Obama sticks to circle of friends for national security posts

Obama sticks to circle of friends for national security posts




Aamer Madhani, USA TODAY6:13p.m. EST January 7, 20130 CommentsSharePresident Obama and his choice for Defense secretary, former Nebraska senator Chuck Hagel, listen as his nominee for CIA director, John Brennan, speaks at the White House on Monday.(Photo: Charles Dharapak, AP)
Story Highlights
The president stays within his comfort zone with high-profile nominations
Brennan has been by Obama's side during tough moments of his presidency
Hagel and the president bonded during travel to Iraq and Afghanistan
WASHINGTON — In his first term, President Obama purposefully set out to build an administration that, while not quite Abraham Lincoln's Team of Rivals, insured that his most prominent advisers included some that were outside his tight inner circle.
He tapped Hillary Rodham Clinton, his vanquished rival for the Democratic presidential nomination and a lawmaker who had a more hawkish foreign policy philosophy than his own, for the State Department, the highest-profile Cabinet position. After Democrats were crushed in the mid-term elections in 2010, he turned to William Daley, a Commerce secretary in the Clinton administration, to come on as White House chief of staff with the hopes of repairing his relationship with GOP leaders and the business community.
And in 2011 he picked David Petraeus, a Republican who was mentioned as a potential 2012 vice presidential pick, to replace Leon Panetta, another Clinton administration alumnus, as director of the Central Intelligence Agency after Obama picked Panetta to be his Defense secretary.




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