Pinch Me - I Love Susan E. Rice

This morning President-elect Obama named Susan E. Rice, a proponent of military force to combat genocide, his choice for the Cabinet position of Ambassador to the United Nations. This sends an incredible message that the Obama administration will restore one of the most important aspects of American moral superiority: helping other nations even when there is no political profit. Of course, we should not intervene in all cases, but I think we must when it comes to genocide.

We said “never again” after the genocide in Germany. We said “never again” after the genocide in Yugoslavia. We said “never again” after the genocide in Rwanda. And we said nothing during the genocide in Sudan.

The choice of Rice as ambassador to the United Nations sends a clear message that the U.S. (or at least the Obama administration) will never again neglect to respond to an international genocide.

In her own words after visiting post-genocide Rwanda: "I swore to myself that if I ever faced such a crisis again, I would come down on the side of dramatic action, going down in flames if that was required."

Obama also named Hillary Clinton Secretary of State, General James Jones as National Security Advisor, Eric Holder as Attorney General and Janet Napolitano as Secretary of Homeland Security. Robert Gates, appointed by Bush, will stay on as Secretary of Defense.