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Reviews are flooding in on President-elect Obama’s selections for his national security and foreign policy team but one in particular stuck out of the in-box – a statement from former President Bill Clinton, who was quick to laud the selection of his wife, Hillary Clinton, to be Secretary of State. Here’s the full text:

As an American, I am thankful that President-elect Barack Obama has asked Hillary to be Secretary of State and that she has accepted. As her husband, I am deeply proud.

She is the right person for the job of helping to restore America's image abroad, end the war in Iraq, advance peace and increase our security, by building a future for our children with more partners and fewer adversaries, one of shared responsibilities and opportunities.

She has already earned the respect of foreign leaders and diplomats through her work to promote human rights and the empowerment of women through access to education, healthcare and economic opportunity. And Americans know, from her leadership in the Senate on national security, that she will always put the security, values and the interests of our people first.

In her service to the people of New York and our nation, Hillary has demonstrated the knowledge, passion, resilience, and capacity to learn that our country needs at this critical time. She loves being a Senator from New York, but as she has in all the thirty-seven years I've known her, she answered the call to serve. I commend President-Elect Obama for asking her to be a part of a great national security team. America will be well-served.

A little pre-feast political appetizer appears on the op-ed page of the Washington Post this morning, where authors Karl E. Meyer and Shareen Blair Brysac argue that the best replacement in the U.S. Senate for Hillary Clinton should she, as expected, become Secretary of State would be – her husband, former President Bill Clinton. From the op-ed:

Who in his party could question so historic and dazzling a choice? In a stroke, the appointment would provide Sen. Clinton's indefatigable husband with a fitting day job, serve the interests of a state beset by a meltdown in its most vital economic sector and offer a refreshing reverse twist on a tradition whereby deceased male senators, representatives or governors are succeeded by their widows.

One of the questions surrounding the potential appointment of Hillary Clinton to be Secretary of State is what she would do about the nearly $8 million in outstanding bills she has from her presidential campaign (as well as other debt). Federal law would prohibit her from actively raising money to retire the debt and the appearances might not be favorable for someone heading the State Department. Right on cue it seems, Clinton’s campaign organization sent out a fund-raising e-mail to supporters with a little bit of an urgent request:

We are living in a very special time in American history, with an election that has redefined the boundaries of possibility and set our nation on a positive path with new leadership.

Things are changing in Washington and we have reason to hope that the next four years will look much different and better than the last eight.

As we look forward to a new era in Washington, there is still one piece of unfinished business where Hillary needs your help.

We need to do all we can to help Hillary by acting now to reduce her remaining debt.

President-elect Barack Obama’s campaign was defined by a lack of drama – steady, methodical and virtually leak-proof. In the early days of the transition, however, the team that redefined stoic is finding things a little more chaotic in Washington. And no place is that more evident than the ongoing drama over the possible appointment of New York Senator Hillary Clinton to become Secretary of State.

Those who thought the primary drama was left behind at the Democratic convention in Denver (or at least on Election Day) may not have seen this one coming. What is very obvious at the moment is that Clinton is indeed being “vetted” for the post. What’s not so clear is whether all this fuss is worth the risks to the incoming administration.

On the surface, the consideration suggests some real reconciliation between the two former primary rivals. Clinton’s level of support for the Democratic nominee continued to dog the party long after the last votes were cast for the nomination. Many of her supporters were infuriated at what they felt to be a slight when the senator was not vetted to become the vice presidential running mate. And the split in the party dominated the initial days of the national convention.

Now she’s getting a serious look for one of the most important positions in the administration. But, as the New York Times and several other outlets have detailed, it’s not an uncomplicated matter due to former president Clinton’s post-presidential activities. Yet unrevealed sources of funding for his presidential library and the Clinton Foundation’s involvement with foreign governments are but two of the potential stumbling blocks on the way to getting it done.

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If the election results that came in Tuesday night had been closer, you might have been hearing the names of Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr and perennial presidential hopeful Ralph Nader quite a bit this week.

Barack Obama's clear victory has rendered both men minor footnotes in the 2008 race. (Obama presently holds 364 electoral votes, far more than the 270 he needed to take the White House.) But had the electoral map looked like 2004 or 2000, when one state effectively decided the election, either man's run could have decided who became president.

