Obama’s mantra of CHANGE helped get him elected. With the new Health Secy appointment, anybody notice every single appointment so far is a Washington politician or an insider?
Still waiting for the change.
His platform was on change in policy. I’m curious what appointments you feel would be best?
To me, it makes all the sense in the world to appoint people with long-term political experience for two reasons:
- They balance out his own relative lack of Washington experience
- They know things “get done” in Washington
A president who appointed a cabinet entirely made up of newbies wouldn’t get very far with Congress, and thus would hamstring himself on successfully bringing about reform.
Given that the world is driven by relationships, AND given that our government has three branches of (in theory) equal power, I want someone in the Executive branch who has the right people in place to effectively work with the Legislative branch.
Are you old enough to remember Clinton in '92? He ran on a similar platform, brought most of his people with him from Little Rock, got completely stymied in Congress (Democrat-controlled) and lost both Chambers two years later, necessitating a rear-guard action his entire presidency. As Beadalin said, Obama promised change in policy and a restoration of responsibility and good government. You can’t have that without professionals in the Administration, which means it’s going to be insiders. Because outsiders don’t know what the hell they’re doing.
Whatever. It’s our god-given right as Americans to bitch. Just make sure that if he and the rest pf the Democratic Party actually accomplish health care and climate change reform by 2010, you reward them for it.
–Cliffy
Ah, you’ve fallen for the obvious right wing set-up. If Obama brings in insiders, then the response is “what happened to the change”? If he brings in people you’ve never heard of, the response would be similar to the Democrat’s reaction to Sarah Palin. Obama made a clear distinction between “change” and “more of the same”. And the “more of the same” was clearly Bush and his cronies. As far as I see, he hasn’t brought in any of Bush’s cronies. Thus, he’s sticking to his word. The people voted against the last 8 years, NOT against the last 16.
I know! I just assumed he would ignore everyone’s credentials and just put a bunch of strangers’ names in a hat and just…change everything! He’s such a liar!:rolleyes:
I assumed he would just get his advice from posts to his MySpace page.
So far his appointments have all been primates too. What a colossal fraud.
Nader would have had the balls to appoint an artiodactyl as Health Secretary. Hippo sweat has antibiotic properties.
The appointments he’s making right now are not entry level positions.
**Obama will be in charge. He will lead the change in the way things are done. **
But for goodness sake he shouldn’t have to train his cabinet members.
And there’s more selections to make. Give him a break.
That’s the craziest damned thing I’ve read all day!
I don’t really remember the Carter Regime, but I seem to be under the impression that he brought with him a large number of pushy outsiders. The result was not spectacular. I would be stunned to see Obama repeat that mistake.
No you’re not.
As a Republican I am willing to give the Man a chance. If he starts talking about wind farms and Solar without talking about Nuclear power he will lose me before he even gets started.
Taxes? Not now or you will probably lose the house in 2010. Nobody wants to hear the word taxes right now.
I’m being cruel here but the American auto industry cannot survive in it’s present form. I’m anxious to see if Obama sees the world as it is and finds that most of the world does not like us.
Moving thread from IMHO to Great Debates.
I know I’m pretty much repeating what everybody else has already said… But seriously, tell us who you think he should appoint. Maybe he should extend the olive branch and appoint Joe the Plumber to Secretary of State? Maybe he could make you Chief of Staff!
Obama hasn’t a great deal of experience in Washington, it makes so much more sense for him to have a cabinet of people with more experience.
Personally, I voted against the last 80. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff was outrageous!
I think “Obama is teh suxxor” threads, like this, are illsuited for GD. Maybe you could move this thread to a whole 'nother message board, like Freepers or Hannity boards.
If you can beat the ever living hell out of Bush and the Republicans, it is only fair that the Republicans on the board, few though they are, can return fire. You don’t have to agree with anything that they’re saying, but you have no right to be so dismissive about where and how they say it.
I agree, I personally think Obama is neato-o, but if “Obama is teh r0x0rz” threads are allowed, so are “Obama is teh sux0rz” threads.
FWIW, I think there are too many political threads in GD and wouldn’t mind seeing a new board at SDMB specifically for politics. The problem with that, though, is that so many of the Great Debates have a political angle.
I’m willing to give Hamlet the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he was referring to political threads in general, not just ones with a conservative bent. Or maybe he does want SDMB to be “NO Publikenz Aloud” I’ll let him clarify.
ETA: I was going to fix “neato-o” but I think he is cool enough to deserve that extra o.
While Holder was wrong on the Marc Rich issue, he appears 100 percent qualified and a good choice from what I’ve seen so far. I’ve never thought anything of Daschle, but I guess Obama sees something there. All I see is a guy who was an ineffective leader of Democrats in the Senate.
So far, the appointments he appears to be proposing are definitely better than the ones that have been bandied around in the press and on this board, particularly RFK Jr. for head of the EPA, but also Edwards or Clinton for Attorney General or Kerry for Secretary of State. Clinton as SecState, I have mixed feelings about, but I do think it’s a job she could be good at.
To the larger issue: who are the options, exactly? There are Washington veterans, and then… who? Academics, activists, people who haven’t worked through this process before? Kucinich for Secretary of Peace, Ralph “I’ve alienated everyone I ever worked with and called the president an Uncle Tom” Nader as AG?
I know he’s appointed some old Clinton hands to advisory roles too. The bottom line is that you do need people who’ve done this before. It’d be disappointing for many of his supporters if that’s all he chose, but you do need some veterans in there and obviously he has a belief that these DC veterans can be put to work for the right purpose. There should be new faces there as well once he starts rolling out more choices. But as a Democrat, his options for experienced people are limited. Aside from Clinton, a Democrat hasn’t been in the White House since 1981. When more names come out I expect there will be names from the private sector and perhaps from state level government, as well as his own inner circle. But he didn’t promise to name a cabinet of rookies. That would’ve been stupid.
I personally think Kucinch should be appointed Secretary of Everything. But that’s why I’m not president. Say what you want about the man, I like him bunches and bunches.
I like Eric Holder - and I agree, the Marc Rich issue is over, done, he explained himself and that was on the last day or last few days of the Clinton Administration when Holder was deputy AG. He’s a no holes barred attorney from what I heard of him today on NPR, and it seems Obama is beginning to surround himself with decently tough folks [some of them]. Ramm Emanuel is notoriously quick witted and sharp. Good, like was mentioned earlier, Obama ran on a platform of change, and specifically it’s change in policy and increased transparency in Washington.
Personally, I think they should let him keep his Blackberry and email. If the white house can encrypt a phone they can encrypt an email. What - the chief of staff doesn’t have one either, or any other close member of the inner sanctum?
I think the OP has the distinction of being the elder member of the boards, now that our beloved David Simmons has left us.