President-Elect Biden Begins Naming Appointees

[Gaidin]

Well, let's not rule out that if Trump was "playing" for the national vote instead of the EC, he may well have got it in 2016. He was playing to win certain states and he did. Had he been playing to win votes in general, he would have showed up in Rural California and Texas and whip up his base there. It may not have worked, it may had. But it certainly not hard to imagine him getting the popular vote in 2016, when he barely lost it. And 2.5 million votes in 135-140 million votes is "barely losing" the popular vote.

Well let’s not rule out that Trump lost both the national vote(massively) and the electoral vote(massively). By more than he lost it in 2016(the national vote) and by his own definition (the electoral vote).

[alhoon]

Well let’s not rule out that Trump lost both the national vote(massively) and the electoral vote(massively). By more than he lost it in 2016(the national vote) and by his own definition (the electoral vote).

He DID lost national and electoral in 2020. Nobody (except, well 1/4 American voters) denies the fact that he lost these elections.
What I said is that we don't know whether he would have won in 2016 even if the elections didn't have the EC.

[alhoon]

Moreover, any Pete Buttigieg assignment will be viewed as a product of political horse-trading, not that he doesn't have a fairly good resume, a stellar education, and fairly good experience in both executive and political positions. All before the age of 40. But, it is important to avoid impropriety, especially right after an administration that's notorious for its political grift and kleptocracy.

That's my main issue here.
Buttigieg is NOT an old person! Also, his appointment would score points with the LGBT squads if we go by points. Sure, LGBT are less than black people but Biden ALREADY has a woman and a black person (KH) in the administration. Given Biden's non-confrontational nature and advanced age and frankly the "he's around for 50 years, what ELSE has he have on his agenda?!?" I expect Kamala Harris to be the most powerful VP of the modern times, even more powerful than Dick Cheney, the architect of Halliburton's war on Iraq.

Also, Buttigieg is more moderate and as a gay person, he has the insane privilege of not having to bow down to the ultra-progressive. He's the guy that can say "Nah" to people screaming that USA should nuke Saudi Arabia for their treatment of gays or to say "Man, that is completely stupid" to the completely stupid pro-gay demands of the progressives without sounding homophobic.

And again: He's not 55+ !
How many old people will Biden appoint?!

[Love Mountain]

That's my main issue here.
Buttigieg is NOT an old person! Also, his appointment would score points with the LGBT squads if we go by points. Sure, LGBT are less than black people but Biden ALREADY has a woman and a black person (KH) in the administration. Given Biden's non-confrontational nature and advanced age and frankly the "he's around for 50 years, what ELSE has he have on his agenda?!?" I expect Kamala Harris to be the most powerful VP of the modern times, even more powerful than Dick Cheney, the architect of Halliburton's war on Iraq.

Also, Buttigieg is more moderate and as a gay person, he has the insane privilege of not having to bow down to the ultra-progressive. He's the guy that can say "Nah" to people screaming that USA should nuke Saudi Arabia for their treatment of gays or to say "Man, that is completely stupid" to the completely stupid pro-gay demands of the progressives without sounding homophobic.

I don't have a problem with Pete, but like I said, it's a struggle to avoid impropriety. Biden needs to present a total polar opposite of what Trump has done, and I can absolutely understand why Pete may be passed over for someone else. I don't think that's unreasonable and I do believe that Pete will make a lot of connections and build influence on the back of the Biden presidency. So I don't think we need to act like he's getting fleeced.

And again: He's not 55+ !
How many old people will Biden appoint?!

I don't consider 55 to be old for any senior government position. It's quite young actually and don't forget that senior positions like Deputy Secretary of X Department, tend to be the culmination of one's career, not an important stepping stone. I think we need to stop considering that a Buttigieg appointment to something like "Senior Advisor to the POTUS on X" is the minimum he is owed, rather than a massive reward for services rendered. To be quite honest, the most shrewd appointment Biden could've made, is to make Buttigieg the VP and start preparing him for a Governor run in 2024, or a Presidential run in 2028-2032. Still, there is a danger in rushing his career too fast and again, I doubt Buttigieg is going to be forgotten. Though it'll certainly be interesting to revisit this topic in a year from now.

[conon394]

That's my main issue here.
Buttigieg is NOT an old person! Also, his appointment would score points with the LGBT squads if we go by points. Sure, LGBT are less than black people but Biden ALREADY has a woman and a black person (KH) in the administration. Given Biden's non-confrontational nature and advanced age and frankly the "he's around for 50 years, what ELSE has he have on his agenda?!?" I expect Kamala Harris to be the most powerful VP of the modern times, even more powerful than Dick Cheney, the architect of Halliburton's war on Iraq.

