Obama, Clinton coy about White House succession plans in interview

obama-clinton1London, Jan 28 : President Barack Obama and outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton `coyly' batted away questions over any White House succession plan during a mutually appreciative interview on Sunday.

The rare double appearance on television gave ample opportunity for the `once bitter rivals' to bury any lingering doubts that the hostility of the 2008 primary campaign was long behind them, the Guardian reports.

During an interview on CBS News 60 Minutes Obama referred to Clinton as a friend, who will go down as `one of the finest secretaries of state' America had known.

It sounded like an official stamp of approval for Clinton, who may or may not be eyeing a run at the White House in 2016.

Obama even gushed about the achievements of his top diplomat in the course of four years selling his foreign policy overseas, adding that he was going to miss her.

According to the report, addressing concerns over her health, Clinton told 60 Minutes that she still had some lingering effects from the concussion that led to her blood clot, but that the doctors had told her that they would recede.

As to wider question over foreign policy, and whether the US was guilty of an abdication of responsibility on the world stage, Obama responded that `Muammar Gaddafi probably does not agree with that assessment, or at least if he was around, he wouldn''t agree with that assessment'.

He also took the opportunity to again heap praise on Clinton's role in shaping US foreign policy.

Obama had said at the beginning of the interview that he had agreed to the joint appearance because he wanted to `publicly say thank you' to his outgoing state secretary, the report added. (ANI)