Obama National-Security Team `Covers the Bases' for New Policy
Dec. 1 (Bloomberg) -- President-elect Barack Obama will unveil a national-security team today headed by a former rival who once called him ``naïve,'' a Bush administration holdover and a retired Marine general who appeared with Republican presidential nominee John McCain on the campaign trail.
The prospect of Hillary Clinton as secretary of state, Robert Gates as defense secretary and James L. Jones as national security adviser has created unease among some of Obama's most fervent supporters, who backed him in the Democratic primaries largely because of his opposition to the Iraq war and his call for diplomatic engagement with adversaries like Iran.
``The public voted for something different,'' said Matt Stoller, a Washington-based consultant and Obama supporter who blogs at the Web site OpenLeft.com. ``If he's going to pick the same old people, that's a repudiation of the voters.''
``The problems can't be handled by the experienced technocrats who got us into this mess,'' he said.
The activists needn't worry, said Steve Clemons, an analyst at the Washington-based New America Foundation. Obama retains the final say, and appointing experienced centrists like Clinton, Gates and Jones actually gives the new president more room to pursue fresh approaches, he said.
``By bringing Hillary on to achieve his policy vision, he protects himself from those prepared to call him `appeaser-in- chief,''' Clemons said. ``He's putting together a diverse team that covers the bases politically.''
Additional Nominations
In addition to the Clinton, Gates and Jones nominations, Obama, 47, also will announce this morning his selection of Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano as homeland security chief; Eric Holder, who was No. 2 at the Justice Department under Bill Clinton, for attorney general; retired Navy Admiral Dennis Blair as director of national intelligence; and Susan Rice, assistant secretary for African affairs at the State Department under former president Clinton, as ambassador to the United Nations, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The discontent over the national-security appointments is centered in the so-called netroots activist community, whose members have been trading messages of concern on the Internet blogs that bind them together.
``We've known for a long time that the day after Barack Obama became president-elect there would be ideological civil wars breaking out all around him,'' Clemons said. The left ``thinks they got Obama elected over the centrist Hillary and are now seeing the Clintonization of Obama.''
``The left is distracted by the optics and is not thinking deeply about the wiring inside,'' he said.
Reed's Position
The concerns over the appointments aren't shared by members of Congress, even long-time critics of Bush's Iraq policies like Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island.
``You're seeing a significantly experienced and skilled team,'' said Reed, a Democrat who sits on the Armed Services Committee, during an appearance yesterday on MSNBC. Reed said Clinton had ``a well-earned reputation for her skill and for her ability'' and Jones ``also brings so much experience as former commandant of the Marine Corps.''
During the primaries, Obama and Clinton exaggerated for political effect differences over foreign policy that weren't as great as they appeared, several observers said.
Obama launched his candidacy by contrasting his 2002 speech opposing the Iraq war to Clinton's Senate vote the same year authorizing President George W. Bush to use force in that country.
Obama also called for direct talks with U.S. adversaries including Iran and Cuba. During the primary campaign Clinton, 61, called that idea ``irresponsible and naïve.''
Russia, China, Cuba
Still, the two agree on many things: negotiating to halt North Korea's nuclear program, pressuring Russia on democracy and its relations with its neighbors, working with China while pressing for human rights and continuing the trade embargo on Cuba while allowing family visits.
``They are not that far apart on substance,'' said Michael O'Hanlon, a foreign-policy analyst at Washington's Brookings Institution, during the campaign. While Obama is ``probably slightly more dovish than Hillary'' on minimizing the number of residual troops left in Iraq, ``I don't think he's some kind of super-dove,'' he said.
Obama's principal difference with Gates appears to be over his call to withdraw all U.S. combat forces from Iraq within 16 months. Gates says any further drawdowns of the 146,000 troops currently there should be conditions-based; Obama says he will listen to the views of the military before making any decisions.
Gates Nomination
The Gates reappointment has drawn criticism from arms- control advocates, who say the secretary set forth views on nuclear strategy in a speech in October that differ from Obama's.
In the speech, delivered at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, Gates, 65, said the U.S. must maintain a robust nuclear arsenal for its deterrent value and should modernize it by producing a new warhead.
That contrasts with Obama's view that the U.S. should negotiate with Russia to achieve further reductions in both countries' nuclear arsenals as a step toward the eventual elimination of such weapons, said Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association.
``From the perspective of fulfilling Obama's vision of reasserting U.S. leadership on nonproliferation and disarmament, Gates would be a very odd choice,'' Kimball said.
Clemons said the arms control advocates may be misreading Gates.
`Rah-Rah'
In the Carnegie appearance, Gates gave a ``rah-rah'' for a new warhead program that Congress has already declined to fund, Clemons said. In the question-and-answer part of the program, Gates displayed greater flexibility, even indicating he could support a Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty that the Bush administration has opposed, he said.
While Jones, 64, appeared with McCain at a Missouri campaign stop in June, he holds views that coincide with Obama's in two areas of prime concern to the incoming president: U.S. energy security and the need to commit new resources to the conflict in Afghanistan.
Representative William Delahunt, a founding member of the antiwar Out of Iraq Caucus, said he doesn't object to Clinton at the State Department.
Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat, called Clinton a pragmatist who ``would superbly implement the Obama foreign policy.'' He added, ``I also don't think there's any doubt that this would be the foreign policy of the president.''
Still, Delahunt warned that he and other lawmakers will be looking over the new president's shoulder.
``Part of the reason for the failure of the Bush foreign policy is that Congress failed to exercise aggressive oversight,'' he said. ``That will not happen with a Democratic Congress.''
By Ken Fireman and Indira A.R. Lakshmanan
source:Bloomberg
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