The Occasional Observer

Well, Obama's starting to confirm my worst case suspicions. As I mentioned in an earlier post my biggest concern about an Obama presidency was whether he would effectively deal with terrorist threats. Unfortunately, he took a hideous step in the wrong direction today by naming a an outsider with no intelligence experience, Leon Panetta, to head the CIA.

Understand that this pick is so bad, it has even Dianne Feinstein up in arms. And even the liberal rag NYT has stated: ...the choice encountered early opposition on Capitol Hill, with some senior Democrats questioning why the president-elect would pick a C.I.A. chief without a deep reservoir of intelligence or counterterrorism experience... Given his background, Mr. Panetta is a somewhat unusual choice to lead the C.I.A...

I can only hope that Panetta pulls a Richardson and withdraws his name. This is NOT the time for on-the-job intelligence training. A radically inexperienced president combined with a CIA chief with no backround in intelligence does not provide the security I'm looking for.