Richardson says he will announce Cabinet before 2008 vote
By Philip Elliott, Associated Press Writer
July 28, 2007


HANOVER, N.H. --Presidential hopeful Bill Richardson told union members on Saturday he would give voters a preview of his Cabinet before voters pick the next president.

Richardson, a former Clinton-era Cabinet secretary, told a Service Employees International Union conference at Dartmouth College that he would give voters a preview of who exactly would be running the federal government. He must first win his party's nomination, a prospect he acknowledges might be tough odds against Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. But that isn't stopping his appeal.

"I would announcement my Cabinet before the election. If I'm the nominee, I would tell you who my team would be. It would have independents, Republicans and Democrats . Don't worry, I won't overdo the Republicans," Richardson said to laughter. "It would be taken from America, not from the Beltway."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/ar...ore_2008_vote/
-----------------------------



I totally agree with this and it should be something all the serious candidates should do.

I prefer to vote for a team, so I'd rather a candidate announce possible cabinet positions earlier in the election process.

You're assuming that cabinet is going to stay intact. Look at the current cabinet. How "intact" has that thing stayed? Anyway, I totally do not trust this B.S. about having a diverse cabinet. That's just pandering to voters.

uhuh so leading up to an election, you don't want to know who will make up the team that will run your country.

How do you make an informed decision? Or do you just trust that the one guy you vote for will make all the decisions for you?





What I'm assuming is to know how this person applying for the job of POTUS thinks, his/her leadership style, and the type of advisors he/she will surround himself with.

That's a very good question. One, which I don't have an answer to. I can thank our current state of government for that. I believe them ALL to be liars. I have absolutely NO faith in any of the current presidential candidates. I think they're all "in it for themselves," and they care very little about representing anyone who actually votes for them.

Case in point: Hey Illinois! How's that Barack Obama working out for you? He's missed 20% of the current congressional session. Nice that your state is only being 80% represented! Good job!

Don't laugh, you Demopublicans in Arizona! The leader YOU picked to represent YOU (McCain) has missed 48% of the current session! Wow, what does that make you? A little more than half a state, in congress? What a sham.

If they picked their cabinet, then we'd be inundated with political attacks on cabinet members, as well as the primary candidate. Don't vote for candidate X, because he's gonna have a former wife-beater in his cabinet! It would just get ridiculous.

Personally, while I don't mind them talking about what types of folks their cabinet would contain, actually naming them would do more harm than good. If they were forced to do that, we would have to endure some sort of "musical chairs" thing, while each candidate swapped out folks, to appease more voters. Just pawns on a chess board.

That's crazy. ANYBODY can say who they'd LIKE to have as their dream team. But it doesn't mean those they name would accept it.

A worthless, useless exercise.

__________________
"This is a time for a national imperative not to fail in Iraq." Condoleeza Rice, January 11, 2007

Which is why you should give this idea a chance. We've got nothing to lose at this point

Boogie, don't be so cynical just because your party has been lying to you all this time. Tell ya what, burn your Republican party registration card and re-register as an indy... you'll feel instantly better.

Which is why you vote straight party tickets, JP. Saves you the trouble of having to think to hard.


But for the independant voters with no party loyalty, this idea of announcing likely cabinet members ahead of an election makes sense.

How do you know how I vote? I was NEVER going to vote for Bill Richardson.....or any other Dem for President. Just as YOU were NEVER going to vote for a Republican....right?????

__________________
"This is a time for a national imperative not to fail in Iraq." Condoleeza Rice, January 11, 2007

This sounds like a great idea to me.
Even if the picks don't accept, it will give us a good idea of the types of people the candidate would pick. A candidate's picks say a lot more than anything else, since the bureaucracy does a lot of the executive work.
If people would have known in 2000 that Bush was going to pick a bunch of his buds and put them in a group-think environment, maybe Gore would have had a shot.

I hope this idea catches on.

__________________
"Man lives in the sunlit world of that which he believes to be reality. But unseen by most is an underworld, a place that is just as real... but not as brightly lit... A DARK SIDE!"
-opening from Tales From the Darkside

How did I know you only vote for candidates from your party? Easy... I made an informed guess based on things you say, JP. And I was right by your own admission.


As for your guess.. umm, no. you guessed wrong. Heck, I even voted for Bush and never regretted it. 'course that was Jeb Bush... not junior.