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The Obama Administration

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  • 05-11-2008 5:18pm
    #1
    Darragh29
    Closed Accounts Posts: 7,097 ✭✭✭


    The Obama Administration, who will be doing what?

    Hillary Clinton I reckon was promised some number for her support, probably Secretary of State I reckon...

    Defence Secretary, Jasus I haven't a clue!


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    #2
    Crash
    Registered Users Posts: 11,196 ✭✭✭✭Crash


    Possibility of Powell coming into the fold as a bi-partisan measure?


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    #3
    Ponster
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 10,912 Mod ✭✭✭✭Ponster


    Neither Powell nor Clinton I'd say.

    Gates to remain in Defense.


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    #4
    Sea Devils
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,066 ✭✭✭Sea Devils


    Speculation regarding Obama's Cabinet...

    Paul Volcker, a key economic advisor, who was federal reserve chairman under Ronald Reagan and broke the back of an inflation crisis in the early 1980s, could return briefly to his old post to try and stabilize the economy.

    Investor Warren Buffett and Robert Rubin, a former Clinton treasury secretary, could also assume economic posts in an Obama White House.

    Rahm Emanuel, an Illinois representative who served in the Clinton White House, is said to have been approached to be Mr. Obama’s chief of staff. Another possibility is Tom Daschle, the former U.S. senator for South Dakota.

    Bill Richardson, the New Mexico Governor, and Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts have been tipped for secretary of state, while Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a Republican, is being touted for defense.

    Mr. Obama is said to want to keep on Robert Gates, the current Defence Secretary, so he can supervise a troop withdrawal from Iraq, but Mr. Gates has apparently said he wants to retire.

    Colin Powell, the former Bush secretary of state who endorsed Mr. Obama, could also be given a role as a special envoy in an Obama White house.

    Cabinet Speculation


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    #5
    The Raven.
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,008 ✭✭✭The Raven.


    Sea Devils wrote: »
    Rahm Emanuel, an Illinois representative who served in the Clinton White House, is said to have been approached to be Mr. Obama’s chief of staff.

    According to CNN Rahm Emanuel has accepted Obama's offer to be White House chief of staff. I don't know what to think of this choice. He sounds pretty formidable to me. Does anybody have any views or insight they might like to share?

    Source: http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/06/obama.transition/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

    Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TP7fr5r81XA


    Just for balance, here's Bill O'Reilly's take on it.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIDWjXweFT8


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    #6
    Overheal
    Registered Users Posts: 83,277 ✭✭✭✭Overheal


    Oh how far we've come...

    October 31, 2007


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    #7
    brianthebard
    Closed Accounts Posts: 16,165 ✭✭✭✭brianthebard


    Jon looks more jowelly these days...


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    #8
    Black Swan
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 47,258 CMod ✭✭✭✭Black Swan


    Sea Devils wrote: »
    Speculation regarding Obama's Cabinet...

    Appointed...
    Rahm Emanuel - Accepted offer to become Obama's Chief of Staff, nick named "Rambo," because he is tuff (but very bright and a former millionaire investment banker and US House of Rep).

    Possibles... (Treasury, Fed?)
    • Paul Volcker,
    • Robert Rubin

    Not a chance...
    • Colin Powell -- qualified for Sec of Defense, but not a chance to be given a cabinet post because of being Bush damaged goods.
    • Robert Gates -- keeping the current Sec of Defense from the Bush Administration would be a big political mistake!
    • Tom Daschle -- once upon a time he would have been a good choice, but not now, when he cannot even get reelected in his tiny pop state.
    • Warren Buffett -- probably one of the brightest and most successful investors in the history of the US, but way too old for the stresses of DC, and would have to divest his BH company interests (which he built all his life).
    • John Kerry -- qualified for Sec of State, but has too much political baggage from 2004 failed presidential election.


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    #9
    Ponster
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators Posts: 10,912 Mod ✭✭✭✭Ponster


    Blue_Lagoon wrote: »
    [*]Robert Gates -- keeping the current Sec of Defense from the Bush Administration would be a big political mistake!


    I'm having trouble understanding this. Gates is doing a great job and all sides recognize this.The problem would be convincing the man to stay.


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    #10
    conceited
    Closed Accounts Posts: 891 ✭✭✭conceited


    barky_dees.jpg


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    #11
    Ludo
    Registered Users Posts: 5,015 ✭✭✭Ludo


    rense.com reader are you conceited?


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    #12
    Sea Devils
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,066 ✭✭✭Sea Devils


    Emanuel is a good choice. Supposedly hard nosed hard-charging and not particularly congenial, but he has both White House staff and Congressional experience.

    Also agree with Ponster. Gates is light years ahead of Rumsfeld in personality, politics, ideology but it's unlear whether he stays on


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    #13
    BenjAii
    Closed Accounts Posts: 545 ✭✭✭BenjAii


    Sea Devils wrote: »
    Emanuel is a good choice. Supposedly hard nosed hard-charging and not particularly congenial, but he has both White House staff and Congressional experience.

    Wow, what absolutely charming remarks by his father.

    "In an interview with Ma’ariv, Emanuel’s father, Dr. Benjamin Emanuel, said he was convinced that his son’s appointment would be good for Israel. “Obviously he will influence the president to be pro-Israel,” he was quoted as saying. “Why wouldn’t he be? What is he, an Arab? He’s not going to clean the floors of the White House.”"


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    #14
    bnt
    Registered Users Posts: 13,002 ✭✭✭✭bnt


    This is looking more and more like The West Wing, and if you don't know how that ended...
    the incoming President (Matt Santos, played by Jimmy Smits) appointed his defeated Republican rival (Arnie Vinick, played by Alan Alda) as Secretary of State.
    I wonder... ;)

    From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch’.

    — Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 Astronaut



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    #15
    Black Swan
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 47,258 CMod ✭✭✭✭Black Swan


    Sea Devils wrote: »
    Also agree with Ponster. Gates is light years ahead of Rumsfeld in personality, politics, ideology but it's unlear whether he stays on
    Out of the 300 million people in the USA, there is no one better for Sec of Defense than former Texas A&M University president, CIA Director, and Air Force 2nd lieutenant (back in 1967)? That's hard to believe. Source: http://www.defenselink.mil/bios/biographydetail.aspx?biographyid=115

    The CIA has had such a successful history too. I wonder if they can see Alaska from Langley?

    Wasn't Gates involved in the Iran-Contra Scandal when he was Deputy Director CIA in 1983? Or course, when investigated, he claimed to have known nothing about the Iran-Contras arms and drug deals, meaning that he was either lying, or as uninformed and incompetent a Deputy Director of Central Intelligence as Palin was as a VP candidate.

    After the U.S. Congress prohibited federal funding of the Contras in 1983, the Reagan administration continued to back the Contras by covertly selling arms to Iran (then engaged in a vicious war with Iraq, which was also receiving US military aid at the time) and channelling the proceeds to the Contras...Senator John Kerry's 1988 U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations report on links between the Contras and drug imports to the US concluded that "senior U.S. policy makers were not immune to the idea that drug money was a perfect solution to the Contras' funding problems."Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sandinista
    and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gates

    Oh, I forgot the ultimate qualification: Gates was Dean of the George Bush School of Government at Texas A&M. We all know how great the Bush I and II governments were, especially as they pertained to national defense: Iraq War I (leave an unsolved mess for later); Iraq II (Shoot first, don't plan for what comes after).


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    #16
    Sea Devils
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,066 ✭✭✭Sea Devils


    BenjAii wrote: »
    Wow, what absolutely charming remarks by his father.

    "In an interview with Ma’ariv, Emanuel’s father, Dr. Benjamin Emanuel, said he was convinced that his son’s appointment would be good for Israel. “Obviously he will influence the president to be pro-Israel,” he was quoted as saying. “Why wouldn’t he be? What is he, an Arab? He’s not going to clean the floors of the White House.”"

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahm_Emanuel

    'His father, the Jerusalem-born Benjamin M. Emanuel, is a pediatrician and was a member of the Irgun, a militant Zionist group considered a terrorist organization..'

    Probably the major negative aspect surronding Emanuel


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    #17
    BenjAii
    Closed Accounts Posts: 545 ✭✭✭BenjAii


    Sea Devils wrote: »
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahm_Emanuel

    'His father, the Jerusalem-born Benjamin M. Emanuel, is a pediatrician and was a member of the Irgun, a militant Zionist group considered a terrorist organization..'

    Probably the major negative aspect surronding Emanuel

    And it says a lot about the US that this "association with a terrorist" won't be mentioned against Obama with Republicans (or anyone else in America for that matter) in the way the tenuous linkage to Bill Ayers was ... one mans terrorist; another mans freedom fighter.

    Given his racial background and smarts, I hope Obama deals with the issue of Israel & the Palestinians evenhandedly; constantly taking the side of Israeli ultra-nationalists won't be doing that.


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    #18
    wildsaffy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 241 ✭✭wildsaffy


    I need chips


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    #19
    Ruskie4Rent
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,088 ✭✭✭Ruskie4Rent


    bnt wrote: »
    This is looking more and more like The West Wing, and if you don't know how that ended...
    the incoming President (Matt Santos, played by Jimmy Smits) appointed his defeated Republican rival (Arnie Vinick, played by Alan Alda) as Secretary of State.
    I wonder... ;)

    There's more similarities with The West Wing: The character Josh Lymon is apparantly partly based on Rahm Emmanuel. Both have the same job in the Santos/Obama administrations.


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    #20
    Overheal
    Registered Users Posts: 83,277 ✭✭✭✭Overheal


    BenjAii wrote: »
    And it says a lot about the US that this "association with a terrorist" won't be mentioned against Obama with Republicans (or anyone else in America for that matter) in the way the tenuous linkage to Bill Ayers was ... one mans terrorist; another mans freedom fighter.

    Given his racial background and smarts, I hope Obama deals with the issue of Israel & the Palestinians evenhandedly; constantly taking the side of Israeli ultra-nationalists won't be doing that.
    Never. Ever. Use Wikipedia as your first source of information, especially when people like Emanuel suddenly sprout out of nowhere. People have a tendency to rush over to the page and color it up.


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    #21
    BenjAii
    Closed Accounts Posts: 545 ✭✭✭BenjAii


    LOL. Try to use proper punctuation. Sometimes.

    In many cases wikipedia reflects widely documented fact, so it can in fact be used as a reference; this is one of those cases.

    Here is Israeli newspaper Haaretz, who might be expected to know, reflecting the same info.

    http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1034855.html

    Overheal wrote: »
    Never. Ever. Use Wikipedia as your first source of information, especially when people like Emanuel suddenly sprout out of nowhere. People have a tendency to rush over to the page and color it up.


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    #22
    Black Swan
    Moderators, Category Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 47,258 CMod ✭✭✭✭Black Swan


    Heard a rumour that they were going to dig up Francis Marion and appoint him to senior adviser. Now, the Brits considered him (what is now called) a terrorist, but others a freedom fighter, depending upon which side you were on...:rolleyes: Reminds me of some Republicans calling all Democrats liberals, when in fact there are some southern Democrats that are more to the right than Palin (and probably cheer Fox News and Bill O'Spin Factor).


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