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| New National Security Advisor Tom Donilon |
A big day in the Obama White House - and for US foreign policy. The question is can Donilon step up to the job or will he be, as Defense Secretary Bob Gates apparently told Bob Woodward in his latest book, "a disaster."
Donilon is clearly a smart, experienced Washington player. But reading that his recent jaunt to China two months ago with Larry Summers was his first visit to China and seeing his relatively thin foreign policy credentials -- former Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Chief of Staff to Secretary of State Warren Christopher and later a senior executive at Fannie Mae (well, after all, it was the Chinese who bought huge tranches of Fannie debt, right?). Watch for incoming Republicans to launch a particular new focus on Donilon's activities at Fannie, especially since he in charge of their then-vaunted lobbying operations in the Franklin Raines years.
Clearly, he's no Brent Scowcroft. Or Zbignew Brezinski. Or Steven Hadley. Maybe more a Judge William Clark figure (Ronald Reagan's close and highly trusted friend). What is particularly interesting is the ties to Vice President Biden -- Donilon's wife is chief of staff to 2nd Lady Dr. Jill Biden and his brother is an advisor to the Vice President. Is this a signal Biden is asserting his foreign policy views in the Obama Administration? This is going to be interesting...  |
| ex-NSA General Jim Jones |
And going forward, will be read interviews with new NSA Tom Donilon like the one General Jone's gave this week in Der Spiegel? A bit doubtful. Most of our NATO allies have little or no idea who Tom Donilon is -- the Chinese are just starting to.
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