This is just informed speculation based mostly on who is advising or has endorsed Barack Obama and (for the most part) people’s areas of experience. If Bill Richardson isn’t the veep, I really can’t find a slot for him because he’s already been the Secretary of Energy and Ambassador to the United Nations. Perhaps he will get to be Secretary of State but he already has heavy competition from Sens. Biden and Hagel. Anyway, this is just for general idea purposes:
Vice President of the United States- Kathleen Sebelius
Secretary of State- Chuck Hagel/ Susan Rice
Secretary of the Treasury- Stuart Eizenstat/ Austan Goolsbee
Secretary of Defense- Sam Nunn/ Richard Danzig
Attorney General- John Edwards/ Artur Davis
Secretary of the Interior- Lincoln Chafee
Secretary of Agriculture- Bob Casey, Jr.
Secretary of Commerce- Howard Dean
Secretary of Labor- David Bonior
Secretary of Health and Human Services- Hillary Clinton
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development- Carol Mosely-Braun
Secretary of Transportation- Nick Rahall
Secretary of Energy- Anna Eshoo
Secretary of Education- Lynn Woolsey
Secretary of Veterans Affairs- Max Cleland
Secretary of Homeland Security- Gary Hart/Bennie Thompson
White House Chief of Staff- Tom Daschle
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency- Hilda Solis
Director of the Office of Management and Budget- Jeffrey Liebman
Director of the National Drug Control Policy- Anthony Zinni
United States Trade Representative- Daniel Tarullo
Chairman, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System- Larry Summers
Commissioner of the Social Security Administration- Bill Bradley
Director of National Intelligence- Lawrence Korb
Troll alert.
I have to go get ready for church but I can do the pooper scooper thing on its posts later this afternoon.
Many of these names make me want to puke…
Sam Nunn? Daddy Warbucks? Please.
Put Kucinich in as Secretary of Defense. There’s some progressive thought.
Of course, Obama is NOT a progressive, he’s just a “peacemaker” personality type. He may not have sprung from the Military-Industrial-Pharmaceutical-Legal-Real Estate complex like Hillary, but he’ll pay perfect fealty to them.
Your list make sense Booman, sense for a centrist like Obama, someone who doesn’t want to see the fabric of our raping capitalist society change. I agree that these choices are based on rational evaluation, but it’s also very sad.
One area where we should be happy with Nunn is in nuclear disarmament. He is the foremost expert and advocate in this country for nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation issues and so picking as Sec. of Defense would be a potentially radical pick.
But, this list is not a wish-list. It’s a prediction list.
I understand that this is not a wish list, just pointing out the sadness of the reality here, what seems practical is also sad.
Until CheneyCo. and the Neocon takeover of Big Media, who wasn’t an advocate of nuclear disarmament?
You would be surprised. A lot of people don’t really think about nuclear weapons anymore. (“Hey, the Cold War’s over. Are they still around? Really? Wow! Well, that’s ok. No-one would ever use them!”) This is why people like Clinton, Cheney, Bush, etc. can get away with saying the most outrageous and frightening things about nuclear weapons – most people don’t believe they’re serious. Of those that do think about nuclear weapons, an unfortunately large number think that America’s are necessary for “security”, and oppose disarmament efforts since any honest disarmament effort would also have to encourage America to disarm.
It’s very sad.
link
Thanks for this information.
now you can see why he wouldn’t be the worst choice, right?
You get a tough southerner with a lot of cred on national security issues, so you can trot him out to explain why you are not obliterating Iran this week without looking like a pansy. He doesn’t make the establishment nervous, but he’s actually quite radical in his thinking about foreign policy and totally opposed to the War on Terror construct.
Add in Hagel at State, and you have an inoculation against criticisms that you’re politicizing foreign policy. Place someone like Susan Rice directly below Hagel to really run the Department and you can orchestrate your policy and vision fairly well.
FDR was smart enough to something similar at State once he knew war with Germany was inevitable.
