Posted at 10:02 AM ET, 11/22/2008
Fix Pick: Brooks on the Transition
New York Times columnist David Brooks is reassured by the people with whom President-elect Obama has chosen to surround himself. (By Linda Davidson -- The Washington Post)
Amid the chaos of Cabinet picks and the whirl of White House staff announcements over the past week, it's easy to lose sight of the big picture.
That big picture, simply put, is: What do the people President-elect Barack Obama appears to have chosen for his top Cabinet slots and his senior staff jobs say about what kind of chief executive he might be?
As usual, columnist David Brooks -- one of the Fix's favorite reads for his insightful takes on political life and discourse -- takes a step back from the melee and offers a terrific 10,000-foot assessment.
Brooks starts his column by noting the common educational pedigree of Obama and his inner circle (some combination of Yale, Harvard, M.I.T., and Oxford) and jokingly notes: "If a foreign enemy attacks the United States during the Harvard-Yale game any time over the next four years, we're screwed."
But, this column is not simply a screed against highly educated elites. Far from it.
Brooks writes:
"As much as I want to resent these overeducated Achievatrons (not to mention the incursion of a French-style government dominated by highly trained Enarchs), I find myself tremendously impressed by the Obama transition."
The Fix (Georgetown undergrad, School of Hard Knocks graduate degree) may not understand every word in the above sentence -- " Enarchs"?, come on! -- but Brooks's overall argument is a compelling one.
While reporters (yours truly included) are largely focused on the micro picture of the newly-leaky Obama Administration, Brooks makes the macro case that the people Obama is picking reveal in the president-elect an admirable strength in judgment and character.
"The team he has announced so far is more impressive than any other in recent memory," writes Brooks at one point; at another, he states: "The events of the past two weeks should be reassuring to anybody who feared that Obama would veer to the left or would suffer self-inflicted wounds because of his inexperience."
Because of Obama's short résumé in national office, this transition period is more crucial for him than it has been for any chief executive in recent memory. First impressions are lasting ones -- just ask former President Bill Clinton who spent the first four years of his term trying to get out from under mistakes he made in the first six months in office.
Obama, according to Brooks, is off on the right foot. But remember that picking a Cabinet nominee in winter 2008 is not the same thing as seeing them confirmed in early months of 2009. Much can -- and likely will -- change in the political landscape between now and then.
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Get This Widget >>
Posted at 04:28 PM ET, 11/21/2008
Clinton To State?
The New York Times is reporting that Hillary Rodham Clinton has decided to accept the offer from President-elect Barack Obama to serve as secretary of State.
The Obama transition team is offering no public statement and Clinton Senate spokesman Philippe Reines told the Post's Anne Kornblut: "We're still in discussions, which are very much on track. Any reports beyond that are premature."
One Clinton loyalist reached Friday wouldn't confirm that Clinton had decided to accept but did say: "It seems more likely today, versus a few days ago, that she will accept."
As we wrote late last week, there are strong arguments for and against Clinton as Secretary of State. And, whether or not Clinton has decided to accept the position as of today, there is NO dispute from either side that the process is moving in the right direction and she is almost certain to be announced post-Thanksgiving. (Yes, if you are wondering, that makes all of this back and forth today the definition of much ado about nothing.)
We want to hear from you on the prospect of Clinton as secretary of State. A good choice? A bad development? Or wait and see?
The comments section awaits.
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Posted at 01:48 PM ET, 11/21/2008
Gaspard to be White House Political Director
Patrick Gaspard, a longtime labor operative, will be the White House political director for President-elect Barack Obama, sources with knowledge of the negotiations confirmed to The Fix.
Gaspard served as national political director for much of Obama's general election campaign and was named deputy director of personnel for the transition effort. Prior to his work with Obama, Gaspard was the lead political operative for the 1199 branch of the Service Employees International Union, a huge and hugely influential union representing health care workers in New York. He spent the 2004 general election as the national field director for America Coming Together.
"Patrick is a talented leader of our union and has made an incredible contribution to workers as an organizer and a political strategist," said Anna Burger, the Secretary-Treasurer of SEIU. "We celebrate with him his new role. He's earned it and will serve our country well."
Gaspard was featured prominently in Ryan Lizza's recent New Yorker piece detailing how Obama won.
Of his job interview with the Illinois senator, Gaspard recalled Obama saying: "I think that I'm a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I'll tell you right now that I'm gonna think I'm a better political director than my political director." Following the first general election debate between Obama and John McCain, Gaspard emailed his boss to praise him as "more clutch than Michael Jordan." The Democratic nominee replied: "Just give me the ball."
With the news of Gaspard's hire, Obama has filled out much of his White House senior staff with Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel to be chief of staff, Greg Craig to be White House Counsel, Jim Messina and Mona Sutphen will be deputy chiefs of staff while Pete Rouse and David Axelrod will serve as senior advisers to the president. Robert Gibbs, one of Obama's closest confidantes, is widely expected to be White House press secretary but no announcement has been made yet by the transition team.
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Posted at 11:55 AM ET, 11/21/2008
Richardson to Commerce?
