Hillary Clinton has accepted President-elect Obama’s offer to become secretary of state, finally uniting the two most popular democrats after a hard-fought primary season, the New York Times reports.

Two Clinton camp “confidants” confirmed her acceptance after she spoke with Obama for a second time in two weeks, with the intent to clarify some of his foreign policy standings in an effort to make sure the two are on the same page.‚  Last week’s meeting, according to one of the “confidants,” was quite general in nature.

The other source told reporters that the deal is pretty much done, however, while admitting that the alliance would most likely go through, the Obama camp has said no official acceptance has yet been made and none will be announced until after Thanksgiving

Clinton’s spokesman, Phillip Reines, told reporters that the deal is not yet final, but talks are “very much on track.”

The word comes after weeks of intense vetting and discussion, as well as efforts to ensure that if Clinton were to accept the nomination, her husband, Bill Clinton, would agree to certain conditions over his global businesses and philanthropic activities.‚  He complied with turning over the names and information of over 200,000 donors to the Obama camp, in an effort to ensure no conflict of interest would arise, clearing the way for his wife.

Clinton, as secretary of state, will have a very tough job ahead of her, especially after the last eight years, in which the Bush administration has strained relationships with several foreign powers.‚  However as First Lady, she did develop relationships with and travel to over 80 countries.‚  Her experience gives the department a strong background, something Obama has been criticized for lacking.

As one of the most powerful, prominent and popular democrats today, many supporters are ecstatic over the formation of this partnership.‚  This nomination, as opposed to a Vice-President post (which many were hoping for during the election) gives Clinton much more power on a global scale.

Advisers to both Sen. Hillary Clinton and President-elect Barack Obama say that the two are, in reality, not as far apart on foreign policy as it seemed during the primaries earlier this year, according to the International Herald Tribune.

Basically, the advisers are trying to silence the critics who believe the two differ too greatly to be in the same administration.‚  Those critics are not too prominent, most people just recently referred to an Obama-Clinton ticket as the dream ticket.‚  I call it the 1-2 punch.

Advisers say they share many ideas, mainly regarding Iran and Iraq.‚  The two are also said to agree on sending additional troops to Afghanistan, peace efforts between Israel and Palestine and climate change, according to the IHT.

As most people know, Obama wants to sit down and talk with Iranian leaders. Clinton, as secretary of state, would have to do some work to prepare such a meeting.‚  Seems like an easy enough thing to do, except, Iran doesn’t really like Clinton.

Iran filed an official protest with the UN earlier this year over comments Clinton made on ABC, after being asked what she, as president, would do if Iran attacked Israel: “”I want the Iranians to know that if I’m the president, we will attack Iran. In the next 10 years, during which they might foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be able to totally obliterate‚ them.”

So while the two in the same administration would elate several Americans, how productive she would be in the post remains to be seen.‚  I for one think she’d do a great job, regardless of the Iran thing.

Bill Richardson is still a possibility, he has also encouraged talks with Iran.