# Let's name a Biden Cabinet **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [November 8, 2020, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-a-biden-cabinet/925040 "2020-11-08T05:34:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 13
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 3:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-a-biden-cabinet/925040/242 "2020-12-14T15:04:41Z")
a GOP guy who is not in office and retired from politics can work for Biden . They have no worry about how GOP folks think of them. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-a-biden-cabinet/925040/243 "2020-12-14T16:17:20Z")
This is why I think there really needs to be an age limit on running for president–by the parties, if not a law. As long as everyone in their 60s and 70s thinks they are “still in the game” and might run for president some day, there’s an incentive to actively avoid developing younger talent in the party. I really think that’s how we got in this situation and why we pretty much had to nominate Biden. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2020, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-a-biden-cabinet/925040/244 "2020-12-14T16:19:38Z")
It’s still their community. They have to live with these people. And if they are retired because they don’t want to work any more, why go work for Biden? And if they do want to work some more, as consultants or board members or whatever, they would burn every bridge with the GOP and not build any with the Democrats. A person who was in the GOP for decades is not going to get a job lobbying on the left just because he was a Biden appointee for a couple years. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-a-biden-cabinet/925040/245 "2020-12-15T19:03:10Z")
Pete as Transportation Secretary? I don’t like it. He doesn’t have the resume for that kind of heavy work. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-a-biden-cabinet/925040/246 "2020-12-15T19:26:24Z")
Just out of curiosity, what kind of resume do you think a Secretary of Transportation needs? It actually seems like a good post for someone with a background as a mayor, as transportation is a major issue for localities. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-a-biden-cabinet/925040/247 "2020-12-15T20:27:02Z")
HUD seems like a better fit, but I bet he’ll do a good job at it. Here’s more: > **[Joe Biden picks Pete Buttigieg to be transportation secretary | CNN Politics](https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/15/politics/pete-buttigieg-transportation-secretary/index.html)** > > Joe Biden will nominate Pete Buttigieg to be his transportation secretary, the president-elect said in a statement on Tuesday, elevating the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate to a top post in the federal... ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-a-biden-cabinet/925040/248 "2020-12-15T22:21:38Z")
Any type of experience with huge organizations would be nice. He’s a small-town mayor. Give him an ambassadorship and ease him into the big time. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2020, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-a-biden-cabinet/925040/249 "2020-12-15T23:02:40Z")
I agree that such experience would be helpful, but I don’t think it’s necessary. Hopefully he will have a competent Deputy Secretary who will have more experience managing a large organization and who will take on the day-to-day operational role. Any Cabinet Secretary is going to be a mixed bag of the various traits that you would ideally like to see in such a position – good communicator, managerial experience, political connections, policy expertise, etc. Smart Secretaries staff up with top executives whose skills balance out their deficiencies and focus their own activities in those areas of the job that play to their strengths. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2020, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-a-biden-cabinet/925040/250 "2020-12-16T01:53:52Z")
Jennifer Granholm at Energy. ---
**Author:** ![Beesnest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e495f1/32.png) [@Beesnest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beesnest)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2020, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-a-biden-cabinet/925040/251 "2020-12-16T02:19:38Z")
Let’s include the information superhighway as part of transportation. Put the smartest guy in the room in charge of the big hole in our systems. I too wanted Buttigieg to have a Ambassadorship, Germany or UK, for connections and helping the US get back in good grace in the world. Secret fear is that Kamala Harris will nudge him out of the limelight so her profile is higher for the future. Jay Inslee seems like a great pick for Climate Czar , or whatever John Kerry is doing. Or Dept of Labor to modernize the system for workers and “independent” ha ha contractors. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2020, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-a-biden-cabinet/925040/252 "2020-12-16T06:37:16Z")
Note, despite many ideas here with listing his opponents, Pete is the only one that got a nod, afaik. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2020, 6:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-a-biden-cabinet/925040/253 "2020-12-16T06:38:52Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > This is why I think there really needs to be an age limit on running for president–by the parties, if not a law. Sorry, but this is called bigotry. We have only one age requirement, per the Constitution- min Age 35. Anything else is bigotry. ---
**Author:** ![Love\_Rhombus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/love_rhombus/32/10694_2.png) [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2020, 12:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-a-biden-cabinet/925040/254 "2020-12-16T12:22:33Z")
I’ve seen it suggested that Pete’s gonna be sent into Transportation to look for Chao’s shenanigans, because you know she was up to some stuff in there, given that he was in intelligence and seems to be generally a straight shooter. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2020, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-a-biden-cabinet/925040/255 "2020-12-16T16:18:37Z")
Biden has said he’s not in favor of going after Trump crimes. Maybe that applies to Trump sycophants in the cabinet too. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2020, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-a-biden-cabinet/925040/256 "2020-12-17T14:20:32Z")
> **[Biden's search for an attorney general complicated by 'competing questions' |...](https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/16/politics/biden-attorney-general/index.html)** > > The deliberations among President-elect Joe Biden's tight circle of advisers about whom he should nominate as attorney general have emerged as some of the more complicated of the transition, sources familiar with the process tell CNN, with possible... ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2020, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-a-biden-cabinet/925040/257 "2020-12-17T14:29:03Z")
It’s interesting to me that both Jones and Garland are people who “took one for the team” in a big way. Both offered themselves up for long-shot positions that potentially derailed their personal trajectory, and I can see a real desire to take care of both of them. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2020, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-a-biden-cabinet/925040/258 "2020-12-17T14:30:45Z")
Biden has to know that if he nominates Garland, McConnell will never let him fill the vacancy that creates on the DC Circuit Court. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2020, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-a-biden-cabinet/925040/259 "2020-12-17T14:43:23Z")
I’m a teacher and I think it is accurate to say that Betsy Devos is the most incompetent, unqualified, and antagonistic cabinet secretary we’ve seen in education. Biden needs to fill that slot with the most liberal, union-positive, person he can find. ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2020, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-a-biden-cabinet/925040/260 "2020-12-17T18:26:01Z")
NC EPA head picked to run US EPA > **[Biden picks NC environmental secretary for EPA administrator](https://www.wral.com/biden-picks-regulator-michael-regan-for-epa-administrator/19434234/)** > > President-elect Joe Biden has picked an experienced but not widely known state regulator, Michael S. Regan of North Carolina, to lead the EPA. ---
**Author:** ![flurb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@flurb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flurb)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2020, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-a-biden-cabinet/925040/261 "2020-12-17T19:41:09Z")
And Biden has official picked Deb Haaland for Secretary of the Interior, the first Native American to run the department. I’m already cringing at the thought of the racist right-wing memes this is going to lead to. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-a-biden-cabinet/925040.md?page=12) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-name-a-biden-cabinet/925040.md?page=14)