Question of the Day | 11/09/2008 11:00 pm
Who would you like to see in Obama's Cabinet?
Clockwise, beginning top left: Rahm Emanual: Wikipedia; Caroline Kennedy: AP; Oprah Winfrey: Wire Image;
Hillary Clinton: Shutterstock
Hillary Clinton: Shutterstock
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If it’s possible, and smart… I’d like to see him “reach across the aisle” as they say and include folks from the other party. Other than that… i’m with Liz….Who am I to decide? i don’t know enough about the possible candidates to choose.
I’m actually against reaching across the aisle till things get on an even keel. We need to get things done and don’t need any moles inside.
Sheila Bair - Secretary of the Treasury
Wendy Kopp (founder of Teach for America) - Secretary of Education
I would live to see Rahm Emanual, Caroline Kennedy, and Hillary Clinton in some government job. I’m just not sure what positions would be best to help both their careers and our government.
None of the above !
Emanuel is perfect as Chief of staff - knows the congress, knows the White House, has known Obama for years and will be his ( sorry for this ! ) pit bull, which I mean in a good way, he knows how to get things done.
Oprah - Oh Please, this was a joke, right ?
Hillary - SHOULD get the job as majority leader, she has earned it and will be a huge help to Obama as he tried to get legislation passed. He NEEDS her in the Senate, not the White House.
Caroline - is not qualified to be in the cabinet, but ambassador to France, or England, or anywhere ! would be perfect.
Colin Powell - lost all respect for him when he lied to the UN, but he can help in some way as a symbol, too old for cabinet.
Bill Clinton - loved around the world, but how could Obama trust him ??
I love the idea of
- Sheila Blair, head of the FDIC, a Republican, PRO regulation, very respected.
- Richard Holbrooke, Larry Summers ( will not be liked by feminists, but he knows finance ! ) Samantha Powers, Faried Zakaria, Tom Friedman,
- Robert F Kennedy - environment, maybe to polarizing
Ultimately, I see a return of the JFKs “BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST” …. and I don’t care if it is politically correct … women or minority … I want the best .
EKA:Have you read David Halberstan’s The Best and the Brightest,? Not always the smartest guys in the room make the wisest decisions. There is a piece on Huff.Post re: Summers who is actually very much for women. His comment some time ago that riled up some feminists was misunderstood. When Kennedy first met with deGaulle the latter gave the new president some advice: He suggested that Kennedy not pay too much attention to his advisers or give too much respect to the policies he had inherited. In the last analysis, the General said, what counted for every man was himself and his own judgment. He was expounding, of course, the Gaulist philosophy of leadership. His counsel, after the Bay of Pigs, fell on receptive ears. Obama has already shown that he trusts himself given that he gave that speech on race after the Rev Wright debacle counter to advice not to do so.
Yes, I read it, and I heard David Brooks mention it. And you’re right, not always the smartest men in the room make the wisest decisions, but it helps when the president has a first class mind himself to weigh in. I heard over the weekend that Laurence Tribe, one of Obama’s professors al Harvard Law, said that Obama was the best he ever had … think about that, pretty heady company. What I’ve come to understand about Obama, just like Kennedy, is that he surrounds himself with the best minds, not always the best minds that agree with him, but experts with differing points of view, and he LISTENS, he asks questions and then, like Kennedy with the Cuban Missle Crisis, has the confidence to go with his instincts. The key is that he should hear differing points of view
The main importance is to not surround yourself with “Yes” men, or people with the same philosophy - as with the neo-cons in the Bush White House. You begin to believe in your own infallibality and that is when you begin to screw up …. as in Iraq.
Why ?
She got herself in trouble by making an off the cuff remark - no sense of political correctness because she is an academic, but she is smart as they come and has a great international understanding.
What am I missing here ?
Ya gotta let it go !!!
I’m sure Hillary has let some good ones rip, she is not as pure as the driven snow living on a pedestal, she is a great woman who would make a VERY EFFECTIVE Majority Leader because she she is capable of breaking some arms. With Ted Kennedy all but gone, she is the perfect person to take on the mantle of “Best Senator Ever “
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