More diversity likely in next Obama job selections

[No Elephants]

]Feb 5, 3:15 AM EST

More diversity likely in next Obama job selections

By JIM KUHNHENN
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- As he prepares to announce a new wave of Cabinet and other senior posts, President Barack Obama is aiming to put a more diverse face on his administration - an image that was missing as he filled the first round of vacancies of his second term with a parade of white men.

<snip>

The leading candidate for nomination to be secretary of commerce is Penny Pritzker, a long-time Obama ally and big-money fundraiser from Chicago, according to people familiar with the White House selection process. The top candidate to lead the White House Office of Management and Budget is Sylvia Mathews Burwell, who was a former budget, White House and treasury official in the Clinton administration and is now the president of the Wal-Mart Foundation.

Both women, if nominated, would replace men, bringing business and government experience to the jobs and helping rebalance the male dominance of Obama's early nominations at the State Department, Treasury and the Pentagon - the three top posts in the Cabinet. In addition to selecting former Sen. John Kerry for secretary of state, Jack Lew for treasury secretary and former Sen. Chuck Hagel for defense secretary, Obama last month also nominated John Brennan to be CIA director. Then he appointed Denis McDonough as his new chief of staff.

The Pritzkers are, of course, one of the wealthiest families in the U.S. And the President of Wal-Mart.

Women chosen solely on the basis of their intelligence, knowledge and skills, no doubt.

I wonder who Obama would have chosen if media had not already pointed out that his choices tended to focus on white men.

Lack of diversity in the choices of America's first African American President (that we know of) and one who supposedly prides himself on having been a commuity organizer, to boot.

So, how's your irony meter doing?

[Enthusiast]

1. The sex thing doesn't concern me as

much as the appointment's corporatist nature. Maybe the President feel that Walmart should serve as a model for the nation. Has the President ever said anything about Walmart? I should clarify but my energy level is kaput.

[No Elephants]

2. In the Clinton's Arkansas days, Hillary sat on the board of directors of Walmart.

[Enthusiast]

3. I had forgotten that. nt

[No Elephants]

4. Sorry. That should have been Clintons', not Clnton's.

Sometimes have a mind that retains stuff can be a curse.

[Enthusiast]

5. Punctuation is one of life's great mysteries. Or is that

lifes' and mysterys? I would like to be right all the time. Like that will happen.