Obama-Biden National Security Team Members Announced

President-elect Barack Obama announced the selection of his major presidential campaign rival, New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, as the official nominee for Secretary of State.  Obama also announced that current Defense Secretary Robert Gates would remain as Secretary of Defense in his upcoming administration.

 

Other Obama Administration national security team member selections include Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano to be nominated as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and General Jim Jones, USMC (Ret), to be National Security Adviser.  Eric Holder, Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton Administration, will be nominated as the first African-American Attorney General of the United States.

 

The leader of Obama’s National Security Policy Working Group, Susan Rice, will be nominated as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.  President-elect Obama is expected to elevate the U.N. Ambassador position to Cabinet rank, as it was in the Clinton Administration.

 

During the announcement, President-elect Obama said, “In this uncertain world, the time has come for a new beginning – a new dawn of American leadership to overcome the challenges of the 21st century, and to seize the opportunities embedded in those challenges.  To succeed, we must pursue a new strategy that skillfully uses, balances, and integrates all elements of American power: our military and diplomacy; our intelligence and law enforcement; our economy and the power of our moral example.  The team that we have assembled here today is uniquely suited to do just that.  They share my pragmatism about the use of power, and my sense of purpose about America's role as a leader in the world."  (From the Obama-Biden Transition Web site, change.gov.)

 

The United States Senate confirmed Obama Cabinet nominees Eric Shinseki (Veterans Affairs) and Janet Napolitano (Homeland Security) on January 21, 2009.  Hillary Rodham Clinton was confirmed as Secretary of State on January 22, 2009.