Obama and Clinton seem to have reached a rather splendid little deal

For a day or two, countervailing news stories kept hope alive.

Hillary Clinton was having second thoughts about playing second fiddle, said some reports, while others chronicled the Obama camp's pointed disgruntlement with the public drama of it all. So perhaps righteous anger would nix the nuptials. There was always hope.

But to have been so startled about the drama: I'm not sure what the Obama people were thinking, or even if they were thinking.

Hillary's first major policy charge -- healthcare -- rapidly disintegrated into such epic drama that management schools will study it for decades as a paradigm of cautionary tales. Then, Hillary's rise to the Senate was a byproduct of … drama. Then, her subsequent fall from greater potential power was the result of … drama.

Yet the Obama transitioners anticipated -- what? -- that Clintonian drama would suddenly be a thing of the past?

Presidential reputations generally begin intact. The warm, feel-good glow of another peaceful, democratic transition of power has nearly everyone saying and expecting nice things. The presidential object of the game, at that moment, is to retain as much of that public warmth and confidence as long as possible.

Which is to say, generally the very last thing a president-elect wants to do is darken the glow with controversy. Especially self-inflicted controversy. But that's what Team Obama did when it suggested to Hillary a highchair in the cabinet.

Private negotiations instantly became front-page news. Bill reverted to his role as chief circus barker while Hillary began appearing in public as Mrs. Coy. One-directional leaks became a torrent. The extortion game was on, just in case Mr. Obama was sewing second thoughts himself.

Yet that was not the worst of the self-inflicted drama.

Sure, it always has been, and always will be, about the Clintons, according to them and their narcotic followers. But what prompted the Obama camp's somewhat official, pre-preannouncement on Friday of Mrs. Clinton's appointment was the media's accumulating notice that the country happens to be going down the drain. Yet all everyone was talking about -- surprise -- was Hillary, Hillary, and Hillary, when they weren't talking about Bill, Bill, and Bill.

As the Washington Post's Richard Cohen finally wrote in disgust early yesterday: "We are supposed to be preoccupied with the question of whether Hillary Clinton will be secretary of state, but the truth is it doesn't much matter. Let her go to Foggy Bottom or let her remain in the Senate, the outcome will not move the financial markets one way or the other."

Veteran Clinton-booster Paul Krugman had also had about enough of Obama's self-inflicted irrelevancies, so he too paused just long enough yesterday to remind us of just how bad things are for the 282-million Clinton-unenthralled:

"We're in the midst of the worst stock market crash since the Great Depression: the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index has now fallen more than 50 percent from its peak…. Unemployment claims are surging, manufacturing production is plunging, interest rates on corporate bonds … are soaring…. The prospects for the economy look much grimmer now than they did as little as a week or two ago."

Plus, "panic has returned to the credit markets, yet no new rescue plan is in sight. And financial aid for the beleaguered auto industry is being stalled by a political standoff."

For Team Obama, the Clinton drama was becoming a major embarrassment and needless distraction of potential public-relations ruin. It was beginning to look like Obama had forgotten why he was elected: to fix the economy, stupid.

So he and his transition team released the news of the appointment at State, so they could proceed to refocus on the more critical appointment at Treasury.

But I'm happy to say I've already learned to live with the thought of Look-at-me Madame Secretary at Foggy Bottom. And it was the Associated Press that cheered me up:

A "senior adviser, speaking on condition of anonymity because the president-elect is not prepared to officially announce the nomination, said Obama believes Clinton would bring instant stature and credibility to U.S. diplomatic relations. Obama is convinced the advantages of Clinton serving far outweighed potential downsides, the adviser said."

One needs no magnifying glass to read between that senior adviser's lines: "Obama believes Clinton would bring instant stature and credibility to U.S. diplomatic relations." Not ingenuity.

If that, indeed, is Mrs. Clinton's understanding as well, then she accepts that she's at State only to buff up her resume for 2016. She's a Trophy Secretary -- a known-name entity to carry Obama's message to the world. That's all. She possessed no real foreign policy experience to begin with, but in eight years she can claim some; and well before that, she'll likely scurry off to Albany to rack up some executive experience, too.

In short, Hillary has every reason to lie low and suppress the drama for a while. It seems like a real deal has been cut between her and Obama: Just stay out of his way, go forth and say what she's told to say and in eight years she can claim credit for all his successes and deny any involvement in any failures -- just as she did to her husband on the campaign trail this year.