Iraq war opponent Obama set to tap two war backers for Cabinet
One of the worst-kept political secrets in modern times won't even be that anymore.
Shortly now, President-elect Barack Obama, the candidate who relentlessly criticized Sen. Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primaries for voting to authorize the war in Iraq and who said the U.S. troop surge in Iraq was doomed to failure, is expected to announce that Clinton and the man who so successfully implemented that surge for President George W. Bush, Robert Gates, will join his new Cabinet.
That stunning rhetorical pas de trois will be fascinating to watch. Chances are slim that the words "flip-flop" will be uttered onstage.
We have two excellent videos this morning -- one on the expected announcements of Obama's national security team in Chicago and the second a refresher video, courtesy of the GOP, on what Democrats, primarily Clinton, had to say about her new boss not too long ago.
-- Andrew Malcolm
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Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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So? The consensus among the Democratic political establishment was that the way to beat Obama was by questioning experience. McCain thought so too, though he also used the "he's foreign, not like us, friend of terrorists and black nationalists" line too.
It didn't work, did it?
Nothingg is more dangerous than a politician with a thin skin. Obama doesn't have one.
By the way, the meme that Hillary was a "war supporter" is based on one vote. By the end of 2003, she had seen the error of her ways, and in the campaign, her position was the same as Obama's -- the same as everyone but Kucinich -- which was "get out now."
Posted by: Jim H | December 01, 2008 at 03:14 AM
Only two "supporters" who gave President Bush the power to invade Iraq, you claim? have you forgotten that he chose Joe Biden as his running mate and Joe Biden voted just as did the two you cite. Moreover, Biden made a rousing speech to colleagues in the Senate urging them to "trust" the president's "judgment." Where were you back then? Did you misplace your pen? Or did you believe to be true what you preferred to be true about Obama?
What bothers me most is that I get the government you deserve.
Posted by: Vera Beaudin Saeedpour | December 01, 2008 at 06:38 AM