At a news conference on Monday, President Obama hinted that
he would be adding some high-profile women to his cabinet. His current cabinet
members make up one of the most diverse groups in history, including eight
women and nine minorities.
In the past few months, President Obama had many of his
members either retire or announce their intent to step down from their
positions. Already, President Obama has nominated to fill those empty seats
with John Kerry as Secretary of State, Chuck Hagel as Defense Secretary, and
Jacob Lew (who is currently Obama’s Chief of Staff and was the director of the
Office of Management and Budget) as Treasury Secretary. There has been much
criticism of the Obama’s choices so far, as these three new appointments have
been all Caucasian and all males. But is this criticism really justified? Lew
has had extensive experience within Obama’s own legislation as well as other
past top members of the government. Kerry has established himself as a leading
expert on national security issues and has worked his way up to Chairman of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
On the other hand, Chuck Hagel has had questionable popularity with the
public due to his controversial “Jewish lobby” remark. Furthermore, Hagel’s
views about national security and nuclear weapons have many people worried.
One of Obama’s supposed nominations, Christine Gregoire (the
former governor of Washington) will likely fill the empty Energy Secretary seat,
Interior Secretary seat or be the head of the Environmental Protection Agency.
Gregoire has had extensive experience with handling energy and environmental issues. As governor, Gregoire supported California’s Clean Car standards,
secured adoption of the Columbia River Water Management Act, and fought to
reduce toxics in water, waste and air. In addition to
her acts as Governor, Christine Gregoire was the Director of the Department of
Ecology where she transformed the agency into a highly effective environmental
organization. With this extensive environmental resume, it seems Gregoire will
be able to contribute greatly to Obama’s current cabinet. But despite all these
accomplishments, Gregoire had huge controversy surrounding her 2004 win in
Washington. Having been the closest state election in history, Gregoire had an
approval rating of only 40%.
Hagel’s strange nomination has many people voicing their
concerns about Obama’s future decisions regarding his cabinet. Gregoire’s
nomination seems to soothe some minds, but will it continue? With many more positions
to fill, will President Obama make proper decisions, based on merit? Or will he
seek to pacify concerns about having a diverse cabinet?
1 comment:
As we discussed in class, it helps a president's image if he can get minorities appointed to his cabinet. It would give him more support among those groups. Though, as Obama himself is our first black president, I doubt anybody would seriously accuse him of being racist or of discriminating against other minorities.
I would be pleased if Obama chose to add more women to his current Cabinet. However, I do not think the criticism about Obama's Caucasian male appointees is justified. If the people are well qualified for the job, they should be appointed. It would not work for the Cabinet to be diverse but full of unqualified members that would be unable to assist the president properly for his second term.
Obviously, the Republicans are going to keep "voicing their concerns" over Obama's nominees regardless of their qualifications. Hagel himself has Republican ties, though there could be legitimate concerns about his views beyond mere political gridlock.
Nevertheless, I feel that Obama's cabinet nominees will be qualified for the job and will serve our country competently. Hopefully he will be able to fill up the other positions soon enough because various crises are going on at the moment. However, I would not be surprised if the Republicans continued to "judge" him for this.
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