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President Obama still needs to put in place a high-profile and outspoken diplomatic team to drive Sudan policy. As The American Prospect’s Mark Leon Goldberg writes (about the particular need for a Darfur envoy):

“Unfortunately, the Obama administration has not yet signaled that it intends to treat Darfur as a top-tier foreign-policy priority. Within 48 hours of his inauguration, President Obama appointed Richard Holbrooke as special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan and George Mitchell as his special envoy for Mideast peace. Clearly, these are two of the highest-stakes international crises facing American foreign policy. Still, one sign that President Obama would close the previous administration’s gap between rhetoric and policy is to appoint a similarly high-profile diplomat to oversee the Darfur portfolio.”

UPDATE: As some of our readers have reminded us, the presence of Susan Rice and Samantha Power on Obama’s foreign policy team is a hopeful sign. But the President still needs to appoint two top-notch diplomats (working under a new Special Envoy for Sudan) that can own and champion the Darfur and Comprehensive Peace Agreement portfolios at State.