Congratulations, Dr. Rice!

Back in September I participated in and then blogged about an Obama-Biden campaign foreign policy event across the Ohio River in the library of IN University Southeast, which Vincent had visited and where Stephanie had consulted. There were were former IN Congressman Tim Romer, mentioned until recently as a possible Obama homeland security chief, and Susan Rice, a Brookings Institute scholar who emerged as a chief Obama campaign foreign policy aide. Readers might recall that I was a bit disappointed that Dr. Rice was as hawkish as she was on Russia, aping the McCain campaign's tough line that anyone - even Russia's immediate neighbors - should be able to join NATO (even - although she didn't spell this out - at the risk of events like that in Georgia - this when subsequent events have borne out some of my caution in "Georgia on my mind" and - indeed - some of candidate Obama's caution until McCain hammered him and he had to tow the hawkish Bush-McCain line). (Actually, Bush's secretary of state - Condoleeza Rice - ended up being more balanced even than Obama here). Today in Chicago, Obama introduced his new national security team, including - at the end - Dr. Rice - as U.N. ambassador (and elevate this position to Cabinet status, which means she will have to seek Senate confirmation). Already I've been reading about this and I've been confused as outgoing Secretary of State Rice - another Dr. Rice - also commented on the selections - and it's sometimes not clear from the articles which Dr. Rice they're talking about. I wrote about General James Jones, the new national security advisor, as a dark-horse potential Obama running mate this summer. (As Marine commandant, Jones apparently disagreed with and disliked Defense Secretary Rumsfeld so much that he turned down an opportunity serve as Joint Chiefs of Staff chairperson). At the top of the list, of course (disappointing Senator Kerry and Governor Richardson) was the selection of Hilary Clinton as secretary of state. Of course, we followed Hillary closely throughout the Democratic primaries (see various blog entries) seeing her speak several times. Although I've watched it on YouTube since, I did not see her speech live (only snippets of the rest of the press conference) - Talking heads say she seemed stiff - but it was a sober press conference. It's bittersweet no doubt for Clinton, her family, and we her former supporters who sought for her to be the one announcing Cabinet appointments, instead of Clinton leaving her safe Senate seat to serve her former opponent. Earlier this fall Stephanie started talking politics with a colleague at work who was one of those former Hillary supporters flirting with voting for Senator McCain. Stephanie started to talk her out of it partly by saying - I bet Senator Obama if elected will make use of Hillary's talents - for example, as secretary of state. Given his supposed disinterest in Clinton as a running mate, this seemed improbably at the time. But Stephanie won back her colleague's vote for Obama with the argument, and she turned out to be prescient too. Congratulations to Clinton, Rice, and all in the new national security team!

-- Perry