Obama fired up and ready to go with diverse Cabinet

While some progressives have been whining, maybe justifiably in some cases, over some of President-elect Barack Obama's Cabinet and inauguration choices, one area were he gets few complaints is his diversity picks.

Obama promised the most diverse Cabinet and staff in history and he has largely delivered on that promise.

Although neither Cabinet or staff come close to representing the population of major minority groups, Obama has still reached farther than his predecessors. One difficulty of course is that the past history of under-representation makes it difficult to find equivalent candidates among minority groups. One way that Obama has worked around this is to look for experts rather than political allies to fill certain positions. For example, Stephen Chu is someone who most political junkies have never heard of, but he is a Nobel Prize-winning physicists with past interest in sustainable energy, and thus it's difficult to argue with his qualifications as secretary of energy.

Among Obama's top choices include two Republicans, five women, three Hispanics, three African Americans, two Asian Americans, and one Arab American. One openly LGBT person, Nancy Sutley, was appointed as head of the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

Many women were in fact surprised by the number and level of Obama's Cabinet picks including Hillary Clinton as secretary of State and Janet Napolitano as Homeland Security chief.

Latinos were originally discouraged when Bill Richardson was passed over for secretary of State landing secretary of Commerce instead. But with a total of three high-level Latino Cabinet picks and other staff choices, Obama has exceeded his predecessors both in quantity and quality.

Obama gears up to hit ground running with diverse cabinet pick
Thaindian.com, Thailand - Jan 1, 2009
The incoming president’s cabinet picks are diverse. They include two Republicans, five women, three Hispanics, three African Americans, two Asian Americans ...

Maria Elena Salinas: Obama's Latino factor Merced Sun-Star, CA - 6 hours ago After all, Obama did promise to have one of the most diverse presidential Cabinets in history. It turns out that's one promise the president-elect is ...

CTV.ca

Obama’s Diverse Cabinet Lacks Members From Business Community Bloomberg - Dec 19, 2008 20 (Bloomberg) -- President-elect Barack Obama’s Cabinet is notable for its diversity, experience in government, and absence of people from the business ... Obama’s Cabinet: A Diverse Center-Left Team Assembled Quickly CQPolitics.com

Video: Barack Obama in Florida

Barack Obama talks about unity at a Kissimmee, Florida town hall meeting on May 21, 2008.



Barack speaks on ethics and lobbyists in Tampa Bay, Florida on May 21.

Obama and Seniors

While the Obama campaign has been mostly viewed as a movement generated by young people, the candidate's concern and appeal to seniors cannot be overlooked.

"Barack Obama will be the Democratic candidate in 2008. He provides a phenomenal vision for seniors, first-time voters. He is the one who can carry our ideals to the forefront," said former Illinois State Senator Larry Walsh in an interview with nwi.com.

Obama's support for improved, affordable and universal healthcare will appeal to the powerful senior voting bloc, traditionally one of the most influential in electoral politics.

"Every senior citizen deserves to retire with dignity and respect," Obama told young Facebook supporters at a George Mason University rally.

As a member of the Illinois state senate, Obama sponsored the Health Care Justice Act, to research roads toward statewide universal healthcare and co-sponsored a prescription drug discount buying club for seniors and the disabled. In both cases, his legislation passed.

On Social Security, he opposes privatization and believes the system can be fixed with less drastic measures.

"The crisis in Social Security, I believe, is overstated in the sense that, if we make some adjustments to the system, as we did in 1983, we can assure the solvency of the system.

"Medicaid and Medicare are genuinely in crisis because health care inflation is so outstripping the expansion of the economy that it is gobbling up more and more taxpayer dollars, and it's going to get worse because of demographics," he said. "Folks get older, and they require more medical care."

Book still high on charts

In his quest for name recognition, the senator must be happy that his book The Audacity of Hope is listed at no. 2 on the Wall Street Journal list of best-sellers in the non-fiction category.

An alexa.com candidate tracking page shows that not only is barackobama.com at the top spot among candidate websites, but that Obama's Wikipedia entry is in the third slot just behind hillaryclinton.com.

Also in the area of name recognition, endorsements like that of blogger Arianna Huffington, mistress of The Huffington Post, can be very helpful.

However, the internet is limited in reaching out to certain groups, including seniors who often are not online. The campaign must find other ways of getting their message across to these voters.

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