As reported earlier, rumor has it that president-elect Barack Obama is considering asking Sen. Hillary Clinton to be his secretary of state. According to insiders, Team Obama is not particularly impressed by the traditional candidates for the position – Senators Chuck Hagel and John Kerry and Governor Bill Richardson for instance – and has decided to expand the scope of potential candidates for top positions in an Obama administration.

It is well known that Clinton and Obama could not get along during the primaries and that Obama did not want to ask the former First Lady to be his running mate. Nonetheless, the victory seems to have encouraged Team Obama to heal the intra-party wounds caused by the primaries and the team realizes that Clinton and their allies and supporters are those who know how to run a country.

Which has led to even more signals that Team Obama is considering lining up with Clinton and Clintonistas: Politico reports that many former Clinton officials are now working for Obama, are expected to work for him, or are being considered for top positions in an Obama administration. As Politico puts it, “Obama gets the Clinton band back together.”

Although the incorporations of ‘Clintonistas’ into Team Obama may cause some to wonder what Change Obama was talking about during the campaign season, the fact of the matter is that if you want to run a smooth administration, and especially a smooth first 100 days which are considered crucial for any new president, you need to surround yourself by people who have experience running the most powerful country on earth. Getting a completely new crew in will cause trouble in the first couple of months, simply because they don’t know how the White House works.

If you are a Democrat, there are only two things you can do in this situation: go back to Carter and his officials, or to the Clintons and their officials. Since Carter’s presidency is not believed to be very successful whereas Bill Clinton remains one of the most popular former presidents in modern history the choice is made quite easily.

Additionally, one assumes that the decision of Obama to incorporate so many former Clinton officials into his administration is a sign that he may be a more moderate president than some center-right critics of Obama during the campaign feared. Clinton was a Democrat, but he did not govern like an ideological liberal. His presidency was partisan, but not highly ideological; he governed like a pragmatist.

If Obama does so as well, chances are that criticism from moderates and center-right pundits will be reasonably limited, which should position quite well for a second term.