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Analysis: Silence Speaks Volumes for Obama's Choice

by KYW's Larry Kane

In the war zone and the nation's capitol, effects of the big change at the top are just being felt. But the reaction is different this time.

President Obama managed to pull off one of the trickiest moves in his White House without, for the most part, motivating partisan political reaction. In fact, criticism has been muted.

The president's decision to relieve General McChrystal and replace him with legendary general David Petraeus went off flawlessly, but several House Democratic sources shared a warning with us that they've relayed to the White House -- that while McChrystal's judgment in allowing his staff to take aim at the White House was flawed, another problem remains: the back-biting between the State and Defense departments that was public long before the Rolling Stone interview was made public.

That backbiting, including the feuds with the Afghan government about its drug trade can continue, the sources say, to impact the morale of our troops fighting there.

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