Replacing Hagel: Obama’s Last Chance?

http://www.lobelog.com/replacing-hagel-obamas-last-chance/#more-27214

1 December 2014
by Robert E. Hunter
Chuck Hagel’s sudden departure as President Barak Obama’s third secretary of defense leaves the chief executive searching for a fourth at a time when presidents have usually settled upon a smoothly running and effective team to serve the duration of their terms.
Despite Mr. Obama’s nice words on accepting Mr. Hagel’s resignation, there is no doubt that the secretary of defense was pushed out. The Washington commentariat has a host of explanations: Hagel’s sometimes fumbling comments to the media, his supposed reticence to speaking up at meetings in the White House’s Situation Room, and the leaked memo he sent to the president criticizing US policy towards Syria. The logic of a senior official speaking up about a policy that hasn’t made sense for years is beside the point. Officially criticizing a failing policy from within the American administration is just “not done.”http://www.lobelog.com/replacing-hagel-obamas-last-chance/#more-27214