Joe Biden is reportedly Hillary Clinton's top pick for secretary of state

Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton.
(Image credit: Mark Makela/Getty Images)

He doesn't know it yet, but Vice President Joe Biden is Hillary Clinton's top pick for secretary of state should she win the election, Politico reports.

A person familiar with her transition team's planning says Biden is at the top of the campaign's internal short list, but hasn't been told yet by Clinton or any of her aides. "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 person told Politico. (Guess the news is out now.) Biden already has experience with traveling abroad and smoothing things over — in August, he was dispatched to Latvia by President Obama to meet with NATO allies after Donald Trump questioned the necessity of the U.S-European alliance.

Clinton and Biden haven't always seen eye to eye — they have disagreed on bombing Libya, leaving troops in Iraq, and the surge in Afghanistan — but Clinton reportedly appreciates the relationships Biden already has with world leaders. Politico reports other names being bandied about include former undersecretary of state Wendy Sherman; former deputy secretary of state Bill Burns; former undersecretary of state of political affairs under George W. Bush Nick Burns; and retired Adm. James Stavridis.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.