Obama Introduces National Security Team

This morning, in a highly-anticipated press conference, President-Elect Barack Obama formally announced his national security team consisting of the following persons: Secretary Of Defense: Robert Gates, Secretary Of State: Hillary Clinton, National Security Adviser: Marine Gen. James L. Jones, Secretary Of Homeland Security: Janet Napolitano, Attorney General: Eric Holder, Ambassador To The United Nations: Susan Rice. Of course each of these nominees has to undergo Senate confirmation in the next Congress before assuming their new offices.

As NBC political commentator Chris Matthews pointed out, it was obvious by his choices for these critical positions that Obama not only prides himself on picking highly competent, thoughtful professionals who have a history of effective and pragmatic leadership, but he also took care to highlight the diversity of his upcoming administration by nominating three women and two African Americans to fill two-thirds of Obama's national security team. Also, certainly by including long-time friends as well as Hillary Clinton, a signifcant foe during the Democratic Presidential primaries and a Republican hold-over from the Bush administration, Obama signaled that he can effectively "reach across the aisle" to unite competing political ideologies as well as diverse viewpoints in US government. Barack Obama also demonstrated that he is a strong enough leader to provide strong leadership by picking other strong leaders who may not all share his views, but are capable of carrying out his domestic and foreign policy initiatives without being yes-men and spineless sycophants--problems which plagued the inept Bush-Cheney administration on issues from Hurricane Katrina responsivenes to who is actually responsible for decisions on the War in Iraq.