Larry Summers in on Obama’s (very) short-list for Treasury Secretary. The other option is Timothy Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
I know any president is going to disappoint us — even (or perhaps especially) Obama. But I can’t help looking at his list of advisors, and his growing list of White House staff, and think, “Huh. That’s a lot of dudes.”
I also can’t help but think that Larry Summers would be a phenomenally bad choice. Yes, he is a very, very smart man. But he’s a Clinton throw-back who comes with a lot of baggage. He helped sow the seeds of the current economic crisis. He made now-infamous remarks about women’s intellectual aptitude. And as president of the World Bank, he signed a memo suggesting that we should dump our toxic waste in developing nations, including in “under-polluted” Africa – because poor people in those countries don’t live long enough to develop cancer anyway. There are questions as to whether Summers actually authored the memo, and as to whether it was intented as satire. Either way, it’s undisputed that he put his name on it, he has apologized for it. And I just think Summers has too much negative history to justify putting him in such an important position. It would alienate a lot of people, and would undermine the “change” message that Obama has been pushing.
We’ll see how Obama fills the other positions. He’s made some good choices by consulting with Susan Rice and Samantha Power on foreign policy, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Rice was his National Security Advisor. Janet Napolitano’s name is getting tossed out for AG. I hope he puts Ann-Marie Slaughter in his cabinet. I’d also throw in for Olympia Snowe for head of the EPA (if for some reason Al Gore isn’t available). Since Laura Tyson didn’t make the short-list for Treasury Secretary, I hope he at least keeps her as a consultant (or as Secretary of Commerce?). Marian Wright Edelman would be good choices for Secretary of Health and Human Services. Eleanor Holmes Norton for Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. And Kathleen Sebellius, Jennifer Granholm, Cassandra Butts and Claire McCaskill should all be in there somewhere.
What do you all think? Who should be in the Obama cabinet?
Oh god, it’s THAT Larry Summers? I assumed out of hand that it couldn’t be. Sigh.
Definitely Al Gore and Samantha Powers. And definitely not this guy.
Jill wrote: “He’s made some good choices by consulting with Susan Rice and Samantha Power on foreign policy”
Susan Rice: “It’s clear that Iraq poses a major threat. It’s clear that its weapons of mass destruction need to be dealt with forcefully.”
http://www.tinyrevolution.com/mt/archives/002367.html
Noam Chomsky on Samantha Power:
“But in general US participation in horrendous crimes is simply ignored in Problem from Hell. Few seem to able to perceive that a similar book, excoriating Stalin for not paying enough attention to US crimes, would very likely have been very highly praised in the old Soviet Union. What better service could one provide to the cause of massacre, torture, and destruction — by the Holy State and its clients, of course, whose only fault is that they do not attend sufficiently to the crimes of others.”
http://www.radicalreaction.com/blog/chomsky/2007/08/2007-july-samantha-power-bush-terrorism.html
They’re talking RFK junior for EPA, which I like a lot. And I’ve heard Caroline Kennedy for the UN as well, which also makes me happy–and not just because they’re both Kennedys.
Anyone BUT Larry Summers for Treasury Secretary, really, though in my dream world Obama recruits Paul Krugman.
And Bill Richardson at State and Janet Napolitano as AG would make me really, really happy–and appear to be likely to happen, which is great.
My eco-loving soul will go into throes of ecstasy if Al Gore becomes head of the EPA. That will signal that Obama really takes the environment seriously.
It’s completely inevitable that Obama will appoint a lot of mainstream liberals (hawkish liberals like Rice and Power, even). I just hope that there are some more progressive voices in the mix too.
I would love it if Paul Krugman got appointed to the Treasury, although he’s never been in politics.
As for Summers… the thought is just repugnant. He’s obviously a huge asshole,, known at Harvard for belittling everyone who worked for him, lying, and other totally boorish unprofessional behavior. You know what? I wouldn’t care about all of that, since he’s apparently a financial genius and we certainly need plenty of those, but he’s gone and said totally unconscionable, ridiculous things in public, too. There’s one article linked to in all of these blog posts that suggests he might have Asperger’s, based on his behavior. It doesn’t seem entirely out of the question, and I don’t think Asperger’s in and of itself should rule out an appointee, but if the potential appointee has managed to make a huge ass of himself in public and come off like a sexist, imperialist asshole a number of times, that’s a different story.
There are better choices out there. Obama should not give Summers a post this prominent, it’s too much and too grotesque. Best case scenario, he’s an advisor but not in the limelight. Sadly, he seems to have the career record and reputation of someone who craves power and attention, and it’s not like he could take some undersecretary position without losing a whole lot of face.