Is New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson in line to become Commerce Department chief? (AP Photo/Alexandre Meneghini)
Updated, 1:58 p.m.
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson has emerged as a "serious contender" to head the Commerce Department under President-elect Barack Obama, according to a Democratic official close to the proceedings.
Richardson was originally in the mix to be the secretary of State but Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) is now expected be announced for that post after the Thanksgiving holiday.
The rumors of Richardson as the next head of the Commerce Department bring to a close a wild week in the transition of Obama from candidate to president. In the last seven days, a series of leading Cabinet picks have been revealed including Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano to Homeland Security, former South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle to Health and Human Services, Eric Holder to Justice and, last, but certainly not least, Clinton to State.
The idea of the erstwhile rivals putting the bad blood of the primary season behind them and throwing their lots in together on the world stage has dominated the media coverage of the Obama transition since it was revealed that late last week Clinton had traveled to Chicago to meet with the President-elect.
With the major impediment -- former President Bill Clinton's finances and business relationships -- now apparently behind them, sources in both camps suggest a post-Thanksgiving announcement is likely.
Obama promised in a post-election news conference that he would move with "deliberate haste" to fill out his Cabinet and senior White House staff -- a recognition that with a global financial crisis growing by the day and the United States involved in two wars abroad there was little time to waste.
Commerce was originally rumored to be going to Penny Pritzker, the finance chairwoman of Obama's campaign and a close friend of the Illinois senator, but she removed herself from consideration on Thursday due to an inability to extricate herself from a series of complex business ties.
Richardson, who was elected governor of the Land of Enchantment in 2002 and reelected with 69 percent of the vote in 2006, has made no secret of his interest in returning to Washington to take a place in the Obama Administration. A longshot contender for the Democratic presidential nomination, Richardson endorsed Obama in his primary battle with Clinton (to the dismay of many Clinton supporters), and, if nominated for Commerce, would help round out Obama's "Team of Rivals."
Richardson spent 15 years in the U.S. House -- from 1982 to 1997 -- before being named by then President Bill Clinton as the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. A year later Richardson became Secretary of Energy in the Clinton Cabinet.
The major remaining Cabinet posts in the Obama Administration are the secretaries of Defense and Treasury.
Robert Gates, the current head of Defense Department, is r umored to be a candidate to stay on in an Obama Administration. Richard Danzig, a senior adviser to Obama and a former Secretary of the Navy, is also considered a serious possibility.
For Treasury, conventional wisdom seems to have coalesced behind former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and Timothy Geithner, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York as the top two candidates.
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Posted at 06:00 AM ET, 11/21/2008
The Friday Line: Ten Republicans To Watch
The great thing about elections is that as soon as the last one ends, the next one begins.
Everywhere the Fix goes these days -- and by everywhere we mean the office, Starbucks and the gym to play basketball -- people want to know: Who's next?
Who are the faces that will emerge to rebuild the Republican party following its decimation at the ballot box in 2006 and 2008? (The ugly totals: 54 seats lost in House, 13 seats -- at least -- in the Senate and a little thing called the White House.)
So, to slake the thirst of Fixistas across the country (heck, around the world) we are going to start ranking the 10 Republicans to keep an eye on over the coming months and years.
To be clear, this is not -- and should not be taken as -- a list of potential contenders to take on Barack Obama in 2012. Some of the people on this list will certainly be in the Republican field in four years time but others almost certainly won't.
The most notable omission is that of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. While we expect the former vice presidential nominee will be on this Line in the coming months, she doesn't make it this time around because it is not yet clear how she will find a way to remain in the national dialogue from her far-away outpost in the Last Frontier. Palin is also VERY lightly regarded by many of the opinion leaders and establishment types within the GOP, making it tougher for her to command a leading role.
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee is also not on the Line -- not because we don't think he is considering a 2012 bid (he is) but because as of today it's not clear what his niche is within the party. His fresh-faced appeal and shtick (and don't get us wrong, we love shtick) may not wear so well a second time around.
The common thread for membership on this list, which was compiled based on a series of conversations with Republican operatives and the Fix's own analysis, is that each of these individuals will have a role to play in the conversation about where the party heads between now and 2010.
Agree or disagree with our picks? Feel free to offer suggestions of your own in the comments section below.
To the Line!
10. Steve Poizner: Poizner, the Insurance Commissioner of California, has an early head-start on being the Republican nominee for governor in 2010. And, if Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D) decides not to run, Poizner's ability to self-fund a campaign coupled with his relatively short time in elected office and his outsider message could make him viable in the general election. As California goes, so goes the country.
9. Haley Barbour: There are those who mention Barbour's name for the 2012 GOP nomination. We are decidedly skeptical about that -- will the country be ready for a man who had a hand in inventing modern-day lobbying in Washington? -- but Barbour is clearly someone to watch. Remember that before he became governor of Mississippi in 2003, Barbour was one of the leading political operatives in the country and has tentacles (and acolytes) all over the country. That makes him a force to be reckoned with.
