Barack H.W. Obama

November 28th, 2008 By: Michael Merritt | Tags:
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While the big news of Barack Obama’s appointments have been those figures who have connections to the Clinton administration, there seems to be some evidence that several Obama appointments will have the distinct branding of another former president: George H.W. Bush.

This past Monday, the Wall Street Journal noted the connection between people likely to be appointed to the administration and former George H.W. Bush National-Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft.  The first is the likely to be retained Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who was the deputy national-security adviser under Scowcroft during the Bush 41 administration.  But there are others:

Richard Haass, a Scowcroft protégé and former State Department official, could be tapped for a senior National Security Council, State Department or intelligence position. Mr. Haass currently runs the Council on Foreign Relations.

Other prominent Republicans with close ties to Mr. Obama — including former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who endorsed the Democrat in the final days of the campaign, and Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — share Mr. Scowcroft’s philosophy.

Obama has apparently been in contact with Scowcroft, talking with him on the phone last week.  For his part, Scowcroft did serve in the last administration from 2001 to 2005 on the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board under George W. Bush, but was a critic of the Iraq war.

The selection of both moderate Clinton and Scowcroft associates may suggest that Obama will take a tough but realist approach to foreign policy and not be the “appeaser” some Republicans feared he would be.

Obviously, some of the Democratic base and far left will be unimpressed with many of these selections, but if they had actually been paying attention during the election, they would have noticed a person who is not alien to being tough on enemies.

So, it seems to be that the Obama administration may be shaping up to be a mix of Clinton and Bush 41 connected figures, which may not be such a bad thing.

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