While I was out celebrating the engagement of Chris Bowers and Natasha Chart, Barack Obama announced four appointments. He selected three women and one Asian-American Nobel Prize winning scientist.
The officials said Mr. Obama would name Steven Chu, the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, as his energy secretary, and Nancy Sutley, deputy mayor of Los Angeles for energy and environment, as head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Mr. Obama also appears ready to name Carol M. Browner, the E.P.A. administrator under President Bill Clinton, as the top White House official on climate and energy policy and Lisa P. Jackson, New Jersey’s commissioner of environmental protection, as the head of the E.P.A.
These are all solid progressive picks and none of them are white dudes. I think this points out the folly of thinking that we, who have received no applications and have done no vetting, can make the best selections for important administration jobs. Other than Carol Browner, I didn’t know who any of these people were until I read their biographies tonight. Are they going to be capable administrators? I don’t know. How could I? But they all appear to be solid on the issues and to have sterling qualifications. They’re not big donor flunkies or political appointments.
I know there are some obvious limitations to the idea that you can or should just trust the Obama administration, but I learned repeatedly over the course of Obama’s presidential campaign that he deserved my trust because he and his team consistently made decisions that were better than anything I had been able to dream up. I do trust him. I’m not going to lecture you about how you ought to trust him, too, but I think you should look at what he is not doing.
He is not filling his administration with donors and lobbyists and concessions to different political constituencies. His cabinet is amazingly diverse, but he hasn’t made a single pick just to pay someone off or to satisfy some interest group. His picks are all qualified, and many of them are well positioned to get things done.
I would definitely have made different picks, but I just can’t argue against the way Obama is staffing up with incredibly competent people that are willing to implement his campaign promises.
Yes, I’m happy with these picks.
