The Meaning of Hagel

[Geee]

National Review:

“This is my last election. After my election, I have more flexibility.”

— Barack Obama to Dmitry Medvedev, March 26, 2012

The puzzle of the Chuck Hagel nomination for defense secretary is that you normally choose someone of the other party for your cabinet to indicate a move to the center, but, as the Washington Post editorial board points out, Hagel’s foreign-policy views are to the left of Barack Obama’s, let alone the GOP’s. Indeed, they were at the fringe of the entire Senate.

So what’s going on? Message sending. Obama won reelection. He no longer has to trim, to appear more moderate than his true instincts. He has the “flexibility” to be authentically Obama.

Hence the Hagel choice: Under the guise of centrist bipartisanship, it allows the president to leave the constrained first-term Obama behind and follow his natural Hagel-like foreign-policy inclinations. On three pressing issues in particular:

MILITARY SPENDING

Current defense secretary Leon Panetta said in August 2011 that the scheduled automatic $600 billion defense cuts (“sequestration”) would result in “hollowing out the force,” which would be “devastating.” And he strongly hinted that he might resign rather than enact them.

[Valin]

@Geee

 

Four horsemen of the American apocalypse

Scott Johnson

1/11/13

 

If you want a conventional liberal/realist view of Obama’s coalescing second term foreign policy team, you probably can’t do better than to take a look at David Ignatius’s Washington Post column comparing Barack Obama with Dwight Eisenhower. I won’t say anything more about it other than that it has caused me a slight setback in my anger management therapy.

 

For a more realistic assessment of the “realists,” such as they are, let us turn to Barry Rubin. In “Noxious nominations: Four horsemen of the American foreign policy apocalypse” Rubin lets it rip. The four horsemen are Obama and his nominees John Kerry at State, Chuck Hagel at Defense and John Brennan at the CIA. Rubin is good on all of them, particularly so on Brennan:

 

(Snip)

Brennan is no less than the father of the pro-Islamist policy. What Obama is saying is this: My policy of backing Islamists has worked so well, including in Egypt, that we need to do even more! All those analogies to 1930s’ appeasement are an understatement. Nobody in the British leadership said, “I have a great idea. Let’s help fascist regimes take power and then they’ll be our friends and become more moderate! That’s the equivalent of what Brennan does.

(Snip)

[Valin]

Chuck Schumer — Hamlet no more

Paul Mirengoff

1/15/13

 

Chuck Schumer will support Chuck Hagel’s nomination for Secretary of Defense. With Schumer’s support, Hagel is likely to be confirmed. But then, as we have said, Schumer was always likely to support the nomination.

 

Schumer’s announcement follows a meeting with Hagel in which the nominee professed support for a series of pro-Israel positions including ones that are inconsistent with those he has taken in the past:

 

(Snip)

 

 

 

Also

 

Chuck Schumer, Cheap Date

[Pepper]

@Valin @Geee

 

Obama, Hillary, Joe Biden, JF'n Kerry, Chuck Hagel

 

what could go wrong?

[Valin]

@Valin @Geee

 

Obama, Hillary, Joe Biden, JF'n Kerry, Chuck Hagel

 

what could go wrong?

 

I'm feeling really good.

[Pepper]

@Valin and well you should be, Michelle O, First Lady, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, there's a lot to love and like with this klan.

[Valin]

@Valin and well you should be, Michelle O, First Lady, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, there's a lot to love and like with this klan.

 

 

My Ache MK IV Racism Dog Whistle Detector is going off!

[Geee]

@Valin and well you should be, Michelle O, First Lady, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, there's a lot to love and like with this klan.

 

Not a thing could go wrong (say, could you send me that depression drug link again )

[Valin]

@Valin and well you should be, Michelle O, First Lady, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, there's a lot to love and like with this klan.

 

Not a thing could go wrong (say, could you send me that depression drug link again )

 

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