July's Lowdown

July 2008, Volume 10, Number 7

Edited by Jim Hightower and Phillip Frazer

We'll send him your picks for the pyramid of power

If Obama wins, who will be on his team--and who should be?

There'll be a crush of cameras at the front door of the White House on January 20 as scores of media outlets scramble to record the moment that the new president walks in. But, wait--who're those people who'll be sliding in quietly behind him? They're the ones who'll spend the next four years whispering in the president's ear, sitting in strategy sessions, running presidential councils, filling agency slots, and pulling the levers of executive power. They'll make up "The Administration," and they'll affect everything from economic policies to war, so it's worth getting a sense of them in advance of the election.

For a clue as to what kinds of people either McCain or Obama would carry into office, look at the top campaign advisors, fund raisers, and staffers already around them, for they're likely to move right along with their man. These people both reflect and shape a president's agenda, sometimes wielding the influence to alter both the overall direction and specific substance of a presidency.

Take the corporatization of Bill Clinton's administration. He had run a populist-minded campaign in 1992, pledging to challenge corporate greed and promising to be the president of working families. Come '93, however, such corporate hands as Robert Rubin were awarded strategic positions. A prince of Wall Street who'd been one the campaign's top fund raisers, Rubin was ensconced as head of Clinton's economic council--and he served there as corporate America's inside hit man, responsible for taking populist proposals down into a dark basement and throttling them.

In his first State of the Union speech, for example, Clinton proposed that tax write-offs for a corporate CEO's bloated paycheck be limited to "only" the first million bucks. The very next night, CEOs of several major corporations swarmed Rubin at a Manhattan dinner, wailing about Clinton's "cheap populism." Rubin, who'd been a $26-million man at Goldman Sachs, definitely felt their pain, and he smoothed their ruffled feathers with these words: "That's not the real Bill Clinton."

Apparently not. With Rubin counseling that it wasn't good to make CEOs jittery, Clinton immediately dropped the idea. He never brought it up again.

"Tell me with whom you walk," goes the old adage, "and I'll tell you who you are." Who is walking with McCain and Obama? While it's fun to speculate about who might be the vice-president choices of this year's candidates (and you can join the fun on page 3), it's more instructive to rummage through the names on the campaign teams to see who might go inside with the winner. This month we'll give you a tour of Obama's brain trust, and in the August issue we'll look into the McCain campaign.


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DISCUSS THIS ARTICLE


I want the other Robert R.

One suggestion. Somewhere, anywhere, maybe reprising Secretary of Labor. The other Robert R. from Clinton's cabinet. Robert Reich. Everytime I hear his commentaries on NPR I start bouncing off my seat and hitting my head on the roof of my car in excitement!

-- posted by tovodeverett at 11:29pm, August 4, 2008
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Recommendations for Team Obama

Vice President: Gen. Wesley Clark

Attorney General: Jonathan Turley

Supreme Court: Anita Hill, Charles Ogletree

National Security Advisor: Richard Clark

CIA Director: Valerie Plame Wilson

FBI Director: Melvin Wearing, New Haven, CT Police Chief

U.S. Trade Negotiator: Rev. Jesse Jackson

EPA Administrator: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger

Surgeon General: Dr. Jocelyn Elders

Secretary of State: Gov. Bill Richardson

Secretary of Defense: Gen. Jonathan S. Gration(or Gen. Wesley Clark if not selected for VP)

Secretary of Labor: Representative Barbara Lee

Secretary of Interior: Al Gore

Secretary of Agriculture: Jim Hightower

Secretary of Veterans Affairs: David Cline

Secretary of Treasury: Gov. Jennifer Granholm

Secretary of Health and Human Services: Dr. Alvin Pouissant

FCC Chair: Christopher Hayes

FDA Commissioner: Dr. Nancy Snyderman

FEMA Director: James Witt(proven)

Chief of Staff: John Edwards

Peace and Civil/Human Rights(new): Representative Dennis Kucinich

-- posted by 192835 at 1:52pm, August 4, 2008
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Rev. Jon Shannon

Rev. Jon Shannon Webster
Birmingham, Alabama

Vice President: Janet Napolitano (Gov. AZ)
Secretary of State: Bill Richardson (Gov. NM)
Secretary of Defense: Rear Admiral Jamie Barnett
Attorney General: Rep. Artur Davis (D, AL)
Secretary of the Treasury or OMB: Hillary Clinton
Secretary of Energy: Jeff Bingaman (D, NM)
Secretary of Labor: John Edwards
Secretary of Health and Human Services: Olympia Snowe(R,ME)
Secretary of the Interior: Al Gore
Secretary of Education: Kathleen Sibelius (Gov. Kansas)
Sectary of Agriculture:Jennifer Granholm (Gov. Mich.)
Housing & Urban Development: Christopher Dodd (D, Conn)
Homeland Security: Mary Landrieu (D, LA)

-- posted by webster at 1:06pm, July 29, 2008
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Suggestions for VP and Cabinet