Sure, it’s an Establishment team, but it’s also a credible team. Remember, we’re going to continue to take hits both in foreign affairs and in our domestic economy, and we need to be able to have a team that has broad support.
Chafee at Interior works well for similar reasons. We’re going to have to get very aggressive at Commerce, Interior, and the EPA if we are going to transform to a green economy. It’s good to have a Republican in there with a solid environmental record to make these controversial changes more palatable.
I wouldn’t be happy with many of them either, but can you tell me which one’s you don’t like?
I don’t have the kind of time and expertise to examine the field of potential candidates. I’m not trying to be critical of your work, it’s work I can’t do, I have to run my own business everyday and such. I can only opinionate, humbly I hope.
It just scares me to know that Obama is a lesser-of-two-evils candidate when I see a list like this, a list of seasoned liar politicians strutted out to continue the Washington corruption of our tax dollars and national destiny.
Many of these people are avowed Imperialists, but our empire is falling, and we have to enter the comity of nations as an equal to other nations, not the big puffy chest power. Sad to see that we can’t promote better blood in Washington.
Aren’t William Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn available?
Nix Hillary Clinton for Health & HS. That’s perfect for Dr. Dean. Clintons need to be kept far away from the Obama administration. He need not be distracted.
Larry Summers was a dud as Sec of Treasury and at Harvard U. The business community would say, “AAaargh, not again”. On economics, he’d be worse than helicopter Benny. Also,he’ll be an issue with women, we’re kinda 2/3 a person.
Not eager for Gary Hart..”we can use 9/11 to create a new world order”… at the newly renamed Department of INS. I hope the current name, DHS, be banned…as the WoT, enough after 8 years embracing the former East Germany policies lock and stock. We need to purge this slippery slope to a police state and restore that quaint document.
I’d be concerned about shifting Dr. Dean from his current seat. With him in charge of the DNC, the Clintons and their scummy cadre of DLC allies are firmly locked out of the party power structure. The instant he moves, I think they’re going to try to insert another of their sock puppets there. Is there some other prominent 50 states/netroots activist that could be brought in to replace him?
No way Hillary is allowed in the cabinet. Let her stay in the senate where she has burned her bridges.
Agree. This what awaits:
VanityFair has your Sunday afternoon read – the Bill Clinton factor.
Funny you’re doing this today. I have been doing an Obama cabinet poll series over at the big orange blog and today is the last day that you can still vote for all positions. I actually remember you doing a diary on the cabinet a couple of months ago and chose some of the candidates based on that diary.
My current personal choices for an Obama Cabinet are:
President of the United States: Barack Obama (IL)
Vice President of the United States: Kathleen Sebelius (KS)
Secretary of State: Joe Biden (DE)
Secretary of the Treasury: Amy Domini (MA)
Secretary of Defense: Chuck Robb (VA)
Attorney General: Gabrielle Kirk McDonald (TX)
Secretary of the Interior: Raúl Grijalva (TX)
Secretary of Agriculture: Ron Sparks (AL)
Secretary of Commerce: Laura Tyson (CA)
Secretary of Labor: Baldemar Velasquez (OH)
Secretary of Health and Human Services: John Kitzhaber (OR)
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: David Bieter (ID)
Secretary of Transportation: Janette Sadik Khan (NY)
Secretary of Energy: Shirley Jackson (NY)
Secretary of Education: Susan Castillo (OR)
Secretary of Veterans Affairs: Jon Soltz (PA)
Secretary of Homeland Security: Loretta Sanchez (CA)
White House Chief of Staff: Valerie Jarrett (IL)
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency: André Heinz
Director of the Office of Management and Budget: Nouriel Roubini (NY)
U.S. Trade Representative: Gayle Smith
Though, I have to say that I could have gone with several other choices in several positions. What I really find astounding is the huge improvement it would be over the current cabinet.
Kudos on your list, but I barely recognize a name! Certainly this is much better than a list full of pre-digested media-ready politicians.
Incredible geek-dom kudos to you!
Gosh, a bunch of kindergarten kids would be better than CheneyCo.!
if you’re interested in reading their bios just click on the link provided in the comment. there are links to all the bios and pics as well.
