Black Folks In The Obama Cabinet?

Now that Hillary Clinton has accepted Obama's sec. of state offer this may be a good time to take a look backwards. It may be wise for the Obama team to do the same.

Black folks, yes Blacks and Latinos Americans, like all Americans, are watching the new Obama administration closely regarding his Cabinet appointments. Many are wondering if diversity will be an issue in Obama’s Administration? In fact, many are wondering, will Obama's Cabinet favor whites? Black folks are even wondering if will get better Access to the White House.

As US Today noted a number of years ago, until Bill Clinton, Presidential Cabinets were overwhelmingly the province of white Anglo men. They made up 85% of the appointments by President Reagan, who over eight years had only one African-American and one Hispanic in his Cabinet. White Anglo men made up 71% of the first President Bush's Cabinet. (The Cabinet statistics in this story reflect those offices designated by law as Cabinet posts. Some presidents have chosen to give other officials comparable Cabinet-level status.) More HERE

Clinton promised to change the government's complexion. "My commitment is to give you an administration that looks like America," he said during the 1992 campaign. "I would be astonished if my Cabinet and my administration and my staff ... is not the most fully integrated this country has ever seen."

Over eight years and 29 appointments, Clinton had in his Cabinet five women, seven African-Americans, three Hispanics (one of them named to two posts) and one Asian-American.

Over four years and 24 appointments, Bush has named to his Cabinet five women, four African-Americans, three Hispanics and two Asian-Americans.

Before Bush, no person of color had been named to any of the four most prestigious Cabinet jobs — at the departments of State, Treasury, Defense and Justice. Now he has named two blacks as secretary of State and a Mexican-American as attorney general.

When Clinton was elected to his first four-year term in 1992, one of the first things he did was appoint Blacks to his Cabinet. Among the Black Cabinet appointees during his two terms in office were Ron Brown, U.S. Secretary of Commerce; Mike Espy, Secretary of Agriculture; Alexis Herman, Secretary of Labor; Hazel O'Leary, Secretary of Energy; Rodney Slater, Secretary of Transportation; Jesse Brown, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, who was succeeded by Togo West, and Dr. Jocelyn Elders, U.S. Surgeon General, who was succeeded by Dr. David Satcher.

Clinton also appointed nine Blacks as assistants to the president--the highest rank in the White House. Among those appointments were Ben Johnson, director of the President's Initiative for One America; Maggie Williams, the first lady's chief of staff; Alexis Herman, director of public liaison, White House, who later became labor secretary; Minyon Moore, director, political affairs; Terry Edmonds, director of speech writing; Thurgood Marshall Jr., director of Cabinet Affairs; Mark Lindsey, director of administration, and Bob Nash, director of personnel. Source

In Clinton's first term, 47% of those he appointed to the Cabinet were women or people of color. Bush had precisely the same percentage in his first term. By the end of Clinton's second term, his figure had risen to 52%. Source

Now the question is what will Barack Obama do? The Latino community may be happy with 1 slot, should we? I appreciate the reassurences from the Obama administration. Lets see if Powell, Clyburn, Rice and others gain Cabinet Posts.

Hillary, The NY Mag, Liberals and Snakes on the plane

Barack Obama has to watch his back now that he has agreed to provide Hillary with the opportunity for a floor vote. But it is not only Hillary he has to watch out for. He also has to watch out for liberal rags like the NY Mag.com as so-called liberal magazine that is dogging out Obama with outragious statements like, "The description of the Obamas’ life together displays no evidence of their connections to black culture."

AAPP: OK, here we go again with Barack Obama and his wife are not "black enough" bull. This time with an academic twist.

This rag, the New York Mag.com went out to find anyone they could to lend credibility to the story. They found someone to degrade the 21st century black bourgeoisie involved in U.S. politics. Yes, Gayle Pemberton was dug up from some academic cave to say as much silly garbage about obama as possible. asking questions like, "And what does the white world know about black people like the Obamas, really? “The black middle class is the most invisible, unknown group in the country,” said Gayle Pemberton, a professor of African-American studies at Wesleyan University.

“There are millions and millions of people in it, and yet we know nothing about them.”

AAPP: Them? Them says, Gayle Pemberton? we already know where she is coming from.

Here are some more excerpts from the article:

One would think that the Obamas enjoy being called the black Kennedys, but maybe they don’t. “This Camelot myth has formed around Barack and Michelle, but they come from almost the opposite place in the world from the Kennedys,” says Obama’s friend Kenneth Mack, a law professor at Harvard University. “If you saw Barack on a yacht, that would be pretty unseemly. He’s the guy from the basketball court who used to go around in jeans and a leather jacket. In law school, he was really uncomfortable with the markers of elitism, like even dressing in a suit.”

It’s a sitcom, this miscommunication between black and white people: In fact, a manager in Hollywood told me that he’s getting calls from producers searching for TV writers to work on All in the Family–style shows for next year—they know the country will be hungry for this type of comedy if Obama is elected.

While Michelle hasn’t made many interesting statements in public—it’s a very small canon of comments, over the course of almost two years of campaigning—they’ve taken on enormous meaning. She’s not quite as smooth a political player as Barack: “Whenever Obama enters the room, there’s a sense of calm and satisfaction,” says a former campaign aide. “Michelle can get a little more tense. Before she goes on-camera for interviews, we’d have to give her a couple of minutes to compose herself. She’ll sit down, raise her hands over her head, and go, ‘Ugh, God!’ ” That’s a mask she’s wearing in public, most of the time, and we aren’t sure what is underneath. When she uttered her fateful words about how, for “the first time in my adult life, I’m really proud of my country,” she unleashed an explosion of emotion, because everyone who’s awake could read between the lines—she was angry about the treatment of black people in America. And anger will not do. Besides, what does she have to be angry about, with her Ivy education and Hyde Park mansion? Isn’t she herself an example of the fact that racism is over in America? More HERE

All of this as Barack Obama's plane was forced to endure an emergency landing after the Democratic presidential candidate's aircraft suffered mechanical problems over Missouri.

A spokesman for the Federal Aviation Authority confirmed to The Times that there had been an emergency landing in St Louis last month after the pilot notified air traffic control of problems. It is understood that the pilot of Mr Obama's plane had warned that he was having problems controlling the "pitch" of the plane and requested emergency assistance.

A controversy has erupted over the landing. According to a US news channel, control tower tapes show that the pilot of Mr Obama's plane demanded an emergency landing. At the time, both the FAA and Midwest Airlines insisted that there was no emergency.

But Laura Brown, a spokesman for the FAA said that she had said minutes after the incident happened that there had been no emergency because of what she had been told by the agency's public affairs staff for air traffic control. More HERE

AAPP: Right! Something seems just a bit fishy with this story. I wonder what Samuel L. Jackson would say:

I guess Barack has to look out for Hillary, The NY Mag, Liberals and Snakes on the planes.

African American Political Pundit is a 2008 DNCC Credentialed blogger and blogs at African American Political Pundit.com