White House Scraps Bush Missile Shield

Worth Clicking: Blasts from the past wound Romney

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September 17, 2009

White House Scraps Bush Missile Shield

The Obama administration will announce today "that it will scrap" former President Bush's planned missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic "and instead deploy a reconfigured system aimed more at intercepting shorter-range Iranian missiles," the New York Times reports.

The White House will announce the decision and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, "who was first appointed by Mr. Bush, will then discuss it with reporters at 10:30 a.m. It amounts to one of the biggest national security reversals by the new administration, one that will upset Czech and Polish allies and possibly please Russia, which adamantly objected to the Bush plan. But Obama administration officials stressed that they are not abandoning missile defense, only redesigning it to meet the more immediate Iranian threat."

Nonetheless, Chuck Todd notes the White House is scambling to stay ahead of this story by having President Obama announce the decision with Gates.

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Taegan D. Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country, including the Washington Post, USA Today, Boston Globe, San Francisco Chronicle, Chicago Tribune, Philadelphia Inquirer and Christian Science Monitor.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

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September 17, 2009