Garry - there is more than one type of personality found in that group of professors. I have a feeling you don't know for sure what type of people these "non reality experienced" cabinet members really are. I'll tell you this - in my line of work I regularly meet with and work with professors who actively make trips to Washington and know the ins and outs of at our government as much as the heads of the large private industry firms. I like to always try and put things in context. Great - you found someone from private industry but 1) they don't necessarily know how to make things happen in the world of government, and 2) they are probably big and chosen for a cabinet position because they have certain values that are not necessarily ethical. I'm not making a case for not having people from private industry - I would like to see more than 8% as Obama's stat sits. I think it beats having your VP heading your vetting (Cheney again...)
The Shirley Sharrod Affair
- Thread starter domtoni
- Start date
Chris,
I will agree that Cheney is a nimrod. I don't care for his type at all. As for me, I don't want a person in the cabinet that knows how Washington works (or doesn't work as the case may be) but would rather have someone who is a proven leader in his specialty. I don't mean a businessman or woman who makes big contributions to the sitting party either. Just a great leader who knows how to motivate and get things done by stressing accountability and performance. The world of Washington has too many people that are adroit at creating or sitting in on committees that do nothing but posture and pontificate; loving the sound of their own voices. Why in this great country of ours can't presidents find industry leaders that know how to engage their people and that have been successful enough to feel like giving back to this country?
I for one believe they are out there, but too many presidents use a flawed vetting system to appoint cabinet posts so that they can award their cronies whom are owed political favors or who are from universities that are spouting the "flavor' of the day.
I still think that guys like Alan Mulallay at Ford would make a far better Transportation Secretary than the government wonk that we currently have for example. Guys like Mulallay are successful problem solvers, not some theorist academician pushing an agenda to sell more books in his retirement years.We need experienced problem solvers and LEADERS in these departments to both inspire and improve the government services and policy makers and HELP the president make informed choices not rubber stamp committee decisions made up of self serving public service employees. Look at GB and you can see how this can and probably will get out of hand.
Garry
I will agree that Cheney is a nimrod. I don't care for his type at all. As for me, I don't want a person in the cabinet that knows how Washington works (or doesn't work as the case may be) but would rather have someone who is a proven leader in his specialty. I don't mean a businessman or woman who makes big contributions to the sitting party either. Just a great leader who knows how to motivate and get things done by stressing accountability and performance. The world of Washington has too many people that are adroit at creating or sitting in on committees that do nothing but posture and pontificate; loving the sound of their own voices. Why in this great country of ours can't presidents find industry leaders that know how to engage their people and that have been successful enough to feel like giving back to this country?
I for one believe they are out there, but too many presidents use a flawed vetting system to appoint cabinet posts so that they can award their cronies whom are owed political favors or who are from universities that are spouting the "flavor' of the day.
I still think that guys like Alan Mulallay at Ford would make a far better Transportation Secretary than the government wonk that we currently have for example. Guys like Mulallay are successful problem solvers, not some theorist academician pushing an agenda to sell more books in his retirement years.We need experienced problem solvers and LEADERS in these departments to both inspire and improve the government services and policy makers and HELP the president make informed choices not rubber stamp committee decisions made up of self serving public service employees. Look at GB and you can see how this can and probably will get out of hand.
Garry
Jim Craik
Lifetime Supporter
Glenn Beck on Monday, November 30th, 2009 in a statement on his show on Fox News Channel
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Beck says less than 10 percent of Obama Cabinet has worked in private sector
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retweet58
Fox News talk show host Glenn Beck has seized on a claim circulating on the Internet to argue that the Obama administration has little understanding of American business and is too focused on expanding government.
"History has proven over and over again — and so has the post office, for that matter — that government is not the answer," Beck said on his Nov. 30, 2009, show. "You need to unleash the people. The entrepreneurs. And if you are wondering how it is that the government can't see that — how they can be pondering even bigger stimulus packages as they stare the failure of the first one right in the face — I'll show you. Here are the past presidents and the number of appointees in their Cabinets with private sector experience — folks that have done more than write on the chalkboard; they've been out there, in the real world. Let's compare President Nixon — he's over 50 percent — with President Obama: Under 10 percent of his appointees have any experience in the private sector."
We did a little digging and found that the claim is based on a study by Michael Cembalest, the chief investment officer for J.P. Morgan Private Bank. In a Nov. 24, 2009, column titled "Obama's Business Blind Spot" and published on Forbes.com, Cembalest wrote, "In a quest to see what frame of reference the administration might have on this issue, I looked back at the history of the presidential Cabinet. Starting with the creation of the secretary of commerce back in 1900, I compiled the prior private-sector experience of all 432 Cabinet members, focusing on those positions one would expect to participate in this discussion: secretaries of State; Commerce; Treasury; Agriculture; Interior; Labor; Transportation; Energy; and Housing & Urban Development."
