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Minority Advocates Watching Obama

More news stories on Barack Obama

Michael D. Shear, Washington Post, November 29, 2008

Barack Obama’s friend and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett likens the effort of piecing together a Cabinet for the president-elect to assembling a puzzle. The co-chair of his transition, John D. Podesta, promised that his team will “keep our eye on the ball” as it attempts to balance racial diversity, gender and ideology in building a White House operation and stocking the Cabinet.

The president-elect has already signaled that he will make a number of historic appointments. Obama is poised to nominate the first black attorney general and one of the nation’s highest-profile women as its chief diplomat. A Hispanic governor is the leading candidate to become commerce secretary.

But as Jarrett recognized early, every appointment he makes to the 15-member Cabinet reduces by one the opportunities he has to make sure another group is represented. It is a zero-sum game that leaves presidents with little wiggle room.

{snip}

The NAACP and other groups are watching Obama’s appointments closely, an example of the scrutiny under which the new president is already operating. Jealous [Ben Jealous, president of the NAACP] said his group wants Obama to appoint leaders at the departments of Justice, Labor, Education and Health and Human Services who will actively enforce the nation’s civil rights laws.

{snip}

Women’s groups are hoping to build on the progress that Obama has already appeared to make, with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) the all-but-certain secretary of state and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano the nominee for secretary of homeland security.

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius (D), an early Obama supporter, is being considered for agriculture. Tammy Duckworth, the Iraq war veteran who lost both legs in that conflict, could be the next secretary of veterans affairs. Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm (D) might end up as the secretary of energy. And several women are potential choices to head up the Environmental Protection Agency.

{snip}

“Groups that are concerned with racial and gender diversity are certainly wise to keep the pressure on,” said Paul C. Light, a professor of public policy at New York University. But he said questions of diversity among Obama’s closest confidants should go beyond those characteristics to include their worldview, their educational background, their work history and their ideological allegiances.

On those scores, it is less clear that Obama is building a diverse team. The individuals who are known are experienced politicians who would be familiar to anyone studying administrations of the past. None represents the kind of radical break from the government as usual that some of Obama’s supporters expected.

“This is not a team of rivals as much as it is a team of experienced Washington insiders,” Light said.

Obama addressed that concern directly at a news conference on Wednesday, defending his decision to tap establishment figures—especially for his economic team—by saying that the members of his Cabinet need experience to tackle the big problems facing the nation.

He said people looking for change from his administration should not focus too closely on his Cabinet choices.

{snip}

Hispanics are hoping to see representation beyond New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D), who is the leading candidate to become commerce secretary. In addition to Labor, Villaraigosa is thought to be in the running to lead the department of Housing and Urban Development. Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) is a leading candidate to be secretary of the interior.

But Obama will ultimately be judged by the broader swath of appointments he makes, including his White House staff, the senior-level staff around the secretaries and the other political appointees who fill the agencies.

Already, Obama has made appointments that have been well received by groups that are pushing for diversity. This week, he appointed Cecilia Muñoz as the White House director of intergovernmental affairs. Muñoz is a senior vice president at the National Council of La Raza.

{snip}

Original article

(Posted on December 1, 2008)

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Comments

1 — Superman wrote at 6:26 PM on December 1:

Not just “Washington insiders” (also known as “hacks”) but a lot of Clinton appointee retreads.
So much for “change”.

2 — Winston Smith wrote at 6:54 PM on December 1:

QUOTE: “Obama addressed that concern directly at a news conference on Wednesday, defending his decision to tap establishment figures—especially for his economic team—by saying that the members of his Cabinet need experience to tackle the big problems facing the nation.”

LOL!!! Obama says that “the members of his Cabinet need experience to tackle the big problems facing the nation.” I don’t even have to point out the obvious irony here.

3 — Anonymous wrote at 8:37 PM on December 1:

“Already, Obama has made appointments that have been well received by groups that are pushing for diversity. This week, he appointed Cecilia Muñoz as the White House director of intergovernmental affairs. Muñoz is a senior vice president at the National Council of La Raza.”

The USA is so done. Who would have ever dreamed we would have an officer of a racial hate group as the “White House director of intergovernmental affairs”? I wonder if the white race traitors who voted for Obama will ever see the damage they have done to this once great country.


4 — John PM wrote at 8:38 PM on December 1:

“Obama addressed that concern directly at a news conference on Wednesday, defending his decision to tap establishment figures—especially for his economic team—by saying that the members of his Cabinet need experience to tackle the big problems facing the nation.”

Experience, “to tackle the big problems facing the nation,” who needs that?

What we need is “hope” and “change,” you have just spent over a year telling us that Comrade Obama.

This whole situation is so morbidly laughable, if I were not actually living through it, I would be wetting myself in spasms of jocund hysteria at the sheer absurd idiocy of it all. Comrade Obama is in exactly the situation that Mr. Jared Taylor and many others predicted he would be in, if he should win the Rainbow House. However, it is starting much quicker then he or anyone else might have imagined, up to and including Comrade Obama.

No matter what he does, he will be seen as a “sellout,” by one radical racially oriented or Marxist interest group or another, simply because in order to survive his first four years he will have to put utopia on hold. With the collection of Mau Maus and dope dizzied dreamers that made up his coalition, this does not work; they want nirvana yesterday, not tomorrow.

And each one of them, has unrealistic expectations as to what that nirvana “should be” and how best to get to it.

In the end, I think that sets us all up for the most excruciating irony of all; that the political right of this country (even including some or even most race realists) will have a grudgingly caustic sympathy for this fool, as he is hoist on his own diversity petard.

