The Second Term Obama Administration

The appointment of the cabinet can sometimes help illustrate the uses of the cabinet. It was President Clinton who said that he wanted a cabinet that “looked like America”. The consequential selection of women and people from ethnic minorities meant that the cabinet might help broaden the electoral appeal and support for the administration.

This factor has been less to the fore with the appointments to Obama’s second term team but the appointments still provide insight into how the administration might function.

Secretary of Defense: Chuck Hagel

The appointment of the former Nebraska senator was the one which seemed to be the most controversial. He is a Republican which might suggest that this was some sort of bipartisan gesture on the part of President Obama. This might help the president “work across the aisle” in the Congress and suggest that the president was attempting to adopt a more bipartisan approach.

It was unlikely that this was the case. It was more likely that his selection along with John Kerry as Secretary of State might lay the groundwork for dealing with one of the major issues in the next term which is the issue of defence spending.  Indeed his nomination drew Republican criticisms from the likes of former presidential candidate John McCain over alleged anti-Israeli sentiment.

Secretary of State: John Kerry

The Massachusetts Democrat has deep experience in international affairs as chairman of the foreign relations panel. He also has a long Senate record of accomplishments and investigations in the area.

A decorated Vietnam veteran who was the Democratic nominee for president in 2004, Kerry also sits on the Senate Finance, Commerce, and Small Business committees. He was first elected to the Senate in 1984. Before that, he was lieutenant governor of Massachusetts.

U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice was viewed as the front-runner for the State Department nomination, but the fallout over her comments about the deadly September attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, prompted her to withdraw her name from consideration.

Secretary of the Treasury: Jack (Jacob) Lew

Lew was confirmed with a 71-26 vote revealing bipartisan support for his appointment. “His reputation as a master of fiscal issues who can work with leaders on both sides of the aisle has already helped him succeed in some of the toughest jobs in Washington,” Obama said.

As a former budget director for Presidents Obama and Bill Clinton, Lew has overseen budget talks in times of deficits and also surpluses.

As the secretary of the Treasury, Lew will run U.S. domestic financial policy and is charged with collecting federal taxes and managing public debt, among other duties.

 Attorney General: Eric Holder

Holder will remain in President Barack Obama’s Cabinet.

Holder was appointed in 2009 after serving as a judge in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia and as a United States attorney. He is the first African American to hold this position. Holder served as Deputy Attorney General under Janet Reno during the Clinton Administration and as a senior legal advisor during Obama’s Presidential campaign.

Holder has been a staunch proponent of the legal rights of the President during the War on Terrorism, defending the legality of the operation that killed Osama Bin laden and the drone strike that killed US Citizen Anwar Al-Aulaqi. Holder has also questioned new voter ID laws in both Texas and Florida and questioned the legality of immigration act’s like Arizona’s SB 1070.

Secretary of the Interior: Nominated: Sally Jewell

Sally Jewell, president and chief executive of REI, a popular outdoor recreation company, was nominated on February 6. Jewell, an engineer who started her career at Mobil, has a long history of involvement in the administration’s environmental efforts. She helped create and implement the president’s Great Outdoors program. In 2011, she introduced Obama at the White House conference.

A business figure joining the Cabinet ranks, Jewell would be responsible for helping to oversee millions of acres of national forests and parks. Under her leadership, REI has been named by Fortune Magazine to the list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For.” She also has won numerous awards for her community service, including the 2009 Rachel Carson Award for Environmental Conservation from the Audubon Society.

Secretary of Agriculture: Thomas J. Vilsack

Vilsack is staying on for the immediate future. A former Iowa governor, Vilsack has committed his time to a variety of issues from food stamps to resource conservation to first lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative.

Secretary of Labor: Outgoing: Hilda L. Solis

Her departure is significant as it leaves the cabinet without a hispanic woman and has opened up the administration to criticism about the dominance of white males.

Nominated: Thomas Perez

President Barack Obama on March 18 nominated Thomas Perez, the assistant attorney general heading the Justice Department’s civil rights division, as labor secretary.

A former federal prosecutor and an official in his home state of Maryland, Perez was sworn in to his current post in October 2009.

Secretary of Health and Human Services: Kathleen Sebelius

This is the Sebelius in NFIB v Sebelious, the Obamacare Supreme Court case. Sebelius is not expected to leave in near future. A former governor of Kansas, Sebelius has been tasked with implementing the Affordable Care Act and most likely will see it through.

Sebelius has been vocally pro-choice in regards to abortion and thus received pro-life opposition during her nomination as Secretary of Health and Human Services.

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: Shaun L.S. Donovan

Donovan, who was sworn in during the home foreclosure crisis, has taken an increasingly large role in the administration. He was most recently appointed the point person for Hurricane Sandy reconstruction effort after immediate emergency needs were met.

Secretary of Transportation: Outgoing: Ray LaHood

His departure is significant as he was the sole Republican on Obama’s Cabinet in the first term. Of course, Obama’s pick of former Sen. Chuck Hagel as defense secretary has put another Republican in his Cabinet

Nominated: Anthony Foxx

Obama nominated Foxx, the mayor of Charlotte, to serve as his transportation secretary on April 29 to replace Ray LaHood, who had served in his first term. Foxx, first elected mayor in 2009, helped lead last year’s Democratic National Convention in Charlotte. He also championed the completion of an additional runway at the Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, though Foxx doesn’t have any specific experience as a transportation executive. Earlier this month, he announced he wouldn’t seek re-election.

Secretary of Energy: Outgoing: Steven Chu

Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s appointment is normally given as an example of how the president has free rein with regard to the cabinet.  Chu’s career has been dotted by highs like winning the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1997 and lows like the $527 million Department of Energy loan to Solyndra, the solar panel maker that went bankrupt in August 2011, taking more than half a billion dollars of taxpayer money with it.

