Yep, that's change alright.
Posted on 07/07/2008 6:32:45 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
With the battle for the Presidential Super Bowl just beginning, let's look at the economic team that will direct Barack Obama's overall strategy if he rules the electoral college come Nov. 5, the day after the general election.
Although primarily geared to economics, we've also touched on foreign policy due to its international impact on U.S. economic policy.
Campaign Director David Axelrod, hardly known before this "fairy tale," as President Bill Clinton called it, has been the brains behind Obama's unprecedented success in the primaries and his eventual leadership attainment.
Axelrod, a former Chicago newspaperman, who had been given credit for being Mayor Richard Daley's kingmaker, is by all odds the main cog in the Obama brain-trust.
He teamed up with David Plouffe, a former aide to one-time House minority leader Dick Gephardt, and stage-managed the Internet financial coup that has collected hundreds of millions in donations for the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. Along with Penny Pritzker, the campaign's finance chair and member of the legendary Hyatt Hotel real estate syndicate, Obama has amassed the largest war chest in the history of presidential politics.
On domestic matters, Obama has assembled a team of sharp academic economists who base their work on formulating Obama's pragmatic economic policies.
Leading the pack is Austen Goolsbee, a University of Chicago professor, who will likely become chairman of Obama's council of economic advisers. Goolsbee's record indicates a practical approach to economic problem-solving, rather than hostility toward globalism or capitalism, or as an advocate of capital redistribution.
From Harvard, Obama will likely bring in Jeffrey Liebman, who is an expert on the earned income tax credit and its role in moving people from welfare to work; also likely to join is Liebman's colleague David Cutler, a health economist who wants doctors' pay tied to medical achievements.
High up on Obama's economics team will be Jason Furman, an economist in the Clinton administration and a top aide to John Kerry in 2004. Furman hews to the nonideological center, heading Washington's Hamilton Project, an economic policy group founded by Robert Rubin, a top Clinton treasury secretary. Furman is a staunch free-trader, who has favored lowering corporate taxes. As several others headed for cabinet posts, Furman holds a Ph.D. from Harvard.
Treasury and foreign policy As yet, however, none of the previously mentioned policy wonks stand heads and shoulders above enough to be heir apparent to Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson.
On the foreign policy side, Obama's inner circle looks suspiciously like a hangover from the Clinton years and even Carter retreads. Some foreign policy decisions will strongly impact America's global economic future, so it might be advantageous to focus on some of the leading State Department figures.
It's highly unlikely that Carter national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski will find a place on Obama's foreign policy team.
Neither will he bring in Clinton's secretary of state Madeleine Albright or failed 2004 presidential candidate Wesley Clark. Despite his credentials as former NATO commander, Clark did not distinguish himself in his 1999 bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, nor by his recent attacks on Sen. John McCain's national security credentials.
However, most likely to join the Obama foreign policy team is Tony Lake, Clinton's national security adviser.
Also likely to come aboard are:
Richard Holbrooke, who was responsible for the Bosnia peace negotiations and was a United Nations delegate.
Susan Rice, Clinton's assistant secretary of state for African Affairs, could be a top candidate as national security adviser.
Since Obama has made African problems, such as the continuing genocide in Darfur, top-level issues, Rice may be able to use that platform to put this continuing outrage in a more focused spotlight. The campaign boasts some former military brass such as Richard Danzig, former secretary of the Navy, and Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., who held the same job under President Ronald Reagan. Either could be in the running for secretary of defense.
One Obama foreign policy dictum is implausible, and that is getting out of Iraq as soon as possible. If Obama were to be elected, he would be loath to let the U.S- instigated revived Iraq oil industry fall into Iran's hands.
This still leaves the door open for the vice presidential nominee, which is still up for grabs as this is written. It's highly doubtful that any of the personages mentioned herein will become their party's vice presidential nominee.
Thanks a lot. I’m going to have nightmares tonight.
Yep, that's change alright.
Cute, AP.
If he could dig up Adolf Hitler, I’m sure he would make him Secretary of State.
good work Jeff
is Mccain wins you should at least get an ambassadorship...
i know already....you’d pass..lol
He is quite an intellectual, though, and a very interesting old fart.....regular radio and TV spots locally.
I'm going to link this thread to his local blog, FTHOI...
That’s a big if..............
Oh will miracles never cease. Lesee, Chicago Mafia with Clinton retreads. Fabulous.
As Seinfeld would say, “Oh help me Ronda”
I’m sick of these people.
I’m going to bed.
I need some TLC.
Is Socks the cat available or did Bill use up all his lifes?
What checks are there to prevent foreign donations from non-citizens - other than the self certifying blurb on the candidates' websites ?
About none I suspect.
NO!,NO! Such Great Talemt would guarantee the VEEP Position with no question! A Perfect Fit!
What? No place for Sandy Burglar, who should be "rehabilitated" by then? Hussein must be afraid Sandy will pass embarrassing docments on to the Clintons. Like Hussein's birth certificate.
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