EXCLUSIVE: Obama wants Bush war team to stay

Where's all this promised CHANGE? Looks like alot of more of the same Bush policies to me! ...could it be Bush was right? Hey, I guess we can now say OBAMA LIED, PEOPLE DIED! ?

What's the problem? Sounds like rational people at work - good for Gates, Obama and us.

What does anybody expect? Democrats do not have people that know how to wage war only those that know how to start them. Obama has no experience worth discussing so we do have to give him credit for recognizing his anti Iraq claims were without merit. Now if we can get him to reject socialistic principles he may do OK. With the Democrats in the house and Senate I doubt that will happen.

What balls! This guy cut his teeth on criticizing everything about this war, and now that he has the prize, he's gonna go with the same old same old.

The Democrats, their Party leaders; activists; and rank-and-file; are, or have become, over the last generation, “Girlie Men” on national security and foreign policy issues. That is, they do not have the “guts” to say what they believe to the voting electorate before a Senate or Presidential election; and they behave as craven cowards toward their electoral positions when they do manage to win public office. The former Jr. Senator from Illinois, won his Democratic Party Primaries’ by outspokenly articulating and advocating, foreign and defense policy positions that; months before he takes office; he has completely repudiated. His contempt for his Party, its leaders, its intellectuals, activists and rank-and-file members, is breathtaking. Obama does not fear them, or their hostility to his rejection of their positions, on the subjects of national security and foreign policy because, they do not themselves believe in their own positions. Nor do they themselves in the final analysis, take themselves seriously as actors in the arenas of foreign and defense policy

Ha ha - the lib idiots in the Democrat party must be fuming. On issue after issue Obama does the same as Bush. The surprise is not that Obama is doing the same as Bush but that Bush is going the same as Obama, which outside of foreign affairs shows how liberal Bush really was. But since Bush was a Republican he was evil and had to dumped. So why are Democrats elcted at all? Because the media, consisting of the big three networks, CNN, all the local newspapers including the NewYork Times and Bergen Record are firmly in the pocket of the Democrat party – in fact, the major media is an arm of the Democrat Party. For this reason, I simply do not understand how anyone calling themselves a conservative and/or Republican would ever watch a Hollywood movie, programming from CNN or the major networks or read the New York Times. They want to be biased – fine, but we don’t have to give them our money or watch their programming!

Smart move. GOP operatives own the system they put in place. Now they can back it down. As the saying goes. You break it . You own it. Most likely they're all good soldiers and they will do an about face with no questions asked.

This Democrat is pleased with Obama's actions. Let me get this straight - you are complaining because Obama is keeping key military people in place so our country will be less open to attack during the transition from one administration to the next? And you're complaining because the actual amount of change that Obama will be much more reasoned and thoughtful than Rove, Palin and McCain would have had us believe? Yes, President-elect Obama is not as liberal as he ran to get the nomination. I bet McCain would have been more centrist than conservative party line he was preaching during the campaign. And Obama is certainly not the boogie man the right made him out to be. My 78 year-old lifelong conservative Republican mother was terrified of Obama before the election. Now she's quite impressed with him and wonders why it was necessary to try to scare her. As for Obama and "socialism" - Bush spent billions on economic stimulous packages, he ran large deficits - so don't call Obama a socialist when he does those things. I think we've seen enough "free market laissez faire capitalism" to last a long time. The proper level of regulation isn't socialism or a hamper to business. Investigating and enforcing laws pertaining to financial institutions is only necessary because the people who run them are human and as likely to be crooks as anyone else. And I don't hear anyone talking about getting rid of the police departments. Sounds like you people lost an election big time so you're just looking for things to pick at. Ya see, Obama's staking out the middle ground - that means he's going to keep the center he won back from the right. And the more the Republicans preach hard core conservatism and narrow mindedness the more they'll lose the center.

CharlieB - you took the words right out of mouth. Good post !

I have to admit, Obama is turning out to be a better leader than I thought. His Cabinet choices are insightful. However, controlling Pelosi and Reid will be the true test of his mettle. Spending will be his largest hurdle. Without someone like Gingrich, who along with Clinton devised to Pay-Go system which created a surplus, the going may be extremely rough for the next President. Even though I didn't vote for him, I hope he does better with the debt than the Bush administration. Unfortunately, his plans to throw tons of money into infrastructure may turn out to be the proverbial "straw."

Are we to believe Obama only now realizes Bush was right all along? Obama’s campaign strategy was to seduce all the most foolish voters. He is still buff, wears a nice suit, and he is nothing, nothing but a liar.

Obviously Obama's more concerned with the "economic briefings" than with the "daily national security briefings"..Obama's got a proven Sec of Defense in place..He's going to let Gates do his job and "stay the course" while he tries to "sail without a compass" in this economic mess...BO's critics will call him a "liar" but he's doing what he's done the last 2 years. He's projecting competence and control..Maybe he deserves a chance?..There's surely enough time ahead to evaluate him.

the last time the liberals ran a war, (Vietnam) the end result was 3 million cambodian and s. vietnamese dead once the enemy had taken control. anybody want to start a pool on how many innocent people will have to die this time? (when the liberals loose their nerve again?)