Washington Post columnist Al Kamen has an excellent article on the current state of the Obama appointments in Tuesday’s edition (16 December), including the nominees’ break down in terms of geography, academic background (Harvard anyone?), demographics (boy they’re young), and political party. Despite the prospects of pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy through transportation spending, transportation secretary prospects are not even in the discussion!
With five days to go before President-elect Barack Obama jets to Hawaii for his Christmas vacation, just a handful of his Cabinet-level posts remain open. Based on the race so far, here’s how the slate looks as Obama tries to assemble a diverse administration of nominees from various political constituencies. Obama has tapped three African Americans, two Asian Americans and one Latino, and look for the president-elect to pick a Latino for at least one of the remaining posts. His transition team has assured the politically powerful community that he will have at least two Latinos in the Cabinet, but thus far he has named just one: New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, for commerce secretary. Men outnumber women in the Cabinet by more than 2 to 1, so count on Obama to tap more women to accompany the four already nominated: Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton for secretary of state, Susan E. Rice for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano for secretary of homeland security and New Jersey official Lisa P. Jackson for administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.