President-Elect Obama's Team Has a History of Getting Things Done
President-elect Barack Obama has selected his cabinet and assembled most of his senior White House staff, and as Inauguration Day approaches, he is ready, as one of his senior aides says, to "hit the ground running." The social topography of any administration is always a good guide to how a new chief executive will govern, and that's certainly true in Obama's case. He is surrounding himself with a diverse combination of centrists and liberals, experienced Washington players and newcomers to the capital, and loyalists from his campaign and people he barely knows—all with the goal of delivering results as quickly as possible. In this series, U.S. News looks at Obama's team and explores what it will mean for governing the country.
The action officers. Obama will have no shortage of hard-charging staffers at his side—people with a history of getting things done. The question will be how much he can control them and whether they can get along when they disagree. They include Hillary Clinton, who knows her way around the government as a senator from New York and former first lady, and who is a popular figure around the world. Another is Robert Gates, the Pentagon chief who is being held over from the administration of George W. Bush. Another action officer will be Susan Rice, the designated U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and a strong advocate of aggressive diplomacy and international cooperation to carry out America's objectives abroad.
On domestic issues, Attorney General-designate Eric Holder will push Obama's liberal ideas on a wide range of legal and constitutional issues, including abortion, affirmative action, the death penalty, gun control, fighting crime, and gay rights. Most other cabinet officers are considered in the same mold, what Democratic pollster and former Bill Clinton adviser Stan Greenberg calls "solution oriented" leaders who will work tirelessly for Obama's goals. They include the officers in charge of homeland security, energy, the environment, public lands, education, and housing and urban development.
- Read more about Obama's team.
- Read more about Obama's gatekeepers.
- Read more by Kenneth T. Walsh.
Reader Comments
Cities Financial Stimulus Request Has too much PORK
Cities Mayor’s Bailout Requests has Pork
January 17, 2009
Part of the bailout package is suppose to be used to produce jobs by being applied to repair and/or build much needed roads, bridges and schools infrastructure in the United States; should not be spent on non-essential “pork items”. There is a lot of non-essential pork in the requests made by cities Mayors that should not be funded and should be scrubbed from their requests. My research has revealed a number of items that are questionable; many of which should be considered as non-essential pork and not be funded in a “bailout package”. The following items only represent a small sample of the numerous requests made for 641 cities.
Alabama:
Bessemer Projects: renovate Frank House Golf Course, Dolonah Quarry Municipal Park, Festival Fields and Park Community Center and other park improvements totaling $18.6-million.
Huntsville Projects: Lowe Mill and Terry Heights neighborhood parks $1-million, Eastside Recreation Facility $3-million, Southside Recreation Facility $4-million, Northside Recreation Facility $4-million.
Mobile Projects: Public safety for police budgeting to increase personnel $15.5-million, establish Mobile Housing Board $18-million, public safety-fire-rescue $86.75-million.
Anchorage, Alaska: $30.7-million on the following projects Harry J. McDonald Center, Kid’s Corps Building, Mid-Town Park, Mountain View Arts & Culture Center, Loussac Library and bus replacement and may be others.
Miami, Florida $3.4 billion: Orange Bowl parking garage $94-million, Virginia Key Beach Museum, $25-million, Legion Park Building $20-million, , Gibson Park $20.8-million, Museum Park construction $70-million, Community Center $9.5-million, soccer field $1.38-million, new park aqua center $10-million, Fern Island park site improvements $10-million, new Virrick Park aqua center $10-million, Arts-Culture Center/Library $12-million, new building projects in four parks $225,770/$500,000/ $776,700/$900,000 and more than $46-million in other park projects and list goes on.
Goodyear, Arizona: El Rio Riparin Park & Trail System $20-million, personnel staffing of software, School Resource Officers and Police/Fire Administration $14.6million. If allotted, how would the city provide the future required reoccurring costs?
Brockton, Mass: 30 Police Cruisers $1.05-million, 10 Police Motorcycles $300,000.
Annapolis, Maryland: New recreation center $13-million.
Texas:
Arlington: Expand tennis center $4-million.
Euless: Midway Park Family Life Center $15-million.
La Port: Life Style Center $7.6-million.
Henderson, Nev: $20 million to help develop a 60-acre sports field complex.
Hercules, Calif. : Waterfront Duck Pond Park $2.5-million.
Natchez, Miss: Sports Complex $9.5-million.
The items listed are only the tip of the iceberg; that is why these requests should be carefully investigated and scrutinized to identify non-essential pork that should be eliminated from the U.S. Conference of Mayor’s request for funds. Scrutiny, Oversight and accountable of any bailout funds provided are the responsibility of the Executive and Legislative branches of government; something that was lacking in the initial $350 billion package. These are not private funds; they are American tax-payers money. I believe the majority of Americans would be willing to make sacrifices to overcome our economic problems, and suffering of millions of citizens, if our President elect and Lawmakers exercised prudence, sensibility and wisdom in actions taken to resolve the problems.
Source: U.S. Conference of Mayor’s ready-to-go infrastructure plan to spur national economy.
Darrell W. Weston, 3491 W. Daffodil Dr., Beverly Hills, Florida 34465, (352) 527-4449
Gays
I am so tired of gays comparing their plight to that of the civil rights movement. Gays brothers and sisters were not forced to work in the cotton fiels they were not forced to have babies by their slave masters and they were certainly not held under bondage for 300 years. I am also tired of that crap that if you don't agree with them on their issues that you are anti gay. I happen to believe that mem haing sex with men and women having with women is a life style choice. I don't recall seeing two cows trying to hump each other or two pigs. Same sex seems to be limited to Human Being
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