Editorial: Critical cabinet choice for Obama's final years

The selection of a replacement for Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel will be a defining moment for the final two years of Barack Obama's presidency. At least it should be.

Hagel, a Vietnam veteran, Republican and two-term U.S. senator who earned tremendous trust and respect from Obama and other Democrats by opposing the war in Iraq, was pressured to resign. He has managed the short-term goals of drawing down troops in Afghanistan and cutting Pentagon spending, but never managed to have much of a policy influence in Obama's inner circle. Nor did he articulate well the nation's foreign and defense policies to the American people.

To be fair, though, it's not clear that the nation has a foreign and defense policy beyond reacting to terrifying emergencies, like the Islamic State, as they become threats. The current situation in Iraq, the meltdown of Syria, continuing instability in Afghanistan and our face-offs with Russia and Iran are just highlights of what has been a daunting period.

If Obama does have a broad theory of foreign policy and defense, or desires to develop one, he should nominate an accomplished thinker on statecraft as secretary to help shape, implement and articulate it. If he simply wants to keep reacting as crises arise, and handling each one differently, a strategy with which we disagree, he'll need a strong manager to oversee the world's most powerful military.

Which one he picks, how he works to get the nomination through a newly Republican-led Senate, and how far he brings the new cabinet member into the inner circle will be huge factors in the success of his final two years, and perhaps, in the strength of his legacy.