Pete Souza / White House Photo
Politico has a fascinating piece up about Hillary Clinton—and how, despite initial assumptions that she would be the most famous woman in the world, the “Cabinet’s brightest star,”—she’s actually been toiling away out of the public eye. Senior officials are singing her praises: "Her star power has been an enormously effective tool for us," said Tom Donilon, the deputy national security adviser with a central role in running foreign policy day to day. Meanwhile, a spokesman for Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that he and Secretary Clinton get along as if they were old friends. She’s drawn some recent criticism, including from one unnamed former senior Clinton aide, for not bringing any foreign policy experts into her personal staff at the State Department, although her choices are hardly unprecedented.