How Obama Dumped Hagel (UPDATED)

Politico  He ‘just wasn’t the man for the job,’ president concluded.
 

"When President Obama first summoned Chuck Hagel to the Oval Office in October, he wanted to know how his Pentagon chief planned to cope with the dangerous new threat posed by the Islamic State that had drawn the reluctant president back into war in the Middle East, not to mention getting a sense of Hagel’s other plans for the final two years of Obama’s presidency.

"But after several lackluster, low-energy sessions, Obama was so unimpressed by the performance of his laconic, self-effacing defense secretary that he decided Hagel “just wasn’t the man for the job,” according to a senior administration official. That set in motion the decision that led to Hagel’s decorous dumping on Monday by a president who almost never fires anybody—and never admits it when he does." 
...
" ... he dashed off an uncharacteristically sharp memo to National Security Adviser Susan Rice slamming the administration’s Syria policy as rudderless and ill-defined."

" ... few expect his departure to solve the deeper problems plaguing Obama’s national security team given the iron grip exerted on foreign policymaking by Obama’s West Wing staff.
... "But Hagel’s main gripe, according to people close to him, was what he viewed as a disorganized National Security Council run by Rice—a criticism shared by McDonough, according to a senior administration official."  Read more:

Defense Secretary Hagel fired  "Obama couldn't fire Kerry.  He's a liberal Democrat who's very popular with Dems on the Hill.  Hagel, on the other hand, had outgrown his usefulness.  He had zero credibility with both Republican and Democratic lawmakers, making him the perfect fall guy for Obama's incompetence.

"The world is going to hell largely because of a lack of American leadership on a wide variety(SP) of issues.  Obama should stop casting about for goats and look in a mirror to discover the reason for his failures."