The Winkest Link

Thus far the only rivalries I’ve noticed are of egos, and not the waffles either.

I am going to look at Obama’s picks, and likely picks and sort them out.

Peter Orszag is Obama’s choice for director of the Office of Management and Budget.  Mr. Orszag served under the previous Clinton administration as a Senior Advisor.  Likely has views very close to Obama’s but you can’t really say one way or another with just one pick, so let’s go on to the next.

Bill Richardson is the pick for Commerce Secretary. Now this is where the ego starts peaking in.  I don’t mean this in a bad way but I feel anyone who is running to be the most powerful person in the world has to have a large ego.  But Richardson doesn’t really differ on Ideals, he served under the Clinton administration as the Secretary of Energy.  He also endorsed Barrack Obama during the contentious Primary battle with Hillary Clinton.

Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.  She worked under the Clinton Administration as ‘wife.’  Again she as a large ego that may clash with Obama occasionally. She is very similar in beliefs to Obama, slightly differing on foreign policy.  She may differ just enough to keep Obama honest in his foreign policy, but in all reality her foreign policy beliefs are close to that of Obama’s.

Jim Jones Is likely going to be Obama’s National Security Advisor. No not the Kool-Aid guy, he’s dead.  James L. Jones is a retired General.  Jones is not affiliated with any political party, and remained a general during the W. Bush administration.  He repeatedly declined to be promoted, and probably not a supporter of the involvement in Iraq. But that said I feel that he will probably assert his views even when incompatible with Obama’s views.

Timothy Geithner to be Treasury Secretary. Is a Democrat.  Geithner is a strong pick but not necessarily a different thinker.  Although current Treasury Secretary Paulson seems to like the pick stating “[Geithner] is a very unusually talented young man. He understands government and understands markets.”

Lawrence Summers is a Democratic economist who served 1.5 years as Treasury Secretary in the Clinton administration.  That sentence alone says a lot, especially if you include the link and read everything there too.  Kind of a loophole to make one sentence say much more than a typical sentence. He was selected as the Director of the National Economic Council.

Tom Daschle as Secretary of Health and Human Services.  Again a strong pick but not a very rival-y-ish pick.  The former Democratic Senator from South Dakota has supported Obama’s campaign essentially from the beginning.

Eric Holder is likely to be Attorney General for Obama.  Eric Holder, a Democrat, will likely be the first black Attorney General.  Hold up there a moment, technically* Holder has already served as Attorney General under the W. Bush administration.now we have some rivalry there a Bush Attorney General to perform the same role under Obama crazy.

Janet Napolitano Secretary of Homeland Security.  I just like saying that name. Nap-o-li-tano.  She is currently the Democratic governor of Arizona.  Digging into McCain territory there.  Again not really anything that stands in contrast to Obama.

And Finally:

Rahm Emanuel will be Obama’s Chief of Staff. He is a Democratic Congressman out of Chicago.  Not going far from home to select this one.  He was an advisor to Clinton, and stated he would Support Hillary for president until Obama joined the race.  At that point he didn’t publicly support either candidate, until after the primaries were over.

In all, I feel that Obama is making strong, and well thought out decisions.  But it remains to be seen at least in my eyes to be a “Team of Rivals.”  Obama does have three former challengers coming into his Administration (Biden, Clinton, Richardson), and that counts for something.  But to me this doesn’t seem like a supremely bi-partisan group of people.  I have that they rule bi-partisanly.  Individually they are not bi-partisan with the exception of Jim Jones.

*Technically he was just the Acting Attorney General while congress passed Bush’s real pick, John Ashcroft.

(3 votes, average: 4.67 out of 5)

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