Vice President : Gov. Bill Richardson
Attorney General : Sen. John Edwards
Supreme Court (3) : consult with the ACLU
National Security Advisor : Richard Clarke
CIA director : Valerie Plame
FBI director : consult with the ACLU
U.S. Trade negotiator : Pres. Jimmy Carter
EPA Administrator : Robert Kennedy, Jr. or Kathleen McGinty (or other member of ApolloAlliance.org)
Surgeon General : Andrew Weil, MD
Secretary of State : Sen. Carol Moseley Braun
Secretary of Defense : Mjr Gen. Antonio Taguba
Secretary of Labor : Rep. Dennis Kucinich or Rep. Maxine Waters
Secretary of Interior : Jim Hightower
Secretary of Agriculture : Alice Waters (or other member of SlowFoodUSA.org)
Secretary of Veterans Affairs : Sen. Chuck Hagel
Secretary of Treasury : Paul Krugman
Secretary of Health : Quentin Young, MD (or other member of PNHP.org)
FCC chair : Rep. Barbara Lee
FDA commissioner : Neil D. Barnard, MD (or someone from Public Citizen.org)
FEMA director : Rep. Cynthia McKinney

-- posted by sfpcnik at 12:02pm, July 29, 2008
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Obama's cabinet

Sec'y of Education: John Edwards
Attorney General: Jonathan Turley or John Edwards
FDA: Michael F. Jacobson (great idea, Barbara)
Some position for R. Feingold, if possible.
Veep: Joe Biden

-- posted by EricksoC at 8:09pm, July 28, 2008
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21st century cabinet posts

Secretary of Energy - Al Gore
Secretary of Economy - John Edwards
Secretary of Peace - Scott A. Hunt (The Future of Peace)
Secretary of Culture - Neil Young

-- posted by Blueberry at 3:34pm, July 28, 2008
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Presidential Appointments

Barbara Rutherford Paul's picks:

VP Jim Webb

Attorney General Patricia Schroeder

Supreme Court Hillary Clinton

Secretary of State Bill Richardson

Natl Security Advisor Charles Schumer

EPA John Warner

FBI Janet Napolitano

CIA Valerie Plame

FEMA Lee Hamilton

FCC Fareed Zakaria

FDA Michael F. Jacobson

Sec. of Interior Gene Karpinski

Sec. of Peace Ron Paul

-- posted by 6681206 at 2:29pm, July 28, 2008
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Positions in the administration

by Burton W. Farber

Vice Pres: Russel Feingold

Attorney Gen'l: Jerry Brown

Supreme Court: Hillary Rodham Clinton (Chief)

FCC Chair: Jim Hightower

Sec of Labor: Leo W Gerard

Sec of Health: Howard Dean

(new) Secretary of Poverty Abatement: John Edwards

CIA Director: ________Wilson (Valerie Plame's husband)

National Security Advisor: Richard Clark

Ambassador to UN: Bill Richardson

EPA Administrator: Al Gore

Sec. of State: Dennis Kucinich

White House Press Secretary: Sarah van Gelder (Editor in Chief of "YES!" magazine)

-- posted by burtonfrb at 2:04pm, July 28, 2008
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Naming the VEEP

Wesley Clark for Vice President
Vincent Bugliosi for Attorney General
Susan Rice for Secretary of State

-- posted by vichealy at 11:25pm, July 27, 2008
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Additional Obama Appointments

SEC Chief - Kevin Phillips
Blue Ribbon Social Security Commission - Lee Iacocca
Press Secretary - Scott McClellan

-- posted by 78137 at 4:58pm, July 27, 2008
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Cabinet positions etc

Wesley Clark for one of the following: VP, Secretary of
State, Secretary of Defense. My preference is for
Vice President for several reasons. One I've not seen
mentioned is that his Army background is such that he
will offer sound advice on a variety of issues but will
defer to Obama as Commander in Chief.

Edwards as Attorney General
Clinton (Hillary) for the first vacancy on the Supreme Court. Alan Page, now on the Minnesota Supreme Court, as
the second.
Richardson as Ambassador to the UN.

Oddly, I've been saying for a long time that Kucenich should be our first Secretary of Peace. Would like to
see Russ Feingold, Biden, Dodd, and Barbara Boxer in prominent positions.

-- posted by ellen boroughf at 6:09am, July 25, 2008
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I'd like to suggest people for Obama's cabinet

Vice President, Bill Richardson
Chief of White House Staff, Bill Moyers
Secretary of Defense, Jim Webb
Secretary of Health and Human Services, Hillary Clinton
Secretary of State, Fareed Zakaria
Secretary of Labor, John Edwards
new: Secretary of the Department of the Environment, Al Gore
Secretary of the Treasury: Ron Paul

Tom Kimball
Parker, CO

-- posted by 6602917 at 9:35pm, July 23, 2008
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I'd like to suggest people for his cabinet

Secretary of State, Bill Richardson
Attorney General, John Edwards
Supreme Court, Hillary Clinton
new positions: Secretary of Peace, Dennis Kucenich
Secretary of Global Health, Al Gore

-- posted by 5122778 at 2:23pm, July 22, 2008
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