Obama Would Pick Republicans For Cabinet?
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in 2008 Election, Barack, Military, Republicans
He’s apparently leaving the possibility open, and Times Online has more…
Senior advisers confirmed that Hagel, a highly decorated Vietnam war veteran and one of McCain’s closest friends in the Senate, was considered an ideal candidate for defence secretary. Some regard the outspoken Republican as a possible vice-presidential nominee although that might be regarded as a “stretch”.Asked about his choice of cabinet last week, Obama told The Sunday Times: “Chuck Hagel is a great friend of mine and I respect him very much,” although he was wary of appearing as though he was already choosing the White House curtains. But after winning 11 primary contests in a row after Super Tuesday, he is ready to elbow Clinton off the stage.
Here’s what one expert thinks…
Larry Korb, a defence official under President Ronald Reagan who is backing Obama, said: “By putting a Republican in the Pentagon and the State Department you send a signal to Congress and the American people that issues of national security are above politics.”Korb recalled that President John F Kennedy appointed Robert McNamara, a Republican, as defence secretary in 1961. “Hagel is not only a Republican but a military veteran who would reassure the troops that there was somebody in the Pentagon who understood their hopes, concerns and fears,” he said.
Well, let’s look at McNamara for a moment. By his own admission, his judgement ultimately turned out to be poor on Vietnam, which was the biggest decision of his career. So while we can talk about having Republicans in the White House, I want to make sure the frame on this isn’t just about having a few token Republicans. At the end of the day, it should be the best person for the job. And after the Bush years, I think whoever the President is, they should be picking people who will disagree with them. I don’t care if they’re a Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, etc. I only care that they want to do the best job they can for our country, not just our President.
Thoughts?
This entry was posted on Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, Barack, Military, Republicans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
March 2nd, 2008 at 10:58 am
Good on several levels:
1) The best person should get the job, period.
2) He’d be backing up his message of bipartisanship and unity.
3) Plucking popular Republican senators out of Congress could help build a majority.
March 2nd, 2008 at 1:21 pm
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March 2nd, 2008 at 2:33 pm
More recently, President Clinton appointed moderate Republican William Cohen as Defense secretary, a very good choice as it turned out.
Hagel might be good in that job, too. I’ve already said the next president should consider keeping Bill Gates on at Defense. He’s the one really good appointment Bush ever made, and is doing a good job under very trying circumstances. If he’d be willing, Sen. John Warner would also be a natural in that post.
As far as choosing Hagel for vice president, no, no, no. Nothing doing, unless Hagel is willing to switch parties, which seems unlikely. Hagel as V.P. might set Obama’s good friend up for a presidential run in eight years. If he was successful, we would have another GOP administration and all the never-ending crap that goes with it — even if Hagel himself is a basically decent guy.
Besides, that’s no way for Obama to treat all the loyal Democrats who are supporting him with everything they’ve got. There are plenty of topnotch Democrats who would make an excellent vice president. The names Edwards, Dodd and Daschle spring to mind.
March 2nd, 2008 at 4:35 pm
The job of the President is to put in place the most qualified person for the job. Party be damned. By having a bi-partisan cabinet, Barack would move this country by leaps and bounds forward in our efforts to eliminate partisan politics. We are the United States of America, not the United States of Democrats.
March 2nd, 2008 at 8:19 pm
Pdx632, looking back over the last almost eight years, this country would be a lot better off it was the United States of Democrats.
Republicans’ record of lying, cheating, trampling the Constitution, violating statutory law, corruption, cover-ups and the grossest incompetence in U.S. history cause me and many others to think intelligent choices based in part on party make good sense.
It never ceases to amaze me, in our current situation, when people talk up putting an end to partisanship. Now that we have screwups, setbacks and messes as far as the eye can see, all of them made by the most rabidly partisan pack of jackals in a century, we’re all supposed to join hands and march together toward some middle-of-the-road Utopia where never is heard a discouraging or partisan word.
That’s not going to happen because most Americans are smarter than that. They know they’ve been screwed over and they know who did it.
This sudden insistence on bipartisanship comes off the way it would have if Hitler, when the Red Army and Allied forces were closing in on his underground bunker, had proposed just stopping the fighting and letting bygones be bygones.
March 2nd, 2008 at 9:10 pm
I don’t believe it for a minute, but if Obama were to commit to putting Hagel in the SecDef role, I’d jump on the bandwagon. Hagel fills in Obama’s experience gap nicely.
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:26 pm
I’m all for it. I highly doubt we’d see Hagel as a VP, but SecDef makes a lot of sense. Bill Gates may have been a good choice, but I’m inclined to say Hagel would be a better one, if for no other reason than that it removes all doubt that we’ll get “more of the same”. As for S.W. Anderson’s concern about Hagel being set up for a presidential run in 8 years, well, frankly, I’d love to see Hagel run. I’m voting for Obama because I think character and judgement are more important than ideology, and I would vote for Hagel for the exact same reason.