He continued, "Many of these individuals started a company or ran one, with first-hand experience in hiring and firing, domestic and international competition, red tape, recessions, wars and technological change. Their industries included agribusiness, chemicals, finance, construction, communications, energy, insurance, mining, publishing, pharmaceuticals, railroads and steel; a cross-section of the American experience. (I even gave [one-third] credit to attorneys focused on private-sector issues, although one could argue this is a completely different kettle of fish.) One thing is clear: The current administration, compared with past Democratic and Republican ones
Come on, Jim.....say it ain't so!
Imagine that, Glenn Beck making a statement as far back as 11/30/2009 that turns out to be false, and on such a reputable organization as the Fox News Network?
I wonder how we failed to see that one coming???????
Doug
Imagine that, Glenn Beck making a statement as far back as 11/30/2009 that turns out to be false, and on such a reputable organization as the Fox News Network?
I wonder how we failed to see that one coming???????
Doug
Jim Craik
Lifetime Supporter
Somehow I missed some of the article.
We wondered if the claim was right, so we did some math of our own.
In Obama's Cabinet, at least three of the nine posts that Cembalest and Beck cite — a full one-third — are occupied by appointees who, by our reading of their bios, had significant corporate or business experience. Shaun Donovan, Obama's secretary of Housing and Urban Development, served as managing director of Prudential Mortgage Capital Co., where he oversaw its investments in affordable housing loans.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu headed the electronics research lab at one of America's storied corporate research-and-development facilities, AT&T Bell Laboratories, where his work won a Nobel Prize for physics. And Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, in addition to serving as Colorado attorney general and a U.S. senator, has been a partner in his family's farm for decades and, with his wife, owned and operated a Dairy Queen and radio stations in his home state of Colorado.
Three other Obama appointees had legal experience in the private sector.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke spent part of their careers working as lawyers in private practice. Clinton and Vilsack worked as private-sector lawyers at the beginning of their careers, while Locke joined an international law firm, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, after serving as governor of Washington state. At the firm, Locke "co-chaired the firm's China practice" and "helped U.S. companies break into international markets," according to his official biography. That sounds like real private sector experience to us.
Finally, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner worked for Kissinger Associates, a consulting firm that advises international corporations on political and economic conditions overseas.
The occupants of the two remaining Cabinet posts cited in the chart do not appear to have had significant private-sector experience: Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
Obama's Cabinet has even more private-sector experience if you go beyond the nine. Two of the Obama appointees could be considered entrepreneurs — the very people Beck would "unleash." Vice President Joe Biden, officially a Cabinet member, founded his own law firm, Biden and Walsh, early in his career, and it still exists in a later incarnation, Monzack Mersky McLaughlin and Browder, P.A. (The future vice president also supplemented his income by managing properties, including a neighborhood swimming pool.) And Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag founded an economic consulting firm called Sebago Associates that was later bought out by a larger firm.
Sorry guys, I somehow missed the important part.
We wondered if the claim was right, so we did some math of our own.
In Obama's Cabinet, at least three of the nine posts that Cembalest and Beck cite — a full one-third — are occupied by appointees who, by our reading of their bios, had significant corporate or business experience. Shaun Donovan, Obama's secretary of Housing and Urban Development, served as managing director of Prudential Mortgage Capital Co., where he oversaw its investments in affordable housing loans.
Energy Secretary Steven Chu headed the electronics research lab at one of America's storied corporate research-and-development facilities, AT&T Bell Laboratories, where his work won a Nobel Prize for physics. And Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, in addition to serving as Colorado attorney general and a U.S. senator, has been a partner in his family's farm for decades and, with his wife, owned and operated a Dairy Queen and radio stations in his home state of Colorado.
Three other Obama appointees had legal experience in the private sector.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke spent part of their careers working as lawyers in private practice. Clinton and Vilsack worked as private-sector lawyers at the beginning of their careers, while Locke joined an international law firm, Davis Wright Tremaine LLP, after serving as governor of Washington state. At the firm, Locke "co-chaired the firm's China practice" and "helped U.S. companies break into international markets," according to his official biography. That sounds like real private sector experience to us.
Finally, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner worked for Kissinger Associates, a consulting firm that advises international corporations on political and economic conditions overseas.
The occupants of the two remaining Cabinet posts cited in the chart do not appear to have had significant private-sector experience: Labor Secretary Hilda Solis and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood.
Obama's Cabinet has even more private-sector experience if you go beyond the nine. Two of the Obama appointees could be considered entrepreneurs — the very people Beck would "unleash." Vice President Joe Biden, officially a Cabinet member, founded his own law firm, Biden and Walsh, early in his career, and it still exists in a later incarnation, Monzack Mersky McLaughlin and Browder, P.A. (The future vice president also supplemented his income by managing properties, including a neighborhood swimming pool.) And Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag founded an economic consulting firm called Sebago Associates that was later bought out by a larger firm.
Sorry guys, I somehow missed the important part.
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