By Staff
I have high hopes for the first term of President-elect Barack Obama. He has the political momentum of a freight train, and with the right direction, can do great things.
His choices so far for his cabinet, however, are beginning to trouble me.
A presidential cabinet by design is intended to inform the president's policy choices for the good of the country. By his picks so far, though, Obama's cabinet looks set to inform him on what's best for the Democratic party.
He has made some smart picks – Gen. Eric Shinseki for Veterans' Affairs, Robert Gates for Defense, Eric Holder for Attorney General – but he is also nominating many current and former politicians who haven't done much outside of politics.
Don't focus on the names, just look at a synopsis of their resumes:
Secretary of State: former first lady of Arkansas and the country, term-and-a-half senator, lawyer
Secretary of Commerce: career politician, former Secretary of Energy, later a corporate board member of two energy companies
Secretary of Health and Human Services: career politician, husband of lobbyist, former Senate Majority Leader
Secretary of Homeland Security: former U.S. Attorney for Arizona, former attorney general of Arizona, term-and-a-half governor of Arizona
Secretary of the Interior: former state cabinet member in Colorado, former Colorado attorney general, current U.S. senator, lawyer
Secretary of Agriculture: former candidate for Democratic nomination for President, former governor of Iowa, former state senator in Iowa, lawyer
I'm sure Sen. Hillary Clinton, Gov. Bill Richardson, former Sen. Tom Daschle, Gov. Janet Napolitano, Sen. Ken Salazar and former Gov. Tom Vilsack (in that order above) are intelligent people who will work hard to advise Obama on issues relevant to their departments, but it worries me that so many of his nominations for the cabinet are also noted partisans.
Will their advice be given first and foremost on its benefits to the American people, or on its political merits?
The nomination of Gov. Vilsack for Secretary of Agriculture illustrates my hesitation.
Corn ethanol has been a financial boon for his state of Iowa, but corn is not the answer for long-term ethanol production.
It requires about as much energy to produce as it creates (it takes 0.76 Joules of energy from fossil fuels to create 1 Joule worth of corn ethanol). It also takes 1,700 gallons of water to produce one gallon of corn ethanol and leaves behind 12 gallons of waste.
As Secretary of Agriculture, Vilsack will undoubtedly push to divert more corn production to ethanol production, and push for even higher subsidies on corn. At that point, who in the cabinet will stand up for the more viable and efficient cellulosic ethanol derived from switchgrass and other plants?
Cellulosic ethanol produces 80 percent more energy than it takes to produce it, and whereas corn requires petroleum-based fertilizers to reach its full potential, switchgrass is fertilized by the clean, renewable resources we call rain and sunshine.
Cellulosic ethanol's downfall, unfortunately, is that it thrives in the politically unimportant states of North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. Corn grows in Iowa, which plays host to the first presidential primary.
I will note that this is not the first cabinet stocked with political partisans – and certainly cabinets laden with policy "experts" from academia and even the corporate world haven't been perfect, either.
President George W. Bush's cabinet, what with its cadre of lawyers, failed politicians, MBAs and college professors, didn't exactly help point the nation in the right direction.
But Bush also didn't nominate seasoned politicians. Three of Obama's cabinet nominees ran against him for the Democratic nomination for President in this election, and others have been high-level players in the Democratic Party for years.
President Bill Clinton's first cabinet also had many seasoned politicians, and high-level players in the Democratic Party (Lloyd Bentsen and Bruce Babbitt, of note), but his cabinet didn't have the same air of partisanship.
I'm by no means saying that Obama's cabinet won't take matters of the American people seriously, nor am I saying they will give him bad advice.
I am worried, however, that a cabinet full of Washington insiders and career politicians won't deliver the kind of "change" he promised.