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Leaks bring Obama's cabinet into view
By all indications, Barack Obama, who waged a famously disciplined campaign, originally wanted to keep his cabinet choices quiet until he could make a formal announcement after this week's Thanksgiving holiday.
- By Daniel Dombey, Financial Times
- Published: 23:35 November 24, 2008
- Jordan Warburton, 25, from Manchester, England, walks past a mural portrait of Obama that is painted on the side of a restaurant on North Halsted Street, in Chicago.
- Image Credit: AP
Washington: By all indications, Barack Obama, who waged a famously disciplined campaign, originally wanted to keep his cabinet choices quiet until he could make a formal announcement after this week's Thanksgiving holiday.
But a combination of leaks, vetting enquiries, delicate negotiations and the pressures built up by the financial crisis has brought his choices for his first cabinet into view over the past week.
The president-elect's selections have not been Clintonite in style but often Clintonite in substance.
Obama has taken pains to avoid the famously messy transition of Bill Clinton, who left cabinet picks until late in the day and sought to build an administration that "looked like America" rather than one that put a preference on Washington know-how.
Indeed, in gathering veterans of the last two administrations around him, Obama has in some ways echoed the choices made by George W. Bush, who reached back to personnel from the Ford administration to staff his cabinet.
The picture that emerges is of a group of centrist officials, many of whom did not support Obama until late in his 22-month quest for the presidency and whose experience of Washington often far outstrips his own.
Obama has been in the US capital for less than four years, since his election as a US senator.
The comparison is striking, with the accumulated experience of Senator Hillary Clinton, his likely choice for Secretary of State; Robert Gates, with whom Obama is in discussions over retaining as Secretary of Defence; and James Jones, the former Nato commander now seen as the favourite for National Security Adviser.
Ms Clinton, vice-president-elect Joe Biden and Bill Richardson, the New Mexico governor who is favourite for the Department of Commerce, are all also former rivals of Obama for the Democratic nomination - and each has spent well over a decade in the capital.
The names of Washington veterans predominate in the economic and domestic fields as well.
Unusually for a top Obama administration choice, Tom Daschle supported the Illinois senator's presidential bid from the outset, and is now expected to take the Health and Human Services post, as well as a White House role to consolidate his power.
Health legislation
But perhaps his chief qualification is his time in the Senate, culminating as majority leader, given the likely need to shepherd complicated and controversial health legislation through.
Eric Holder, Obama's preference for attorney-general, served as Clinton's deputy attorney-general. Tim Geithner, nominated as treasury secretary, has worked in a series of administrations.
Larry Summers, likely to be Obama's top White House economic adviser, served as Treasury secretary at the end of Clinton's administration.
Janet Napolitano, favourite for the Department of Homeland Security, backed Obama strongly during the primaries from the governor of Arizona's mansion.
She has Washington experience, being involved in the 1991 Senate confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.
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