May 14, 2008...12:28 pm
The Tortoise and the Hare: Helping Hillary pick her cabinet!
I may have been just a little too quick to start helping Obama pick his cabinet when it appears that the MSM’s ”presumptive nominee” just got trounced badly, by a bigger margin than he ever beat his opponent. One more swing state for her! 62%-26% according to the LA Times. Wow!
Now, we all know the trick about “I didn’t really try, so it’s no big deal that I didn’t do so well…” My students say this all the time when they write bad papers or do poorly on tests. My question to him, why didn’t you try? Do you not think West Virginia voters are important, or are you getting complacent? Are you afraid of confrontation? Afraid of appearing weak? Is this the going to be the tortoise and the hare, Senator Obama?
So back to my original mission:
State: Colin Powell. OK, he really messed up by joining the GWB administration, but he saw his mistake and got out. He still has dignity, though, and this would be a bi-partisan appointment without taking in an ideologue.
Treasury: Still thinking…make suggestions
Attorney General: Connecticut Attorney General Blumenthal. This guy is amazing! Saving either Walter Dellinger or Larry Tribe for the US Supreme Court.
Defense: Still thinking…make suggestions.
Interior: Chief Wilma Mankiller. This is not a joke. It’s about time a well-respected Native American chief took the helm of this department which has a self-reported “culture of fear” that needs undoing. Its corruption is notorious, especially in the Bureau of Indian Affairs. I don’t know whether the chief would take it, but it would be great to have her there.
Housing and Urban Development: John Edwards has led the way with his anti-poverty platform and could do a lot of good in this position. If she does create a cabinet post on poverty, then obviously Edwards would get that spot, and it would be a good call.
Transportation: Jackie Speier is one of those people who has extraordinary life experiences. Surviving gunshot wounds in a fact-finding mission to Jonestown, Speier has worked her way up in bi-partisan positions and earned a lot respect. She has experience in California with Caltrain.
Energy: Carol Browner, served the EPA under Bill Clinton for 2 terms and is well respected. She deserves this upgrade.
Education: Congressman Ciro Rodriguez has experience in education and mental health. He’d be a great pick for this post or health and human services, but I put him in education, where I think he’d really shine.
Veterans Affairs: Charles Rangel, a decorated veteran and congressman from Harlem. He has a controversial position about bringing back the draft, but it’s basically an anti-war and equality measure. He certainly cares about veterans issues.
Homeland Security: General Wesley Clark here. Sound policies. Of course, it wouldn’t upset me too much if we simply did away with this rather Fascist-sounding department altogether, in which case, Clark could be national security advisor.
Unlike Obama, who seems to think he could get former presidents and vice presidents to serve under him, Clinton would show more respect. I think she’d take Gore’s advice on whom to appoint to energy and the EPA, which would be prudent. But she wouldn’t try to get him to take a post.
One another post I will deal with Agriculture, Commerce, Labor and Health and Human Services.
17 Comments
May 14, 2008 at 12:59 pm
You should send these to Hillary. Really, get her to think outside the box. These are people who either support her outright or who at least respect her, but they will offer critical views. I think you have some good choices here. There are very few speculations about who she’ll pick, but most of them involve stodgy old guys. I don’t know how you came up with all of these, but they are good. I do notice we’d lose a lot of congressional reps though, but I am sure Dems could pick up new ones.
May 14, 2008 at 2:01 pm
And don’t you think she should have Obama as a press secretary? His language is first class, and he is very fast in his replies, witty, and he obviously enjoys the ping-pong. He is a joy to watch.
Here in Spain this has been a very important job sometimes. Instead of attacking the government, the opposition sometimes attacked the press-secretary and made fun of him or her, which was easy to do, since he appears on TV almost daily. Obama would do great.
Besides, I think Obama has an excellent memory and can drill himself on any subject at short notice.
May 14, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Colin Powell? Seriously?
Good god.
