Issue date: 1/22/09 Section: Opinion

Media Credit: Evan Andrews [Click to enlarge]

Watching President Barack Obama's victory speech at the end of the primary season last June, one could be forgiven for feeling the aura of a superhero with unprecedented powers, a demigod on the rise. Obama, with much gravitas, said he had no doubt that "generations from now, we will be able to look back and tell our children that…this was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal."

That's pretty heavy stuff, but the new president might be pulling together the right team to make it happen. From governors' mansions, law firms, and no small number of Senate desks across the country, the putative Captain Planet of the new millennium has assembled a Cabinet of superstars. To vanquish global warming and quash the evils of pollution and overuse, Obama will have at his side an impressive posse including Democratic bigwigs, a Nobel laureate and two Republicans.

Although his Cabinet will be diverse in terms of race, gender and party identification, his choices for the four most prestigious spots speak more clearly about what kind of government he will be leading, and the limits (unknown, apparently, to his speechwriters) of his power.

At the Department of Defense, Texas A&M University's former president will stay on for at least the first year of Obama's term, according to ABC News. The decision to keep Robert Gates at the Pentagon really screams, 'Stability!' at a moment when the U.S. is beginning to refocus on Afghanistan and as Iraqis take more control of their country. It is also a step back from the more radical rhetoric Captain Obama displayed on his sojourn to the columns at Invesco Field.

Although submitting to the wisdom of President Bush to fill this post might be taken as a cold shoulder by the millions of anti-war activists who carried him to the nomination and would like to see an immediate withdrawal from Iraq, it is a wise choice. Gates will continue to oversee the transfer of responsibilities to Iraq's government and, at Obama's direction, draft a review of the situation in Afghanistan. A man with strong ties to President George H. W. Bush and President George W. Bush, Gates will be one of only two Republicans in the Obama Cabinet.

One of the first jobs to be doled out by Obama after his November election was secretary of state, the most prestigious seat of them all. Here, Captain Obama's choice reveals his largest weakness: the Establishment. It is not so much a foe as a force to be reckoned with, and try as he might, Hillary Clinton's nomination for diplomat-in-chief is a stark reminder that it will not go away.

Flowery speeches aside, Obama has yet to subdue the mighty bulwark of the Democratic Party, which Clinton represents. Her qualifications for State are dubious: first lady of Arkansas, first lady of the United States and senator from New York. Clinton's one major policy experience, the health care battle of 1993, ended in abject failure due in large part to her involvement. Claiming that she has foreign policy experience because of her interactions with foreign dignitaries as first lady is even more laughable than Sarah Palin's entrance into the realm of foreign policy vis-à-vis the visibility of Russia from Alaska. Clinton is a pit bull in a pantsuit, but not necessarily Captain Obama's pit bull.

Next in the list of daring superheroes is the attorney general, Eric Holder, a Clinton veteran whose nomination was slowed by his involvement in the scandalous Marc Rich pardon by former President Clinton, a decision to which he gave tacit approval. A Washington insider with an impressive breadth of experience at the Clinton Justice Department, the NFL and the NAACP, Holder served as legal counsel to Obama in the 2008 campaign. Seeking to disprove critics who see in that experience the potential for a new politicization of the Justice Department, Holder has promised that his will serve "not any one president, not any political party, but the people." In this appointment, Obama has once again belied his outsider image and secured a close friend on whom he will be able to lean in future battles.

Finally, Obama's choice to head the busy Treasury Department: Timothy Geithner. As president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank, Geithner was one of the trio who wrote the government's original three-page $700 billion bailout proposal, and comes with a verbal recommendation from Secretary Henry Paulson.

Regardless of any new pressures the president's economic policies will put on the nation's financial system, Geithner will have his hands full distributing the second half of the TARP program money. His experience at the Federal Reserve, the Clinton Treasury Department, the CFR and the International Monetary Fund suggest he will be more than up to the job.

This Tuesday, the 44th president inherited an executive branch ravaged by the first decade of the new century. If future generations are truly going to look back on this era as the time when we saved the world, Captain Obama and the Dream Team have their work cut out for them. With their powers combined…

Did you know?
Former President George W. Bush and President Barack Obama
agreed Robert Gates, former president of Texas A&M, would serve as the country's president if an inauguration day emergency or attack incapacitated the two presidents in transition. Gates spent Inauguration Day at an undisclosed location to ensure his safety should his leadership be needed.

Secretary of Veterans' Afffairs,Eric Shinseki
Born - Nov. 28, 1942
Education - U.S. Military Academy, Duke University, National War College
Accomplishments - Four-star general, chief of staff of Army

Secretary of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano
Born - Nov. 29, 1957
Education - Santa Clara University, University of Virginia School of Law
Accomplishments - Arizona attorney general (1999-2002), Arizona governor (2003-2009)

Secretary of state, Hillary Clinton
Born - Jan. 26, 1947
Education - Wellesley College
Accomplishments - Junior senator from New York (01-present), first lady (1993-2001), presidential candidate (2007-2008)

Secretary of the treasury, Timothy Geithner
Born - Oct. 18, 1961
Education - Dartmouth College
Accomplishments - president of New York Federal Reserve Bank (2003-present), Clinton treasury deputy, council on foreign relations

Attorney general, Eric Holder
Born - Jan. 21, 1951
Education - Columbia University, Columbia Law
Accomplishments - U.S. attorney for Washington, D.C., deputy attorney general (1997-2001)

Secretary of labor, Hilda Solis
Born - Oct. 20, 1957
Education - California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
Accomplishments - California senator, U.S. congress (2001-2009)

Secretary of defense, Robert Gates
Born - Sept. 25, 1943
Education - College of William and Mary
Accomplishments - USAF, CIA (DCI), Texas A&M president

Secretary of agriculture, Tom Vilsack
Born - Dec. 12, 1950
Education - Hamilton College, Albany Law
Accomplishments - Mayor of Mount Pleasant, Iowa, Iowa state senator, Iowa governor (1999-2007), chair of Democratic govorners' association, presidential candidate (2007-2008)

Secretary of the interior, Ken Salazar
Born - March 2, 1955
Education - Colorado College, University of Michigan Law
Accomplishments - Colorado attorney general (1999-2005), U.S. senator (2005-present)

Health and human services , Tom Daschle
Born - Dec. 9, 1947
Education - South Dakota State University
Accomplishments - U.S. House (1979-1987), Senate (1987-2005), majority leader (2001-2003)

Housing and urban development, Shaun Donovan
Born - Jan. 24, 1966
Education - Harvard University
Accomplishments - New York City department of housing preservation and development (2004-present), deputy assistant secretary at housing and urban development for Clinton

Secretary of transportation, Ray LaHood
Born - Dec. 6, 1945
Education - Bradley University
Accomplishemnts - Illinois congressman, U.S. House (1995-2009).

Secretary of energy, Steven Chu
Born - Feb. 28, 1948
Education - University of Rochester, University of California, Berkeley Physics
Accomplishments - Nobel Physics Prize (1997), director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Secretary of education, Ame Duncan
Born - Nov. 6, 1964
Education - Harvard University
Accomplishments - Played on Harvard basketball team, Prof of basketball in Australia (1987-1991), CEO of Chicago Public Schools (2001-2009)

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