Clinton and former president Bill Clinton also represented a powerful base of Democratic support and political money that Obama needed, and the genuine partnership he forged with Hillary Clinton helped bridge a political gulf. Bill Clinton was a prodigious fundraiser for the president last year, a role that also served to flex the muscles of the old Clinton network.

Hillary Clinton salted the State Department with campaign aides and longtime citizens of “Hillaryland” and ran the place a bit like a permanent campaign. She immersed herself in the wonky minutiae of American diplomacy as well as the more glamorous travel and told aides still bitter about the 2008 primary loss to get over it.

The lengthy “60 Minutes” appearance was the first side-by-side media interview Obama has given with anyone other than his wife. The nod to Clinton’s unique place in Obama’s Cabinet was obvious, as was the current of political possibility that ran through the CBS broadcast.

Commentators on the right and left called the session tantamount to an Obama endorsement of Clinton as his successor in 2016, despite the presumed ambitions of Vice President Biden. Obama and Clinton brushed off direct questions about her plans for 2016, but the warm visuals and easy equality between the two was striking.

“You guys in the press are incorrigible,” the president protested. “I was literally inaugurated four days ago, and you’re talking about elections four years from now.”