May 14, 2008 at 3:10 pm
I don’t like Colin Powell either, so revise that. Otherwise I think you have some decent picks. Or maybe you were kidding, bc you did suggest Beyonce as Obama’s press secretary. Or maybe there you weren’t kidding…
Here’s what 411mania.com is suggesting:
Vice President: Barack Obama (Illinois Senator), Evan Bayh (current Indiana Senator and former Indiana Governor), Bill Richardson (New Mexico Governor) and Kathleen Sebelius (Kansas Governor).
Secretary of State: Joe Biden (Delaware Senator), Bill Richardson, Evan Bayh and Antonio Villaraigosa (Mayor of Los Angeles).
Secretary of Defense: Joe Lieberman (Independent Connecticut Senator), General Wesley Clark, Daniel Kahikina Akaka (Hawaii Senator) and Jim Webb (Virginia Senator)
Secretary of Homeland Security: Daniel Kahikina Akaka, Diane Feinstein (California Senator) and Bennie Thompson (Mississippi Congressman).
Attorney General: John Edwards (former North Carolina Senator), John Conyers (Michigan Congressman).
May 14, 2008 at 4:57 pm
411mania has it all wrong, though I will gladly change Colin Powell. It was ill-considered, now that I think about it more.
May 14, 2008 at 11:34 pm
OK, no cabinet post for Edwards. Bastard. And to think I liked him once.
May 15, 2008 at 1:46 am
Looking at your past few posts, I was tempted to say you crossed the line between “Clinton supporter” and “sore loser.” But I think a more accurate assessment would be that you slowed down, flipped off the cop, hit the gas, and ran over the German Shepard on the way.
You can hold out hope for Clinton if you want, but it’s over and she lost. And I’m guessing you’re not exactly putting down money on the contrary. You know, I wonder how Clinton supporters would feel if Obama was trying to make the case that the will of the people should be overturned by the superdelegates because he was “better.”
Well, hopefully you’ll put aside your little tift and do the right thing for the country. But if not, even Clinton admits when pressed that Obama will win the general election. (Of course, she could be lying out of political expediency, but what would that say about her??)
Cheers.
May 15, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Geno, I am still laying money down for Hillary. Just because the media keeps saying she lost doesn’t mean she has. She won WV, and he doesn’t have 2025 or 2209. They called people who believed in Gore sore losers too.
I am allowed to dislike Obama and vote for whom I please, or not vote. Clinton only says he’ll win the GE because she has to. There is no way that can happen, and I am so amazed that the boyz in the DNC are willing to throw away yet another Democratic chance to win the presidency. And when Obama loses, that won’t be his fault either.
Hey, HP, keep it up with the Hillary picks. Obama has been endorsed by Kennedy, Carter, Kerry, Dukakis, McGovern and Edwards. There’s a pattern here…
May 15, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Greatgeno, it is amazing how one can go from sane to crazy in a day, but I don’t think this is what happened to me, or that I am having a fit of pique. I have continued to give money to HRC and will, until the vote is done. You may think this is irrational behavior, but here’s the thing: Obama cannot win the General Election. So while I may be hoping against hope that the DNC will recognize this fact, will see that Republicans started voting for Obama after McCain was secure, that Republicans will not vote for Obama in November, I continue to fight for HRC. I don’t want the Democratic Party to go down in flames. But…a political party is not a religion, it’s an institution that represents political preferences. And times change. Obama sees that. So one change may well be that it is time for the Democratic Party to collapse under its own weight and for new parties to be formed.
I am prepared for the unknown, but I am not prepared to vote for Obama if he is the nominee. The more I see of him, the more I know that I cannot do it. Some people will hold their nose, like I did for Kerry, and do it. Some people, like you, will be excited to vote for Obama and happy to have the chance. But I have a Messiah already and am not looking for another.
May 15, 2008 at 5:07 pm
7utu - I would love to take that bet!! Of course, I may feel a little guilty about claiming the winnings . . .
As far as her being such a more viable candidate: Look, this is very simple. If she is so much more capable of winning, why didn’t she??
