Damned if He Does: The Susan Rice Dilemma Democrats and the liberal media have been beating up on John McCain and other Republicans for waging a vigorous campaign against the entirely hypothetical possibility - it is the political equivalent of a derivative - that President Obama will nominate Susan Rice to be secretary of state. The president has responded by defending Rice and, in schoolyard fashion, daring her detractors to come after him, the real target. They already have done that, and quite successfully; for by mounting what some say is an egregious attack on Rice, McCain and company have outflanked Obama and put him in a box even before there is a real issue on the table. It's downright diabolical and it is brilliant. They have manufactured a conflict and then positioned themselves so that they can't lose it. Let us count the ways in which Obama's room for maneuvering has been reduced to almost nothing. Assume that Obama does not want to nominate Rice and never intended to. He may now decide that he has to, lest it appear that he is allowing the opposition to dictate his behavior. Of course, were he to reason that way, he would still be allowing the opposition to dictate his behavior. In fact, no matter what he does it will appear that he is doing it because of things his opponents have said. He will be dancing to their tune whatever tune he decides to sing. Or to vary the hypothetical, assume that Obama does in fact want to nominate Rice. Now, in the wake of an already heated (albeit artificially contrived) controversy, he must ask himself whether a prolonged and public conflict is the best way to begin a second term. Would it not be better, he might think, to spend his energy and credit on avoiding the fiscal cliff or mediating (yet again) the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or initiating real immigration reform? So he might say, "Let this cup pass." But if he does that he will risk alienating those on the left wing of his party who have long thought that he gives in too easily and doesn't stand his ground. He would be accused of making a purely political calculation rather than sticking to principle. But if he sticks to principle and goes ahead with the nomination, he's back in the position of committing his administration to a distracting fight he might not win. And if he did finally win the fight, he would have gained a secretary of state whose every action is already under suspicion before she takes office. It might appear that Rice could help him out by falling on her sword and disclaiming any interest in the position (I am happy and fulfilled in the job I have). But no one would believe her and, indeed, many would believe that, rather than being selfless, she was acting under the direction of the president. He would be seen as backing down, but not being man enough to do it himself. It would seem, then, that Obama is in a corner with no way out. But Hillary Clinton could get him out of the corner by announcing that she has had a change of heart and wants to stay on, at least until some of the situations she is currently engaged with are further down the road to resolution. The events of the past week would lend plausibility to such a decision. There might be some suspicion that this, too, was being engineered by Obama, but the good reputation and good will Clinton enjoys in many quarters, including some Republican ones, would probably blunt the suspicion and carry the day. So, as has often been the case in the Obama presidency, it would once again be the Clintons to the rescue.