OPINION: Barack Obama's Cabinet of Change

By Broadside Staff Writer John Koblan

America has a lot of issues to tackle, including two wars, a roller coaster economy, healthcare and global warming. With all of these problems, it is important that President-Elect Barack Obama chooses the best people for his cabinet positions. Obama indicated as much, saying, “I think America deserves the best person for every job and so we are going to be canvassing far and wide, if I am fortunate enough to be elected.” Hopefully, our new president believes that Americans deserve cabinet members with more experience than running a horse show.

Obama’s first pick was new Chief of Staff Rahm Emmanuel. Emmanuel is a Chicago native who has been in Congress since 2002. He was chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Comittee in 2005. The Democrats gained 30 congressional seats the next election. Nicknamed “Rahmbo” for his sharp remarks and uncompromising style, the choice of Emanuel indicated that Obama wanted a bad cop to balance his good cop routine. Emanuel is known to have a temper, reportedly telling Tony Blair before his first meeting with Former President Bill Clinton during the Monica Lewinsky scandal, “This is important, don’t fuck it up.” Obama clearly chose someone who, when necessary, can crack some heads to keep the Congressional Democrats working to accomplish Obama’s agenda.

The Emmanuel pick also reveals that Obama has a healthy balance of optimism and pragmatism. So far, he seems to have more in common with President Abraham Lincoln than Former President Jimmy Carter or George W. Bush. Carter campaigned with the slogan, “a government as good as its people.”

However, he picked a battle he couldn’t win. He had a bitter and adversarial relationship with his fellow Democrats in Congress. Carter wanted to cut pork spending big time. This angered former Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill and paved the way for Carter’s ineffective presidency and Ted Kennedy’s historic 1980 Democratic primary challenge of an incumbent President. Unlike Carter, Obama is coming from the United States Senate. This gives him an advantage in dealing with Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Carter ran as the Washington outsider Georgia governor, and simply wasn’t prepared for the rough and tumble world of Washington D.C. politics.

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was vying for the Republican nomination against former New York Governor William Seward and former Ohio governor Salmon Chase. Lincoln ended up appointing his Republican primary opponents to his cabinet.

Lincoln wanted the best minds for the job to preserve the Union, and he didn’t let political grudges or favors get in the way. Our national politics have become the total opposite of those feel-good credentials over cronyism type of leadership.

Bush was certainly not following Abraham Lincoln’s style of leadership when he appointed Michael Brown to run Federal Emergency Management Agency. What were Michael Brown’s Emergency Management Credentials that would have prepared him for Hurricane Katrina? The man was the Judges and Stewards Commissioner of the Arabian Horse Association. Comedian Lewis Black said it best, “The job that prepared Michael Brown for FEMA was [that] he was the head of the Arabian Horse Association. You can see the connection there. Not even a great fiction writer could come up with that. He ran horse shows and he was fired from that job . . . You could be drunk and be vomiting for three days and still run a horse show.”

Ultimately, I feel that Obama needs to reach out to Republicans for leadership roles in his work for change. Several names have been mentioned as possible appointees. However, the Republicans I’ve talked to would say that these would be Republicans in name only. Have we really come to that point? Lincoln wouldn’t even recognize his current party of Sarah Palin fanatics and Republicans measuring public servants to litmus tests to see how far to the right they are.

Lincoln believed in the best minds. Obama will need to work together with Democrats, Republicans and independents collectively to form an effective government. There are some interesting names being mentioned, including Senator Republican Chuck Hagel, Neb., 2004 Democratic nominee John Kerry and Gov. Tim Kaine (D). There probably won’t be too many out-of-the-box picks like choosing Ron Paul, Tex., for Secretary of State. But, I think it goes back to Obama using optimism and pragmatism while selecting his cabinet.

“This is our time to put our people back to work and open doors of opportunity for our kids; to restore prosperity and promote the cause of peace; to reclaim the American dream and reaffirm that fundamental truth, that, out of many, we are one; that while we breathe, we hope,” Obama said after wining the election. “And where we are met with cynicism and doubts and those who tell us that we can't, we will respond with that timeless creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes, we can.”

Obama has lofty goals and great ambitions, but in order to fulfill them, he’ll need to see beyond his political agenda. We need smart minds to address the issues.