You seem like a decent chap (I don’t think you’re crazy, nor did I intend to leave the implication). And because ultimately Obama’s and Clinton’s policies are very similar, I do not doubt the vast majority of Democrats will coalesce around Obama just as Republicans did around McCain. But I guess in the interim it must be easier to just assume that people who support Obama must do so because they are fanatics or think he is the “messiah.” Especially when a candidate who was so clearly entitled to win ends up losing. (Who knows? Maybe next time the Democrat party will just forget about the primaries and go straight to the superdelegates.) And if it helps you feel better that some scary newcomer used a religious zeal and a blatantly sexist media with an irrational desire to destroy the Clintons and anoint the first black President to take Hillary’s God-given right as Democrat nominee to completely discount that there might be a majority of people who made a rational political decision to disagree with your position, then that’s you’re perrogative. (And a mouthful.)
But in the meantime, maybe consider, for just one moment, that Obama isn’t the nominee because of a bunch of over-zealous sexist nuts. After all, bigoted rhetoric and over-generalizations, even of a political nature, don’t help anybody, but rather gives the appearance of a hypocritical and petty individual.
At any rate, I have tired of having my reasoning invalidated and delegitimized just because I happen to have a preference for your candidate’s opponent, and will move on. Unlike you with your eye-rolling letter to the DNC, I’m not deluded enough to think you’ll miss me.
May 15, 2008 at 5:40 pm
You’re wrong, Greatgeno, I will miss you if you go away. I certainly don’t think every Obama supporter is a nut. I think Obama believes the own hype he is generating. If his wife had to say, “He’s not the Messiah,” it is clearly because somebody out there was treating him that way. I didn’t make that up.
Many of my quite sane colleagues will vote for Obama, and some of my insane ones will too, but they were insane before Obama came along.
My letter to the DNC, which I take it you did not think eloquent or moving, was hard for me to write. I do not think you realize how difficult it is for many of us who are pushing 50 and who have been feminist supporters of the Democrats for years to be dissed. I do not mean my having “our” candidate beaten in an election. I mean by some pretty shocking behavior. See 7utu’s post of the video by GeekLove08.
I love dissent and argument. I really hope you won’t go. I just wrote you a comment on your site.
May 15, 2008 at 5:57 pm
I do like State: Colin Powell, but your choice of Edwards NO! We here in North Carolina do not care for him, he couldn’t carry the State of North Carolina for John Kerry and I don’t think he could carry the State for Hillary! The rest I will have to go along with your good judgement. I do know things are going to get right down ugly and interesting sooner than later!
May 15, 2008 at 8:38 pm
Edwards is off my list as of last night. Help me come up with someone else.
May 16, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Maybe I was over-reacted. I just get tired of some Hillary supporters (I really do think this is a minority, albeit a seemingly vocal one) thinking that there couldn’t possibly be any rational reason to support Obama so there obviously must be some nefarious (or just idiotic) reason why they do.
Certainly some people treat Obama as a figure of more importance then mere mortal. Some do the same for Hillary, as well.
I have actually had people explain to me that Hillary Clinton deserves the nomination solely because she is a women, and call me sexist when I argue that maybe there should be more to determine the acceptability of a candidate than gender. Oh, the irony!! That is but one example, certainly not the entirety of my argument. But I digress . . .
Anyway, I stand by my comments, as they are accurate to some degree. But that doesn’t mean they accurately describe the writer of this particular blog. So I apologize if I placed you in that box unfairly, and recognize that, just as every Obama supporter is not a sheep, not every Hillary supporter is ruled by the monarch of the Kingdom of Clinton.
I just ask Clinton supporters do the same.
May 16, 2008 at 10:31 pm
I was over-react*ing*. Damn! I wish we could edit these responses . . .
May 17, 2008 at 12:35 am
GreatGeno, you didn’t overreact any more than the rest of us do. This primary has brought out some strong feelings. I think you should suggest to the blogmaster that we get to edit our responses. I know I have wished for the same thing.
May 17, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Except he did try. He had something like 12 offices there and outspent HRC something like 2:1.
As for the cabinet picks - I don’t have anything to add. You’re doing a great job
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