Nominated: Ernest Moniz

Ernest Moniz, former undersecretary of Energy under the Clinton Administration, was nominated to lead the Energy department on March 4. Moniz, a nuclear physicist who received his Ph.D in Theoretical physics from Stanford University, has served as MIT faculty since 1973. Moniz is no stranger to the Obama Administration; in 2009 he was appointed to be a member of Obama’s Science and Technology Advisory Council. Moniz has been a proponent of both nuclear energy and natural gas as solutions to reducing carbon emissions in the United States.

Secretary of Education: Arne Duncan

Duncan will stay on for the foreseeable future. During his four years in office, Duncan has worked on initiatives expanding Pell grants and working on reform efforts like Race to the Top program as well as Investing in Innovation. He has also worked to improve relations between labor and management at a time when teaching labor unions have faced public fights from the right, including the Wisconsin effort to end collective bargaining. Before taking the top education spot, Duncan had served as CEO of Chicago Public Schools since 2001.

Secretary of Veterans Affair: Eric K. Shinseki

Shinseki is staying on for Obama’s second term. As an Asian American he contributes to the diversity of the second term cabinet. Before taking the top job at the VA, Shinseki served in active duty for the Army from 1965to 2003, when he retired having reached the Army chief of staff position. Shinkseki, whose highly decorated Army career spans almost six decades, has seen a number of challenges as veterans return from both Iraq and Afghanistan with a host of needs, ranging from treatment for physical and mental injuries to job placement as they leave the service to drug addiction and homelessness.

Secretary of Homeland Security: Janet Napolitano

Napolitano will stay on for Obama’s second term. In her first term, she was among those considered for the Supreme Court seat to which Obama appointed Sonia Sotomayor in 2009. Napolitano is a former Arizona governor and represented Anita Hill during Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ confirmation hearings.

White House Chief of Staff: Denis McDonough

Obama named Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough as the White House chief of staff on January 25. He replaced Jack Lew — nominated by Obama to replace Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary. McDonough was the No. 2 on the NSC staff as well as a senior foreign policy adviser in the 2008 campaign. He headed communications in the early days of the administration. He is a former House International Relations Committee aide before becoming a senior policy adviser to former South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle. He is Obama’s fourth official chief of staff during his presidency. The job does not require Senate confirmation.

The Old White Boys’ Club?

There was criticism of Obama’s selection due to the fact only 2 of the 16 cabinet nominees (Sebelius and Napolitano) were women.

This has to be placed in context. It is doubtful that having a diverse cabinet makes any real difference to public perception or that it plays a major role in securing votes from certain sectors of society. President Obama was able to win a large proportion of the female vote due to his policies on issues such as abortion and equal pay not because of the number of females in his cabinet. With regard to his appointments, the selection of Justices Sotomayor and Kagan, both females were of much more importance.

It should be noted that the cabinet does not play a critical role in US government. Most cabinet secretaries remain relatively unknown and as a collective entity, they have no real input into decision making. When several cabinet secretaries came out to attack the cuts that would automatically follow the failure to reach an agreement over the budget deficit, it should be noted this was a very rare event.

Business As Usual?

The resignation of Hillary Clinton attracted media attention and the issue of whether she will run in 2016 remains, however, her replacement and other appointments are worthy of attention as:

1. They illustrate the future ideological and policy direction of the administration;
2. They provide an opportunity for a president to consolidate his electoral appeal via appointments made on the basis of race and gender;
3. They highlight the system of checks and balances and give an indication of the nature of future relations between the president and the Congress.

The two most significant appointments have been those of John Kerry as Secretary of State replacing Hillary and Chuck Hagel as the new Secretary of Defense^[1] replacing Leon Panetta. The significance of the appointments can be considered on an individual and collective basis.

John F Kerry is a vastly experienced senator and failed former presidential candidate against GW Bush in 2004.  He was easily approved by the Senate 94 -3 after a unanimous recommendation from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

This followed the withdrawal of Susan Rice, the former US ambassador to the United Nations, who was criticised over the attack on the US embassy in Libya. She herself requested that she step down as “the confirmation hearings would be lengthy, costly and disruptive”.This provides a clear illustration of the Senate’s power over presidential nominations.

Chuck Hagel is a former Republican senator nominated as Secretary of Defense. His nomination might be taken as a bipartisan gesture by the president, as evidence of a willingness to “work across the aisle”. It is not clear that this is the case. Either way his alleged lack of support for Israel threatens his confirmation by the Senate after stormy hearings by the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The level of opposition to the Rice and Hagel nominations might suggest that the new Congress will be the same as the old one and that it will be business as usual once issues such as gun control and the debt ceiling are on the agenda. The prospects for a consensual bipartisan approach look bleak when agreement cannot be reached over appointments to the administration. The polarised nature of US political parties today might suggest that President Obama will struggle to build a congressional coalition to support his policy agenda.

Collectively, the appointments could herald a new direction in US foreign policy. Both Kerry and Hagel are Vietnam War veterans a share a sceptical view of a hawkish “neo-conservative” approach to foreign policy. “Jaw jaw” as opposed to “war war” , diplomacy rather than military intervention, “smart / soft” power as opposed to military might, are more likely to be the fore as a result of these appointments.

This might help pave the way for significant reductions in the defense budget which could provoke a war of a political nature on the floor of the Congress due to the extensive influence of, and support for, the Military Industrial Complex therein.

Questions

1. Identify, and give other examples of, congressional checks against the presidency.
2. Why do presidents need to “work across the aisle?”
3. Explain the power and influence of the Military Industrial Complex.