Also, Buttigieg is more moderate and as a gay person, he has the insane privilege of not having to bow down to the ultra-progressive. He's the guy that can say "Nah" to people screaming that USA should nuke Saudi Arabia for their treatment of gays or to say "Man, that is completely stupid" to the completely stupid pro-gay demands of the progressives without sounding homophobic.

And again: He's not 55+ !
How many old people will Biden appoint?!

Buttigieg would be a good add. But I not sure where you put him . Trump has done much to demoralize and damage the civil service. Its hard to want to toss him into a cabinet post when he does not have a huge amount of background in running some part of the vary large and very complex federal government. I mean I would hope he does not get Veteran's Affairs its a mess and a career killer. Someplace he can be in the public eye but not likely to get burned at this point in his career for the Dems.

Biden is going to likely have to depend on a lot of recess appointments and executive action (to make all the disparate parts of the party happy). If he turns to old hands with experience first that might be good. I know there has been push back on Vilsack for example. But I have a lot more confidence that he can hit the ground running and get say food inspection back on track and out the republican insanity Trump allowed. And get a proper executive drafted that will stand challenges.

[Gaidin]

Buttigieg would be a good add. But I not sure where you put him . Trump has done much to demoralize and damage the civil service. Its hard to want to toss him into a cabinet post when he does not have a huge amount of background in running some part of the vary large and very complex federal government. I mean I would hope he does not get Veteran's Affairs its a mess and a career killer. Someplace he can be in the public eye but not likely to get burned at this point in his career for the Dems.

Either let Buttigieg swallow his pride and bring him into the White House to start learning the ropes of high level Federal government or the same as working some Department but not nearly as the Secretary. Forget Veteran's Affairs. The Secretary of Anything has usually been working that for their entire career. Buttigieg is just getting started practically. Appoint him to anything like that and he'll wreck his career for lack of experience.

[alhoon]

OK, not Buttigieg. I never liked Buttigieg anyway. I just don't want to see another all-old-people government of a serious nation. Yes, I understand that a cabinet position is not something you START your big-boy-club career at. Thus, I didn't say "Put a few 40-45 years old in cabinet positions" I said "Perhaps 1-2 50-years old?"

https://news.yahoo.com/pressure-pres...163815450.html
"The pressure on the Democratic president-elect is intense, even as his efforts to ensure ethnic and gender diversity already go far beyond those of President Donald Trump, who did not make diversity a priority and often chose his top officials because they looked the part. "



Yes, diversity should not be a priority when choosing top officials! Their skillset should be.
I know exactly how this sounds after I made a fuss over the lack of age diversity and gerontocracy in Biden's cabinet, but bear with me: Age limits one's creativity. Sure it comes with experience but it brings with it the baggage of decades and leads to lack of creative ideas.
Not all young people are creative and not all old people are fossils. But in general, young people have fresh ideas while old people are good for tried-and-true methods.

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

How is this any different from Obama? Biden's 4, maybe 8, year tenure will just be Obama 2. He won't do much of anything to placate the Left apparently. But I imagine that the DNC will be more than capable to win 2024. I think more and more people are going to tune out of actual politics. With the average supporter coming out in less numbers once they realize that Biden or whoever isn't going to give them very much. Maybe throw a politically calculated bone when he needs to drum up support.

Trump as opposition won't be an issue. He will end up like Teddy Roosevelt but more maligned. That said I doubt that Biden or Trump will be around for much longer. The Republicans will try to cater more to the Hispanics and run Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio or something. The GOP has already shown that they want to cater more to minorities while at the same time throw Trump under the bus, ignore everything that got Trump elected in the first place, then the actual reasons why he lost.

Yeah I think Biden will be the same as Obama. Maybe more reactive in his foreign policy because of the state of the world, and how drastically America's power dynamic will change with regards to all the other major countries. I mean domestically things didn't change under Trump at all. So America will take the same course as it has been since Obama's term, or even Bush's second term.

[Love Mountain]

Nothing wrong with Obama 2. Obama was a pretty good President.

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

Nothing wrong with Obama 2. Obama was a pretty good President.

He was pretty mediocre. Better than Bush I guess.
At least he deported more illegals than Trump. Maybe Biden will do the same.

[Cope]

He was pretty mediocre. Better than Bush I guess.
At least he deported more illegals than Trump. Maybe Biden will do the same.

Don't count on it. Biden has already promised amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants, signalled his intentions to pursue a CRT agenda (diversity hiring, "sensitivity" training, race-conscious resourcing etc.) and gloated about the US becoming majority non-white. For the time being, the BLM radicals are being kept out of the loop out of a fear that they'll derail the GA runoffs; I expect they'll be back at the table after January.

