Vice President Joe Biden leads Hillary Clinton's short list for secretary of state, a source familiar with the planning of the Democrat's transition team said Thursday.
"He'd be great, and they are spending a lot of time figuring out the best way to try to persuade him to do it if she wins," the source told Politico.
Biden's name marks the first public indication of a possible cabinet pick for a Clinton White House. He apparently is on a list of internal candidates by the nominee's transition team.
Neither Clinton nor her aides have yet told Biden, the source told Politico, as they are determining how to approach the vice president. Clinton served four years in the post.
Biden, 73, who considered challenging Clinton for the Democratic nomination, chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee before Sen. Barack Obama chose him as his running mate in 2008.
He has been on Capitol Hill for nearly 44 years, including six terms as Delaware's senator and two terms as vice president. Biden has deep experience in foreign affairs.
Both Biden and Clinton lost the Democratic primary to Obama in 2008, with both later serving in the administration.
However, Biden was seen as holding out on approving the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in 2011 — though he later said he privately endorsed the move with Obama. Clinton supported the attack.
She and Biden also have clashed over whether to leave American troops in Iraq, Politico reported, as well as over the Afghanistan surge — and arming the Syrian rebels and bombing Libya.
Other names "most discussed" for the post, according to Politico, include:
- Former Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman.
- Former Deputy Secretary of State Bill Burns.
- Nick Burns, former undersecretary of state of political affairs under George W. Bush.
- Kurt Campbell, who served as Clinton's assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific Affairs.
- Strobe Talbott, deputy secretary of state during President Bill Clinton's first term who now is president of the Brookings Institution.
- James Stavridis, the retired admiral who was considered as a possible vice presidential choice.