Lighter fare: Build President Obama's Cabinet!

[Tafiti]

Let's see your dream team! :bounce:


Vice President:


Secretary of State:

Secretary of Defense:

Secretary of the Treasury:

Attorney General:


Secretary of the Interior:

Secretary of Agriculture:

Secretary of Commerce:

Secretary of Labor:

Secretary of Health and Human Services:

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development:

Secretary of Transportation:

Secretary of Energy:

Secretary of Education:

Secretary of Veteran Affairs:

Secretary of Homeland Security:


White House Chief of Staff:

EPA Administrator:

Director of OMB:

Drug Czar:

U.S. Trade Rep.:


Bonus - Press Secretary:

[SteppingRazor]

1. OK, I'll play. Had to do some research for this post, but I got one for every position:

Vice President: Bill Richardson


Secretary of State: Joe Biden (with his Senate seat, in a ridiculous act of hubris and nepotism, going to the current state A.G. of Delaware :) )

Secretary of Defense: Wes Clark

Secretary of the Treasury: James K. Galbraith (the son of the more-famous, but sadly deceased, James K. Galbraith)

Attorney General: John Edwards


Secretary of the Interior: Gene Karpinski, currently the president of the League of Conservation Voters.

Secretary of Agriculture: David Morris, vice-chair of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, director of the New Rules project, and a heavy anti-corporate farming advocate.

Secretary of Commerce: Alex Nicholls, currently serving as the first lecturer on social entrepreneurship at Oxford University. Huge fair trade advocate. And besides, it'd be fun to have one cabinet member with a stuffy British accent. :)

Secretary of Labor: Andrew Stern, president of the SEIU and founder (in part) of the Change to Win Federation.

Secretary of Health and Human Services: Elizabeth Edwards (Job one in this branch under a Democratic administration will be getting health care for every American. I can't think of any better person to symbolize that mission. ... besides, having a married couple in the cabinet would, like the British accent mentioned previously, be kinda cool.)

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: Jeff Robinson, treasurer of the Low-Income Housing Institute AND president of the Martin Luther King Housing Development Association

Secretary of Transportation: Maryland state sec. of transportation John Porcari -- under his leadership, the Maryland Transit Authority has become the first in the nation to make real steps toward a high-speed maglev train, which will connect Baltimore and D.C. This country is in dire need of innovative answers to our dearth of mass transit, especially in busy commuting areas like the Baltimore-to-D.C. corridor.

Secretary of Energy: Julia Judd, the executive director of SEPA, the Solar Electric Power Association.

Secretary of Education: Reg Weaver, president of the NEA

Secretary of Veteran Affairs: Rep. Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania, retired admiral, member of the House Armed Services Committee and, if we're talking about an Obama administration, also a noted Hillary supporter. It'd be nice to have a few of those.

Secretary of Homeland Security: former Sen. Bob Graham.

White House Chief of Staff: David Plouffe ... why not?

EPA Administrator: Mary D. Nichols (an EPA assistant administrator under Clinton, currently head of California's Air Resources Board under Gov. Arnold, which paints her as being able to work with both parties despite the fact that she's definitely an environmentalist.)

Director of OMB: Some Blue Dog Democrat. Maybe Rep. Melissa Bean of Illinois. Give a nod to the Blue Dogs, by taking advantage of their propensity for fiscal restraint while also making sure they're in a position that has no real determining factor in overall policy.

Drug Czar: None. In my dream world, Obama ends the war on drugs as soon as he gets into office.

U.S. Trade Rep.: Barbara Fiorito, chairwoman of the board of directors of FLO, the international fair trade organization, since 2006. Before that, she was the chair of Oxfam, 2000-05.


Bonus - Press Secretary: The reanimated corpse of Hunter S. Thompson -- hey, it would make press briefings interesting again!

[Tafiti]

3. Nice work! That would be a kick-ass Executive Branch.

My thoughts on VP plus the "Big 4" were: Biden VP, Bill Richardson SS, Wes Clark SD, Joseph Stiglitz ST, and Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. AG. I also thought of RFK, Jr. for Sec. of Interior, but Karpsinki is an excellent call. On Sec. of HHS, I don't know if Elizabeth would accept, given her health. Maybe stick John in there instead?

I also think Plouffe would be a fine Chief of Staff - that position more than any other will be occupied by someone he knows well and is comfortable with.

I completely agree on the Drug Czar, though that's a second term agenda. ;)

My press secretary pick: Keith Olbermann

Anyway, great list. This is what I hoped to see. :thumbsup:

[Terran]

5. Great choices

And I'm with you on Drug Czar--that was my first thought reading down the OP's list: "Why do we need a friggin Drug Czar at all?"

And Hunter Thompson, rofl!

[Hippo_Tron]

13. I vote Cheech and Chong for Co-Drug Czars

[BlooInBloo]

14. Press Secretary: Rachel Maddow.

[Bucky]

2. For Criminy's sake, quit naming John Edwards for AG. He's not interested in that job.

Vice President: Wes. Duh-uh.


Secretary of State: Joe Biden.

Secretary of Defense: Thomas P.M. Barnett

Secretary of Health and Human Services: This is where John Edwards should be.

Secretary of Homeland Security: Bill Richardson. This is the only job in government he hasn't held

White House Chief of Staff: Oprah Winfrey. You think I'm kidding.

