Today, President-elect Barack Obama is scheduled to formally announce the members of his national security team. And no doubt his retention of President George W. Bush’s Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, should be the highlight of this occasion.
After all, the retention of Gates not only represents Obama’s commitment to assemble a bipartisan cabinet, it also telegraphs Obama’s intent to withdraw US combat troops out of Iraq more in accordance with the time horizon (or by the end of 2011) as Bush proposed than with the time line (or by mid-2010) as he promised.
Yet, as significant and potentially troublesome as his retention of Gates is, it pales in comparison to the drama and stress his nomination of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State portends.
[A]ppointing Hillary as Secretary of State would be tantamount to inviting her (and her husband Bill) to set up a de facto parallel presidency predicated on the fiction that she will deal with foreign affairs and Obama will deal with domestic affairs. And, frankly, this would be a perfect recipe for untenable tension within his presidency, which would have Obama constantly looking over his shoulder to see what machinations Hillary is concocting to upstage him.
[Hillary as Secretary of State?! Don’t do it Barack, The iPINIONS Journal, November 15, 2008]
“No drama Obama”? Then how about C-H-A-O-S ?!
Of course nothing will confirm my fears of a co-presidency developing in his administration quite like Obama according Hillary the privilege of addressing the press corps directly today. After all, no other nominee has been accorded this privilege.
But even if Obama is sensible enough to introduce Hillary as just another member of his national security team (i.e., by not allowing her to speak), I urge a member of the press to tweak the obvious tension in their relationship by ignoring him to ask Hillary how she feels about having Obama as her boss….
Meanwhile, do not be confused by the fact that Obama will be nominating a Dr Rice to serve as his US ambassador to the United Nations; because her first name is Susan not Condoleezza.
Although not related to Condi, Susan has an equally distinguished background, being a Rhodes Scholar who served as a member of the National Security Council and as an Assistant Secretary of African Affairs during the Clinton administration.
I applaud Obama for nominating her to this very important international organization. But I would be remiss if I did not also commend him for nominating the equally accomplished and experienced Eric Holder as the first black Attorney General of the United States.
UPDATE
Obama introduces his national security team
Today at 11:30 am: I give Obama credit for preventing Hillary from upstaging him at his news conference moments ago by having all of the members of his national security team say a few words after he introduced them.
The members are (from left to right) Eric Holder at Justice, Janet Napolitano at Homeland Security, Robert Gates at Defense, Vice President-elect Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton at State, Gen James Jones as National Security Adviser, and Susan Rice at the UN.
However, this begs the question: why didn’t Obama accord the equally high-profile members of his national economic team this same privilege?
Of course, it would be disingenuous for him to deny that, being fully aware of the potential for her to hog the news conference, he decided to allow everyone to speak to preempt that prospect.
And even though no member of the press took my bait by asking Hillary a direct question, a number of them confirmed my proposition by asking Obama to justify his antic choice of her as his Secretary of State.
I assembled this team because I am a strong believer in strong personalities and strong opinions…
But understand, I will be setting policy as president. I will be responsible for the vision that this team carries out, and I will expect them to implement that vision once decisions are made. (President-elect Obama)
Okay then…game on!
Mind you, I think it is symbolic, if not instructive, that, as Obama left the news conference, it was Hillary who left the stage walking by his side – with the other members of the team, including his VP-elect Biden, trailing behind ….
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