Obama's Cabinet

Its now been three weeks since the election and Obama's cabinet is taking shape. There has been speculation about numerous positions in his cabinet especially the nomination of Hilary Clinton for Secretary of State. That is the most surprising nomination because during the primary season they had such different foreign policy ideas. Obama was for direct talks with rogue nations without preconditions while Clinton was against them. Clinton also voted in support of the Iraq War, while Obama was against the war from the start. Would Clinton be able to put aside her major differences in foreign policy to work with Obama? or would she work as a rogue member of his White House? Yesterday Dick Morris' editorial in the New York Post covers this issue-

"It is still hard to believe but, if Hillary Clinton's "confidantes" are to be trusted, Barack Obama is about to appoint her secretary of state and she is about to accept. This appointment represents the capstone of betrayal of Obama's promise to be the "change we can believe in."

Having upended the Democratic Party, largely over his different views on foreign policy and the war in Iraq, he now turns to the leader of the ancient regime he ousted, derided, mocked and criticized to take over the top international-affairs position in his administration.

No longer, apparently, does he distrust Hillary's "judgment," as he did during the debates when he denounced her vote on the Iraq War resolution. Now, all is forgiven. After all, Obama's election, the only change he apparently truly believed in, is a fait accompli.


Apart from the breathtaking cynicism of the appointment lies the total lack of foreign-policy experience in the new partnership. Neither Clinton nor Obama has spent five minutes conducting any aspect of foreign policy in the past. Neither has ever negotiated anything or dealt with diplomatic issues. It is the blonde leading the blind.

And then there is the question of whether we want a Secretary of State who is compromised, in advance, by her husband's dealings with repressive regimes in Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Dubai, the UAE, Morocco, and governments about which we know nothing. These foreign leaders have paid the Clinton family millions of dollars E2 directly and through their library and/or foundation - funds they can and have used as personal income. How do we know that she can conduct foreign policy independently even if it means biting those who have fed her and her husband?

But the most galling aspect of the appointment is that it puts Obama in the midst of an Administration which, while he appointed it, is not his own. Rather he has now created a government staffed by Clinton people, headed by Clinton appointees, and dominated by Hillary herself. He has willingly created the same untenable situation as that into which Lyndon Johnson stepped when JFK was assassinated in 1963. Johnson inherited a cabinet wholly staffed by Kennedy intimates with Bobby himself as Attorney General. LBJ had no choice and had to spend two years making the government his own. But Obama had all the options in the world and chose to fence himself in by appointing Hillary as Secretary of States, Clinton cabinet member Bill Richardson for Commerce, Clinton staffer Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff, Clinton buddy (and top lobbyist) Tom Daschle to HHS, and Bill's Deputy Attorney General, Eric Holder, to Justice.


Presidents Clinton and Lincoln similarly appointed what Doris Kearns Goodwin has famously called a "team of rivals" to staff their cabinets and Administrations. Lincoln named all of his opponents for the Republican presidential nomination to senior posts in his cabinet and Clinton staffed his White House and much of his cabinet with ambassadors to other wings of the Democratic Party. George Stephanopoulos was his ambassador to House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt, Harold Ickes his emissary to organized labor, Al Gore his delegate to the environmentalists, Leon Panetta his liaison with Congressional committee chairmen, Ron Brown his man in the black community, and Henry Cisneros as his go-between with the Hispanics.

In each case, the president acted because to bolster his ties with the factions of his own party because he feared how he would fare with his party in total control of Congress. Neither the Republicans of 1861 nor the Democrats of 1992 saw the president from their own party as their natural leaders. Lincoln's colleagues had chosen him only after a deadlock between the two front runners had paralyzed the convention. Clinton got the nomination only after Governor Mario Cuomo of New York, the party's favorite, had pulled out. Each man was elected with barely 40% of the vote. So each felt constrained to share power with their rivals.

While Obama was not the early favorite of his party, he does not need to defer so ostentatiously to those who fought him for the nomination. His general election mandate clearly entitled him to name who he pleased. But he has chosen to nominate men and women with no loyalty to him and no real stake in his future.

And, standing above all his appointees, like a president-in-exile, is Hillary Rodham Clinton.

If Obama needed any warning about how Hillary will play the game, he need only look at how she handled her appointment. She forced Obama to see her by publicly complaining that she had not heard from him. When he raised the possibility of her appointment to State, she then leaked word that it was in the works. Even the announcement of her appointment was not made by Obama but leaked by Hillary's "confidantes."

