After all the drama of the past year, political bloggers and pundits have been searching around vainly for something to chew on. Thank God for the Illinois Governor.
One of the issues that has been bubbling in the background for the past few weeks is Obama's selection process for cabinet and chief advisers. There's the Team of Rivals stuff, bringing smart opponents all ready to work together for the good of the nation. Also, known as cooptation or neutralizing one's enemies. But you can call it a Team of Rivals, if you like.
The other issue with his selection process that is causing some ripples is the Ivy League centered staff that he's assembling. Brooks highlighted their credentials in an article a few weeks ago:
Law) will take the oath of office as his wife, Michelle (Princeton,
Harvard Law), looks on proudly. Nearby, his foreign policy advisers
will stand beaming, including perhaps Hillary Clinton (Wellesley, Yale
Law), Jim Steinberg (Harvard, Yale Law) and Susan Rice (Stanford,
Oxford D. Phil.).
The domestic policy team will be there, too, including Jason Furman
(Harvard, Harvard Ph.D.), Austan Goolsbee (Yale, M.I.T. Ph.D.), Blair
Levin (Yale, Yale Law), Peter Orszag (Princeton, London School of Economics Ph.D.) and, of course, the White House Counsel Greg Craig (Harvard, Yale Law).
This opinion piece spawned a long kitchen table discussion about how the hell we were going to afford a fancy private school education for our kids.
Steve and I are devotees of public universities. Of the six colleges that I've attended or taught at, four were public universities, one was a faux-Ivy, and one was an Ivy. Really after a while, the fancy buildings blend into the background and the classes were the same just about everywhere. While students may be more sophisticated at the Ivies, there's a hunger in many of the students at public schools. I figured it all evens out.
So, Steve and I always figured it was a top-tier public school for the kids. Which serves us well, because we have no college funds for the boys.
But after looking at the pedigree of the elite, there were no SUNY-Binghamtons or University of Virginias in that mix. Maybe we should cough up the cash for the kids for the fancy schools, because the public schools aren't putting their alumni in the cabinet.
Dan looks at a couple of opinion pieces that question the notion of putting the best and the brightest in a President's Cabinet. How many times have we heard about the best and the brightest taking us to Vietnam?
After months of irritation with the anti-intellectual undercurrent in the campaign, I have to say that I'm now a bit annoyed at the triumph of the Ivies in DC. The assumption that the best and the brightest only come from Harvard, Yale, or Columbia is just plan wrong. What Harvard, Yale, and Columbia clearly does is open doors for you and create networks, but I have never been convinced that their student body is necessarily better than 30 or 40 other top universities in the country.
I have no problem with bringing the best and the brightest into the room. I have no problem with an academic top-heavy cabinet. I just want the best and the brightest from diverse colleges and backgrounds.
Apt. 11d 