Much similar to that which we found for Comrade Hillary so unexpectedly, as she crashed and burned in the primaries.

As always, God help us all!

5 — pbl wrote at 9:22 PM on December 1:

Obama will make use of white talent for key economic and foreign policy positiions, while giving other jobs on an AA basis. And of course, the legal staff will be dark-hued and vengeful because THEY will be there to extort US.

6 — Dave wrote at 11:31 PM on December 1:

The president-elect has already signaled that he will make a number of historic appointments. Obama is poised to nominate the first black attorney general and one of the nation’s highest-profile women as its chief diplomat.

And coming after a Hispanic Attorney General, and a female AND black Secretary of State, this is historic how, exactly? Christie Whitman was previously the EPA Secretary as well. Obama’s choices are clearly driven by ideology, not diversity.

7 — Anonymous wrote at 8:08 AM on December 2:

This is how you do it. You use whites for votes and then once you get power you need whites to run the place while you are sitting on your throne. Even Mandela stated in the 90s when he took over he would use the white brain to his and his blacks advantage and then discard them once they were not needed and black were up to snuff. This never happened and Obama is fully aware of all this so he will be the king and allow the others to do his thinking for him.
Thank Bush for all this.

8 — Anonymous wrote at 9:07 AM on December 2:

Goodbye America. It was nice knowing you when you were a White Nation. You were suppose to stay that way or did you start believing the propagandists when they told you America was founded for ALL the oppressed of the world and that you were selfish if you wanted to keep America for yourselves and your prosperity? How gullibe and naive can one be?

9 — Cassiodorus wrote at 9:41 AM on December 2:

Blacks are clearly expecting millions of lucrative, make-work sinecures to appear out of thin air, as if by voodoo. “Experience?” “Big problems facing the nation?” If those were concerns of blacks and browns they wouldn’t have voted for B. Hussein Obama in the first place.

10 — Anonymous wrote at 1:13 PM on December 2:

There will be an ever-increasing number of appointments from “the designated groups” as they are known in South Africa. For some reason (certainly not hard work or positive contribution to society)they feel entitled to high positions. The U.S. is now firmly on the slippery slope which eventually bottoms out in Zimbabwe. Don’t imagine you will be dead by the time things implode, the future will arrive much more quickly than you think!

11 — Ranger wrote at 1:39 PM on December 2:

“Blacks are clearly expecting millions of lucrative, make-work sinecures to appear out of thin air, as if by voodoo. “Experience?” “Big problems facing the nation?” If those were concerns of blacks and browns they wouldn’t have voted for B. Hussein Obama in the first place.”
Posted by Cassiodorus at 9:41 AM on December 2

Excellent points. They sum up the situation in a nutshell.

Blacks are for blacks everywhere. The country as a whole means nothing to them. Politically, their only concern is whether a candidate is likely to give them freebies or push for some kind of advantage to compensate for their incompetence, like Affirmative Action.

That the country still isn’t truly comprehending the folly of political correctness after being slammed with the sub-prime collapse is tacit proof of their inability to understand anything politically important, and, that being the case, more of the same is bound to occur.

Isn’t the Black Caucus now wanting to put blacks in slots as admirals and generals? That, of course, is the sub-prime crisis all over again, only this time with a military flavor.

12 — RealityCheck wrote at 2:05 PM on December 2:

I never imagined the US would turn into a society with a faded out morality, disdain for the hard-working white folk who built this country and endless waves of thirdworlders. Whose presence makes America feel more foreign by the day. As such I’m seriously considering relocating to Eastern Europe. Or at least a less foreign part of America. How about you?

13 — June wrote at 5:46 PM on December 2:

Is there an island somewhere to which we could escape? It ain’t gonna be pretty around here for the next 4-8 years. Who knows? We might even revive the Constitution and enforce the laws of the land. Stranger things have happened.

14 — Soprano Fan wrote at 12:12 AM on December 3:

To John PM:

Another great post, by you. With the selection of Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, you realize what this means don’t you?

Bill Clinton goes back to Washington.

I don’t think he ever really liked it in that office up in Harlem. Now, he’ll be back in Washington, with more mischief up his sleeve. John, want to make book on how long it will be before the the Clintons and Biden undermine Obama? The Illuminati and George Soros will be delighted in that they have Obama and the Clintons right where they want them.

May we live in interesting times.

15 — Anonymous wrote at 12:27 AM on December 3:

Is this a presidential administration or a Kibbutz? Obama’s job for the next four years will be to serve mint julips to his betters while the real leaders make the decisions.

16 — John PM wrote at 11:02 PM on December 3:

To Soprano Fan, regarding:

“John, want to make book on how long it will be before the Clintons and Biden undermine Obama?”

Indeed I would like to make book on that point SF, they began that process during the campaign; it has already begun yesterday, so to speak. I think that what Comrade BO is going to find in the future, is that he is dealing with a real live King Ghidora by way of those three in particular, and a rather phantasmic Hydra within the larger socioeconomic/political system and situation in general.

Let us face the facts, despite (and in part because of) all of the “halo effect” this mulatto neophyte has been given by the media, he is expected to deliver miracles upon not just taking the oath of office, but simply through his election. That hasn’t happened and it isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

Times have in fact gone from bad, to as you put it, interesting.

Now he attempts to fortress himself with a lot of clinging political hacks and of course the more “experienced” insiders such as Aunt Hillary and Uncle Joe, while also being encircled by all those who don’t make his “cut” and remain jealously in positions of power, to help make or break him.

Good luck there, Comrade BO!

All the best to you Soprano Fan,

John PM.

17 — Anonymous wrote at 8:57 AM on December 8:

It is the old Clinton wine in a new Obama bottle…


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