8. Jon Huntsman Jr.: As The Fix was waiting to meet with Huntsman on Thursday, CNN's Wolf Blitzer was touting him as a rising star in Republican politics. Nice convergence. Huntsman won re-election earlier this month with 78 percent (granted it was in ruby red Utah) and has the looks and re&eaccute;sum&eaccute; -- fluent in Chinese, progressive on the environment -- that could make him appealing for a party looking desperately for a different profile. Huntsman is a Mormon, however, and, as Mitt Romney demonstrated earlier this year, that could be a major problem if he decides to run for president.
Cantor's rapid rise make him one to watch in the GOP. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
7. Eric Cantor: The Virginia Republican's unfettered rise through the ranks of House leadership continued earlier this week when he was elected Minority Whip -- the second ranking position within the GOP. Cantor was among those vetted in John McCain's vice presidential search and his personal background -- a Jewish Republican -- will be intriguing for many within the party looking for something new. Cantor's problem: Is the House too small a perch from which to become a national figure?
6. Mark Sanford: South Carolina's Sanford is the newly elected chair of the Republican Governors Association, a useful job through which to raise one's national profile. Since McCain's loss earlier this month, Sanford has been a leading voice for the party to return to the principles of former President Ronald Reagan; "Some on the left will say our electoral losses are a repudiation of our principles of lower taxes, smaller government and individual liberty," wrote Sanford in an op-ed piece for CNN.com. "But Tuesday was not in fact a rejection of those principles -- it was a rejection of Republicans' failure to live up to those principles." Sanford's reform credentials are impeccable but he has, throughout his career, rubbed the party establishment wrong, which could hurt him as he seeks a broader role.
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Posted at 06:30 PM ET, 11/20/2008
Should Barack Obama Go To Georgia?
Democratic Senatorial candidate Jim Martin hugs state Sen. Nan Orrock during a rally on the Capitol steps, Monday, Nov. 3, 2008 in Atlanta. Martin is challenging incumbent Sen. Saxby Chambliss. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)
UPDATE, 6:30 pm: Barack Obama has cut a new 60-second radio ad in support of former state Rep. Jim Martin's Senate campaign in Georgia. In the ad, which was obtained by The Fix moments ago, Obama thanks everyone who voted for him on November 4 and then adds: "The elections aren't over....I want to urge you to turn out one more time and help elect Jim Martin to the United States Senate."
A radio ad is not a personal visit by the president-elect but Martin's campaign will gladly take it.
ORIGINAL POST
Even as President-elect Barack Obama continues to rapidly fill out his White House staff and Cabinet picks, the buzz around whether he will spend some of his prized political capital on behalf of former state Rep. Jim Martin (D) in Georgia continues to grow.
Martin is taking on Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R) in a Dec. 2 runoff occasioned by the fact that the GOP incumbent was unable to win 50 plus one percent of the vote on Nov. 4.
Martin clearly benefited from Obama's presence at the top of the ticket -- particularly in the black community -- and Democrats eyeing a 60-seat filibuster proof majority believe an Obama appearance may be the only way Martin can come close to re-creating the sort of base turnout he needs to beat Chambliss next month.
To date, Obama and his transition team have been non-committal about such a visit so soon after he was elected the 44th president of the United States.
For Obama, it may not make sense to head to Georgia as it would be painted by Republicans -- rightly, so -- as a partisan act inconsistent with the president-elect's post-partisan message. And, if Martin winds up losing, which conventional wisdom suggests he will, then some of Obama's luster will have worn off before he even takes the oath of office.
But, with Democrats currently holding 58 seats, Sen. Norm Coleman's (Minn.) margin over entertainer Al Franken narrowing and polls showing Martin within shouting distance, the pressure on Obama to make a visit to get Democrats to 60 seats in the 111th Congress is sure to increase.
"When you're President of the United States it pays to remember who your friends are," said one senior Democratic operative granted anonymity to speak candidly about the president-elect. "Thinking Barack Obama has anything to risk by campaigning for Jim Martin is like most conventional wisdom -- just plain wrong."
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Posted at 04:00 PM ET, 11/20/2008
A Thousand Words: The Winners
Alaska Republican Sen. Ted Stevens. AP Photo by Gerald Herbert
Earlier this week, we asked Fixistas for their best captions to the photo above of Sen. Ted Stevens (R) who, on his 85th birthday Wednesday (Stevens' birthday was Tuesday, not Wednesday. We stand corrected.) officially conceded his re-election race to Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich (D).
We had more than 100 entries to our "a picture is worth a thousand words" competition, and there were a number that caused the old Fix to chuckle out loud. (That could have something to do with the fact that we are currently wacky on cough medicine as well.)
Our favorite came from Bondosan who realized that brevity is the soul of wit with this caption: "Baked Alaska." GENIUS!
The others who made the finals are below. Thanks to everyone who participated!
"I can see the federal prison from my kitchen window."
Posted by: tobetv
"Son of a Begich."
Posted by: Jindal2012
"All together everyone!! happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you..."
Posted by: formerlylove
"My career isn't going down in a truck. It's going down in a series of tubes!"
Posted by: chicobangs
"Worst....birthday.....EVER."
Posted by: RookNYC
Posted by Chris Cillizza | Permalink | Comments (4)
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