Is Obama’s National-Security Team Liberal Change in Moderate Hawk’s Clothing?
Barack Obama has officially announced his national-security team: Along with Susan Rice as UN ambassador, there were the previously leaked and much-discussed picks of Robert Gates as Defense secretary, Janet Napolitano as head of Homeland Security, and Eric Holder as attorney general. Also chosen: a former Marine general named James Jones, whom Obama is tapping for national security adviser, and … let’s see, who was it again? Oh yes: Hillary Clinton as secretary of State. As Chuck Todd points out, McCain himself might have appointed Gates and Jones. And while some will undoubtedly gripe that these appointees can’t really create “change” because all of them have held jobs before this one, Obama’s national-security team may in fact be prepared to make big changes in how we deal with problems across the world. • David E. Sanger writes that though Clinton, Gates, and Jones are all “more hawkish” than Obama, the three “have embraced a sweeping shift of priorities and resources in the nation
