Gates, Clinton Crucial Voting Bloc On Afghanistan

New York Times:

The last time the Obama administration arrived at a moment of truth in the debate over what to do about Afghanistan, Hillary Rodham Clinton and Robert M. Gates delivered a one-two punch in favor of a more ambitious approach.

Now, as President Obama leads yet another debate on whether to deploy tens of thousands of additional troops there, the secretary of state and the secretary of defense will once again constitute a critical voting bloc, the likely leaders of an argument for a middle ground between a huge influx of soldiers and a narrow focus aimed at killing terrorists from Al Qaeda, according to several administration officials.

Read the whole story: New York Times

Comments

[Ozarks]

08:22 AM on 10/14/2009

Voting bloc? No such thing in the cabinet. Lincoln once asked for opinions from his cabinet. He voted yea and the 8 or 9? cabinet members voted nay. Lincoln then said "the yea's have it". The NYT's "a critical voting bloc" is about as "critical" as a kindergarden tally on Bozo the Clown. NYT, another MSM becoming more irrelevant each day.

[vascopyjama]

11:36 PM on 10/13/2009

Hillary would vote for anything or anyone if there was something in it for her.

[2Bfair]

05:15 AM on 10/15/2009

bingo. Too bad it often backfires, for her and the nation.

[lbicomber]

10:25 AM on 10/15/2009

Really?

You know her that well, do you?

[2Bfair]

06:55 AM on 10/16/2009

Ummm, in a democracy citizens, voters and taxpayers have a responsibility to observe the actions of public officials and the consquences, and to hold them accountable. Hillary's decisions, actions and their consquences are better documented and known that vitually any public figure in American history. So, yes, many people are confident they know her well enough to say with confidence that she is ruthlessly and carelessly SELF-SERVING, often at the expense of the nation.

[Ergon]

10:01 PM on 10/13/2009

I actually said once, right here, that he had the potential to become the greatest president ever.
Heal the country first, Mr. President.

Bring the troops home.

[Bcasey11]

07:53 PM on 10/13/2009

remember when hillary bragged about voting for the iraq war to the CFR, i do i do i do

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxHgxtfVUJk

[Bcasey11]

07:55 PM on 10/13/2009

I love war pigs don't you?

[Bcasey11]

07:51 PM on 10/13/2009

The moment i lost faith in obama: And Obama has announced Hillary Clinton as Secretary of state, and Robert Gates as Secretary of defense.

[duxguts]

12:33 AM on 10/14/2009

He had to nominate Hillary as Secretary of State to get the woman's vote. And he thought that Robert Gates was pretty much a neutral choice. Ho Ho Ho I have the Pentagon.

[2Bfair]

07:01 AM on 10/16/2009

What? Hillary was not nominated before the election, only after. In my view, he chose Hillary in order to pacify the Clintons as bitter political critics, and now works around the fact that he has some so under-qualifed in a formerly key Cabinet post. Biden, Jones, Gates, Power and Susan Rice, along with key special envoys, carry the weight of US foreign policy and advising the president. Hillary smiles, greets, checks her apparel, travels the world, makes nice, keeps the Billary soap opera in check, and when see gets restless, issues a few undiplomatic verbal bombs to keep herself in the headlines. So far, so good.

[lbicomber]

03:24 PM on 10/15/2009

Did you ever notice how often the words "Obama" and "lost faith" are used in the same sentence?

It's pretty funny....

[2Bfair]

07:03 AM on 10/16/2009

no actually, I think you are the only one who imagined it.

[AllenPapapetrou]

07:21 PM on 10/13/2009

Get out of Afghanistan NOW! The only honorable course for the USA.

Or stay and give away more money to the GreedHeads, kill more Afghans and Allied people, and create more terrorists!

[Rog49Thomas]

06:42 PM on 10/13/2009

Voting bloc?

Refresh my recollection are they in the Senate or House?

[Coinyer101]

06:40 PM on 10/13/2009

Figgers. I never wanted either one of 'em in this administration......

[wreckdiver]

07:48 PM on 10/13/2009

Really?

That's a shame.

[Bcasey11]

07:55 PM on 10/13/2009

its a shame you like hillary clinton cause shes a soulless she devil

[Ergon]

09:57 PM on 10/13/2009

No to Governor Dean, but Hillary Clinton, Robert Gates, and Rahm Emanuel? More of the same.

[2Bfair]

05:40 PM on 10/13/2009

oh great. Hillary the warmonger throws her weight behind more troops for Afghanistan. If she had influence, it would be scary.

