Cabinet Postings (2)

Friends,
This is the second in the series of looking at president-elect Obama’s cabinet choices.

Secretary of State

The president-elect has nominated Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State. This is arguably one of the most important cabinet posts to be considered, just above Defense and Attorney General.

Let’s look at Senator Clinton’s qualifications. At the beginning of her husband’s presidency she worked diligently on the failed national health program. As First Lady, she travelled to foreign lands with her husband when he was president. She was elected and reelected to the Senate from a state where she not a resident until she started shopping around for an opportunity. She, most recently served on the Environment and Public Works Committee, the Special Committee on Aging and the Senate Armed Services Committee. She has visited troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. She has been an advocate for protecting our constitutional rights, such as her support to Roe v. Wade. But wait, how does that protect the constitutional rights of the unborn? (Sorry, I digress)

One major question I would put to both the president-elect and the Secretary of State designate would be, “How do you square Senator Clinton’s husband’s globetrotting fund raising with doing the business of the United States.” We have seen prospective elected officials and appointed bureaucrats get raked over the coals for their family’s activities, where is the righteous indignation about the Clinton money machine?

So far, I have not found any qualifications with respect to foreign affairs (oops, I should have said foreign diplomacy). This nomination for one of the most important and powerful cabinet positions makes no sense. There is no history of foreign diplomacy and very little displayed interest except to criticize existing policy.

I would argue that the president-elect has erred in judgment yet again. Normally, one or two errors in judgment could be excused, but the list is growing. My next posting tomorrow will continue the discussion.

As always, I welcome your comments and discussion. Below is a comment I received about yesterday’s posting. The writer has legitimate concerns. I invite you to read them.

Dan

Hi Dan:
After reading this weeks posting I was a little saddened! I agree with you that we have to be diligent in our scrutiny of the staff in which Obama surrounds himself, but to be so close-minded as to not give him a pass on anything when he's not even in office is a little arrogant to me. I didn't vote for him but I do pray that God will change his mind and heart about issues that are on the hearts of many Christian Americans. I honestly don't want this man to fail because we're all in this together - failure cannot be an option for either Republican or Democrat - this is the deciding factor! (name withheld)