Via the New York Times:

President Obama has settled on Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas, a key ally with a record of working across party lines, as his top choice for secretary of health and human services, advisers said Wednesday.

Should she be nominated, Ms. Sebelius would bring eight years of experience as her state's insurance commissioner as well as six years as a governor running a state Medicaid program. But with Mr. Obama about to begin a drive to expand health coverage -- an issue on which the parties have deep ideological divisions -- her strongest asset in the White House view may be her record of navigating partisan politics as a Democrat in one of the country's most Republican states.

Your thoughts?

Update [2009-2-18 20:18:45 by Jonathan Singer]: To tack on, as you can see from the article, the actual reporting on the story seems to be less strong than the article's lede; that is to say while the first graf says that the President has "settled on" Kathleen Sebelius to be his Health and Human Services Secretary, the subsequent grafs suggest that the decision hasn't necessarily been "settled" yet. (See: "It remained unclear whether the White House would finish vetting Ms. Sebelius in time to finalize her nomination by next week. Advisers described her as “the leading candidate” and said there were no others to mention, although they emphasized no final decision has been made.")

That said, this report does seem more solid that the initial reporting a week and a half ago that Sebelius was a very possible HHS pick. And if she can bring to bear on President Obama's behalf anywhere close to the skills she brought to the 2008 campaign on then-candidate Obama's behalf, as well as those that she applied in Kansas to great effect, she would be a very positive addition to the cabinet.