Obama Heaps Praise on Hillary Clinton in Joint Appearance

President Obama said in an interview shown Friday night that Hillary Rodham Clinton, his bitter rival for the Democratic nomination five years ago, “will go down as one of the finest secretary of states we’ve had” and added that he would “miss her” once she steps down in the coming days.

In a rare joint interview with Mrs. Clinton that he initiated, Mr. Obama piled on the praise, leading some observers to wonder if he were effectively blessing her presumed bid to succeed him in 2016 even as Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has been positioning himself for a possible run. Aides said the interview was about her service for the last four years, not what happens four years from now.

“I just wanted to have a chance to publicly say thank you because I think Hillary will go down as one of the finest secretary of states we’ve had,” Mr. Obama told Steve Kroft of CBS News with Mrs. Clinton sitting beside him. “It has been a great collaboration over the last four years. I’m going to miss her. Wish she was sticking around. But she has logged in so many miles, I can’t begrudge her taking it easy for a little bit.”

Mr. Obama credited her with being a central player in his presidency. “I want the country to appreciate just what an extraordinary role she’s played during the course of my administration,” he said. “A lot of the successes we’ve had internationally have been because of her hard w! ork.”

The testimonial came just days after Mrs. Clinton underwent a day of tough questioning on Capitol Hill for the administration’s mishandling of security in Benghazi, Libya, where the ambassador and three other Americans were killed in a terrorist attack last September. Some critics complained that Mrs. Clinton had failed in her duties by not ensuring enough security in Benghazi, making it a “death trap,” as one Republican congressman put it.

The joint interview was an opportunity for Mr. Obama to laud Mrs. Clinton because he was not able to do so when he announced her successor, Senator John Kerry. At the time, Mrs. Clinton was sick and unable to attend the ceremony.

Excerpts of the interview were shown Friday night on the “CBS Evening News,” and a fuller version will be broadcast on Sunday on “60 Minute..”

In the excerpt shown on Friday, Mrs. Clinton acknowledged the journey the two onetime adversaries had traveled. “A few years ago it would have been seen as improbable because we had that very long, hard primary campaign,” she said.

But she added that she tells audiences overseas that, “in politics and in democracy, sometimes you win elections, sometimes you lose elections.”

“I worked very hard but I lost,” she said. “And then President Obama asked me to be secretary of state and I said yes. Why did he ask me and why did I say yes Because we both love our country.”