Despite the much-hyped hoopla surrounding Obama's cabinet nominations, the president-elect has not yet named candidates to two posts that form part of the centerpiece of liberal domestic policies in post-Bush America: education and interior.
Coincidence? Hardly.
Seems as though Obama is having problems making up his mind which way to go in these vital areas:
- liberal, thus satisfying the base, including the vast majority of his high-profile endorsers and the most highly regarded of party elders, or
- centrist-to-conservative, as he has already done for foreign relations/national security and economic policy.
The U.S. economy is in such dire straits that liberals are ready to follow anyone who can resolve this terrible mess... and will forgive Obama for overlooking favorite liberal economists as Paul Krugman, Robert Reich and the like.
And U.S. relations with the international community are so mucked up, and national security so murky and fragile, that liberals are willing to listen to anyone who can keep our nation safe and begin the arduous task of rebuilding American credibility abroad.
But I believe that Obama may jeopardize his 2012 reelection chances:
- if he selects an Interior Secretary who isn't repelled and appalled by President Bush's eight-year attempt to dismantle landmark environmental regulations, and especially by Bush's lame-duck rush to implement a record-breaking number of laws to weaken or dump environmental policies; or
- if he selects an Education Secretary who wants to decimate the power of the teachers' unions, to take desperately-needed funds away from public education systems, or to weaken the democratic principles underlying the No Child Left Behind Act.
Secretary of the Interior
Westerners, in particular, care deeply about environmental issues, and Barack Obama is the first Democrat in decades to win the presidential election in Colorado, New Mexico and Nevada, three western states deeply entrenched in environmental preservation and conservation.
In fact, two new U.S. senators from those state... Sen. Mark Udall of Colorado and his cousin, Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico... are passionate environmentalists who hail from America's first family of environmental legislation.
Lose the hard-won newly-blue West, and Obama has a reelection problem in 2012.
At best, Barack Obama appears lukewarm on environmental issues and has shown no special love of the outdoors beyond the beaches of Oahu.
Ostensibly, Obama is torn between big business demands to ease costly regulations, and the political fall-out should he nominate an Interior Secretary not fully committed to liberal orthodoxy espoused by the large Democratic contingent that cites environmentalism as a top issue.
And so Obama's curious foot-dragging goes on, despite his high-profile announcement today of the remainder of his environmental team.
Secretary of Education
Compared to the pitched battle being waged over the Education Secretary nomination, though, liberal clamor over the Interior Secretary slot is minor.
Wrote the New York Times yesterday:
"... there remains uncertainty about what Mr. Obama believes is the best way to improve education."Will he side with those who want to abolish teacher tenure and otherwise curb the power of teachers’ unions? Or with those who want to rewrite the main federal law on elementary and secondary education, the No Child Left Behind Act, and who say the best strategy is to help teachers become more qualified?
"The debate has sometimes been nasty."
Sometimes? Among public school teachers, this subject is invariably contentious. And it touches every American family with children.
On one side are the powerful teachers' unions which represent unfettered commitment to the public school systems and teachers witin those systems. For the most part, this group believes that school reforms can be achieved with smaller class sizes, high-quality teacher credentialing requirements, and full funding of and greater flexibility for the No Child Left Behind Act ("NCLB").
On the other side are radical reformers Michelle Rhee, Chancellor of the Washington D.C. school district, and Joel Klein, Chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, and others who believe that school reforms can only be achieved with stronger accountability (i.e. testing) for students, more charter school opportunities for alternatives to the public system, and breaking of union protections of tenured teachers.
Undoubtedly, Obama is searching for an Education Secretary who can peacably straddle this gaping educational divide, all while accomplishing major student improvements in reading, writing and math.
If that magical guru exists, Obama apparently hasn't found him/her yet, although rumors suggest that he may name close personal pal and basketball buddy, Arne Duncan, the NCLB-friendly CEO of Chicago public schools.
My guess is that he would move more in the direction of sharp-edged reform, and away from the traditional liberal orthodoxy of support-at-all-costs of public schools.... except that the teachers' unions are a large Democratic voting block and contributed huge sums to Obama's presidential campaign.
Lose public school teachers, and Obama has a reelection problem in 2012.
Obama's Foot Dragging
And so Barack Obama drags his feet on nominating candidates to two cabinet spots that liberals care deeply about... that I care deeply about.
And I'm starting to wonder: where is that principled, visionary liberal leader that I voted for in the Democratic primaries?
I fear Obama is stretched thin by his self-defeating desire to please everyone possible, and, to my chagrin, bogged-down by conviction-free political calculations.
Neither bodes well for 2012.
Comments
Yeah, Ken Salazar at Interior is no bed of roses to this non-Gang Green environmentalist, and Lisa Jackson at EPA could be called all talk and no show, or all hat and no cattle, on toxic waste sites.
But the Obamiacs will continue to drink the Kool-Aid and either miss or ignore the bitter almonds taste at the bottom.