According to the exit polls, President-Elect Obama did well across a wide range of issues, but one area where he was weak was national security. If Obama truly wants to unite the nation as he said in his victory speech, and wants to set minds at ease on national security, I have a suggestion: appoint John McCain as Secretary of Defense.
This would be a win for nearly everyone. With the war in Iraq winding down, McCain’s and Obama’s positions on Iraq are no longer so very far apart, which makes it feasible. Obama would win enormous credit for bipartisanship, and would get an excellent Secretary of Defense. He probably has to appoint a Republican to his cabinet anyway, and the other names bandied about (Hagel, Lugar) offer him no obvious political advantage.
John McCain would get to demonstrate that he puts his country ahead of politics, and would get a job for which he is obviously passionate. At his age, he probably doesn’t have that much longer to serve in the Senate anyway, and he could probably serve at least eight years as SecDef. (If Obama were defeated for re-election, his successor would likely keep McCain on.)
The American people would see the man they trust most to lead the military placed in charge of it. Our foreign allies would be reassured that there would be no sudden reversals of policy. The right would be pleased to see McCain out of the Senate where (campaign ads notwithstanding) he was hardly a loyal supporter of his party. Libertarians would be even more delighted to see him go. And the left is so happy to have Obama that most of them will go along with anything.
Arizona’s governor, Janet Napolitano, is a Democrat, so a deal would have to be struck to keep McCain’s seat in Republican hands. But Napolitano is a member of Obama’s transition team and a Cabinet candidate herself, so she would be very unlikely to obstruct such a deal. (If Napolitano were to join Obama’s cabinet, she would be succeeded by a Republican, which suggests one easy way to arrange the deal would be simply to confirm her first.)
In short, everyone wins but the anti-war left. Which makes it perfect.
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