Monday, December 08, 2008
This Guy Came To Play
Still don't know how he'll be as president, but, damn Barack Obama is scary in making loud statements in the quietest way possible.
Selecting Eric Shinseki as secretary of Veterans Affairs is so ruthlessly brilliant (or brilliantly ruthless), that it's almost indescribable.
In one action, Obama:
Wow.
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Selecting Eric Shinseki as secretary of Veterans Affairs is so ruthlessly brilliant (or brilliantly ruthless), that it's almost indescribable.
In one action, Obama:
1) Rewards a military guy who made the correct call on troop strength going into Iraq -- and saw his career cut short because he stuck to hs guns on that strategic assessment in congressional testimony;Ruthlessly brilliant.
2) Puts a finger in the eye to Donald Rumsfeld (and George W. Bush) who made the wrong call on number of troops needed for the occupation -- and then had Shinseki pushed into retirement;
3) Puts this highly-respected retired general in the Cabinet post that helps oversee military hospitals that fell into disrepair during the Bush years;
4) Guarantees that, even though a Bush-appointee -- Robert Gates at Defense -- will be the person "closing down" the Iraq War, the face of the Obama administration welcoming veterans back from there and Afghanistan will be a guy who got the big picture right;
5) Oh, and gets a diversity credit, too! Shinseki is the first Japanese-American to serve as head of Veterans Affairs -- or in any military- or security-related Cabinet-level position.
Wow.
Labels: Barack Obama, Eric Shinseki, transition
