New leader's camp weighs importance of having seasoned hands at time of global financial crisis and two wars against change pledged by campaign.
By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER, JPOST CORRESPONDENT IN WASHINGTONObama great 224.88(photo credit: AP)
US President-elect Barack Obama rolled up his sleeves and began to ready himself for his new job on Thursday, getting his first presidential-style intelligence briefing and his first acceptance of a White House job offer.
Former Clinton chief of staff John Podesta has been tapped to head Obama's transition team, working with several other old Clinton hands and a couple of Obama confidants, as the new leader's camp weighs the importance of having seasoned hands at a time of global financial crisis and two grueling wars, among other challenges, against the change in Washington pledged by the campaign.
"Everyone's looking for tell-tale signs if he's going to govern from the Center or the Left. Since he's bringing in some Clinton people, it might be a sign that he's governing from the Center," said one Washington insider connected to the Jewish community.
"That will reassure some people" in that community, he said, because of the close relationship Clinton enjoyed with American Jewry and his supportive stance on Israel.
Another Clinton White House figure, fellow Illinois Congressman and long-time friend Rahm Emanuel, will be Obama's chief of staff. Emmanuel's Israeli heritage and staunch pro-Israel credentials support the perspective of the new president's backing of the country, though as chief of staff Emanuel is expected to be more key on domestic rather than on international issues.
Several members of Obama's campaign advisory team have been mentioned for White House foreign policy jobs, including former Middle East envoy Dennis Ross, former national security adviser Tony Lake, former deputy national security adviser James Steinberg, former assistant secretary of state Susan Rice and former State Department official Gregory Craig.
Obama has also expressed an interest in making a bipartisan appointment, with the thought of retaining current Defense Secretary Robert Gates leading the speculation. Other possible Pentagon chiefs include former deputy defense secretary John Hamre and former navy secretary Richard Danzig, also on the campaign team.
Rob Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, which convened a discussion on the new administration and the Middle East on Thursday, said he did not expect to see Gates kept on because of his strong support for the Bush administration's approach on Iran, which Obama has pledged to change.
Satloff described Gates as endorsing a policy of not talking to the Iranians unless they suspended enrichment of uranium. Obama has indicated an interest in negotiating with Teheran at the highest levels of government and without preconditions.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad welcomed Obama's victory in a letter to the incoming president on Thursday congratulating the Democrat on "attracting the majority of voters in the election." The text of the note, the first such letter since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, was carried by the official IRNA news agency.
In the message, Ahmadinejad also said he hoped Obama would "use the opportunity to serve the [American] people and leave a good name" during his term in office, as well as change long-standing US policies toward the Middle East.
Other Republican possibilities include Senators Chuck Hagel or Dick Lugar for secretary of state, though some observers believe political expediency will mean Obama gives the plum position to a member of his own party. John Kerry, who gave Obama the stage for his landmark speech during his own presidential nominating convention in 2004, is considered a leading candidate.
Satloff indicated that Obama would first need to determine which model he wanted to use to deal with the Middle East, in which either the secretary of state is the strongest player, the White House calls the shots, or a special envoy is tasked with the portfolio.
He also said the overall characterizations adviser had made about Obama's foreign policy inclinations suggested a measured rather than an ideological approach.
Noting Danzig's characterization of Obama's perspective as seeking "sustainable security," Satloff said, "It's certainly not a phrase that implies grand plans and bold ideas."
AP contributed to this report.
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