I’m not sure how enthusiastic I am about Obama’s choice of Joe Biden as a running mate — I remember the ways he embarrassed himself in past candidacies — but I think Obama, if he and his team are smart, can use Biden’s past criticisms of Obama with some rhetorical savvy to show how an Obama administration might value diverse perspectives, in contrast to the Bush administration’s echo chamber of the last eight years. But it got me thinking: who else would I like to see contributing their perspectives to a possible Obama administration?
Secretary of State: Hillary Clinton
Secretary of the Treasury: Warren Buffett
Secretary of Defense: Wesley Clark
Attorney General: Lawrence Lessig
Secretary of the Interior: Al Gore
Secretary of Agriculture: Carolyn Mugar
Secretary of Commerce: Joseph Stiglitz
Secretary of Education: Kathleen Blake Yancey
Well, sure, some of them are reaches, but it’s a wish list, a dream team. An assertion of hope about the direction in which we might go. And, yes, I’ve left off Labor, HHS, Transportation, Energy, VA, and Homeland Security. So I’ll ask: what would your choices be, reader? Who would you change or add?
Awesome cabinet. But I am very very very pessimistic about what Biden will do *to* the campaign. Obama’s approval ratings haven’t gotten any significant boost since he named Biden, and Biden (or his past) is sure to screw something up along the way. I’m thinking the Democrats have once again demonstrated their collective gift for clawing their way to the bottom.
Doris Kearns Goodwin has a book about the Lincoln cabinet, where he took several men of significant stature who thought they should have been president and then made it work. I don’t know how many parallels we want to draw between Obama and Lincoln, but I agree. We need to get away from “yes” men and women (and to turn the reins back over to the President rather than have a backdoor President in the VP; how much like Russia do we want to be? Maybe that’s where Putin got the idea, watching Cheney run the show.), and they need to start disagreeing in an agonistic manner if we are going to have any hope. I’d vote for anyone who would make Yancey Sec of Ed! well, almost anybody. Does Obama even know she exists? Probably not, but we can hope, can’t we?
i try to read what you write everyday. Sometimes i’m not very clear about some native words. As you know, i’m a Chinese.i find your blog by chance.
haha, i’m learning your English.
Thanks, Quinn, and welcome!
I’m totally with you about that “collective gift for clawing their way to the bottom,” Becky, and I think the Democrats have already started with some of the more zealous Clinton supporters managing to adopt the same ugly sense of entitlement that got their candidate(s) in trouble, in grumbing about wanting to take their ball and go home.
Bradley, Yancey’s been quoted more than a few times in national media, so I’m hoping there might be at least the chance of some awareness.
DHS: Bruce Schneier
Nat. Sec. Advisor: Andrew J. Bacevich (though he would probably decline)
I might also substitute Gen. Shinseki for Wes Clark, as much as I like Clark.