Hillary Clinton reportedly accepts Barack Obama's Cabinet offer

Sen. Hillary Rodam Clinton has decided to accept the role of secretary of state, the New York Times reports.

The news, if confirmed, means that Clinton will give up her New York Senate seat to become the nation's top diplomat in an administration led by her former rival, Barack Obama.

The Ticket reported earlier today that talks between Clinton and the president-elect were progressing. Obama asked the former first lady and runner-up for the Democratic presidential nomination to fill the role last week. Since then, she and her husband, former President Bill Clinton, have undergone intense vetting.

Clinton made her foreign policy experience a selling point during the primaries, telling crowds that as first lady she visited 80 countries. During the battle for the Democratic nomination, she and her husband often criticized Obama for lacking the foreign policy credentials necessary to be president.

But after Obama clinched the nomination, Clinton campaigned hard for him. She made Obama's short list for vice president, but lost out to Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware. Clinton would become only the third woman in U.S. history to hold that post, after Condoleeza Rice and Madeline Albright.

We will update with official confirmation. Meanwhile, Peter Nicholas of the LA Times has a smart piece about the Clinton-Obama negotiations.

-- Kate Linthicum

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