EPA Administrator: Al Gore

Drug Czar: Tommy Chong

Bonus - Press Secretary: Phil Donohue

[SteppingRazor]

4. Really? Because I've seen quite a few articles like this one:

John Edwards: Open To Vice President, Interested In Attorney General

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/15/john-edwards-open-to-vice_n_101873.html

[Imagevision]

30. Fitzgerald would make an excellant Attorney general

[SteppingRazor]

6. Kicking because I can't believe I'm the only one o' you bastids that filled this whole thing out.

:P

[Tafiti]

7. Ya know...

I tried to throw in something fun to do as an alternative to the usual bullshit that's been going on in this forum for a couple months now.

Oh well, I tried. :)

[Richard Steele]

19. You know, SR, I took a whack at it, but I just couldn't finish the thing. Here's why:

All of the names that pop into my head for those positions
are Dems that are currently in Congress.
And I really believe that we need them right where they are now;
that it would be a mistake to move them any time soon.

And I'm just not familiar enough with Democrats outside DC
to fill that entire list.

I like the idea of Edwards as AG, if he'd accept it.
Bill Richardson seems like he'd bring a lot to the table,
but I don't know where I'd put him.

And a few of those slots leave me with no ideas at all- not even poor ones. :shrug:

Sorry.

Richard

[SteppingRazor]

22. Yeah, that is a definite problem. My own list has one Senator and one Representative...

and while the Senator, Biden, would be replaced with a Democrat, the Representative, Sestak, would be replaced with a Democrat that could very easily lose re-election in a fairly conservative district. It's certainly a worry when compiling any list of potential cabinet members.

On edit: Possibly two reps, if we go with Rep. Bean for OMB. And she's also in a fairly conservative district. I definitely tried to avoid congresspeople when coming up with the list, but it ain't easy.

[Coexist]

28. I know how you feel.

[Leopolds Ghost]

8. Maker's Mark, Jack in the Black, Beefeater Gin, Triple Sec, Myers Rum, Martini & Rossi, Svedka Vodka

Ooops, you said Lighter Fare!

Well, ok...

Rock Creek Ginger Ale, Diet Cherry Chocolate Dr. Pepper, Moxie, Sun Drop, Simply Lemonade, and Cel-Ray Soda.

[SteppingRazor]

10. .

:spank:

[Leopolds Ghost]

18. Martini & Rossi as Secretary of Commerce & Treasury, respectively.

They are good to have in discussions involving money.

[SteppingRazor]

20. And clearly Jack Daniel's, as the premier fermented-grain whiskey in the country...

should be Sec. of Agriculture.

[Bad Thoughts]

9. I think we should call National Security Advisor

It's at least as powerful as Sec/State.

[SteppingRazor]

12. How powerful the NSA is seems to have varied wildly depending on the administration, no?

As for me, I think I would just snuff the whole damn position. We've got secretaries of Defense, Homeland Security, and State. We've got the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the National Intelligence Director. What the hell's the point of the NSA?

[Bad Thoughts]

16. Snuff it out if you will

But it is the most important non-cabinet, advisory post, at times more powerful than Defense, State and Homeland Security by virtue of being able to tie all together and set the tenor of political and military engagement.

[SteppingRazor]

17. Oh, I totally agree that it can be an incredibly important post, but...

it seems to me that if anyone should be tying together Defense, State and Homeland Security and setting the tenor of political and military engagement, it should be the president himself.

[BlooInBloo]

21. In a nutshell, the CIA wanted to outsource eavesdropping...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Agency

[SteppingRazor]

24. We're talking about the National Security Advisor, though, not the National Security Agency.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Security_Advisor_%28United_States%29

[BlooInBloo]

25. Ooops. Nevermind!

[SteppingRazor]

26. BlooInBloo, you ignorant slut.

:P

[BlooInBloo]

27. Phew - If I got a nickel every time I heard that!

[MadBadger]

11. I'll add some names but not all cuz I havent researched

VP: Jim Webb
Sec of State: Bill Richardson
Sec of Defense: Chuck Hagel
AG: John Edwards
Chief of Staff: Tom Daschle
Press Secretary: Linda Douglass


Senior Adviser on the Environment (Unofficial Position): Al Gore

[Bad Thoughts]

15. For starters

VP: Sibelius

State: Richardson
NSA: Clark
Defense: Hagel
Ambassador to the UN: Powers

[Coexist]

23. here's a start -

Vice President: Sebelius


Secretary of State: Rice

Secretary of Defense: Hagel

Secretary of the Treasury: Bloomberg

Attorney General: Fitzgerald or Artur Davis


Secretary of the Interior: Daschle

Secretary of Agriculture: Vilsak

Secretary of Commerce: Charlene Barshefsky

Secretary of Labor: Linda Chavez-Thompson

Secretary of Health and Human Services: Edwards

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: Nicole Faison, or Vera Katz

Secretary of Transportation: Rodney Slater

Secretary of Energy: Federico Peña

Secretary of Education: Boxer

Secretary of Veteran Affairs: Webb, Cleland or Duckworth

Secretary of Homeland Security: Lugar


White House Chief of Staff: Rouse

EPA Administrator: Nader

Director of OMB: Napolitano

Drug Czar: Eliminate this position

U.S. Trade Rep.: Gephardt? I just don't know here - help me out.

UN: Gore or Powers


Bonus - Press Secretary: Olbermann (jk)

[Coexist]

29. anyone else?