Latinos unhappy with Obama picks

[BlackAsCoal]

I don't want a Presdinetial cabinet that "looks like America".

I was a Presidents cabinet that is competent to advise the POTUS and help him carry out the important business of making American work.

I do .. and I don't think that looking like America and being competent are mutually exclusive.

We've been through plenty of iterations of cabinets that don't look like America and at the same time been totally incompetent.

Diversity means different perspectives, not just different colors. I want people in the cabinet who understands what Hispanics are dealing with in this country .. and I'm sure they want that as well.

Politics is and always will be about quid-pro-quo .. what are you going to do for my community for my vote.

 

[BlackAsCoal]

Commentary: Obama ignored Latinos for top posts

SAN DIEGO, California (CNN) -- About four years ago, I wrote a column praising President Bush for appointing Latinos to the Cabinet as he began his second term. The most obvious example was Bush's decision to nominate Alberto Gonzales as attorney general, which many liberals would insist was a big mistake.

I disagree. But that's an argument for another time.

This much can't be argued: Gonzales represented a major breakthrough. You see, all Cabinet posts are not created equal and, before Bush broke the barrier, no Latino had ever been nominated for one of the top four jobs -- defense, state, treasury, or attorney general.

A whole succession of presidents -- including Democrats such as Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton -- who had munched nachos and posed with mariachis on the campaign trail, and enjoyed substantial support from Latinos, had somehow missed the opportunity to seat a Latino at the grown-ups' table. Imagine that.

In that column, I also mentioned Bush's decision to nominate Cuban-born Carlos Gutierrez to be commerce secretary. I had a line that read something like: "Commerce secretary isn't chopped liver."

A liberal reader who was obviously intent on denying Bush credit for anything positive wrote back, "Sorry, but commerce secretary is chopped liver."

I stand corrected.

This week, President-elect Barack Obama unveiled his national security team and continued the sorry tradition of presidents overlooking Latinos as they fill the top-tier of the Cabinet appointments. The four big posts have been filled, and there is not a Latino anywhere in the mix.

Even liberals who like to think of the Gonzales appointment as a kind of failed social experiment because it lets them off the hook for future stabs at diversity would be hard-pressed to suggest that they couldn't do better and that Obama couldn't find a single Latino to name, oh I don't know, secretary of state.

You would have thought Bill Richardson was a shoo-in for that job, with his gold-plated resume: Seven-term member of Congress; special envoy to North Korea, Iraq, Cuba and Sudan; U.N. ambassador; energy secretary; New Mexico governor and five-time nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize for brokering cease-fires and negotiating the release of hostages. What a slacker. I'm surprised Richardson never got around to securing peace in the Middle East.

Let's not forget that Richardson is the highest-ranking Latino official in the country, and that Latinos supported Obama over John McCain by a margin of more than 2-to-1 and helped the Democrat win four battleground states.

Let's not forget that Richardson, a former member of the Clinton Cabinet, burned his bridges to the Little Rock Mafia by endorsing Obama in the primary over Hillary Clinton. CNN contributor James Carville likened Richardson to Judas.

Let's not forget that Richardson had the blessing of the National Hispanic Leadership Agenda, an association of 26 national and regional Hispanic civil rights and public policy organizations whose leaders sent a letter to President-elect Obama recommending Richardson for secretary of state.

Instead, this week, Obama gave the job that Richardson coveted to Hillary Clinton. And then, adding insult to injury, Obama nominated Richardson to be -- wait for it -- commerce secretary.

It's no wonder that, at the press conference where Obama announced Richardson's nomination, a Latino reporter asked the president-elect if this wasn't just an elaborate consolation prize. Obama insisted it wasn't, and that this was a very important job. What else could he say?

It gets worse. The gig is leftovers. According to CNN and other sources, Obama's first choice to head the commerce department was Penny Pritzker, the president-elect's chief fundraiser and a billionaire heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune who withdrew her name from consideration.

For someone who supposedly doesn't like drama, the president-elect has sure spun one juicy telenovela over who should serve in his Cabinet.

more at link --
Commentary: Obama ignored Latinos for top posts - CNN.com

The qualifications argument is bullshit and it's bullshit I'm used to hearing from the right.

Obama is bringing "change" alright .. he's changing democrats into republicans.

 

[Red Dawn]

I don't want a Presdinetial cabinet that "looks like America".

I was a Presidents cabinet that is competent to advise the POTUS and help him carry out the important business of making American work.

I want a government that looks like america.

In a nation of 350 million people its not hard to find a few dozen blacks, women, and hispanics that are highly qualified on economics, domestic policy, and foreign policy.

So, the only choice you have left, is do you want a cabinet of all old white men? Or do you want a cabinet that reflects america and her diversity? That would be a conscious decision, either way.