitchell's reporting: if this progresses, it was only the first of several conversations before a decision, and nothing imminent. If there was an offer "it was implicit, and contingent, not explicit at this point."
Jake Tapper's reporting: "no firm offer" was made, but "the job is hers if she wants it," per one unidentified source.
Chip Reid's reporting: that Obama also met to discuss the State post with Governor Richardson.
I'll emphasize again here that some of today's stuff could easily have leaked from the Clinton side of the equation, but yesterday's key reporting (Mitchell's story about the President-Elect considering Senator Clinton for Secretary of State, and the possibility of meeting) was sourced very clearly: two advisors to Obama.
Also I've altered the original diary: the typo "her" for "here" in the second paragraph has been corrected, on the orders of a conspiracy at the highest levels of the Great Intergalactic Governing Cosmic Slug.