Consider three of the closest state races: North Carolina, Missouri and Indiana. CBS News this morning called North Carolina for Obama, who leads John McCain by just under 14,000 votes there. Barr won more than 25,000 votes in the state. We don't know to what degree Barr's presence cut into McCain's vote total – some of Barr's votes likely came from voters who would have supported Obama or sat out the election – but it is safe to assume that Barr's appeal rested in large part with Republicans. Which means it's possible that without Barr in the race, North Carolina's 15 electoral votes would have ended up in McCain's column.

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CBS News this morning called the state of North Carolina and its 15 electoral votes for Barack Obama, bringing his electoral vote total to 364. John McCain's total stands at 163. The last time a Democrat won North Carolina was more than 30 years ago, when Jimmy Carter took the state in 1976.

The reason for the delay in calling the race was that the state was still counting the last of its ballots; at this point, however, all indications are that there are too few remaining ballots to overcome Obama's lead, according to the elections unit.

That leaves Missouri as the only state that has not been called. The state, where the vote is extremely close, is still tallying absentee and provisional ballots.

In response to a lawsuit filed by the NAACP last week, a federal judge in Virginia has ruled that the state will not be forced to schedule longer voting hours and reallocate some voting machines to black precincts.

In the lawsuit, the NAACP said the state was not prepared for tomorrow's election, where record turnout is expected. It argued that there were not enough voting machines for areas that predominately serve African-American voters, and asked governor Tim Kaine to extend voting hours from 7pm to 10pm.

As CBS 6 reports, the ruling from the judge today means that hours will remain the same and that voting machines will not be moved.

The Virginia State Board of Elections released a statement that it was pleased with the decision.

"The SBE wants to remind voters that the polls open at 6:00 a.m. and close at 7:00 p.m.," they said. "At 6:45 p.m. it will be announced that the polls are about to close. Any voter who is in line to vote by 7:00 p.m. will still be able to cast their vote."

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He’s said all along that he intends to compete everywhere in this election. Sill, Barack Obama’s visits to places like Montana and Indiana and Virginia may strike some as pie-in-the-sky thinking about the Electoral College. And his decision to run ads in other traditional Republican strongholds like Alaska, North Dakota and Georgia seemed to have a similar ring to it. These are not states where Democrats should have much hope of competing.

But as he did during the primary season, Obama is putting his organization behind his push in these states. As we learned today, Obama will open up 20 campaign offices throughout the state of Virginia by this weekend, many in GOP strongholds. And, CBS News’ chief political consultant Marc Ambinder reports the campaign will have six full offices opened in Montana as well. That’s more commitment than a head-fake would indicate. And for anyone who doubts the potential here, remember that the Clinton campaign scoffed when Obama opened up campaign offices in states like Virginia during the primary season.

The latest Quinnipiac Swing State poll shows Barack Obama with strong support in three of the most critical battleground states.

According to the poll, Obama has a double-digit lead in Pennsylvania (52 percent to 40 percent), a solid edge in Ohio (48 percent to 42 percent) and is even ahead in Florida (47 percent to 43 percent), a state where many observers have assumed McCain would have the advantage.

It's still too early to put much credence in general election polls, but the Quinnipiac Poll is notable for the fact that just last week, Obama's campaign manager David Plouffe made the case at a private fundraiser that the presumptive Democratic nominee does not even need to win the decisive battlegrounds in 2000 and 2004—Florida and Ohio—in order to reach the magic number of 270 electoral votes.

In advance of Saturday's caucuses, Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire has endorsed Barack Obama.

“We must restore hope in America," she said. "We must put an end to politics of division - by gender, race, and faith. Barack Obama has a unique ability to reach across all the artificial divides and divisions to move our nation forward. At a time of great division in our country, we need a leader who will unite us. Barack Obama is that kind of leader."

Both Washington senators, on the other hand, have endorsed rival Hillary Clinton – something the Clinton campaign trumpets in an ad now running in the state.

"Now, she's the only candidate for president -- Democrat or Republican -- with a plan to provide health care for every American," an announcer says in the spot. "Just one reason why she's earned the support of Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell."



80 delegates are up for grabs in Washington, along with 17 (increasingly important) superdelegates, of which Gregoire is one. CBS News now estimates that Clinton leads Obama 1,075 delegates to 1,014, with 2,025 needed to secure the nomination.

Former Democratic state party chair Paul Berendt says Washington State, where both senators are campaigning today, "is the home of independent, cranky, edgy Democratic liberalism." Obama, who does well in caucuses, is considered the favorite in the contest.