Obama names his team

Yeah, yeah, the stuff has been leaked for the last couple of weeks, but Barry made it official this morning:

President-elect Obama officially announced his national security team today, naming Hillary Clinton, a top rival for the Democratic nomination with whom he sparred on foreign policy, as his Secretary of State.

Obama also retained Defense Secretary Robert Gates at the Pentagon, named former Marine Commandant and NATO Supreme Allied Commander retired Gen. James L. Jones as his national security adviser, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano Secretary of Homeland Security and campaign foreign policy adviser and Africa expert Susan Rice as ambassador to the United Nations.

Additionally, Obama officially named Eric Holder attorney general.

I'm not concerned about Hillary. She'll do her job, and butt heads with Barry regardless of whether or not she's the Sec/State or in the Senate. We're guessing he's listening to the old adage about keeping your friends close; your enemies even closer. Gates also doesn't concern us. He was a proponent of the Surge and carried out the strategy to a tee.

We give all credit in the world to General Jones for his service to the Marine Corps, and his command of NATO. He is a smart choice for the NSA job provided Barry listens to him, and doesn't marginalize him. He's a smart man, an honorable Marine, and he knows a lot about the world and the dangerous direction it's heading.

Napolitano is the first problem. She's going to be the DHS secretary. She's not qualified for the job at all, and despite her claims that border security will be one of her priorities she's not a hawk on the border at all. Her lip-service deployment of Arizona National Guard troops to the border was a facade that the voters here in Arizona saw right through. She's never been in favor of tighter border security, and was way too chummy with Vincente Fox. Of course, so was President Bush.

Susan Rice .... Geraghty the Indispensable has a run down of her greatest hits. I can't really add anything to the list. Needless to say, she'll fit right in with the corrupt surrender-monkeys at the UN.

And as for Holder? This is one person we hope the Republicans put up a fight over. This man was tied to the Clinton pardons of Marc Rich and the FALN terrorists. We don't need an attorney general feeling sympathy for terrorists. Additionally, he's hardly a gun-rights hawk's best friend. He's about as hostile towards gun owners as Barry is, so while they'll be kindred spirits on that topic, the rest of his resume is suspect.

Can we say that this is the change we can believe in? Not really. It's more of the same-old, same-old. Having General Jones, Hillary, and Dr. Gates in on foreign policy ideas means that we should remain on offense in this war. We sincerely doubt anyone of those three people would urge Barry to treat the war like some sort of police action; sending subpoenas to the guys that would love nothing more than to behead us. But including Napolitano, Rice, and Holder in the mix makes us pause. It causes us concern, and it should should cause readers a level of concern, as well.

Publius II