Obama’s Pentagon-in-Waiting

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CNN reporting Gen. Jim Jones is a leading choice for NSA:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...urity-advisor/

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And don't even THINK about making any "Kool-Aid" jokes.....

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Obama Plans to Retain Gates at Defense Department

-PETER BAKER and THOM SHANKER

WASHINGTON — President-elect Barack Obama has decided to keep Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates in his post, a show of bipartisan continuity in a time of war that will be the first time a Pentagon chief has been carried over from a president of a different party, Democrats close to the transition said Tuesday.

Mr. Obama’s advisers were nearing a formal agreement with Mr. Gates to stay on for perhaps a year, the Democrats said, and they expected to announce the decision as early as next week, along with other choices for the national security team. The two sides have been working out details on how Mr. Gates would wield authority in a new administration.

The move will give the new president a defense secretary with support on both sides of the aisle in Congress, as well as experience with foreign leaders around the world and respect among the senior military officer corps. But two years after President Bush picked him to lead the armed forces, Mr. Gates will now have to pivot from serving the commander in chief who started the Iraq war to serving one who has promised to end it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/26/us...c73&ei=5087%0A

[Tom Odom]

Susan Rice is an excellent choice. I met her on that visit and was impressed by her intellect and her willingness to speak and act clearly, with a corresponding intolerance for those who would dissimulate or quibble.

Choice for U.N. Backs Action Against Mass Killings

...During her first run at the State Department, Ms. Rice was a point person in responding to Al Qaeda’s 1998 bombing of United States Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. But her most searing experience was visiting Rwanda after the 1994 genocide when she was still on the N.S.C. staff.

As she later described the scene, the hundreds, if not thousands, of decomposing, hacked up bodies that she saw haunted her and fueled a desire to never let it happen again.

“I swore to myself that if I ever faced such a crisis again, I would come down on the side of dramatic action, going down in flames if that was required,” she told The Atlantic Monthly in 2001. She eventually became a sharp critic of the Bush administration’s handling of the Darfur killings and last year testified before Congress on behalf of an American-led bombing campaign or naval blockade to force a recalcitrant Sudanese government to stop the slaughter.

[Steve Blair]

He did officially pick Jones as NSA, according to BBC, and Gates is also officially on (although they're listing him as the one Republican appointed to a cabinet post).

[Tom Odom]

He did officially pick Jones as NSA, according to BBC, and Gates is also officially on (although they're listing him as the one Republican appointed to a cabinet post).

Funny I heard a Democratic party wonk this AM on CNN refer to him as "Admiral Jones"

[Steve Blair]

Funny I heard a Democratic party wonk this AM on CNN refer to him as "Admiral Jones"

Well...ya know...all those Joneses out there....it's easy for a talking head to get confused. Besides...general, admiral, marshal...it's all the same uniform, ain't it? Now if he'd gotten confused and referred to Representative Kennedy...that would be a whole other deal.....

[Adam L]

He did officially pick Jones as NSA, according to BBC, and Gates is also officially on (although they're listing him as the one Republican appointed to a cabinet post).

I hope I'm wrong, but I think Gates is being kept on as part of a political ploy to appear bipartisan and moderate. I think Gates will last 2, maybe 3 years. All Obama has to do is wait 12-18 months and then force a disagreement, which will lead to his "disappointment" in the Secretary. At this point, the American people will view anything other than fairytale results (the good kind) in Iraq as failure. (They already do.) Eventually, Obama can make it a living hell for Gates to do his job, which will lead to Gates resignation. Well, that's what I would do if I were in Obama's position. Well.....if I were a politician.

Adam L

[Bob's World]

While I agree with an assessment that Gates tenure under Obama will be shorter than Obama's administration, I believe this to be by mutually agreed pre-design, both because Gates does not want to do this forever, and because Obama recognizes that none of the politicos sitting in the thinktank wings are better than what he has right now. I expect the lower ranks of senior civilians will begin transitioning right away, with a full transition in 2-3 years.

I do not believe there is any ill intent or some "tricking" of Gates that requires some contrived drama replace him later.