WHEN Hillary Clinton was offered the job of America’s top diplomat, she made one non-negotiable demand: she must be allowed to take her own team of loyalists with her to the State Department.

A new “Hillaryland”, the word coined for devotees of the first lady in the 1990s, is being assembled for Foggy Bottom, where the State Department is based, in sharp contrast to the bold example set by Barack Obama’s cabinet “team of rivals”, composed of the president-elect’s former competitors and opponents.

Stalwarts such as Maggie Williams, Clinton’s former chief of staff at the White House, who was drafted in to salvage the former first lady’s campaign, and the glamorous Huma Abedin, Clinton’s closest personal assistant, are likely to join the new secretary of state’s kitchen cabinet, while James Steinberg, a top official from husband Bill’s administration, is predicted to become deputy secretary of state. “It is to be expected,” said an Obama adviser. “Hillary likes to be surrounded by people she is comfortable with. But she is not going to be allowed to staff everyone from Team Hillary.”

Top White House and cabinet appointments are being made faster than in any modern presidential transition in the midst of two wars and a severe economic crisis. But Obama, 47, is determined to put his stamp on the style and substance of his administration.

The freedom of action granted by the president-elect to his cabinet of stars will go only so far. “He wants people in the departments who might know more than he does and can guide him, but the White House will be the centre of the spoke of the wheel. He is going to be the boss,” the adviser said.

Henry Kissinger, the former secretary of state, made the same point emphatically in The Washington Post last week. “I know of no exception to the principle that secretaries of state are influential if and only if they are perceived as extensions of the president. Any other course weakens the president and marginalises the secretary,” he warned.

The veteran diplomat, 85, said he was impressed by the heavyweight national security triumvirate created by Obama. It includes Robert Gates, who is staying on as defence secretary, and General James Jones, the 6ft 5in former Nato commander, as national security adviser, as well as Clinton. “It took courage for the president-elect to choose this constellation and no little inner assurance,” Kissinger wrote.

For some, it is a sign not just of poise and maturity but of well-honed political survival instincts. By choosing big names with independent fiefdoms, Obama is spreading the potential blame around, should his administration falter.

“It is smart politics,” said Tad Devine, a leading Democratic strategist. “He just won a huge mandate, but he is going to be president at a time of enormous economic crisis and tremendous threats around the world. It is easy to see how blame could be transferred by George W Bush to him if things go wrong.”

In due course, Obama may yet add the “Big Dog” himself, Bill Clinton, 62, to his team. The former president said on CNN last week that he was “neither looking for nor closed to” the idea of doing “something specific” for Obama if asked. He added that he had always talked to Hillary about “everything” since he was governor of Arkansas and suggested she would consult him as secretary of state. Bill Clinton is thought to have his eye on the history books as a special envoy to the Middle East, reporting directly to the White House but with his own personal hotline to the secretary of state.

Leon Panetta, Bill Clinton’s former White House chief of staff, who is advising Obama during the transition, said: “It would certainly be a good use of Bill Clinton. He knows the issue, he knows the players and they know him.”

Other famous names are queuing up to serve Obama, such as Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, who said last week that he would be “glad to consider” a role on “some committee or pretty focused task where I could contribute”, such as global health or education.

The rush to serve could cause a clash of giant egos, but close observers say it is significant that Obama’s first appointment was Rahm Emanuel, his White House chief of staff. “The White House is the centre of the spoke of the wheel,” an Obama adviser said. “Barack Obama is going to set the agenda because he is the boss.”

Obama has also made some senior appointments within his comfort zone, particularly in the field of economics, where he is less confident of his own judgment. He has told friends that he feels temperamentally close to the quiet, wonkish Timothy Geithner, his choice for treasury secretary.

Larry Summers, the gifted but controversial economist, was chosen to head the White House National Economic Council - a job that does not require confirmation by the Senate and should keep him in the background, away from issues such as whether men have a greater aptitude for science than women, which cost him his job as Harvard University president.

Then there are the local networks that all presidents have - in Obama’s case the Chicago mafia of early supporters and advisers, such as Valerie Jarrett, a family friend and mentor, and David Axelrod, his top campaign aide, who will be senior White House players.

“You want people that you trust and feel comfortable with. It’s inevitable he has a lot of advisers from Chicago, just as Bill Clinton brought in advisers from Arkansas,” Panetta said.

There are also some 20 former classmates from Harvard Law School who are part of Obama’s transition team and likely to follow him into the White House.

These include Julius Genachowski, an expert on new technology who will be a key figure in helping to keep Obama plugged into the millions of supporters across the country. They helped to raise a record $750m for his presidential campaign and are hoping to have a voice - however diffuse - in his administration.

Tom Daschle, the incoming health secretary, is encouraging Americans to hold “holiday-season house parties” in the run-up to Christmas and is promising to pass some of their ideas on health reform back to Obama.

The left is chafing at the moderate political tone of Obama’s appointments after he rallied their support during the primary campaign. That is unlikely to change once he is inaugurated on January 20.

“From my discussions with him, I’d say it is in his nature to be centrist and he is back to where he always was,” Panetta said.

Some Hispanics - who formed an important part of his winning electoral coalition - feel he has not yet appointed a diverse enough cabinet although Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico, was made commerce secretary.

Eric Holder, Obama’s choice for attorney-general, and Susan Rice, who will be US ambassador to the United Nations at cabinet level, are African-American, while Clinton, Rice and Janet Napolitano, who has been chosen to run homeland security, are senior women.

Ed Rendell, the governor of Pennsylvania, offered a glimpse into Napolitano’s future life as a cabinet minister and prompted a row over sexism when he was caught off-microphone observing cruelly she was ideal for the job “because you have to have no life.

“Janet has no family. Perfect,” he said. “She can devote, literally, 19-20 hours a day to it.”

Only one group has the right to feel thoroughly excluded. In a departure from the norm for newly elected presidents, Obama has yet to appoint a single major donor to his top cabinet team. So far, nobody is complaining publicly about it.

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