Team of Rivals

CHICAGO – The bitter general election campaign behind them, President-elect Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain are seeking common ground on a range of issues in hopes of engendering greater bipartisan cooperation in Washington. The erstwhile rivals met for 40 minutes at Obama's transition headquarters Monday to discuss possible collaboration on climate change, immigration, Guantanamo Bay and more. It was their first meeting since Nov. 4, when Obama vanquished McCain in an electoral landslide. Last Thursday, Obama reached out to another former competitor, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, whom he is considering as a possible secretary of state. My comment: Even before the ink dried up, Hillary R Clinton was airborne enroute to Chicago with high expectations to become Secretary of State. She was indeed dying to become one - with one minor problem: she still has to be confirmed by the Senate. At the rate the vetting is going, Bill Clinton could yet derail her chances. Considering how she mocked and criticized Barack Obama on foreign policy issues, Hillary will eat crow during the confimation hearings. And here comes John McCain, hat in hand, talking with Barack Obama in Chicago. There was no earth shaking event to discuss nor any anticipation of a job in the coming administration. It was neither a photo op event, as the Obama circle claimed it to be. It was an event showing the vanquished paying homage to the victor, not trumpeted as such but nevertheless a subtle way of making rabid critics of the campaign eat crow. And Senator John Lieberman almost fell on his face, profusely pledging his support and allegiance to the president-elect, as if his only redemption is eating crow.