Staff for Kerry appeared to prepare for the senator to take over leadership of the Senate Foreign Relations committee. Kerry, who gave Obama an opportunity to give the keynote speech in 2004 that turned him into a nationally known figure, was said to be lobbying heavily for the job. A spokesman for Kerry did not return calls seeking comment.
During much of the primary Clinton and Obama spent a great amount of time criticizing each other on foreign policy, with Clinton portraying Obama as naive for his pledge to meet unconditionally with leaders of Iran and other US enemies.
Richardson and Clinton are not the only candidates Obama has talked to about the job, Democrats said. One senior Obama adviser said the president-elect has given no indication whom he is favoring for the post.
Obama asked Clinton directly whether she would be interested in the job, said one Democrat, who cautioned that it was no indication that he was leaning toward her.
Obama was silent and out of sight in Chicago. Senator Clinton addressed a transit conference in her home state of New York and said emphatically, "I'm not going to speculate or address anything about the president-elect's incoming administration, and I'm going to respect his process."
Obama also is reaching out to Republican Senator John McCain, hoping to make an ally of the man he defeated for the presidency only last week. Obama will meet with McCain on Monday.
And he was making decisions on his presidential staff as well, naming longtime friend Valerie Jarrett as a White House senior adviser. Jarrett met Obama when she hired his wife for a job in the Chicago mayor's office years ago and has been a close confidante to the couple ever since.
Richardson is the governor of New Mexico and has an extensive foreign policy resume. He was President Bill Clinton's ambassador to the United Nations and has conducted freelance diplomacy for the United States in such hot spots as Sudan and North Korea.
Richardson also served in Clinton's Cabinet as energy secretary, and angered his former boss when he endorsed Obama after ending his own primary campaign this year.
