Mr. Conservative And Mr. Democrat?

Over at "The National Interest," journal of The Nixon Center, Jacob Heilbrunn:

Maybe not, but what Obama’s [Cabinet and personnel] choices indicate is that his temperament is fundamentally a conservative one—and it’s the reason, after all, that he got elected in the first place. Obama’s statements and choices suggest sobriety rather than risk-taking. Obama, in other words, is the anti-Bush not only in tone, but also in substance. Where Bush was a radical, Obama could be the most conservative president America has had in decades. This, in brief, could be the real change that Obama represents.

It Takes A President

Great secretaries of states work for strong Presidents, says the CBC's Henry Champ:

It is hard to find a truly successful secretary of state who served a president weak in international affairs. Certainly in the modern era, two generally regarded as successful — Henry Kissinger and James Baker — served tough, experienced leaders.

Whatever you think of Richard Nixon or George H.W. Bush, both were skilled in foreign policy. Their pairings were built on loyalty and consensus, at least in public.

It's true these matches were also based on close personal relationships not apparent between Obama and Clinton. But then again, the closeness between current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and George W. Bush did not improve a State Department legacy that is likely to be rated by historians as below average.

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Cold War Over? Not Quite.

Christopher Hitchens is the second Obama critic of the day to criticize a Cabinet pick by invoking the name of Henry Kissinger.

Saddle River Calling

Bob Ellsworth, RN's ambassador to NATO and a former Republican congressman from Kansas, endorsed Sen. Obama. We learn this morning from the Wall Street Journal that former Ford and G.H.W. Bush NSC adviser Brent Scowcroft, though he didn't endorse a candidate this year, has been in regular touch with Obama and that a number of his acolytes are being eyed for administration posts. GOP Sen. Richard Lugar, known as RN's favorite mayor in the 1970s, was thought to be a contender for secretary of state and has pledged to help the Obama administration fashion a foreign policy based on the principles of realism and enlightened national interest long endorsed by The Nixon Center and its journal, "The National Interest."

And "The American Spectator," not pleased with Obama's likely Treasury pick, Timothy Geithner, notes his links with the "pragmatic" Dr. Kissinger.

It's beginning to look a lot like Nixon.