Jan 06 2009
Obama Appoints Unqualified but Dependable Hack to Head CIA
Barack Obama has appointed Leon Panetta, former Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton, as head of the CIA. Nevermind the guy has ZERO intel experience, but he absolutely hates the CIA - which of course could well explain this pick. Panetta directly pushed for budget cuts that led, in part, to the horrendous intel situation in the 1990’s leading up to September 11, 2001.
Panetta is as qualified to head the CIA as Hillary Clinton is to be Secretary of State. These picks of unqualified individuals to head up such vital positions demonstrates well Obama’s own lack of experience and the knowledge and judgement necessary to run this nation anywhere other than into the ground.
From the New York Times. If this does not scare you nothing will:
President-elect Barack Obama has selected Leon E. Panetta, the former congressman and White House chief of staff, to take over the Central Intelligence Agency, an organization that Mr. Obama criticized during the campaign for using interrogation methods he decried as torture, Democratic officials said Monday.
Mr. Panetta has a reputation in Washington as a competent manager with strong background in budget issues, but has little hands-on intelligence experience. If confirmed by the Senate, he will take control of the agency most directly responsible for hunting senior Al Qaeda leaders around the globe, but one that has been buffeted since the Sept. 11 attacks by leadership changes and morale problems.
Given his background, Mr. Panetta is a somewhat unusual choice to lead the C.I.A., an agency that has been unwelcoming to previous directors perceived as outsiders, such as Stansfield M. Turner and John M. Deutch. But his selection points up the difficulty Mr. Obama had in finding a C.I.A. director with no connection to controversial counterterrorism programs of the Bush era.
When Obama promised change, this is what he meant. Not putting old favorites in positions of familiarity and kneeling to pressure from outside influences to make appointments “that make sense” is the Obama way.
The republican way of awarding jobs to the biggest of donors is over. So are the days of common place appointments. Has your mother ever told you that if you keep doing the same things over and over again in the same manner, you will always get the same results?
We are not yet so far removed from the “last eight years” for any blogger, writer, or news anchor to be critical of Obama yet. He, nor anyone in his camp, has yet to serve one day in office.
Why not take a lets wait and see approach?
The division that conservatives seek no longer has a place in politics thanks to George W.. We have already viewed what that gets us. The American people want unity of purpose and leadership. Anyone not lining up is not going to get elected.