Op-Ed Digest: Students discuss Obama’s appointments

President-elect Barack Obama’s choices for his Cabinet and top advisers have drawn sharp opinions from college students as the new leaders have officially been announced.

Though generally columnists and editorial boards praise his selection of well-qualified officials, some have wondered is this change we can believe in? Or change we elected?

Choose a topic
General opinions on Obama’s selections
Clinton as Secretary of State
Gates as Secretary of Defense
Napolitano as Secretary of Homeland Security
Geithner as Treasury Secretary
Jones as National Security Adviser
Rice as Ambassador to the U.N.
Emanuel as Chief of Staff

General opinions on Obama’s selections

Obama's appointments give conservatives hope
Source | Cavalier Daily
For those of us who awaited with fear in our hearts a radical shift to the left, especially on national security and economic issues, we can begin now to breathe a little more easily. For the most part, in these two most essential fields, Obama’s nominations represent choices that the right can live with. Read more.

Where’s the pizzazz? Obama’s got his cabinet all wrong
Source | Pitt News
Shouldn’t we consider what the people want? It seems like no one even cares about Joe Whatshisname anymore. Seriously Barack, the American people don’t want experience or qualifications. No, no, those things are way overrated. In this day and age, it’s all about the image, the pizzazz, the je ne sais quoi. Read more.

Obama delivering on his promise of change
Source | Harvard Crimson
Obama’s choice to make appointments based on skill rather than mere political affiliation is certainly a refreshing and encouraging transformation. Even if some of Obama’s selections come from previous administrations, their ideas still possess the potential to bring about change. After all, the most important change is not a new roster of names but rather the action Obama takes based on the advice he is given. Read more.

Obama’s cabinet appointments contradict with message
Source | The Eagle
Now that he no longer has to pretend to be a tax-cutting, corruption-busting, lobbyist-defying, bipartisan agent of reform, our illustrious president-elect, Barack Obama, has decided that he’s more interested in bringing together a team of people who will ensure that he doesn’t do anything stupid than he is in bringing about any sort of fundamental change. Read more.

Clinton as Secretary of State

Obama made right move to select Clinton
Source | Daily Collegian
During the primaries, Clinton said she would to “clean up” the foreign policy mess President George W. Bush left behind if she were elected president, just as her husband cleaned up after Bush’s father. Now is her chance. Read more.

Compromise necessary for Clinton at State
Source | The Daily Campus
Clinton could possibly make an adequate secretary of state for Obama. However, in order for them to be a successful duo, Clinton needs to realize that she is Obama’s secretary of state, not a backseat president, and learn to compromise with him. She also needs to separate herself from any philanthropies and activities that could cause conflicts of interest with Obama’s presidency. Read more.

Clinton’s husband could affect new job
Source | Kansas State Collegian
Hillary and Bill are usually viewed as one political entity — and not without reason. So by default, the world will view anything that Bill says as what Hillary believes. If Bill says anything controversial at one of his many speaking engagements, it will undermine the country in the same way as if the secretary herself had said it. Read more.

Gates as Secretary of Defense

Obama wise to retain Robert Gates as defense secretary
Source | The Battalion
President-elect Barack Obama has announced his decision to keep former president of Texas A&M University Robert Gates as the defense secretary. Gates has proved to be a capable leader who makes decisions based on the best interest of the country rather than succumbing to political agendas, and he will prove to be a pillar of strength in the administration. Read more.

Selection of Gates ensures commitment to stable Iraq
Source | The Daily Gamecock
Robert Gates’ selection is simply the next logical step in a progression of events and shifting attitudes already underway. In calling on Gates to continue serving, Obama has, at least in deed, admitted that a precipitous withdrawal is not good for America or for the Middle East, and Bush’s strategy has elements of truth and practicality in it. Read more.

Napolitano as Secretary of Homeland Security

GOP official set to replace Napolitano should eschew partisanship
Source | Arizona Daily Wildcat
With the announcement of Gov. Janet Napolitano’s ascendancy to President-elect Barack Obama’s cabinet, Jan Brewer, Arizona’s secretary of state, is set to be our next governor. A veteran of Arizona politics with 25 years of experience in her pocket, the Glendale-based Brewer is a fairly consistent Republican whose views are far removed from Napolitano’s on nearly every issue. Read more.

Arizona needs Napolitano more than Obama does
Source | Arizona Daily Wildcat
Napolitano is also leaving Arizona at a time when the state has seldom needed an able helmsman more. Only a couple of years ago, Arizona’s economy was booming, but the collapse of the housing industry and other national factors dealt it a serious blow this year. With the state facing what looks like a $1 billion budget shortfall, we desperately need someone in charge who’s willing to cut excess without sacrificing the most necessary public expenditures. Read more.

Geithner as Treasury Secretary

A sturdy presidential cabinet
Source | Michigan Daily
Timothy Geithner, Obama’s pick for treasury secretary, is a kind of Wall Street wunderkind, Geithner generally isn’t viewed in a partisan light. And his knowledge of the ins and outs of the American financial system is essential at a time when that system is going through a prolonged crisis. Read more.

Jones as National Security Adviser

NSA pick reflects return to reason
Source | Badger Herald
Jones is well-positioned to do some of this famous “reaching across the aisle” we keep hearing about — namely in the sense that it’s hard to place him on either side of a strict political dichotomy. He has a long history of working with John McCain and regards him as a personal friend. There had also — briefly — been rumors of an Obama-Jones Democratic ticket, and as recently as October Obama claimed to receive a lot of foreign policy advice from Jones. After an exhausting and divisive campaign, we might benefit from the influence of a leader whose party affiliation is unrecognizable. Read more.

Rice as Ambassador to the U.N.

Susan Rice’s stance on Darfur could be problematic
Source | The Pitt News
A fervent advocate of taking “dramatic action,” as she has said, against mass killings throughout the world, Susan Rice, Obama’s choice for ambassador to the U.N., will provide the future Obama administration with a foreign policy outlook quite different from Obama’s, who has placed much emphasis on diplomacy throughout the presidential campaign. Read more.

Emanuel as Chief of Staff

Emanuel pick troubling
Source | The Daily Gamecock
Emanuel has made his mark as a viciously partisan - and viciously effective - liberal Democrat, and he was one of the masterminds behind the Democratic victories in the past two elections. Emanuel’s selection flies in the face of the big tent bipartisan style of government on which Obama sold us all. Read more.

Obama picks risky, possibly pragmatic leaders
Source | Daily Trojan
By selecting Rahm Emanuel as his chief of staff, Obama demonstrated a cold-blooded love of pragmatism founded in the knowledge that Washington is run by who can best manage the slippery, and sometimes stubborn, levers of power in politics. Emanuel has shown he can handle these duties remarkably well. Read more.