Hillary will be a loose cannon as Secretary of State, vindicating her own agenda rather than that of the president and burnishing her own image at every turn. Not since Cordell Hull in the 30s have we had a Secretary so interested in running for president. Not since William Jennings Bryan in the 1910s have we had a defeated nominee named as Secretary. Obama will not be able to control Hillary nor will he be able to control his own administration with Emanuel as Chief of Staff. He will find that his appointees will march to the beat of their own drummer - if he is lucky - and Hillary's if he is not.

Either Obama has chosen to put himself in this untenable situation because he is not wise in the ways of Washington or because he plans to be little more than a figurehead. Given his campaign, neither seems likely. But his promise of change has proven so bankrupt that maybe the rest of his candidacy is too."

Its all come down to Georgia

Now with the election finally over, almost all of the results have been counted, with the exception of Alaska and Minnesota. The Democrats won the Presidency, and now have a large majority in the House and maybe the very important 60 votes in the Senate. Right now the balance of power in the Senate is 57 Democrat and 40 Republican seats, with three races still undecided. In Alaska they are still counting the absentee ballots, in Minnesota the race was so tight it is going into a state wide recount, and in Georgia there will be a runoff December 2nd between Republican incumbent Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin. This is an extremely important race because if the Democrats get 60 votes needed to stop a filibuster, they can control the Senate. Some are calling this the first race of the 2010 election season, and both parties are throwing everything into winning this race. Last week John McCain was in Atlanta campaigning for Saxby and this week Bill Clinton will be campaigning for Jim Martin. Everything in this election depends on voter turnout. Some are saying that many Republicans will turn out just to make sure the Democrats do not get filibuster power in the Senate, while others think there will be less Democrats turning out because many of them were motivated to vote by Barack Obama being on the ballot.

Now former Bill Clinton advisor Dick Morris is on Fox News almost everyday talking about the importance of this election and why electing Saxby is so important. He says Saxby is the last hope in the Senate for stopping Obama's radical agenda. He is also urging everyone who is watching Fox News to donate to a Republican special interest group to pay for pro-Saxby ads in Georgia. Here is an ad that is supposed to be running now in Georgia. So far I haven't seen any campaign commercials for the runoff, so maybe it isn't running yet-

What to do....next

Well now that the two year election season is over it finally seems like everything is back to normal. The media is switching from their 24/7 coverage of Obama, McCain, Palin and Biden to their continual coverage of the falling economy, new government bailouts, and the Obama Family's plan to redecorate the White House. Sarah Palin is back in Alaska and is now one of the most sought after interviews of the election season. John McCain is heading back to the Senate in January, while Obama and Biden are heading to the White House in January.

Now the Republican party is like a chicken without a head, they don't have a clear leader anymore. Some in the party want Sarah Palin to be its new leader while others want a new face and direction for the party. The media is questioning what will happen to the party. There are so many great potential leaders in the Republican Party, but it doesn't seem like anyone is ready to step up and take over. It was announced yesterday the former Lieutenant Governor of Maryland and chairman of GOPAC as well as the highest ranking African American in the Republican party is seeking the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee. Here are some of my ideas for making the RNC better-

1) Pick a party leader who has name recognition (who has ever heard of Mike Duncan???. The Democrats have Howard Dean, so its time we get someone who everyone knows, like Newt Gingrich or Michael Steele.
2) Focus on the economy and national security instead of social issues. Social issues are very important but in today's world they seem irrelevant. When everyones 401K is dropping daily they don't care if Obama is going to nominate liberal judges to the Supreme Court, the want someone who will fix the economy.
3) Technology! The Democrats did it, now its our turn. They took the Internet to the next level. They used the Internet to connect with their supporters and raise money. The Republican party did that this election but they started too late.
4) Develop a 50 state strategy like the Obama Campaign. They had offices and staff in almost every state. They knew they weren't going to win all 50, but they still tried and it paid off. They turned states blue like North Carolina, Virginia, Colorado, Indiana, Florida, Ohio, Nevada, Iowa, and New Mexico which helped Obama to blow McCain out of the water in the electoral map.

Its time for the party to get going, this is our time to rebuild and become great again. Hopefully it won't take 8 years like it took the Democrats before they could take over Washington again.