As for him architecting the financial crisis, there’s no doubt he was part of the deregulation that got rolling at the end of the Clinton era. But he’s an economist, and I’m quite willing to believe that smart economists flip-flop about these issues. I mean, the market just proved a lot of those theories utterly wrong.
This is petty, I don’t care: Anyone but Larry Summers.
Good God this guy is a baffoon.
Every time I hear his name, I feel like I swallowed a spoonful of soil.
News flash: Bloomberg reports Robert Rubin won’t be in the Obama administration. It looks like the job is Summers.
I honestly don’t know why people are surprised that he is likely going to pick horrible people. It is quite obvious that the man has horrible judgement about a person’s character. It was clear during the primary season and clear during the general election. But people were so seduced by the word “change”. What a joke. Nothing will change because underneath it all Obama is the same old man that is always elected president. This time around he was just dressed up in middle aged skin.
RFK Jr. is a polemicist and a conspiracy theorist, and he promotes psuedo-science (for details, check out many of the posts on scienceblogs.com), so I’m not sure he’s a good pick, especially for the EPA. I would like to see Christine Todd Whitman reinstated as the head of the EPA (she resigned from that post because she felt the White House was insisting that ideology trump science).
Please. God, NO! RFK, junior is anti-scientific, and is the last thing we need. This is a must read post on why he would be a very, very bad decision.
I agree that Summers should not be put in as Treasury Secretary, but RFK jr. as EPA would be an even worse choice.
People also said that there was no difference between Gore and Bush, and we all saw how wrong that turned out to be. The people behind Bill Clinton (whatever you might think of him) were certainly not the same people behind Bush II. The people behind Obama were not the people behind Bush II (unlike the people behind McCain), nor even the people behind Clinton. I don’t expect miracles from Obama, but I don’t for a second buy into the idea that there won’t be changes under him, compared to the last 8 years.
Heck, even Summers, with all his rather disquieting flaws, is a better pick than just about any Bush pick.
Um…am I missing something? Why has no one mentioned Ms. Clinton?
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Hmm… Summers or a Bush pick, talk about no difference. Picking someone like Summers means agreeing with someone like Summers. Summers is a sexist and to pick him makes Obama a sexist.
1. I have seen more people than Summer’s on the short list. There is currently a petition agains thim you can sign that is posted at shakesville, and you can go to http://www.change.gov to send in what you think/want for this new administration.
2. I wouldn’t jump to any conclusions, Obama is pretty tight lipped and so is his campaign, most of the short lists are coming from newspapers and often the whispers come from people like Summers who is been said to be lobbying for the job hard.
3. Ms. Clinton has said publicly that she wants to stay on the senate and I believe it would be smart as she could probably do the most good there.
I meant my previous comment in answer to the question at the end of the post, BTW.
RFK Jr is a kook with zero credibility among self-respecting scientists and environmental professionals.
A thought for EPA: Linda S. Adams, currently head of California EPA.
Bloix I believe she is on the short list as well as a few other women.
Bloix has a good call on Linda Adams.
I’d rather have Adams at EPA and RFK Jr. at Interior; you need good science at EPA, and you need a good conservationist vision at Interior. The other cabinet post I care about enormously is Agriculture — we need someone to take on Hormel and Tyson and the rest of the monsters of Big Ag on both animal rights and labor exploitation issues. I’d pick Ingrid Newkirk, but I don’t think that’ll fly…
I agree (and already said upthread) that Larry Summers is beyond the pale because of all the bullshit that’s poured out of his mouth publicly. He’s KNOWN for being a bloviating fool with few qualms about touting his white, male, first-world superiority. That’s why it’s a bad idea to look like you’re associating or endorsing him.
But if you really think that Obama’s not going to appoint anyone who’s sexist, good luck. What world do you live in? Obama is likely going to have appointees who are RACIST too, at least tacitly and without their full comprehension of their racism. Fortunately, hiring someone to do a job doesn’t make you automatically believe the same things that they do, otherwise many of us would have collected an impressive amount of insane and intolerant beliefs by now. Summers is an extreme case because he’s left his nearsighted quasi-bigoted droppings all over the place for everyone to see.
Michael Pollan for agriculture!
Only kidding, at this point I’m just making fun of the idea of popular writers getting cabinet positions. Publish or die!
Also, another funny rumor — Summers has met with Gloria Steinem to try and help him with an image campaign to make him look less sexist. Awwwww. Good luck with that Larry, I don’t think it’s going to be that easy to make up for. I mean, you did suggest that women are may be innately worse at science and math, and then discounted the possibility of discrimination in academic careers with some simplistic microeconomic flim-flam.
