Washington  - She was Barack Obama's chief challenger in the dramatic two-year neck-and-neck race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Over and over again, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, 61, charged that then-senator Obama, 47, lacked political experience. But in the end, Clinton conceded defeat, opening the way for the first African- American president.

Washington  - President-elect Barack Obama on Monday nominated Hillary Clinton as secretary of state and announced he would keep Defence Secretary Robert Gates in his current job in widely expected moves to set up his national security team.

Clinton, 61, his former rival, will leave her job as the senator from New York if confirmed to become the nation's next top diplomat. The reappointment of Gates, 65, is designed to ensure a smooth transition takes place as the United States fights two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Gates became the head of the Pentagon under President George W Bush in December 2006. Obama also named former Marine General James Jones to serve as national security advisor.

Washington, Dec 1 : Former President Bill Clinton could be one of Hillary Rodham Clinton’s chief assets if she becomes Secretary of State in President-elect Barack Obama’s Administration.

“The Clinton brand is a good one. Her husband’s administration is remembered fondly, maybe even more fondly in retrospect, after eight years of Bush,” said Dana Allin, an expert on trans-Atlantic affairs at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Washington, Dec 1 : With Hillary Clinton almost certain to become President-elect Barack Obama’s Secretary of State on Monday, former President Bill Clinton can capitalise on his wife’s success by taking over her New York Senate seat.

William T. Cunningham, a New York communications executive and former top adviser to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, said it would be fascinating to watch Bill Clinton heading the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and interviewing his wife on her actions as Secretary of State.

“A lot of people would be tuning in,” FOX News quoted him, as saying.

Chicago, Nov. 30 : A former adviser to US President-elect Barack Obama who shockingly branded one-time Democratic rival Hillary Clinton a "monster" and was forced to quit, has now been named as a member of the transition team for completing the vetting process that will clear the way for Clinton to be the next Secretary of State.

Samantha Power caused a huge uproar in American political circles at the height of the primary contest, when she told The Scotsman in an interview "She (Hillary) is a monster, too. She is stooping to anything."

Chicago, Nov. 26 : A mentor of US President-elect Barack Obama has described as very worrying the latter’s preference for Hillary Clinton as the next Secretary of State.

Abner Mikva, a former federal judge who was Bill Clinton’s White House counsel, told The Times that the choice of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State worried him because of her husband.