The Obamians, by James Mann: on Principles & Values

Barack Obama: Appointed Clinton & Biden as "team of rivals," like Lincoln

Nevertheless, at the initial press conference Obama appeared considerably more comfortable with Clinton than, 8 years earlier, George W Bush had looked while announcing his appointment of Colin Powell as secretary of state (Powell proceeded to dominate the ensuing press conference). Bush's foreign policy team had been a genuine team of rivals; Obama's team was something less than that. As applied to the Obama cabinet, "team of rivals" was mostly a marketing concept.

Democratic Party: Trout Fishers: 1990s generation of foreign policy wonks

The Trout Fishers were the Democrats' up-and-coming foreign policy team. They were in their 40s and 50s, in the vanguard of figuring out what the Democrats should do in foreign policy once they returned to office.

The Trout Fishers represented the generation of Democrats who learned how to run foreign policy during the 1990s. They were eager to show that the Democrats were not a bunch of pacifists, that they understood national security issues and were willing to use American force where necessary --though sometimes in different ways and for different purposes than the Republicans. Among other things, the Trout Fishers believed in the use of military action for humanitarian purposes, such as to stop genocide or ethnic cleansing.

Hillary Clinton: Appointed by Obama as "team of rivals," like Lincoln

The Obama team had already shrewdly deflected attention away from the politics of the Clinton appointment--whether, for example, Obama was appointing her to remove a potential source of intraparty opposition--by touting the idea of a "team of rivals." That phrase, taken from the title of Doris Kearns Goodwin's book on Abraham Lincoln's Civil War cabinet, gave a grand historical gloss to the uneasy merger of the Obama and Clinton teams, which everyone knew would be carefully scrutinized for any sign of discord.

As applied to the Obama cabinet, "team of rivals" was mostly a marketing concept for a Clinton appointment that would not go down well with the Obama faithful.

Hillary Clinton: Vietnam converted her from conservative to liberal

Vietnam had social and political ramifications that were not foreseen at the time. The war led to the abolition of the draft, and that in turn had sweeping consequences for many other aspects of American life.