Any ideas on what the line-up for the 2nd term will look like? I like to plan ahead.
In any executive position. She’s a lovely personal presence, but her management of her Senate office and campaign were disastrous.
Sadly, I agree. She’s just a media-ready figure at this point in time.
well, that may be true, I don’t know. But she’s likely to get something, what with the connection to Obama’s Senate seat and all.
maybe another ambassador post. She was ambassador to New Zealand after she lost her Senate seat. Maybe something symbolic like South Africa.
And I think a position would go a long way in giving her back dignity after the way she was treated in the Senate. It was despicable behavior, not just by Jesse Helms, but the other Senators for not censoring Helms.
What happened to that other one that was more interesting? Anyway, Hilda Solis…you can’t take her. If she leaves then my idiot councilman may run for her seat. We can’t have the off-chance that he’d be allowed to ignore and even bigger part of Los Angeles.
You wouldn’t feel better with her running the EPA?
Jose Huizar or any career politician in LA may get her seat? Nope. I’m selfish. You’ll just have to find another EPA leader. Solis stays. 🙂
The only one of these I can really quibble with the is the Fed chairman. I think we can get better people than Summers. David Romer comes to mind.
Assuming he’s eligible, too, I’d want to keep Dean at the DNC.
Dean is leaving the DNC very soon. It’s Obama’s baby now. They’ve already been in discussions.
The 50-state strategy is safe. But I do think there is a strong chance that Dean will be in the cabinet.
He could be at HH&S if Clinton turns the gig down. She is reportedly being offered HH&S or the right to steer the health care bill through the Senate. I have no idea how the latter would work, but perhaps they could create a Select Committee for Universal Health Coverage with Clinton as chairperson.
If the 50-state strategy is safe, then fair enough. I wouldn’t mind Dean at Commerce.
hrc at hh&s is a disaster looking for a place to happen, imnsho.
look at the debacle she perpetrated back in ’93 – ’94…no thanks.
if…and it’s a big IF right now…she really gets with the program and her and bill lend their still considerable influence to heal the rifts, and help, not hinder, obamas’ campaign. there might be a place for her, but not there.
Exactly. I wouldn’t want her to be in charge of health insurance again! I don’t think she had or has an understanding of what’s involved and what’s at stake, etc.
But I do think she’d be a good Supreme Court Justice.
I’d love to see Dean, Edwards and Sam Nunn in the cabinet. It would be great to see Clinton push through a healthcare plan. But I have my doubts she’d join the team.
Because she’s currently hoping to reanimate her campaign by winning Puerto Rico. [Puerto Rico is going to help win her the nomination she already lost??] Plus, her campaign is signaling they’ll fight for the four Michigan delegates all the way to Denver.
A couple of points. The Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve is not a cabinet position. He or she is appointed for a term of 7 years and cannot be removed by the President. This is to ensure that monetary policy is in principle independent of politics. Sure, Greenspan was a hack, but he was chosen because of it. Bernanke is a technician.
As to the other choices, I can see the logic behind them as protecting the right flank, but I think Obama has sufficient message control that he doesn’t need that kind of protection. He can go for the best case closed. As to Governor Sibelius as Veep, she isn’t ready for prime time should someting happen to Obama. Richardson is ready, and he secures two states, CO and NM, and brings TX into competitive range.
Not a particularly good list IMHO.
I’m not very up on this process, but here’s my post-inflation 2 cents’ worth:
Sorry, Gary Hart and Larry Summers (cough, ugh!)??
Ditto to concerns about Mosley-Braun. And I don’t see Davis as a statesmanly peer to Edwards.
Hagel has talked a good talk, but with little action on the “walk” side. If we reach across the aisle some more, how about a post for James Comey?
Would so love to see Marion Wright Edelman in a cabinet post. Sen. Clinton has about as much merit for a cabinet post as Edelman’s left pinky finger, imnsho.
But if someone wants to bridge w/HRC’s campaign, how about Sen. Mikulski? (Actually, she has the interesting qualification of being an HRC supporter who became known in part for articulating many of the views Obama got burned for in “bittergate”.
