Barack Obama made “change” the mantra of his presidential campaign. But when it comes to appointees, his team doesn’t reflect much change from the Bill Clinton era.
Of the 47 appointees named so far to transition or staff posts, 31 have ties to the Clinton administration, including all but one member of the 12-person Transition Advisory Board.
Transition chief John Podesta served as Clinton’s chief of staff from 1998 to 2001.
Other Clinton-era appointees include former Deputy Secretary of Defense John White, former State Department official Wendy Sherman, and former deputies to National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, Defense Secretary William Perry, and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Politico.com reports.
Also on the Obama team are transition adviser Michael Froman, who served as Rubin’s chief of staff, and Christopher Edley, who served Clinton and is married to a former Clinton deputy chief of staff.
Rep. Rahm Emanuel, a senior adviser to Clinton, has been named Obama’s chief of staff.
Obama is reportedly even considering Hillary Clinton for the Cabinet post of Secretary of State.
Clinton was said to have flown to Chicago on Thursday on personal business, and neither her aides nor aides to Obama would say whether she was interviewed for the job by Obama.
But NBC News and The Washington Post reported that Clinton was under consideration for the top U.S. diplomatic position.
“Obama’s victory in the general election produced what his primary campaign couldn’t: a swift merger of the Clinton wing of the Democratic Party with the Illinois Senator’s self-styled insurgency,” Politico observed.
“From the top down, his early choices reflect an openness, and even a warmth, to the veterans of 1990s governance.”
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