The Cabinet

[The Senator]

Okay folks, the premise of this thread is pretty simple.

Pick a presidential candidate, and form a cabinet. Who should either candidate pick to oversee those vital executive branch agencies, such as the Department of Defense and the Department of Justice?

For those who don't know all the Cabinet-level positions off the top of your heads, they can be found here:

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

(Also, you don't have to fill every post)

 

[rdh007]

Great idea, jman! Being a left leaning guy, I reserve the right to try to include everyone at the cost of clarity. I also leaned heavily on dailykos.com's cabinet tournament for ideas in this list after Commerce/Bayh

President Obama
Vice President Rendell/Webb/Nunn/Richardson

Secretary of State: Richardson/Clinton
Secretary of Defense: Jim Webb/Biden
A.G. Edwards (Get it?...Anyone?...Is this thing on?)
Chuck Hagel for Ag/Commerce? (I doubt he'd do either, but it never hurts to ask)
Paul Krugman at Labor/Commerce
Secretary of Commerce: Evan Bayh (Or maybe Krugman)
Treasury: Bob Rubin back at Treasury? Maybe Bloomberg'd do it? Olympia Snowe kills two birds with one stone.
Secretary of Education: Paul Vallas (Illinois connection) or Bob Wise from WV
Secretary of Interior: Snowe or Ken Salazar from Colorado
Secretary of Health and Human Services (and ideally Education, right jman?): Clinton, Sebelius, or maybe even Dean (gets him out of his current position)
Secretary of HUD: Fred Pena or Lincoln Chafee
Secretary of Transportation: Pierce Homer (Virginia may still be in play)
Secretary of Energy: RFK, Jr. (or Jeff Sachs)

He's gotta put a (R) in there somewhere and a woman, preferrably Clinton. Richardson and Webb have gotta be part of this thing, and I'd like to see Biden in there because I like his honesty. Though he's far too honest for State as he'd tick everyone off. As a Michiganian, I'd also love to see Bonior at Labor since I voted for him in the Dem primary against our current governor.

 

[The Senator]

Here's my cabinet for Obama.

Vice President: Ed Rendell or Sen. Blanche Lincoln
Secretary of State: Bill Richardson
Secretary of Defense: Chuck Hagel
Attorney General: John Edwards
Secretary of the Treasury: Robert Rubin (everyone seems to think he's a shoe-in)
Secretary of Commerce: Nydia Velazquez
Secretary of Labor: Margaret Blackshere, former AFL-CIO president
Secretary of Energy: Amory Lovins (if Al Gore is unavailable)
Secretary of the Interior: Gary Hart
Secretary of HUD: Anthony A. Williams
Secretary of Homeland Security: Bennie Thompson
Secretary of Health and Human Services: John Kitzhaber or Howard Dean
Secretary of Education: Ruben Hinojosa
Secretary of Transportation: Jimmy Duncan
Secretary of Agriculture: Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin
Secretary of Veteran's Affairs: Tammy Duckworth

I think Clinton will be appointed to the Supreme Court.

 

[rdh007]

I like Hagel at Defense. I like that a lot. Helps put an (R) in there. The reason I didn't do it was my fear that he wouldn't take that high profile a position for a Democrat. But then again, why would he bother with a low profile one?

Richardson at State, Rubin at Treasury, and AG Edwards seem to be pretty popular, almost shoe-ins)

 

[Chris B]

I don't really have much of a list, but a few I would want to see are:

President: Barack Obama
Vice President: Evan Bayh
State: Joe Biden
Attorney General: John Edwards
Defense: Chuck Hagel
Homeland Security: Tim Roehmer