During the election, the McCain campaign attempted to taint Obama's record of stepping across the aisle during his three years in the Senate. Obama responded to the attacks by citing legislation he authored or cosponsored with Republican Senators Coburn, Lugar, Brownbacke, Hatch, and Inhofe to name a few. As Commander in Chief, bipartisanship will prove even more important, especially after the alienation incurred by the Bush administration.
This expectation is not novel. Obama called for a "different kind of politics" over the 21 month campaign and he said in victory speech: "Let us resist the temptation to fall back on the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics for so long."
With all of the recent talk surrounding appointments within the administration, I appreciate the sustained claims from Obama and his surrogates that his White House will reflect his commitment to bipartisanship. This will also the necessary action behind a candidate who values pragmatism over stubborn. Identical to to Lincoln's appointment of political rivals, Obama has seemed ready and will certainly emulate this action in the upcoming weeks.
His transition team is doing a superb job of emphasizing Obama's commitment to appointing the best people for the respective positions. Valerie Jarrett said yesterday on Meet the Press:
"I think that, in a sense, putting together the Cabinet is like a jigsaw puzzle, and he wants to make sure that it represents the diversity of our country, diversity in perspectives, diversity in race, diversity in geography. And so all of those pieces are going to come together. And he will pick the best person for each position," Jarrett said."
Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel echoed Jarrett hours later on Face the Nation saying:
"The challenges are big enough that there's going to be an ability for people of both parties, as well as independents, to contribute ideas to help meet the challenges on health care, energy, tax reform, education."
The mentioning of Gates, Lugar, Hagel, and maybe even McCain as potential members of his cabinet and/or future is impressive. Lugar seems the most realistic because of the relationship between the Indiana Senator and Obama in the past. In addition, Obama seems content in working with Chairmen Bernanke and Mullen until at least 2009 and Director Mueller until at least 2011.
Hopefully this will be one of the many promises that President Obama follows through on in the coming months.
In the meantime, I need to start reading Doris Kearns Goodwin's book Team of Rivals. She details the story of Lincoln and his decision to include rivals in his cabinet.
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2 comments:
Despite President-elect Obama's commitment to bipartisan leadership, his track record thus far has been lackluster. Despite his general election campaign to moderates, Obama's record all along has been one of far-left ideology. The only Republican that he has nominated so far is the current Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates. I would argue that the only reason he left Secretary Gates in power is because our country is engaged in two extremely difficult wars in the Middle East. In an effort to minimize confusion during the transition he left a crucial member of Bush's cabinet. I would argue that this is an act of necessity, not bipartisanship. So far, Obama is full of it. I hope he proves his current track record wrong.
Immediately following the election, many conservatives were fearful on whether Obama would govern from the far left, or more in the middle. So far, I believe the intellectual "Team of Rivals" Obama has assembled suggest the latter. Unlike HP, I feel keeping Gates on as Secretary of Defense was an important step to bridging the bi-partisan gap. Obama has always been against the war, yet he has chosen to work alongside someone who disagrees, but is the most qualified and knowledgeable when it comes to the current situation in Iraq. More importantly though, I feel Obama's decision in Hillary as Secretary of Defense was a larger indicator that the President-elect choses to work with the most capable rather than who he personally favors. For the past 8 years we have had a President who appoints based on personal reasons (i.e. Harriet Miers, Dick Cheney) instead of those that would have done a more critical job. I am pleased with the selections thus far, and hope that Obama continues down this effective path.
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