As I mentioned earlier, Obama made several announcements today of posts that most of us knew for some time now:
Hillary Rodham Clinton for Secy / State
Robert Gates to stay @ Defense
Eric Holder for Attorney General
Janet Napolitano for Homeland Security
Jim Jones for National Security Adviser
Susan Rice for UN Ambassador
Those represent 3 of the 4 biggest cabinet positions and 2 prominent cabinet-level positions. At this point, when we include Geithner's nomination for Secy / Treasury (and the Richardson for Commerce / Daschle for HHS nominations that are all but official) the cabinet is getting pretty well filled out.
What do we see so far? Very little "change," for one thing. Obama is keeping Bush's Defense Secretary, who - while viewed as being fairly non-ideological and well respected in the District - is hardly an appointment that suggests Obama will be taking very drastic measures in Iraq. Jones, while technically not a Republican, does not want to set a time table in Iraq and campaigned with McCain this year.
We also have several people who served in the Clinton administration (Richardson as Secy / Engergy and UN Ambassador; Clinton as First Lady; Rice as undersecy / State; Holder as assistant AG; not to mention Larry Summers, now WH economic adviser and then Secy / Treasury). We also have Daschle, another veteran Dem and former senate majority leader. Granted, a lot of Obama's administration will be staffed by people who were involved in the last Democratic administration. But it is notable that there haven't been a lot of fresh faces in the nominations thus far.
I've spent much of today frustrated that no other positions have even the smallest, daintiest of leaks surrounding them. There isn't even much buzz up on the political sites and blogs, and if those people aren't willing to speculate and pull stories out of their asses, you KNOW there must be a shortage of data. So far we've had one republican nomination - Gates - and that is kind of an ambivalent one: it's certainly way more high profile than Bush's token appointment of Norm Mineta to Transportation, but it's also clearly designed to be a temporary appointment, and Gates isn't exactly a partisan figure. I'm hoping to see a few more bipartisan appointments - I think Olympia Snowe would be great for just about anything; Hagel would be good at Vets Affairs; and Lincoln Chaffee, while now an Indy after losing his '06 Senate race in RI as a GOPer, would be great at Interior or EPA administrator (he was endorsed by the Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters). Plus, why not endorse an independent, former pro-gay marriage Republican to the cabinet? If Obama wants to be more post-partisan than just bi-partisan, that's the way to go.
After all, what he's done so far - while not terribly anti-status quo in the amount of Republicans he's picked - is shown a willingness to bring together people from a variety of backgrounds, affiliations, and viewpoints, and try to put together a strong team of leaders who will bring the nation in a bold, new direction. Let's hope it works.
