Penny Pritzker’s Out of the Running for Commerce Secretary, Napolitano Looks Good for Homeland Security
Well, there WERE three women prominently mentioned as Obama cabinet appointees until today. In one of the more bizarre episodes surrounding President-elect Obama's picks, one of his closest aides and top confidantes from way back, Penny Pritzker, pulled her own name out of the running for Commerce Secretary before the position had been officially offered:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Chicago businesswoman Penny Pritzker said on Thursday she was not a candidate to serve as commerce secretary in President-Barack Obama's administration.
"Speculation has grown that I am a candidate for Secretary of Commerce. I am not. I think I can best serve our nation in my current capacity: building businesses, creating jobs and working to strengthen our economy," Pritzker said in a statement.
CNN had reported on Wednesday that Pritzker, a billionaire heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune and a close Obama ally, was his pick for commerce but later media reports said she feared her business dealings could complicate the confirmation process.
Business dealings certainly have not caused the Clintons to hesitate their push for Obama to nominate Sen. Clinton as Secretary of State. Still in the running also is tough-talking Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano (D). According to The Washington Post:
Napolitano (D), a border-state governor whose handling of immigration and homeland security issues brought her accolades from fellow governors, (as) President-elect Barack Obama's choice to serve as secretary of homeland security, Democratic sources said yesterday.
Napolitano, 50, was an early supporter of Obama and was the only sitting governor and current elected official tapped to serve on his 12-member transition advisory board.
I have had the pleasure of interviewing Gov. Napolitano many times and she is scary smart and one tough person. I'd always wished she'd run for president herself, but that was not to be. Meanwhile DailyKos.com wishes Napolitano would remain in her home state and take on John McCain when his term ends, citing a poll the website sponsored last month:
If the 2010 election for U.S. Senate were held today for whom would you vote for if the choices were between Janet Napolitano the Democrat and John McCain the Republican?
McCain (R) 45 Napolitano (D) 53
Tags: Janet Napolitano | Obama administration
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Reader Comments
Mountain Woman
Thanks for a spirited argument. We may not agree, but I value your input.
Holly, no, that 's not the logical conclusion of my argument
The President has a much larger and different role than a Secretary of State. Further my argument is specific to this time and given the current issues facing the Secretary of State. I did not say that we should keep women out of international politics. In fact, my argument is that we should have more women involved in truly setting policy. I am only arguing that selecting a woman to be the primary face dealing with the Arab leaders to get us through the fiasco in Iraq is not culturally sensitive, diminishes our effectiveness in the process, and gives the impression of an arrogant insistence on pushing our values on a part of the world that has a much different culture. We need to change our image of extreme arrogance on the world stage; paying attention to details in specific instances would help a lot.
By the way, I agree wholeheartedly with your comments about Hillary Clinton following the blog entitled "Hillary Clinton to State or Senate Leadership." I am not a fan of Senator Clinton, and I do believe that she is not owed anything. Yet I lived through her previous attempts at health care reform (I work in the field) and have great trepidation about her role in further health care reform as well. Chelsea should get some experience before she goes for the Senate; she'll be better in the long run--and it will be much better for the country.
Mountain Woman
So, following your logic, we should not have a woman as president, so as to be sensitive to the beliefs of others. Please. I'm truly sorry that this difference in opinion exsists in regards to the role that women play in different places, but we can't simply keep women out of roles they are qualified and needed in to asuage certain people. Giving a pair of boots with the map of China on it to a Chinese leader is indeed stupid. Respecting their dislike of feet is hardly the same as keeping an entire sex out of international politics.
In keeping with tolerance, and in order to further diplomacy,we accept how a number of these cultures treat the female population.And I'm not talking about the arrogance we as a culture expressed when there was an uproar over burka's. Should we cater to the extreme and exclude women from our end? No.
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