I suspect the Larry Summers talk is planted, like the Tim Kaine for VP crap from earlier. If Treasury isn’t announced within the next few days, and just the whole thursdayness of all the rumors makes me doubtful, then Summers isn’t likely to get the job. I think Jamie Dimon is a hell of a lot more likely. Obama, from all appearances, does not abide unprofessionalism, which Summers has been from time to time.
They’re talking RFK junior for EPA, which I like a lot.
Isn’t this the same RFJ Jr. who jumped on the autism/vaccine bandwagon with no credible data?
[...] Or perhaps the news that Larry Summers is either a great idea – or proof that it shows that President-Elect Obama doesn’t really care about the needs of women because Summe…! [...]
I didn’t know anything about Larry Summers til I read this article earlier today:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sheryl-sandberg/what-larry-summers-has-do_b_142126.html
It has some good things to say about him, but generally glosses over his offensive remarks, which then I of course had to go check out ….ugh.
On a pick like McCaskill, you also have to look at what it would do to take her away from her current job. It’s not at all clear that her Missouri constituents would replace her with another Democrat. So she’s staying put.
Can somebody tell me why would Al Gore even accept a cabinet position in an Obama administration, after serving 8 years in that warm bucket of piss called the Vice Presidency? Gimme a break! He makes too much money with his hedge fund firm. The only way he comes back to DC, is to lobby for our tax dollars.
Summers is so controversial, sexist and racist (remember the Cornel West episode, ending in West going to Princeton after his scholarship was questioned for dubious reasons by Summers) — hopefully wiser minds will prevail than those that caused him to be shortlisted.
Susan Rice and Olympia Snowe are great. I hope they get posts.
I’d disagree on Jennifer Granholm though. I don’t think she’s done well in MI. Her budget talks resulted in a shutdown and ultimately the budget cut some key services, raised taxes in an economically hazardous way, resulted in calls for her to be recalled, and led S&P to downgrade Michigan’s credit rating, leaving Granholm with a 32% approval rating.
I can understand the Rahm Emanuel pick, but I’m not sure it really signals “change.” He’s a consummate Washington insider. That’s not such a bad thing, just not staying on message and raising questions as to how much of the message was campaign-oriented. As an incrementalist, that doesn’t bother me so much, but may bother others.
Sorry Jill, but if Obama has Rahm Emmanuel as his CoS, then his NSA will most certainly not be a woman.
I don’t see an Obama administration placing any women in high-ranking cabinet postions. Hell, if he’s relying on former Clintonistas, then his cabinet will most definately consist of men.
So THIS is the change he talked about and campaigned for during these last months???
Ah… Larry Summers is a HORRIBLE choice. I just spent 3 hours posting a very fact-intensive post on my blog about WHY this is such a bad choice- see:
http://tinyurl.com/6627vf
After much searching, I even found a link to the transcript of exactly what Larry Summers said about women in science. The mainstream media has done a complete whitewash of this guy’s sexist past.
Paul Krugman doesn’t specialize in monetary policy to the degree necessary for the job, nor is he particularly experienced with running large institutions. He’s primarily an economic columnist and a professor, his specialty seems to lean the most towards International Trade. When you have a complex financial crisis you want someone who can hit the ground running, not someone who needs to switch gears significantly. Krugman would be a useful consultant, particularly for communicating economics to the general public, but he’s not the kind of person to be slated for Sec. of Treasury.
I agree that Krugman would not be the best choice for a Sec. of Treasury, for the reasons you state.
He is, however, someone the Obama administration should listen to very carefully. If you go back and read his columns through the last few years, you’ll find that not only is he good at explaining the economical situation to people, his predictions have a very high accuracy rate. As a matter of fact, I can’t think of any major economic prediction he has done while writing for the NY Times which hasn’t come true.
Has anyone considered Laura D’Andrea Tyson? They have already worked closely together, and wasn’t she also part of WJC’s team?
My bad, I missed it in the main post. :(
I also agree that Granholm would not be a good pick, given the government shut down that took place in MI last year. I could be wrong, I mean I haven’t lived in MI for about five years…
I think Gore would be a better fit for Energy than for EPA. The Obama Energy Department needs to be unlike any previous administration’s energy department: its primary focus must be on how to sharply reduce the US’s dependence on fossil fuels. I think Gore would be a good choice for that.
I agree with the strong disrecommendation of RFK Jr., though. Pseudoscience does not make a good EPA.
