*My* Obama Cabinet 2008

I truly believe President-elect Obama has a unique opportunity to assemble one of the most unique cabinets ever assembled by a new president. It's at least refreshing to not have a President who appoints men who worked under his father's administration (listening, George?), but I would be a bit worried if Obama continued to install Clinton administration veterans (If they are truly qualified, then fine).

So we know that Rahm Emanuel of Illinois will be the Chief of Staff, and I agree with the choice. It would have been dumb not to pick someone with whom Obama had a prior relationship. Though Rush Limbaugh called Emanuel a "Chicago thug" on his radio show the next day. Shouldn't the White House Chief of Staff be somewhat aggressive? It seems like a job that requires a little bending of elbows and standing up to people. I have to believe that Obama is not going to do everything Speaker Pelosi and Senator Reid say...it's amusing that the Democrats think they have carte blanche with a legislative agenda -- two things may prevent that, (a) Obama just ignores them and (b) If the Republicans hold onto the Alaskan Senate seat of Ted Stevens and Al Franken loses in Minnesota, it isn't a clear-cut majority in terms of voting. And by the way, what in the hell is with their treatment of Senator Joe Lieberman ? Senator Reid publicly said this in regard to Lieberman's support of John McCain:

“It was wrong, and it was improper. If we weren’t on television, I’d use a stronger word of describing what he did ... Joe Lieberman is not some right-wing nutcase, Joe Lieberman is one of the most progressive people ever to come from the state of Connecticut."

Hello, my name is Harry Reid, I admire Joe Lieberman, and want to take away his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee and demote him to a lower chair on the Veteran's Committee. Real nice. I'm glad the Congressional Democrats favor bipartisanship...

Anywho, back to Barack. Of course all of the news channels speculate as to who will be offered what post, but right before Election Day Politico took some better guesses. But I think Obama can do better for some of the positions. The New York Times is also closely following the potential new team, as well as Huffington Post. It was pretty impressive watching Obama give that press conference last week with that team of ultimateness behind him (save Jenny Granholm). If he can show that kind of thoroughness in his consideration for the rest of his advisers, it certainly looks infinitley better in comparison to the Bush team.

I'm no expert of course, but it's almost like common sense combined with watching too much "The West Wing" to be able to conjecture a Presidential cabinet (Politico guess goes italics):

**Oh, and check out this nifty NYT tool to guess the Cabinet ! Also American University's neat transition study, and CQPolitics' tool.

1. Secy. of State: John Kerry / Kerry *seems* like a good pick, but I would get so very tired of hearing him talk....what about Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, he's been on a lot of those Iraq trips and is pretty pragmatic.
2. Attorneys General: Janet Napolitano / This woman is from Arizona so she is likely pretty centrist...at this point anyone is better than Gonzales.
3. Treasury Secy.: Tim Geithner / That guy used to run the NY Fed, but I would advocate for Paulson staying on, I think he's done well with the financial crisis, not rushing things
4. Secy. of Defense: Robert Gates / Another person I'd like to see stay on, because it seems like he knows what he's doing...but what about Chuck Hagel, the one Republican opposed to the war?
5. Secy. of Agriculture: Tom Vilsack, some guy from Iowa / whatever, he's a farmer, let him have it; Or else there's some guy from the Farmer's Union to pick.
6. Secy. of Energy: Schwarzzenegger!?!? / That would be cool, but what about Al Gore !!!
7. Secy. of Education: some guy named Joel Klien from N.Y. / how bout U of M's own Maris Visnovskis ! :-D
8. White House Council: I vote for Bradford Berenson, a former White House Council, he's a genius.
9. EPA Chief: some dude named Robert Sussman. / someone else smart, I hear James Woolsey has some kind of environmental expertise.
10. Secy of Veteran's Affairs: Max Cleland ? / John McCain !!
11. Homeland Security: anyone not named Chertoff / What about Joe Lieberman !
12. Secy. of the Interior: Bill Richardson maybe ? Or John McCain !
13. Commerce Secy.: I list this because the Commerce Secretary is enormously important to internet regulations, and will have to fight Joe Biden on net neutrality, so Obama will have to pick someone like Ted Steve....er....Maria Cantwell of Washington or former Virginia Senator George Allen.
14. Secy. of Health and Human Services: Howard Dean of course...how convenient that he's no longer DNC Chair

Random Posts:
Chief Economic Adviser: Paul Krugman !!
Special Assistant to the President: Ron Podesta (Lobbyist Hater)
Climate Czar: None better than Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. This man is truly passionate about the environment, and explains global warming better than Al Gore does.
Rumored "Auto Czar": David Bonior, former MI Congressman, and NOT Jenny G
Ambassador to the United Nations: Colin Powell !!
National Security Adviser: this is a tough one...because the current one, Steven Hadley, is a fool: Bob Woodward rails against him in his latest book; BUT, Richard Clarke needs this post.

President-Elect Obama can certainly do whatever the heck he wants, but it's critical that he recognizes the immense opportunity to put his first stamp on Washington. If it's all Democrats, fine. The difference is if they are all qualified or not, and most of the people he's considering are qualified. He's already made the right decision to take it slow, but I'm reminded that when Bill Clinton took office, he waited until the very last minute, but that's why Obama has this amazing transition team working day and night to ensure that he gets the best people around him before January 20th so that they can start doing America's work and not the Democrats' work. The country can't afford anything less.