Obama sends message with new cabinet

A dearth of diversity in Barack Obama's top picks for his new cabinet is overshadowing signs of intent the US president is sending with his freshened team ahead of his second term.
Obama takes the oath of office tomorrow ahead of four more years in the White House, a watershed moment that will see familiar faces, led by Hillary Clinton, depart and new blood ushered in to implement the president's political agenda.
His personnel decisions, both at the cabinet level and in a rejigging of his White House inner circle, presage a fierce defense of Obama's political legacy at home and abroad in his second term.
While posts in a president's cabinet are highly sought after, the centralization of power in the White House often leaves the secretaries of top government departments chafing at a lack of clout.
But several of Obama's top cabinet picks -- like Chuck Hagel, John Kerry and Jack Lew, his nominees to run the departments of Defense, State and Treasury -- clearly reflect the president's worldview and may wield significant influence.
Some cabinet members who are staying on, like Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius -- in charge of implementing Obama's top domestic achievement health care reform -- will also play key roles.
Senator Kerry and ex-senator Hagel, Vietnam veterans both, are skeptical of US military adventures abroad, and backed a fundamental project of Obama's presidency -- getting troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan.
They are also wary of embroiling the United States in another war over Iran's nuclear program.
Obama has been critisized for picking a all-white middle aged men for top cabinet jobs. Thomas Mann, a political scholar at the Brookings Institution in Washington said that once Obama's full cabinet is announced -- with expected or announced openings in big departments like Interior, Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency -- the picture could be more diverse.