Clinton, Doyle: reading tea leaves

The Swamp ^ | June 16, 2008 | Christi Parsons

[COUNTrecount]

A year ago, Hillary Clinton said she couldn't imagine running for office without Chicago's Patti Solis Doyle at her side.

A lot has transpired between the two friends since then -- including a failed presidential campaign in which Doyle was edged out at a tough moment -- and now it's the ousted campaign manager who is back in the game.

Barack Obama announced this afternoon that he is hiring Doyle to serve as chief of staff to whomever his vice presidential running mate ends up being.

Is it a sign that Sen. Clinton is in the running for that job? Or simply an effort to court her supporters by placing a high-ranking member of Clinton's campaign in a prestige position at his shop?

Let the speculation begin. In the meantime, check out this profile of Doyle written almost exactly a year ago by the Tribune's Jill Zuckman.

First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton descended from a military plane to a red carpet on the tarmac at Midway Airport. All the trappings of official ceremony were there, but the message she was about to deliver to the family of her trusted aide, Patti Solis, was highly personal.

As if reading a proclamation, Clinton told Solis' family of the many virtues of a man they had never met named Jim Doyle. The Solis family was decidedly confused.Unsure about telling her family she had met the man she would later marry, Solis looked on as Clinton mischievously delivered a high-powered endorsement of the relationship.

The moment is just one measure of the closeness between Clinton and Solis Doyle, a relationship that began with Solis Doyle taking a job working for Clinton during her husband's 1992 presidential campaign, and culminating with her now running Hillary Clinton's own bid for the White House.

[twigs]

Solis is Hispanic and it didn’t go over well in the Hispanic community that Clinton fired her. I’m not sure what this says, if true, about who the VP will be. If nothing else, it says that Obama is a micro-manager. Why would HE choose the chief of staff of a VP who would supposedly be competent enough to choose his or her own COS?