[wreckdiver]

07:00 PM on 10/13/2009

You should try reading the article.

Apparently, she has a LOT of influence.

Heh, heh, heh....

[2Bfair]

05:29 AM on 10/14/2009

Oh good to know. Now that Hillary is [;aying the "Cheney" role, and calling the shots in Afghanistan, we will give her all the credit going forward, if there is a troop escalation. THANKS, for the clarification.

[2Bfair]

05:30 AM on 10/14/2009

[:aying" = playing

[tnkeating]

04:17 PM on 10/13/2009

This is so simple folks, just give the General what he asked for so they can commence to kickin ass, we can deal with a corrupt government we been doing it for generations, you can force them to see the light and if they don't, you just make a little slip up on there security detail, they get wacked and the problem is solved. Then you find someone better than them to do the job. Giving the General half of what is needed is only going to get more people dead. I keep seeing comments that the President decides not his advisors, but the President and his advisors work for us, so who really decides? The President would do well to listen to the experts, leave the war to the Generals and support our troops

[2Bfair]

05:08 AM on 10/15/2009

Do you know the history of the Soviets "kicking ass" in the mountains of Afghanistan?

[ConstitutionFirst]

03:45 PM on 10/13/2009

Please change the headline. I grant that the NYT refers to them as a 'voting bloc" but neither of these people have a vote on this matter. They present options and the President decides. Just becaues the NYT makes an error is no excuse for you "shout it from the headlines."

[2Bfair]

05:41 PM on 10/13/2009

Like Rumesfeld and Cheney didn't out vote Powell?

[Elbrando]

02:59 PM on 10/13/2009

The problem Afghanistan is this, how long are we going to be there? What is the exit strategy?

The only way I see Obama getting any support for troops in Afghanistan is if he comes up with an exit strategy. He needs to train Afghan troops and let them solve their own problems. then he can bring the troops home.

[NCAV2]

02:50 PM on 10/13/2009

Obama, listen to the PEOPLE. Most Americans want us out of Afghanistan. The government is "supposed" to represent the will of the people.

[Jamchinadian]

02:12 PM on 10/13/2009

President Obama and his two main secretaries - of State and Defence, Clinton and Gates are such a study in intelligence, pragmatism, professionalism, mutual respect, mutual admiration - which is all to the benefit of the country, and indeed, of the world.

This trio makes such an overwhelmingly, refreshingly, breathtakingly positive departure from the low intellectual - high belligerence - weak willed combination of Bush - Rumsfeld - Powell.

[2Bfair]

05:45 PM on 10/13/2009

oh please. Hillary Clinton voted to get us into the war Iraq, then voted to give Bush authority to attack Iran, and then as a candidate threatened to use nuclear weapons. She may be smart, but she is notoriously self-serving and has terrible judgment.

[wreckdiver]

11:02 PM on 10/13/2009

No. As s stated at the time, she voted for the AUMF to get U.N. inspectors back in Iraq, and according to Hans Blix, it worked. She also specifically warned AGAINST unilateral military action at the time.

Voted to give Bush authority to attack Iran? Do you mean Lieberman's resolution to censure Iran, which passed 97-0? Or do you mean the resolution designating the Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organization for supplying insurgents in Iraq? It COULDN'T be the latter, as it was a non-binding resolution, and the resolution as passed specifically DROPPED key provisions calling for the United States to use "all instruments of United States national power inside Iraq" including diplomatic and military means, to support American policy in containing the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps. Even more significantly, Barack Obama didn't even vote on it. A "vote to give Bush authority to attack Iran" and he DIDN'T EVEN VOTE?!?! No, ... that's crazy! That would be prima facie evidence of incompetence, dereliction, and cowardice, right?

Oh, wait, ........

...... maybe that IS the one you mean.

BTW - When did she threaten to use nuclear weapons? Post a quote with a link, 'cause otherwise someone might get the idea that you're just making it up, .....

.... as always.

[Okieborn]

01:45 PM on 10/13/2009

President Obama should get himself a whole new set of advisors and they should be the American citizenry !!
We want you to succeed Mr. President!!

[2Bfair]

05:20 AM on 10/14/2009

If he replaced the Clinton- and Wall-Street- loyal Rahm Emanuel, it would be a major start.

[lbicomber]

10:55 AM on 10/14/2009

Really gets to you, huh? Of course, he'd have to replace half his administration.

BTW - Didn't you predict she'd be gone within a year? Only a few months away ....