Asked by Peter Baker of the New York Times how he went from ridiculing Hillary's foreign policy experience during the campaign to naming her Secretary of State, Obama smiled and said it was "fun for the press" to try to "stir up quotes" from "the heat of a campaign."
This was certainly a politically effective response--Obama's smile really is quite disarming and I'm sure his supporters were nodding in agreement. But it's also a little disingenuous. Those attacks on Hillary weren't the product of "the heat" of the campaign--they were sustained, carefully-researched and laid out in long memos, and indeed a fundamental element of Obama's rationale for taking on Hillary. Nor is it mischief on the part of Baker and his colleagues. It's a very obvious and very fair question.
--Michael Crowley