As President-elect Barack Obama’s inauguration nears, he continues to assemble a team of high profile players from various areas of the political arena for his Cabinet.
Obama has drawn heavily from liberal politicos from the Clinton administration, but he has not shied away from the appointment of Republicans like Robert Gates, President George Bush’s current Secretary of Defense, to his Cabinet.
‘He’s sent a political message across the political stream that he’s going to govern from the middle,’ Georgetown University government professor Jeffry Burnam said. ‘He’s not going to govern in an extremely liberal manner, or approach issues in a highly partisan way.’
Tim Geithner ‘-‘- Secretary of Treasury
Tim Geithner served in the Treasury Department under President Bill Clinton as Under-Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs and under Bush’s administration as president of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank. Though the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 494.13 points following Geithner’s appointment, indicating general support and confidence in Obama’s pick, some remain skeptical.
In Ben Stein’s Nov. 28 New York Times column ‘Everybody’s Business: Obama’s Team Isn’t Exactly a Break With the Past,’ Stein voiced his uncertainty over the appointment of a man who he said helped create the current economic situation, writing Geitherner ‘is the wrong man for Treasury.’
‘He went along with failing to rescue Lehman Brothers, a decision now generally considered a catastrophic mistake,’ Stein wrote. ‘He led the Federal Reserve Bank of New York while money-center banks made lethal mistakes of faulty risk management ‘-‘- and he did zero to stop it.’
Hillary Clinton ‘-‘- Secretary of State
During the Democratic primaries, Obama accused Hillary Clinton of being too far right on issues like the War in Iraq, so it may come as a surprise to some that he appointed Clinton as Secretary of State, the post most highly concerned with foreign affairs.
George Mason University School of Public Policy professor James Pfiffner said Clinton and Obama’s disagreements might strengthen the administration.
‘She has independent views, but that’s something a president has to do: Deal with people who have strong views who are willing to disagree with each other,’ he said. ‘That’s something President Bush discouraged, and it hurt his administration.’
Boston University political science professor Douglas Kriner said it was interesting that position, since it will remove her from heated battles in the Senate over domestic issues she fervently championed, like health care.
The move can also be seen as a political maneuver to remove Clinton as a political threat in the future, a strategy which Obama’s supporters do not oppose, but Kriner said Clinton’s acceptance of the nomination was just as much of a maneuver to gain back some of the political might she lost after the Democratic primaries.
‘She tried to get a little more authority within a sub committee to deal with health care; she did not get it, and then sort of saw this as a way to raise her star a little bit,’ he said.
Robert Gates ‘-‘- Secretary of Defense
Robert Gates, a moderate-right wing politician and current Secretary of Defense, agrees with many of Obama’s policies, despite holding a position under Bush.
Gettysburg College professor Shirley Warshaw said Gates and Obama could see eye-to-eye on key issues.
‘The two areas that Obama wanted to change were drawing down troops in Iraq and closing Guantanamo Bay,’ Warshaw said. ‘He met with Gates earlier this week, and he agreed.’
University of Chicago School of Public Policy professor William Howell said Gates is not a controversial pick because most people do not link him with unpopular policies in Iraq.
‘Because he was brought in at the tail end of the administration, he’s not implicated by the set of failures that we’ve observed there and that we’re struggling with now,’ Howell said.
Eric Holder ‘-‘- Attorney General
Obama appointed Eric Holder to the Attorney General, the first African-American to hold this position. Though Obama expressed full confidence in Holder’s ability to hold the position of the country’s highest law enforcement officer, Holder’s confirmation as Attorney General hinges on controversial issues from his past.
While serving as Bill Clinton’s deputy attorney general, Holder played a small role in gaining a presidential pardon for Mark Rich, a billionaire who fled the country from tax evasion charges.
Aside from the Rich pardon and a few other transgressions, Holder has a clean record, Kellerman said, which should be enough to get him through the confirmation process.
‘It’s going to be a little bit messy, at least briefly,’ Kellerman said.
Aside from the four announced major players in his cabinet, Obama has also appointed New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as secretary of commerce, Arizona Republican Gov. Janet Napolitano as secretary of homeland security and retired four-star Marine general James Jones as national security adviser.