I have no particularly strong opinion of Summers myself, but if he’s this widely disliked, surely Obama could find someone equally qualified but less controversial. Then again, knowing Obama, maybe he’s just floating Summers’s name to provide cover for his eventual choice, as everyone says “Not Summers? Ok then.” Kind of like how Bush snuck in one of his SC appointees by suggesting Harriet Myers first.
I can’t think of any major economic prediction he has done while writing for the NY Times which hasn’t come true.
His prediction of economic recession was accurate, his timeline for it was not. He’s a good economist, but no economist no matter how good is that accurate.
I will be horribly pissed if Larry “Women aren’t good at science, har har” Summers gets chosen for anything.
One thing: It’s Kathleen Sibelius, not Katherine. Easy typo to make though. ^_^
I think Bill Richardson and Janet Napolitano would be fantastic. I think either Carolina or Robert Kennedy would be great choices–they would bring some youthfulness to the cabinet. However, I know she’s not a frontrunner, but I like to see Laura D’Andrea Tyson as treasury secretary. I think she says what she thinks, she’s tough, and she’s an academic. We need some talented people who aren’t CEOs giving economic advice.
“What do you all think? Who should be in the Obama cabinet?”
Anybody but Larry Summers. There hasn’t been a pump’n'dump scheme or a disaster capitalism scam for the last 30 years that that guy hasn’t been involved in at some level, not one (that I know of). He’s an expert at getting distressed nations to auction off their assets to “investors” who buy low and then sell high—to the same populations from whom they acquired their assets, thus forcing populations to purchase for a fee services for which they have already paid with their tax dollars (or rupees or ringgits or whatever). Who says he’s not going to do the same thing here? Right now we’re all in that ripe-for-the-plucking financial position Naomi Klein describes so well in The Shock Doctrine and which guys like Summers find so hard to resist. My God, it’d be like hiring a professional burglar to do the security on your house. My God, we are all so doomed.
“Heck, even Summers, with all his rather disquieting flaws, is a better pick than just about any Bush pick.”
Then stop complaining about him. Obama is no friend to women but no one paid any attention to that during the election.
OK, may I please direct your attention to this site: menarebetterthanwomen.com.Look at the articles there about Sarah Palin.
That said, I personally believe that Obama will do nothing at all that is contradictory to former U.S foreign policy.He’s just going to send out the right signals.Now, it’s going to be, ‘Don’t hurt me, I’m your friend’ instead of ‘If you hurt me, you’re dead.’
About his cut on outsourcing, it will do some good, but not enough.All in all, his policies will do more good to other countries than the U.S itself.As an Indian, I’m quite happy with that.But I don’t know about you Americans.
Right. His excellent record on women’s rights was just an inconvenience that we all ignored. Next…
Claire MacKaskill is a great senator and I really like her. But, doesn’t Missouri have a Republican governor? If so, he/she would replace MacKaskill with a republican senator.
Samantha Powers clearly deserves a top job in national security and foreign policy.
Tammy Duckworth for Secretary of the Veterans Administration. I can’t imagine a more appropriate choice.
And for God’s sake, can’t Obama appoint somebody pro-labor at the Labor Department.
Al Gore would be great at EPA, but I doubt he wants the job.
Elizabeth Edwards would be great in the administration, but I don’t know if she wants the job.
But, but Jill, don’t you remember that time when a supporter called Hillary Clinton a bitch and he laughed and said the accompanying question was a good one? Or when he put women’s “health” in air quotes on national television? Or when he called his wife a cunt and trollop all in the same sentence in front of reporters? And the time he made that rape joke, and the other one about Chelsea Clinton being ugly and Janet Reno being a man?
Oh wait, my bad. Wrong presidential candidate. You know, the two of them and their woman-hating is just so alike, it’s easy to get confused . . .
[...] dear god, pick someone else. The feminist blogs are going to go nuts if this guy gets a seat at the table for the next four [...]
Olympia for EPA head??? You’re kidding, right? She’s my Senator, and she’s a good senator, but her environmental voting record — particularly ESA listings — is distinctly unimpressive, and she seems unclear on the Act itself, and what may legally be considered in making listing decisions. Surely we can think of someone better, and a position for her where Olympia’s strengths will be utilized.
[...] than the populace, Hummer drivers, and those of white penis privilege. As Jill over at Feministe notes, “I can’t help looking at his list of advisors, and his growing list of White House [...]
I hope that he picks DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan for transportation secretary! She’s done amazing work here in NYC and she’s very progressive– it would be a great sign of things to come if he picked her.
As for Summers? No… he’s not the sort of person I want in leadership positions.
[...] at the Huffington Post, Feministe and many other blogs have argued that Summers’ appointment would send a dispiriting sign to the [...]