U.S.A.
President-elect Barack Obama today will formally announce a national security team that is led by his one-time chief Democratic rival and includes a top member of President Bush's cabinet -- a daring gamble on an eclectic group of personalities to confront a turbulent world.
Obama plans to introduce the entire team at a press conference in Chicago scheduled to begin at 10:40 a.m. eastern time. Sen. Hillary Clinton traveled to Chicago to be introduced as Secretary of State, ending for good the bitter rivalry that blossomed during the long Democratic primary. As Obama's top diplomat, Clinton will be the face of his efforts to remake the country's foreign policy.
Obama and Clinton had each claimed to be the best candidate to restore the nation's reputation abroad, end the Iraq war and engage the new global economy as president. Now, they will try to do that together, though under Obama's direction.
Aiding in the effort will be Bush cabinet member Robert Gates, who will continue as Defense Secretary despite having overseen a war policy that was the subject of withering criticism from both Obama and Clinton during the campaign.
To be successful, Gates and Clinton will have to forge a working relationship that often eludes the secretaries of State and Defense even when they are members of the same party. Gates and Clinton will each have their own power base and have each sought assurances of access to Obama.
But Obama clearly believes the pair can work together, especially on the difficult task of withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq. To help in coordinating the competing views, Obama will turn to former Marine Gen. James Jones, who will serve as national security adviser.
Jones, who will operate inside the White House, will be charged with melding military and diplomatic policy and with helping Obama navigate the two bureaucracies.
The trio that Obama will introduce today represents a centrist team that has already angered some of the president-elect's most ardent liberal supporters, who had expected a foreign policy team with clear, left-leaning credentials.
But like his economic team, Obama has favored experience over ideology as he formed his national security cabinet. At a news conference last week, the president-elect defended his choices, saying that his nominees do not undercut the direction that voters chose on election day.
"Understand where the vision for change comes from, first and foremost," he told reporters. "It comes from me. That's my job, to provide a vision in terms of where we are going, and to make sure, then, that my team is implementing."
Obama will also announce today Eric Holder as Attorney General and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as the Secretary of Homeland Security. The pair will lead the effort to protect the country against terrorist attacks while stepping back from Bush Administration torture and interrogation policies that riled many in the country and became the subject of fierce attack during the campaign.
As a border-state governor, Napolitano will be in charge of efforts to revamp immigration policy. A former state attorney general, she has been a moderate and pragmatic governor with little interest in satisfying the left wing of the party.
Holder is a former judge, U.S. Attorney and deputy attorney general, and will become the first African American Attorney General. He is close to Obama, having co-led the search for a vice presidential candidate during the campaign.
Obama will also announce that Susan Rice, a close friend and adviser, will become the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, assuming a role that will once again become a cabinet-rank position in the Obama administration.
The decision to name Clinton as Secretary of State was made after working out an agreement with former president Bill Clinton regarding his global charity efforts. That agreement calls for Clinton to release the names of 208,000 donors to his foundation, and a willingness to refer questions about conflicts of interest to the State Department ethics office and to the White House counsel's office.
____Source: Google News
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