Obama's NSC Will Get New Power

[babylonsister]

Obama's NSC Will Get New Power
Directive Expands Makeup and Role Of Security Body

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, February 8, 2009; Page A01


President Obama plans to order a sweeping overhaul of the National Security Council, expanding its membership and increasing its authority to set strategy across a wide spectrum of international and domestic issues.

The result will be a "dramatically different" NSC from that of the Bush administration or any of its predecessors since the forum was established after World War II to advise the president on diplomatic and military matters, according to national security adviser James L. Jones, who described the changes in an interview. "The world that we live in has changed so dramatically in this decade that organizations that were created to meet a certain set of criteria no longer are terribly useful," he said.

Jones, a retired Marine general, made it clear that he will run the process and be the primary conduit of national security advice to Obama, eliminating the "back channels" that at times in the Bush administration allowed Cabinet secretaries and the vice president's office to unilaterally influence and make policy out of view of the others.

"We're not always going to agree on everything," Jones said, and "so it's my job to make sure that minority opinion is represented" to the president. "But if at the end of the day he turns to me and says, 'Well, what do you think, Jones?,' I'm going to tell him what I think."

more...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/07/AR2009020702076.html?hpid=topnews

[biopowertoday]

1. umm. and Joe Biden? Where does that leave him?

But I make the assumption that Joe will have Obama's ear and will Hillary.

[babylonsister]

2. I'm quite sure PrezObama will listen to anyone knowledgable and

take their advice into consideration. He's said as much.

[Captain Hilts]

3. ALL presidents say that.

But I am inclined to believe a lot of it in this case, though not all.

[babylonsister]

4. What makes you believe he won't, or are you just being your usual

ornery self?

[Captain Hilts]

5. People voted for him because we thought he'd talk to the right people.

And I generally think that's true.

When you've read as much presidential history and biography as I have, you'll bring more skepticism to these discussions.

That Prez Bush made decisions on his 'gut' and on 'instinct' is what got us in the messes we are in now.

Obama does consult people - he's nominated a lot of smart folks - but sometimes political expediency is required and he has a track record of doing that. Most presidents do. It's how he got there.

[babylonsister]

6. I bow to your great intelligence,

Mookie. :eyes:

I don't think Biden or Jones would have taken their respective jobs if they thought they'd be bookends for a monarch. I feel confident Obama will listen to their counsel, whether you do or not. He needs to depend on people with experience who can guide him.

[Captain Hilts]

7. You ratchet up my comments further than they are intended to go.

And give them a negativity they are not intended to have.

Look at FDR. He consulted opposing views on many - though not all issues - and there were still times he went against his own views and bowed to political expediency: US participation in the World Court, the anti-lynching bill, the Spanish Civil War, etc. Yet he - and yes, he did rule as a monarch - listened and took the advice of his military leaders during WWII. That he listened and actually deferred to them - especially George C. Marshall - is why the US ran a better war than England, where Churchill had no check on his strategy whims. FDR's still a great president and I'm glad neither Hoover, Landon, Wilkie and especially Dewey didn't win.

JFK ran in '60 generating fear of a 'missile gap' with the Soviet Union. It was the expedient thing to do. Yet, he was methodical in listening to advisers during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

The idea that Obama will ALWAYS take the advice of experts and will never consider political expediency is absurd. How do you explain the FISA vote? Right now he is giving in to people that will not support the stimulus bill.