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Obama has to touch many bases in picking 15 for cabinet

BY REID J. EPSTEIN | reid.epstein@newsday.com

November 6, 2008

Now that he's won the presidency, Barack Obama faces a "Rubik's Cube-type" task in forming a cabinet that can both run the federal bureaucracy and satisfy the political, geographic and ethnic interests vying for representation on it, experts said yesterday.

The 15-member cabinet will represent the public face of Obama's executive branch, and political experts said his prominent early supporters almost certainly would receive strong consideration for major cabinet appointments.

But experts say Obama also must make room for people who backed Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton during the Democratic primaries - along with a Republican or two.

"He's got arguably the most complicated calculus of any president in recent memory," said Paul Light, a New York University professor who has written extensively about the federal government. "This is really a Rubik's Cube-type of operation. He'll have to figure out a way to cover all the bases."

Several experts said they expect Obama to be careful to avoid the mistakes President Bill Clinton's transition team made in 1992 before he first took office.

Clinton began designating cabinet secretaries before he assembled his White House staff, which famously led to disorganization, particularly when his first two attorney general nominees were forced to withdraw from the nominating process.

"That really bedeviled Bill Clinton," said James Pfiffner, a George Mason University political science professor. "The key thing that he [Obama] should do very early is designate the top people in his White House staff."

Clinton in 1992 promised to appoint a cabinet that "looks like America." The nation's first black president won't have difficulty offering ethnically diverse appointments, said David Lewis, a Vanderbilt University professor.

"It's not going to be difficult for him to appoint a diverse cabinet," Lewis said. "I don't think it's a stretch for him to reach outside his normal circles to do it."

Perhaps the first place to look for possible Obama appointees will be among Clinton administration veterans. There is a deep reservoir of Democratic officials with federal government experience - such as former Clinton cabinet secretaries Lawrence Summers and Bill Richardson - that didn't exist when Clinton took office in 1992.

Obama "can reach back to the Clinton presidency," said John Burke, a University of Vermont professor and author of a book on presidential transitions.

Prominent early Obama backers are likely to be in consideration for top posts, experts said. They include Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and the term-limited Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine.

Former Hillary Clinton supporters being mentioned in published reports include environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., of Mount Kisco as the possible Environmental Protection Agency administrator.

While it would be hard to imagine a Democratic president presenting a cabinet without any New Yorkers, Obama's campaign and political base is in Chicago.

Like Kennedy, virtually every significant New York politician backed Clinton during the primary season, leaving Obama without a deep bench of loyal supporters from the nation's largest city.

Nonetheless, "geography does play a role," Lewis said. "His campaign for re-election begins on Jan. 20. You have to be attentive to the places where you'll need support."