Obama’s foreign policy troika
Clinton, Gates, and Jones join the team
Meet Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
(AP Photo/Craig Ruttle)
It looks like it’s official, said Ted Van Dyk in Crosscut. Hillary Clinton will be Barack Obama’s Secretary of State. She and Obama’s other “core foreign policy/national security appointees”—former NATO commander Gen. James Jones as national security adviser and current Defense Secretary Robert Gates in his same role—could determine “Obama’s fate as president” through their advice and job performance. Luckily, they’re all potentially “good choices.”
Obama’s already getting praise for his “brilliant co-option” of former rival Clinton, said Kimberley Strassel in The Wall Street Journal, but this “surprise pick” will come at a price. She could always “go rogue,” and there’s the Clinton drama and the inevitably “unpleasant side story” of Bill Clinton’s business dealings. She also costs Obama “one of his bigger promises—that of changing American foreign policy.”
“Obama’s change message on national security couldn’t be clearer,” said Taylor Marsh in her blog. Clinton, Gates, and Jones would “be seen as hawkish” in “20th century language,” but they have all reportedly signed on to Obama’s plans to rebalance U.S. foreign policy “away from Bush-Cheney” and toward diplomacy and “prevention instead of preemption.” Now “that would be real change.”
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4 Comments
Posted by JoeThePlumber, Monday, December 1, 2008, 12:31 pm "go rogue" and "business dealings".... ha.... like we haven't had much of that the last 8 years....
Posted by Michael J. Gorman, Monday, December 1, 2008, 6:02 pm I think it's great to see a president (elect) who is so practical and pragmatic about the most important people who will be advising him. Hillary can do the job, and she will be less of a problem for him as Secretary of State than she might be in the Senate. Gates and Jones seem like they were born to do the jobs they have been given, and few argue about Obama's choice of financial advisors. The "change" that Obama has promised seems to be that (unlike the current president) he will act act intelligently and practically. Now if some members of his inner circle show some common sense, insight and even brilliance in their positions, Obama's team should be able to lead the country in the right direction economically, militarily, and especially constitutionally.
Posted by Jesica, Monday, December 1, 2008, 6:29 pm Whoever the first commenter is, stop giving Joe The Plumber a bad name and move out of your parents' basement. BO isn't picking a 'team of rivals' he is picking the only people he can. his short political career has consisted of only dodgey people, he has to pick someone else's choices/cabinet, he has none of his own.
Posted by Carlos Navarro, Thursday, December 4, 2008, 7:26 am Barack Obama’s decision to name Hillary Clinton the Secretary of State post could well turn out to be his first major blunder, for these obvious reasons: First, there’s the inseparable bond with her husband Bill. Given the duo’s unquenchable thirst for power, they would not be content to play second fiddle. From day one they would be scheming to usurp control of the White House. Once they get a foothold, Obama would be hard-pressed to rein them in. Then, there’s the Clintons’ long history of corruption, deception and sleaze—Whitewatergate, Pardongate, Cattle-futuresgate, Chinagate, Filegate, Fellatiogate, the using of uniformed marines as waiters, the plundering of White House property, the Impeachment and near conviction, the punitive IRS audits, the violent deaths of potentially incriminating witness. This alone would provide Obama’s enemies with all the grime they needed to smear his presidency. Consider further that unlike a Condoleezza Rice or a Madelaine Albright—not to mention bona fide statesmen like Henry Kissinger, Dean Rusk and John Foster Dulles--Hillary Clinton lacks the educational and cultural gravitas to represent our nation abroad. Her lawyering in Arkansas and stint in Congress doesn’t quite cut it. She did get 18 million votes in the Democratic primaries, probably more than Obama, but a large proportion of those votes were cast by diehard feminists and the less educated, hardly the constituency whose support lends credibility to a Secretary of State. Barack Obama should recall the reasons why he didn’t choose Hillary as his VP running mate. For his and the nation’s sake, let us hope that within his first year in office he reconsiders and induces the Clintons to quit the Secretary of State post. Hillary’s coyness in accepting the post--making Obama beg, in effect--was an ominous sign.
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