[Love Mountain]

He was pretty mediocre. Better than Bush I guess.
At least he deported more illegals than Trump. Maybe Biden will do the same.

Okay. Where would you rank him?

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

Okay. Where would you rank him?

The last 4 or 5 presidents have to go down among some of the worst or at least most mediocre. I doubt Biden would be any different, considering that he has at best 10 years before he croaks. I'm being generous, 10 is too much.

Don't count on it. Biden has already promised amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants, signalled his intentions to pursue a CRT agenda (diversity hiring, "sensitivity" training, race-conscious resourcing etc.) and gloated about the US becoming majority non-white. For the time being, the BLM radicals are being kept out of the loop out of a fear that they'll derail the GA runoffs; I expect they'll be back at the table after January.

Which is ironic considering that this is Biden we are talking about. He is just doing this for clout. If this was 2010 Biden or 1990 Biden he would go and deport them all.

[Love Mountain]

The last 4 or 5 presidents have to go down among some of the worst or at least most mediocre. I doubt Biden would be any different, considering that he has at best 10 years before he croaks. I'm being generous, 10 is too much.

You're being far too generous with a horde of absolutely useless suits who filled the Oval Office. Some FF Presidents also get unreasonably boosted by virtue of being FFs.

[Lord Oda Nobunaga]

You're being far too generous with a horde of absolutely useless suits who filled the Oval Office. Some FF Presidents also get unreasonably boosted by virtue of being FFs.

I'm not denying that there were a lot of terrible or below average presidents. But the last 5 have been nothing special.

[Love Mountain]

I'm not denying that there were a lot of terrible or below average presidents. But the last 5 have been nothing special.

Clinton and Obama stand out on their economic record. And I'll give a nod to Bush Sr. who gets too much hate despite, probably the most successful foreign policy of the last 50 years.

-
CNN

Pete Buttigieg rumored to be the transportation secretary. If Biden manages to pass a massive infrastructure bill (that we've been hearing about for the last 3 elections), this post could become a big opportunity for Mr. Buttigieg.

[conon394]

I mean domestically things didn't change under Trump at all

Really.

So you missed the bit with Mitch stocking the courts hard to the right ideologically.

If not repealing the ACA basically undermining it at every turn.

Massive rollbacks in regulation.

Massive changes to immigration.

Oh yes and a huge unnecessary tax cut during an expansion.

Demonizing and vilifying the civil service.

Yep nothing to see here.

@alhoon

OK, not Buttigieg

Why not. Its reasonable a safe lower level position. Biden can't ignore the demands from the rather more fractious base of the democratic party [Simply put he has no die hard part of base that like the evangelicals are completely willing to to ignore Trumps morals if he will win the war on Christmas or abortion or whatever]. He gets a former rival in his admin and checks a box on diversity. Buttigieg seemed to handle himself well on Fox. So he somebody to put on on Sunday morning to tow the Admin line with wit alacrity and verve. A reward for good soldiering after Biden won is hardly unusual. In the short run given that Biden will not likely have even a HArris vote majority in the senate and face Mitch, what he can do positively will really constrained. Better to make solidify his base with hope 2022 turn better.

[pacifism]

Most actually do have to be confirmed by the Senate. They just sail through and aren't worth either the politics or the news.

Okay, I’m no bureaucratic wunderkind, so there are some nuances in the civil service that I don’t fully grasp yet. It may be a somewhat different situation with a president being reelected, or a new president of the same party, but a new president of the other party entering the White House has quite a few appointments to make. President Trump had to fill about 4,000 positions, with around 1200 requiring Senate confirmation in 2016. Partly due to sheer volume, you are right that even most of the ones with a Senate confirmation do take place with relatively little fanfare.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ve-branch-jobs
https://www.acslaw.org/federal-execu...-appointments/
https://web.archive.org/web/20170112...appointees.php

One thought that crossed my mind – just one, mind you – is that if the Republicans retain a clear Senate majority and if the handful of moderate ones still toe the party line, Sen. McConnell could conceivably take obstructionism to new heights next year.

[Love Mountain]

I don't think it's a "could" at this point. McConnell has made obstructionism a de-facto GOP policy. Politics are about power, more than ever before. I hope Democrats remember that.

[conon394]

One thought that crossed my mind – just one, mind you – is that if the Republicans retain a clear Senate majority and if the handful of moderate ones still toe the party line, Sen. McConnell could conceivably take obstructionism to new heights next year.

He could, but realistically that will just force Biden to do a massive amount of recess appointments. They are only for what 2 years but that frankly that is Biden's window to 2022. Also I think some picks so far that have the Dem left in a tizzy like Vilsack are basically designed to peel away a few Republican votes and be people familiar with agency they are going into.