Keeping Gates, Naming Clinton to State Bad Ideas for Obama

I'm siding with the lefties on President-Elect Obama's choice for Secretary of State (Hillary Clinton) and on less reliable reports that he's considering keeping W's Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, around for a while.

These moves, combined with his backing off his campaign pledge to end the war in Iraq as he continues to soften and qualify his position, make me nervous. I wasn't a big Obama fan from the beginning but he won me over when my first two choices -- Dennis Kucinich and John Edwards -- fell by the wayside, principally because he seemed so staunchly opposed to the Iraq War. Now he names a Secretary of State who supported the war from the beginning and whose stubborn refusal to admit her mistake probably cost her the Democratic nomination. And although Gates is a far more moderate SecDef than his predecessor (Atilla the Hun would qualify for that description), he represents the position that a "safe" withdrawal from Iraq will take far longer than it really needs to.

This could all become moot if the Iraqi parliament passes what they call the "Withdrawal Plan" this week. That bill -- which has pretty strong bipartisan backing in Iraq -- calls for U.S. troops to be out of Iraqi cities (and thus most of the combat) by the end of June next year. All combat troops would have to be withdrawn roughly by the end of 2010. While I think we could withdraw much more quickly than that, I like the Iraqi idea of getting us disengaged first.

Obama hasn't yet taken office so we don't really know how he'll govern but the moves to center he made during the late stages of the campaign to lock up his mandate look like they're becoming a permanent part of the Obamascape. That is not encouraging.