Barack Obama's Cabinet

[odie1kanobe]

Indeed and so what are his plans for his half hour slot on prime time ?

He has bought it on Fox, NBC & CBS for Oct 29, just before the World Series. See this thread,he has something up his sleeve !

CyP

Could backfire spectacularly on him especially if it involves overseas.

[H.R. Haldeman]

Could backfire spectacularly on him especially if it involves overseas.

Totally agree - I think it is an absolutely terrible idea. I get shivers thinking of him blowing it with a week to go.

[junketman]

Didn't old Labour blow it in Britain with a week to go the 1992 election...they were going along great, set to win, when they made the mistake of publicising what their tax policies were going to be once in government...should have kept their mouths shut.

[PhoenixIreland]

He is comfortably ahead, he's not going to do anything mad during that 30 minute address, he will probably just summarize his case.

[cyberianpan]

This thread you are reading now is the cabinet thread

This thread, is the 30 minute "speak to the nation" thread !

cYp

[junketman]

opos got waylaid there...

Well I think having a Republican in the cabinet might not be the best idea...where would their loyalties lay, to a democratic president or to the republican party?

Who would they take their orders from, would it be the head of the Republican party, and if so, would they not try to undermine the presidency for political gain. This is not to mention the probability of leaks from the cabinet table to the Republican party, it would be like the Republicans having a listening device at the cabinet table.

Unless it was a really really honourable Republican who wouldn't leak and put the administration and country first before party ties, I think Obama probably wouldn't go for that option..time will tell though.

[cyberianpan]

Some Republicans are actually honest. Even McCain in Veteran's Affairs would work.

Bigger story anyway is the transition efforts, would suggest changing thread title to include this - Mods ?

AP Under the direction of John Podesta, a former White House chief of staff under Bill Clinton, the transition effort includes a dozen separate groups divided into different areas of responsibility, these officials said. One added that Cassandra Butts, a longtime associate of Obama, is in charge of the group dedicated to personnel for a new administration.

Here's a good (short) NYT article from a while back

Oct 9th

The presidential race may not be over, but the Bush administration is starting to plan the transition of the government with both the Obama and McCain campaigns.

The McCain campaign has tapped William E. Timmons Sr., a longtime Washington lobbyist, to be part of its transition team, along with John Lehman Jr., former secretary of the Navy.

A timely article in the Huffington Post says that Mr. Obama has already organized “an elaborate, well-staffed network to prepare for his possible ascension to the White House,” while Mr. McCain “has all but put off such work until after the election.”

He also said that criticism of Mr. Obama for starting his transition planning too early — he started in July — was “nonsense.” “I thought, if anything, the Obama people were late,” he said, noting that the Reagan campaign had started planning its transition in 1980 in the spring.

One of the biggest tasks of a transition team is to fill the jobs in a new administration, which involves about 3,000 full-time posts, a third of whom also require Senate confirmation. There are another 7,000 people who will be named to various advisory boards and commissions.

That team is what will be important, the US Cabinet isn't hugely important , in reality his "West Wing" advisers will have more power than all bar perhaps 4 Cabinet members.

Good article here speculating on Treasury Secretary. No one obvious , bar a desire for Paulson to stay on a while.

cYp