Monday, December 1, 2008

It's official....

Hillary Clinton will be our new secretary of state. Hopefully things will run a lot more smoothly now that they are not campaigning against each other. Obama also announced that Robert Gates would remain Defense Secretary. The retired general James Jones was named National Security Advisor, and Eric Holder will be our new attorney general. Arizona governor Janet Napolitano will be our secretary of homeland security. The embassador to the U.N will be Susan Rice, Obama's long time advisor.Some argue that these apointments are dissapointing, since they don't offer much change.
The main concern is wether or not this team will be able to agree. For instance, Hillary Clinton is a strong supporter of Israel and has openly criticized Iran. She probably has reservations about engaging in direct discussions with Iran. Is this going to limit the direct diplomacy that Obama has campaigned for?
What do you think about Obama's appointments? What can we expect from them?

12 comments:

Harkiran said...

I am not suprised that Obama kept Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense, seeing as we are still fighting a war in Iraq and another in Afghanistan. Obama most likely wants a smooth transition to end the war in Iraq, so it is reasonable to keep Gates as Secretary of Defense.

And as for those who complain that Obama is not bringing the change he promised... What are they expecting? The man hasn't even been sworn in yet.

Kimiya Bahmanyar said...

I think that Clinton made a good choice naming Hillary Clinton as his Secretary of State and letting Robert Gates remain Defense Secretary because Gates is so invested in the war and Hillary would probably be Obama's biggest critic on his healthcare plan if left in the Senate. She's also a very smart, strong, well-spoken woman who will be able to keep the diplomacy needed to be Secretary of State and who has travelled enough to know how things work.
They are also both good choices for Cabinet positions for the reason that they are already familiar with the White House's inner workings through their past experiences. While each of them probably has less than desirable traits, they're only human and I trust Obama and the faith he has put in them, so we'll just have to wait and see how everything turns out.
~Kimiya Bahmanyar

Anonymous said...

I for one am disappointed in the pick of Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State. It completely reeks of the stench of being a purely political choice, and making a political choice for Secretary of State is the wrong way to go. The State Department has been significantly weakened under the Bush administration as they have constantly bypassed the State Dept. for the Pentagon.

I don't exactly know where Hillary Clinton gets this reputation of being so expert in foreign policy; quite frankly, there's plenty of other Senators with much more foreign policy experience than she has. And speaking of foreign policy, wasn't it Barack Obama who repeatedly pointed out during the primary campaign season that HIllary Clinton had voted FOR the war and a number of Bush's other early foreign policies, and who said that she would not be credible for president because of that? Now, Obama has appointed her to the primary foreign policy position in the Cabinet?

It's quite clear that his appointment of Hillary Clinton is a political choice, and is a choice that I seriously disagree with. If he wants to deliver change I can believe in, he needs to start picking his people based on sound policy, not beneficial politics. Quite frankly, I haven't seen that yet in his choice of appointments.

I currently have no opinion on Robert Gates.

Rick said...

Douglas,

I do agree with you 100% that this appointment was pushed on primarily for political purposes, but on the other hand I had to take a step back and wonder if I would have supported the Hillary Clinton appointment if she had not been Obama's competitor. I think I would.

Although I cannot speak for her experience in foreign policy, I do think that Hillary has more then a few intelligible points on issues such as Health care and Education reform, and I am not at all opposed to seeing what future compromise will be coming out of the white house on her behalf.

I do not think this is anything near a doomsday scenario, there have been much worse appointments to the white house. And call this what you will, I think that Obama has bridged somewhat of a gap within the democratic party. I think that a president who is willing to push so many boundaries so very soon says alot about how he plans to run things.

Thats my 2 cents anyway

Unknown said...

haha douglas you hit the nail on the head man. the Hillary choice was political. however, i dont think it was a bad move for Obama.

for one, hillary is out of the senate and will be more favorable of Obama's policies in terms of health care, which, in my opinion is a sound policy. for two, as for her foreign policy experience, while Bill Clinton was in office, Hillary visted over eighty other countries and met with numerous foriegn ambassadors. she does have good foreign policy experience. for three, it unites the democratic party and moves the party closer to representing solid front instead of one that is fracturing. for four, Obama is fullfilling his "open minded" message and is promoting change without naming someone unexperienced and unknown to the white house as secretary of state. and for five, politcal moves are perfectly okay with me in a political situation. i think it speaks to Obama's intelligence and i like the nomination.

as for Hillary actually doing anything, im not so sure she will have much of an impact in the White House. she has the name and the credibility but Obama is going to take a stand about the things he firmly believes in. Hillary will take a back seat as an advisor, as cabinet members should.

Unknown said...

I think Obama gave Hillary the job of Secretary of State as a kind of peace between considering how hard the campaigned against each other. I also think it is a way for him to gain more support from the people in the Democratic party who supported Hillary during the primaries.

Scott Bade said...

As a Clinton supporter (I still think she would make a better president than Obama), I am very excited to see her in such a visible role in the new administration. I think she will do an excellent job. But more importantly, I am very excited to see the rest of the cabinet be composed of Clinton Democrats--in other words, moderates. On the economic side, it is great that we have some free traders and centrists who know that the market is often better than regulation (though not always). I am also very pleased to see Obama keep a high profile Republican (from Bush's cabinet no less) in Robert Gates. He has done a lot of good in Iraq and Afghanistan and will help to heal partisan divides between the Republicans and Democrats. So far, I think that Obama has done a great job balancing his cabinet.

Anonymous said...

The market is always better than regulation.

I also doubt Hillary Clinton's foreign policy credentials. If someone could spell them out that would be nice.

Anastasia Markovtsova said...

"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." Obama knows that Clinton was some serious competition during the primaries, so it's no surprise to me that he wants to keep her close during his presidency. By giving Clinton such a high position, he will be able to watch her constantly. I'm not saying that Clinton is the "enemy" here, but keeping her close will let Obama better understand her tactics and strengths.

I personally would have been shocked if Obama didn't give Hillary some sort of high position. She definately deserves it. She's a great leader and really represents women in a positive light.

Jeff Yeh said...

and it looks like he's going to have Bill Richardson on his cabinet too...
He recruiting all those former Democratic candidates for positions of power. Probably a good move to make politically.

Albert A said...

As it has been stated previously in this post, i also believe that it had a polital aspect, but i still believe the Hillary Clinton can be competent. As far as i know, they credit a lot of her foreign policy experience from her fisrt lady days. Apparentlyshe traveled a lot.

I believe that there are a lot of question to be asked to the current spots taken, but i think we should give them time.

People might want people that are distant or new to Washington, but what we really want is the most competent people.

G Chang said...

I think barack has surrounded himself with his competitors, which might turn out good and might turn out horribly. The biggest problem that i have with hi appointments with though is hilary, I actually think that she would be much better as secretary of health and human services, plus her foreign policy is just not like barack's.