Obama to Nominate Ashton Carter for Secretary of Defense

President Barack Obama is set to nominate Ashton Carter as his replacement for Chuck Hagel, who recently resigned.

The New York Times reports that the White House has not yet made an official announcement because they are not quite finished vetting Carter. Barring the discovery of damning personal conduct or secrets in Carter's past, an official announcement will be made and he will be presented to the Senate for approval.

Carter was a former deputy defense secretary who was trained as a physicist, according to the Times. Carter has been a civilian for his entire career. His position as deputy defense secretary made him second-in-command at the Pentagon. Among his responsibilities in that position were instituting budget cuts and procuring new weaponry.

The Times says that Carter studied physics and medieval history at Yale before receiving a doctorate in theoretical physics from Cambridge.

Carter is widely respected by the D.C. establishment according to the Times. Republican Congress members had drafted statements in support of Carter for the role even before the likelihood of his nomination was known.

Carter came to the front of the list of possible nominees after a number of prominent possibilities withdrew themselves from consideration for the position. Among those who withdrew were Michele Flournoy, a former Pentagon official, and Senator Jack Reed, a Rhode Island Democrat.

Carter will find himself a busy man should he accept the nomination. Among the many issues that he would have to deal with as Secretary of Defense is containing and combatting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, Russian adventurism in Ukraine, and the U.S. "pivot" to East Asia following a decade of heavy involvement in the Middle East.

Carter is replacing Hagel, who is widely believed to have been forced out over disagreements within the White House over how to handle the situation in Syria.