Obama's second term: Who's in, who's out?
This interactive photo collection/article breaks down Obama's first term cabinet and speculates about his second term cabinet. As we learned earlier this year, the cabinet can sometimes pull the president in multiple directions motivated by their respective interests rather than consult him. Picking a strong cabinet will help Obama in his second term should he successfully utilize their expertise. Also, this article mentions (as many others have) that Hillary Clinton is leaving the position of Secretary of State. This relates to the "great mentioner" and the election of 2016, as many people have speculated she will run.
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I think its interesting to note that the positions that are changing are (generally) the most significant of the 16 Cabinet positions; the ones who are under the most pressure to do something have the most opportunity to make errors. Positions like the Secretary of the Interior (which honestly, most Americans wouldn't even know what he does)are not really changing, unlike the economic and military secretaries, who are highly visible.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Grace. I'm more interested as to why some of these members (well former members) are leaving. As she said, the ones who take on the most pressure are more likely to make mistakes.
ReplyDeleteNot to be unoriginal or anything...but I agree with both of you. It's interesting that the most significant positions, the ones with most pressure and opportunities of making mistakes, are the ones being left.
ReplyDeleteI think it makes sense that the high pressure jobs are the ones that are held for less time due to the fact that most people only can handle that type of lifestyle for so long. In the case of Hillary I believe she wants to leave for rest, time to campaign, and doesn't want to be associated with any negative world events that may happen in the future.
ReplyDeleteSince there is going to be a change over in the most significant members of the cabinet, I wonder if many changes will happen in the departments that these cabinet members run. Some good things could happen do to the switching of the cabinet.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the change of people occupying positions in the Cabinet can have a major impact on changing policies. Obama must choose wisely and consider what worked during his first time and what needs to be different within the Cabinet. Of course there are other factors involved in deciding who will join. The potential loss of John Kerry's Senate seat is only one example.
DeleteI am probably going to be the only one who says this, but I feel that the most stressful jobs should be handled by one person who knows what they are doing for a longer time than the less stressful parts of the cabinet. Let's think about it, if they keep changing the people who are doing the stressful jobs, what will get done? The more they change, the less anything will get changed or have a chance at being changed. I understand it offers more diversity, but honestly, I care more about the good for the whole; not diversity. As for the less stressful cabinet positions, I feel like they could be changed freely because they have less effort to work on. Sure, some can keep it for longer, but if you bring a newbie in for every important, stressful part of the cabinet, nothing will be achieved and you will always have the same problems because there is no experience. They are supposed to handle the stress.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you completely. The more someone changes their position from stress or whatever reason, the less that gets done. If someone becomes more experienced at their position, they will be able to handle it better and know what they are doing, compared to someone new to the position that wouldn't otherwise know how to handle everything.
DeleteI agree and disagree with you Aubrey. I understand your point that these people sign up for these positions and should be able to handle the stress, but they aren't necessarily leaving because they cannot handle the stress. People in the president's cabinet often change. On the other hand it may be better to receive new persons in such important positions; new ideas may be taken well and frankly needed as the economy is still suffering greatly under Obama despite plans to address this as well as the security problems with the lack of initial response and addressing the American people on the Benghazi issue.
DeleteI agree that it's interesting that the high pressure, influential positions are the ones that are being left. But, as Jeff stated, it does make sense that these high pressure jobs are left sooner than those that aren't as difficult because of the hectic and stressful lifestyle that is associated with them.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I want to put out Talia's originality with selecting an article which is more visual than most so far. I think it definitely keeps us interested in the topic. Back to the article, I think it is important for people who hold the "most important" positions be replaced after someone has spent a substantial amount of time in that area of work. The gallery claims that "people close to her [Mary Schapiro] say she's been exhausted by the pace of the job," and that is completely understandable. If one were to spend too much time in a high-pressure position, his or her job expectations may be too overwhelming and that person would not be perfectly efficient.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Katie Panzer. That kind of job must be absolutely exhausting, and after four years someone fresh and new should come in to give the old jobholder a break and get a fresh perspective for the job.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Katie Panzer. That kind of job must be absolutely exhausting, and after four years someone fresh and new should come in to give the old jobholder a break and get a fresh perspective for the job.
ReplyDeleteThere's nothing wrong with a rotation of faces. This will bring new energy, ideas, and hopefully change to the Obama administration and again I'm going to side with Jeff and say that people can only handle the stress for so long so its good to bring in people who are free of that stress so they can make well informed and intelligent decisions.
ReplyDeleteAs others have said, I think having new cabinet members could be a good thing. It brings in new ideas and people who aren't fatigued from having an extremely stressful job. If people didn't like Obama for the past 4 years, which it seems many didn't, a new cabinet could bring new ideas and attitudes that weren't around the past few years. It will be interesting to see who he picks.
ReplyDeleteBy placing new cabinet members in place our country will be able to have a new perspective. The retired cabinet members have done very much for our country but it is time for new faces and new ideas.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with what Jeff said. The higher pressure jobs are usually the most sought after and therefore everything one does is monitored. The positions will constantly change and then we will have another turnover of officials.
ReplyDelete