Obama Entrusts Security to Janet, the Italian sheriff

Corresponding from New York

Barack Obama entrusts to an Italian-American sheriff the protection of the United States from the risk of new terrorist attacks. The sheriff in question is a women: Janet Napolitano, 51 years-old, governor of Arizona, theater of the fight against illegal immigration arriving from Mexico, a top member of the Democrats in the Western states, originally a Clintonian, but lined up with Barack at the beginning of the presidential race.

To select Napolitano, a lawyer and former prosecutor, means to reward a liberal politician a curriculum very similar to that of Republican Rudolph Giuliani: so much skill on the ground of security when proud of one’s own Italian roots. Born in New York, and raised in Pennsylvania, of Methodist religion, Janet Napolitano gets her actual heritage from her father, son of immigrants, and has always kept to preserve, and to emphasize, such a heritage. It was not accident when in 2007 she was the chairperson of the board of governors of the 50 states that chose the Italian Embassy in Washington to carry out their annual conference. And a few month after, the ambassador Gianni Castellaneta organized a trip for them to Italy to celebrate its 50 years with a meeting at the Quirinal Palace to meet the head of state, with whom she shares the same surname.

Indicated by opinion polls that she was one of the most capable governors, Clinton nominated Napolitano in Arizona in 1993 who became over the years a top player of the progressive movement of the Democrats in the West, of conservative faith. She passed unaffected through controversial decisions, such as defending Anita Hill, who in 1991 accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment, trying in vain to hinder his nomination to the Supreme Court, and three years later of not prosecuting Cindy McCain, who forged a prescription for the purchase of psychotropic drugs. In recent times, the testing ground was that of the clandestine and Napolitano’s prescription was to oppose aggressive laws against the immigrants, committing herself instead to finding an effective remedy, from the creation of a secret police unit to hunt for false press documents to severe sanctions against those assumed to be illegal. She will now handle a post to guide Homeland Security, created in 2001, to defend America from new terrorist attacks. The fact that Obama announced her name the following day after the Al Qaeda threats against Barack Obama suggest where she will immediately be put to work.

The other news of Obama’s team regards former senator Tom Daschle, who will have the reins of the Ministry of Health which is expected to launch within a year the promised reforms of the election, and David Axelrod, strategist of the election campaign, has been nominated as senior advisor to the White House, the same charge that Karl Rove had with Bush: a charge that allows him to be constantly near the president in the moments of the most important choices in order to evaluate the impact of internal politics, while at the same time thinking about the next elections.

It remains to be unresolved the issue of Hillary’s appointment to the State Department. Bill Clinton will have to give to Obama’s team a complete list beyond the 200,000 backers of his foundation. It was Obama to ask that effort of political compliance from the Clintons, speaking of the necessity to remove every shadow from Hillary, and Bill made it clear that he was “to be ready for anything” in order to help his wife.