PURDUM: Well, in fact, he appointed one important rival, the biggest rival of all, Hillary Clinton, to what's arguably the most important job, secretary of State, the senior Cabinet position, and that has worked out in a kind of Lincoln-Seward way. It's clear that there are any number of Cabinet people who are willing to give it to him straight. Having had the privilege of working in the Reagan campaign in 1980 and spending about five years in his administration, I sensed that Obama could be just as transformational as Reagan was. For example, Bill Clinton was more transactional, that is he handled the day to day challenges of his office, while Ronald Reagan was considered more transformational, that is he changed the terms of the debate in the country. One of the things that was puzzling to many Democrats in the first couple of years of the Obama administration was that the president and the White House team had been unable to find more effective surrogate voices and salespeople for their policies. Thus, the national security bureaucracy for the most part was staffed by veterans of the Clinton administration who were part of the military–industrial-congressional complex, enthusiastically supported the invasion and occupation of Iraq (opposition to which was Obama’s main campaign issue), and high levels of defense spending. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. The rivals idea was supposed to be modeled on Abraham Lincoln's Cabinet, a Cabinet that included three men who all ran against Lincoln for the nomination. And it was thought - and, indeed, now as the campaign heats up, these Cabinet officers have been sent out to campaign. RAZ: That's Todd Purdum. Ken Salazar, a senator from a red state, Colorado; Kathleen Sebelius, the highly regarded governor of Kansas; Janet Napolitano, one that's a Democrat in Arizona where it's not that easy to do statewide. Lawrence Korb, a former assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration, is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. Closing Guantanamo, supporting Senator Gillibrand’s bill to remove prosecution for military sexual assault from the military chain of command, unilaterally reducing nuclear weapons to 1,000, and concluding a nuclear deal with Iran would be even more significant steps towards leaving behind a transformational national security legacy that President Obama wants and deserves. For example, on the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the appropriate level of defense spending, and the role of nuclear weapons in U.S. defense strategy. "Political analysts and administration officials say Obama's Cabinet has avoided the public squabbling and missteps of prior administrations because Obama picked the right people for the job, beginning with Vice President Joe BidenJoe BidenBiden holds massive cash advantage over Trump ahead of Election Day Tax records show Trump maintains a Chinese bank account: NYT Trump plays video of Biden, Harris talking about fracking at Pennsylvania rally MORE. Obama's "Team of Rivals" Debacle. RAZ: So are there any Cabinet secretaries in this administration who are challenging the president and pushing him beyond his comfort zone? PURDUM: I think more his advisers. For example, Bill Clinton was more transactional, that is he handled the day to day challenges of his office, while Ronald Reagan was considered more transformational, that is he changed the terms of the debate in the country. Back in 2008, shortly before Barack Obama became President Obama, he told a reporter that an Obama Cabinet would be a team of rivals, smart people with different viewpoints who would, in Mr. Obama's words, push him out of his comfort zone. I want this same experience. William Seward at State, Edward Bates at Justice and Salmon P. Chase at Treasury - all rivals and all men who initially hated their new boss. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. transactional or transformational, depending on what they accomplish in office. I want my Cabinet to challenge me. And what's especially sort of puzzling about this Cabinet is it's actually full of experienced elected officials. Obama has paid a heavy price for not placing his orphans in the national security bureaucracy. ,” and the foreign policy establishment, most of whom did not and still do not share his transformational views about the U.S. role in the world. RAZ: So President Obama looks at this example and says that is the mark of a great leader. After Obama’s election, almost none of the people who had worked so hard with Peter and I and took a big political risk early in the campaign received jobs. And it meant Lincoln was actually fighting two Civil Wars. Ultimately, General McChrystal asked for 40,000 more troops. However, until recently Obama has been anything but, especially in his foreign policy. © Copyright 2020 Center for the National Interest All Rights Reserved. He pledged to reduce the role of nuclear weapons in our national security strategy and urged others to do the same. Only Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General James Cartwright, was willing to do so. Restoring diplomatic relations with Cuba and getting a climate change agreement with China are good first steps. What happened to Peter Singer was a microcosm of the way in which the national security team was staffed. And everyone, I think, thinks Secretary Clinton has had a remarkably effective run at the State Department. It is important to note that the team of rivals were talented and dedicated people. Fourth, before sequestration capped defense spending, the Gates-Obama Pentagon actually increased baseline defense spending above the levels projected by the outgoing Bush administration. And I think, you know, perhaps the president got a little overexposed. I'm Guy Raz. Todd Purdum, Vanity Fair's national editor, offers his insight. TODD PURDUM: One with the South and one with his own advisers. It's in the latest issue of the magazine. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. Todd, thanks so much for coming in. Abraham Lincoln famously put together a "team of rivals" for his Cabinet after the 1860 presidential election. Understandably, both Gates and Clinton and Jones only agreed to work for Obama if they had effective control over the appointments to their teams. And when Barack Obama stepped into the presidency in 2008, he vowed to do the same. However, his Pentagon’s 2010 nuclear review was not significantly different than the 2006 review done by the Bush administration. The book is a biographical portrait of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln and some of the men who served with him in his cabinet from 1861 to 1865. But analysts say Obama's much-hyped "team of rivals," including appointing bitter campaign rival and former Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton to be … The question is why. Despite some memorable slip-ups, Barack ObamaBarack Hussein ObamaDemocrats make gains in Georgia Senate races: poll 'Democrat-run cities' fuel the economy, keep many red states afloat Democrats seem unlikely to move against Feinstein MORE's Cabinet has dodged controversy in 2009, continuing the president's campaign theme of "no drama Obama. He can bring his rivals in. Second, after granting Afghan commander, General David McKiernan, his request to add 20,000 more troops to the Afghanistan force to stop the advance of the Taliban, ‘his’ Secretary of Defense replaced McKiernan with a new commander, General Stanley McChrystal, knowing full well that the new commander would, and did, ask for significantly more troops. We Insist: A Timeline Of Protest Music In 2020. So the result was the president himself was put out there constantly with the result possibly that he was exhausted. It's tempting to wonder how much more influential they might be as campaigners if they'd had larger profiles with their own issues and the public was more familiar with them from seeing them on "Meet the Press" or hearing them on NPR. There is no doubt that Barack Obama aspired to be a transformational president, particularly when it came to foreign policy, given the strategic blunders of the George W. Bush administration.

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