Obama Unbound: he no longer cares what the GOP thinks about his foreign policy

by Peter Beinart Jun 5, 2013 11:27 AM EDT

In choosing Susan Rice and Samantha Power, the president made clear that he no longer cares what the GOP thinks about his foreign policy. Peter Beinart on the huge implications of this shift.

By appointing Susan Rice as his new national-security adviser and Samantha Power to represent the U.S. at the United Nations, Barack Obama is practically shouting a message to the Washington GOP: “I’m no longer afraid of you.

Flash back four years. Obama skipped over Rice and other campaign confidantes to name James Jones, a guy he barely knew, to head the National Security Council. Why? Because Obama was a liberal Democrat and Jones was a Marine General who could watch his back with the military, especially if Obama made decisions on Afghanistan and Iraq that David Petraeus and company didn’t like. For Secretary of Defense, Obama passed over a gaggle of hungry Democrats to retain Robert Gates. Why? Because Gates, as a Republican appointed by George W. Bush, could protect Obama on Capitol Hill. Even Hillary Clinton was a politically cautious move, since she had run to Obama’s right on foreign policy during the campaign and was more trusted by the “pro-Israel” establishment.

Flash forward to 2013. To replace Gates, Obama chooses Chuck Hagel, a man whose skepticism of military action in Iran and criticisms of Israeli policy have made him radioactive among his former GOP colleagues. Now, in the midst of two other scandals, Obama chooses Susan Rice to run the NSC, a woman Republicans have had up on a dartboard for the better part of a year over Benghazi. Even Samantha Power, though less controversial now, was the subject of fierce conservative attacks when she emerged as a key Obama adviser in 2008.

What Obama’s saying is that the Democratic Party has finally freed itself from the long shadow of Vietnam. For decades after the end of that war, Democrats peered nervously over their shoulders at a public that considered them soft. That’s why in 1988 Michael Dukakis climbed goofily into a tank. It’s why in 2004 Democrats tried to convince America that the single most important thing about John Kerry was that he had served in uniform. It’s why Obama couldn’t close Guantánamo Bay.

full article
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/06/05/obama-unbound.html