Biden was Right: Pentagon Panel Says "Prepare for a Likely First 270-Day Crisis"
After listening to the McCain camp hammering Biden on his "the next president will be tested" comment for the past week, we find that a Pentagon panel has just issued a report saying that the next administration should be prepared to deal with a major crisis within the first 270 days of taking office. I hope the Obama campaign works this into their speeches this week.
Veteran Pentagon consultant Michael Bayer, chairman of the Defense Business Board, told his fellow panelists that the new president's inner circle should "set aside time in transition to identify the planning, gravitas and interagency process necessary to respond to a likely first-270-day crisis."
From Kennedy (Bay of Pigs) to Johnson (Gulf of Tonkin) to Bush (9/11)," too many presidents were ill prepared for this," Bayer warns.
"For months, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the service chiefs and the Joint Staff have been preparing for the first wartime transfer of Pentagon political authority in four decades," notes Inside Defense, which broke word of Bayer's presentation. "In addition to identifying defense policy issues for an incoming to understand, the military is also on high operational alert."
The final quote from the article appears to be a direct reference to the lack of readiness of the Bush Administration, and Donald Rumsfeld in particular:
A key goal for the next administration, according to Bayer, must be to fill civilian posts requiring Senate confirmation as soon as possible.
The incoming administration "must not wait until June" to get assistant secretaries confirmed and October for deputy assistant secretaries to be Senate confirmed, his briefing states.
"Need a very concerted, well-defined process to have top 3 tiers ready to go to Senate confirmation in first 30 days," Bayer recommends.
Read the entire Biden-validating post here:
Really interesting timing to be releasing this report. Only a week before the election--
October 27, 2008 2:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
Looking at the link, I see that the report was released on Oct. 24. One wonders if Biden had spoken to someone on the panel previously, and if he based his original statement on actual knowledge of the report.
October 27, 2008 2:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Just as Young W was tested on 9/11....
October 27, 2008 3:03 PM | Reply | Permalink
Biden was not correct. He said international events were going to react to Obama being in the White House. The Pentagon report focuses on testing a new president.
The two items are very different. If you are the enemy, you always target around times of elections/new leaders if you can. A careful read of Biden's statement is that because Obama is in the White House things will unfold, rather than because a new president is in the White House things will unfold.
While this report may seem significant to some not well versed in DoD dealings, this is not uncommon. The DoD has to always prepare in advance of events and have a variety of reports that deal with a number of mind-boggling contingencies.
October 27, 2008 3:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
I believe that Biden's mistake -- his only mistake -- was speaking as if the election was already decided. To someone who has seen as many elections as he has, it probably was in his mind. -- But if you look at the totality of his remarks, it was definitely post-campaign and on to governing in focus. Granted that was a mistake and one that led to trouble, but it's very different than his saying Obama would be tested but McCain wouldn't. I'm confident Biden never said, or thought, any such thing.
October 27, 2008 4:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am so glad that someone else out there figured this one out. It's only common sense that anyone with a gripe against the US will use the time leading up to and during the first few months of a new presidents term to creat a crisis. I've been seeing the buildup for months now. Not a surprising tactic in the least. If people would stop looking down they'd see it.
October 28, 2008 2:09 AM | Reply | Permalink