Tornado Alley (PROG)

[F6]

Obama ready to anoint bipartisan cabinet

October 20, 2008

WASHINGTON: Barack Obama is considering appointing a star cabinet to steer the US through potentially its worst crisis since the Great Depression if he wins the presidency on November 4.

Senator Obama has a well-regarded team of policy advisers who would follow him into the White House. However, he is also being urged to make some high-profile appointments that would command confidence right across the nation.

Should he win, he will not be short of big names to choose for his administration. From 2004 presidential candidate John Kerry to Larry Summers, a former US Treasury secretary under Bill Clinton and ex-Harvard president, and Republican senator Chuck Hagel, there are plenty of outstanding candidates who have signalled their availability.

Senator Obama is thought likely to cherry-pick a few big names, while rewarding the loyalty and discretion of advisers such as his foreign policy expert Susan Rice.

"He has no patience whatsoever with prima donnas," said one leading Democrat policy adviser at the weekend. "He's surrounded himself with people who are pretty smooth in dealing with each other."

In last week's debate against John McCain, Senator Obama indicated he would adopt a bipartisan approach to government, citing Republican senator Richard Lugar, who worked with him on a bill to prevent nuclear weapons proliferation, and General Jim Jones, the former NATO commander, as figures he admires.

The McCain campaign is now playing on fears of a Democratic landslide to persuade Republican supporters and independents to vote for their man.

An editorial in The Wall Street Journal last week warned of a coming "liberal super-majority". It is possible the Democrats could win a filibuster-proof 60-seat majority in the Senate, enabling them to pass whatever legislation they wanted.

"This would be one of the most profound political and ideological shifts in US history. Liberals would dominate the entire government in a way they haven't since 1965 or 1933," the newspaper commented.

A former Clinton policy adviser, William Galston, said: "I don't think Obama is going to give Republicans much on substance, so he would be well advised to give them some satisfaction on personnel."

Some leading supporters, such as Mr Kerry, may end up disappointed. Senator Obama has to beware of muddying his message of change on the campaign stump by appointing too many Washington insiders.

A persistent question for Senator Obama is how to make the most of Hillary Clinton's talents in government after the way she has helped to swing women and blue-collar workers behind him.

Members of Senator Obama's inner circle believe she would be tempted to accept an offer to become health secretary, which would give her the historic opportunity to devise and implement a policy of universal healthcare, an issue on which she has worked all her political life.

- The Sunday Times

Copyright 2008 News Limited

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24520030-2703,00.html