Mark Lippert is hardly the kind of man most people would expect to find as Barack Obama's longest-serving foreign-policy adviser. The buzz-cut Navy reservist has just returned to his civilian job at the senator's office after a year's deployment in Iraq. His boss may have made his name with his antiwar stance, but Lippert has spent far more time on the ground in Iraq than most of Obama's right-wing critics ever will.Until Obama launched his presidential campaign, Lippert was his only senior foreign-policy aide. Now the presumptive Democratic nominee has more than 300 ex-Lippert prides himself on staying flexible. Back when Obama and Lippert had more free time, they liked to play basketball together. Lippert says as a Senate aide he was like a point guard, passing the ball to outside experts like GOP Sen. Dick Lugar and former NATO commander Gen. James Jones. "There's no pretense with Mark," says Rice. "He's down-to-earth and very much a pragmatist. He's like Senator Obama-not an ideologue, but a 'how do we get things done'kind of guy."
展开▼