If anyone wanted to cry “sexism/ ageism/ elitism/ fear-of-unmarried-older-people-ism’ , frankly, she could legitimately do so. (or at least, I haven’t heard anyone floating an Obama/Mikulski dream-ticket option)
Cleland, YES!!
and here’s hoping the Obama campaign also works w/people in the agencies to give dedicated career folks a chance to move up and influence policy.
How about Hagel for ambassador to Luxemborg?
he wouldn’t take it.
Look, let me be honest. Chuck Hagel isn’t my first choice for anything. But if you can get Hagel to not only endorse Obama over one if his best friends in the world, and then you can get him to go out across the country explaining to Republicans why he made that choice, it is absolutely worth it to give him a major portfolio in the cabinet. Why State?
Because that’s Hagel’s area of expertise as a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. If he’s willing to sign up for Obama’s foreign policy then he won’t do any harm at State. And his undersecretary can be someone from Obama’s foreign policy team who will take over a State after a few years, or in the second term.
Well, maybe, but there’s so damned little about Hagel that I agree with that I have trouble putting him anywhere near anything. I was even regretting the Luxemborg gig after I thought about it.
However, the truth is that the reason why the status quo is opposing Obama (and don’t let anyone convince your dear readers otherwise) is precisely because being a moderate is a threat to them. While I kid Isis’ post, my politics are probably right there next to hers. Obama has got a balancing act between the powers that be and the rest of humanity, and it’s going to require a lot of give and take. So when the decisions move farther to the right than we’d expect then I presume that that’s a nod to the status quo. The fact that Zbigniew Brzezinski’s name shows up on Obama’s foreign policy team is enough to understand that this isn’t going to be a revolutionary administration in the way a lot of us might want.
Did anyone else read Talbot’s book, BROTHERS? With the exception of the execrable chapter on Jim Garrison (based of the NSA’s Walter Sheridan’s self-serving and treasonous version of events) it did a good job of documenting what was swirling around the Kennedys back in the early sixties. I think those forces are much stronger and much more entrenched than they were back then, and I think that Obama will need to be very cautious in order to survive those rocky shoals. I think at some level many Americans realize this dilemma, and that this may be their last best chance. So we have to make some allowances here.
Max Cleland was head of the VA under Carter, thirty years ago. He was great then. I remember the day he came to the VA Hospital in San Francisco, he was like a rock star. The system ran a hell of a lot better back then. Of course, it was funded a hell of a lot better then by both Republicans and Dems. There wasn’t that chickenhawk disdain for the veteran that exudes out of the pores of the Republicans now.
I wouldn’t mind seeing Cleland back in the Senate, but he’d be great for the vets.
Spent years in the VA and you’re right — not that some of the MBA types haven’t made some improvements (e.g., VA led the nation in computerized medical records). But most of the crony appointees have moved the VA away from the ideal of service to veterans and toward just another managed care system whose major concern is with cost-cutting, ignoring real veteran needs in the process.
A Secretary such as Cleland would move the focus back where it belongs — on the veterans. It would also be a morale booster for patients and staff alike.
He should offer lieberman a post, get him to resign his senate seat, then replace him 6 months later.
I agree that he will have some republicans on the cabinet. I’m personally hoping for Dick Lugar to get SecAg. He’s done more to try and stand up for the small farmer, and stand against agribusiness than just about any other senator. At least n this issue I like him.
Liberman can be the secretary of BS. LOL
Over at TalkLeft this a.m. they say that Obama can’t win, so maybe you should be trying to figure out who’s going to be in McCain’s cabinet, and his Supreme Court picks too.
I think he can 35-40 states. He has the potential to hold McCain under 100 electoral votes. Some people are so stuck in the red/blue divide and the current polls. Have any of these people taken a look at McCain’s campaign? It’s horrible.
Which actually might make drawing up McCain’s cabinet a scary and educational thing for those who say they’re voting for McCain if they can’t have Clinton.
