Obama Unveils National Security Team
President-elect Barack Obama unveiled his national security team today, including formally announcing his intention to nominate his onetime rival for the Democratic nomination, Sen. Hillary Clinton of New York, as the next secretary of State.
Obama also announced his intention to keep current Defense Secretary Robert Gates in his post, likely for at least a year in the new administration. The president-elect also said he would nominate Susan Rice as ambassador to the United Nations, retired Marine Gen. James Jones as his national security adviser, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as homeland security director and Eric Holder as attorney general.
Obama said he, his security team and the American people believe “now is the time for us to regain American leadership in all of its dimensions” as he sought to strike a balance between “maintaining the strongest military on the planet” and employing “the wisdom of our diplomacy.”
The official announcement gives a clearer vision to the final makeup of the Obama administration cabinet of all-stars, stemming from his economic team announcement, which included New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson for U.S. Secretary of Commerce, and New York Federal Reserve President Timothy Geithner has been asked to serve as Treasury Secretary.
“Hillary’s appointment is a sign to friend and foe of the seriousness of my commitment to renew American diplomacy and restore our alliances,” Obama said at a news conference in Chicago. “I have no doubt that Hillary Clinton is the right person to lead our State Department and to work with me in tackling this ambitious foreign policy agenda.”
Clinton followed by saying, “The American people have demanded not just a new direction at home, but a new effort to renew America’s standing in the world as a force for positive change.”
Clinton’s husband, former President Bill Clinton, was not present at the press conference but released through a statement to the media, “In her service to the people of New York and our nation, Hillary has demonstrated the knowledge, passion, resilience, and capacity to learn that our country needs at this critical time. She loves being a Senator from New York, but as she has in all the thirty-seven years I’ve known her, she answered the call to serve. I commend President-Elect Obama for asking her to be a part of a great national security team. America will be well-served.”
I thought the choice when first rumored was excellent and I also thought she would accept the coveted position. I am genuinely glad that she has decided to do so. I really can’t think of a single better person heading our state department as we move forward to fix the strained foreign relations of the failed Bush presidency.