By the way, I think there is potential for Obama to have a massive victory. But he’ll be running against the media too. Keep him away from wind-surfing in purple trunks.
Oh TalkLeft is full of it.
imagine my surprise to see my congresscritter (Anna Eshoo) suggested for the Cabinet. She’s OK but not inspiring. In my semi-informed opinion, Zoe Lofgren is the best of the south bay reps.
unlike fabooj I wouldn’t mind seeing the race to replace Eshoo, just for entertainment. Term limits have given us a big stack of people termed out of their state or county offices and it would be exciting.
your suggestion of Lynn Woolsey for education made me say: No – George Miller. But he’s awful valuable where he is as chair of Ed&Labor.
We here in San Mateo County love Jackie Speiers, who’s been a hero for us since she took a bullet at the Jonestown airstrip many years ago. She just won a special election to take over Lantos’ seat. Who knows?
I don’t see Obama asking Hillary to join his cabinet, or Hillary accepting if he did. Even though I thought her healthcare plan was better than his.
Can someone explain to me how requiring people buy health insurance from a private company is not taxation without representation? I know you are required to have car insurance, but that’s for the operating a motor vehicle. There is a fundamental difference between operating your car and your being. It just seems to me that any health plan that requires money from a private citizen’s pocket to a private company’s is unconstitutional.
All of this can be quickly and easily bypassed by a single-payer, like expanding Medicare and leaving out the health insurance companies.
Anyway, I’d like an advocate for H. Clinton’s plan to explain how it’s constitutional for REQUIRING me to pay money to Blue Cross.
Well, I didn’t say her plan was ideal. I agree there ought to be a single-payer system and expanding Medicare would be a likely solution.
Let’s put Jim Hightower in there as Secretary of Agriculture.
Your suggestions make sense to me even when they are disappointing, but here I cannot fathom a rationale.
A Google search reveals nothing in his background to connect him to a War on Drugs except the misused word War.
He did, however, participate in a report on climate change and national security. Climate Change, as an important subject, was missing from the Bush agenda and is likewise missing from your list of top positions.
One of the items I have my fingers crossed on with Obama is the possibility of a drastic change in drug policy. It ain’t going to happen with someone who has no experience in the area.
He was the Chief of Central Command, which covers every poppy field in Afghanistan and the entire smuggling route into Europe.
And he was sooo successful there.
yes, he was. He did a very good job at CENTCOM. He served there from 1997-2000.
I don’t really think that Hagel or Rice have a shot at SoS. I would think Biden, Richardson and Holbrooke would be far ahead in the running.
Also I doubt either of those two have the resume for Treasury. Bill Bradly, Jim Johnson or Daschle would be frontrunner’s I would think.
Nunn and Hagel will both be on the short list for Defense but I think they are too conservative on some issues and so Danzig will get the job.
Here would be mine (realistically not ideally)
Vice President of the United States- Kathleen Sebelius
Secretary of State- Joe Biden
Secretary of the Treasury- Jim Johnson
Secretary of Defense- Richard Danzig
Attorney General- Eric Holder
Secretary of the Interior- Carol Browner
Secretary of Agriculture- Tom Vilsack
Secretary of Commerce- Valarie Jarrett
Secretary of Labor- David Bonior
Secretary of Health and Human Services- Howard Dean
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development- Jesse Jackson Jr.
Secretary of Transportation- James Oberstar
Secretary of Energy- Angelides
Secretary of Education- Betty McCollum
Secretary of Veterans Affairs- Max Cleland
Secretary of Homeland Security- Wes Clark
White House Chief of Staff- Tom Daschle
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency- Katie McGinty
Director of the Office of Management and Budget- Gene Sperling
Director of the National Drug Control Policy- Anthony Zinni
United States Trade Representative- Daniel Tarullo
Chairman, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System- Tim Geithner
Commissioner of the Social Security Administration- Bill Bradley
Director of National Intelligence- Gary Hart
Yes it’s not ideal and has quite a few Clinton backers but I think it’s a bit more realistic. Hard to know at this point though.