Meet our Next President: Ron Klain

[Harvey]

Ron Klain will be Biden's chief of staff which in case Biden's mental faculties are failing him then he will be looking to Ron to "guide" him. Which means if Biden is experiencing cognitive decline then Ron will be running the country. You'll be comforted to know he was the Ebola czar back in 2014.

[Gordon Tubbs]

Biden will do what Bush did well, which is to fill the room with more capable people than yourself, so that you can delegate as required.

[Harvey]

Biden will do what Bush did well, which is to fill the room with more capable people than yourself, so that you can delegate as required.

Yes, but the president must be capable of making lucid decisions. With cognitive decline comes the inability to consider all of the facts. As Biden chooses decision C his chief of staff will ask people to leave the room and then tell Biden he can't choose C because it would infuriate the Left (as an example). At some point Biden will get more confused and either insist on some very bad decisions or will ask Ron what he thinks he should do -- effectively making Ron Klain the next president of the US. Many people might think that Kamala will have that role, but my guess is that Biden will give her her own Ukraine issue to focus on while he attends to the job of being president.

[Harvey]

Haha. I totally called it.

"We've gotten the impression from our members that have been in meetings down there that he's kind of the guy behind the curtain," said Senate Republican Whip John Thune (S.D.).

Aides to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have taken to describing the White House chief of staff as "Prime Minister Klain," an effort aimed at hurting Biden.

[AgapeFire]

Big money political donors control the U.S.A. for the most part.

Obama could barely choose his own cabinet.  Citigroup's Froman (per wikileaks) told him who to select and Obama chose exactly those candidates except for one.

eta:  Hence, there is no "Biden"..."Harris"..."Obama"...there is mainly their donors.

-AF

----------
formerly:  wlcgeek; keegclw; and GodLovesU - Hopefully, fourth time's a charm when it comes to remembering login info.!

[Mammal]

^ Yes, it impacted on ambassador appointments, I don't know about cabinet members.

And there is no reason to think Klain is anything other than a Biden appointment. They have a long association.

[Harvey]

And there is no reason to think Klain is anything other than a Biden appointment. They have a long association.

Biden doesn't have any respect in his administration so I tend to believe these reports. Just today Biden was ready for questions on a video conference but his own people cut him off. That just wouldn't happen if he were thought of as the boss. Notice how he says "I'm ready to take questions if that's what I'm supposed to do. Whatever you want me to do." I strongly suspect that he is being told what to do and he's not at all in charge. Very scary. The American people deserve to know who is running the country. It sure isn't Joe.

[Mammal]

Right, I don't see anything there that would give me the same idea than what Fox News alludes to. Perhaps it was just a matter of the inconvenient pause at the end while waiting for the response from the other side, that resulted in the cut.

[Harvey]

Right, I don't see anything there that would give me the same idea than what Fox News alludes to. Perhaps it was just a matter of the inconvenient pause at the end while waiting for the response from the other side, that resulted in the cut.

Or, Ron Klain who is telling everybody what to do tells the video dieector to cut the feed and ignore the stiff talking to the camera.

[Mammal]

Speculative though..so..

[AgapeFire]

^ Yes, it impacted on ambassador appointments, I don't know about cabinet members.

And there is no reason to think Klain is anything other than a Biden appointment. They have a long association.

Here's what David Dayen of New Republic had to say (you can read full article linked):
https://newrepublic.com/article/137798/important-wikileaks-revelation-isnt-hillary-clinton

Michael Froman, who is now U.S. trade representative but at the time was an executive at Citigroup, wrote an email to Podesta on October 6, 2008, with the subject “Lists.” Froman used a Citigroup email address. He attached three documents: a list of women for top administration jobs, a list of non-white candidates, and a sample outline of 31 cabinet-level positions and who would fill them. “The lists will continue to grow,” Froman wrote to Podesta, “but these are the names to date that seem to be coming up as recommended by various sources for senior level jobs.”

The cabinet list ended up being almost entirely on the money. It correctly identified Eric Holder for the Justice Department, Janet Napolitano for Homeland Security, Robert Gates for Defense, Rahm Emanuel for chief of staff, Peter Orszag for the Office of Management and Budget, Arne Duncan for Education, Eric Shinseki for Veterans Affairs, Kathleen Sebelius for Health and Human Services, Melody Barnes for the Domestic Policy Council, and more. For the Treasury, three possibilities were on the list: Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, and Timothy Geithner.

Maybe saying Obama had "no choice" was too strongly worded (partly intentional for shock and awe purposes to convey how power and influence work). 

Perhaps they were just sincere, helpful recommendations from a friend of the campaign.  I will say that I know some people who would laugh that suggestion through the roof, knowing how politics usually works.  Obviously, Obama could do whatever he wanted, but the consequences of going against big money political donor wishes is the denial of campaign aid on reelection and the funding of opposition even.

He had to seek help from Silicon Valley more during his 2012 campaign, as Wall Street was less happy with Obama.  All of this is to merely highlight the fact that our government is corrupt and hijacked by big monied interests.  This goes all the way up to the Presidency, sadly. 

-AF

----------
formerly:  wlcgeek; keegclw; and GodLovesU - Hopefully, fourth time's a charm when it comes to remembering login info.!

[Mammal]

But, was it not expected from him in his capacity as part of the transitional team that managed that, as this podcast and background info show?

[AgapeFire]

But, was it not expected from him in his capacity as part of the transitional team that managed that, as this podcast and background info show?

I haven't listened to the podcast, Mammal.  Does Froman say when he was asked to help select Obama's cabinet? 

The David Dayen piece in New Republic makes the criticism that Froman was involved much earlier than normal:

Many already suspected that Froman, a longtime Obama consigliere, did the key economic policy hiring while part of the transition team. We didn’t know he had so much influence that he could lock in key staff that early, without fanfare, while everyone was busy trying to get Obama elected. The WikiLeaks emails show even earlier planning; by September the transition was getting pre-clearance to assist nominees with financial disclosure forms.

Obama had not selected Froman to be on his transition team yet, as that was done two days after his election:
https://today.law.harvard.edu/obama-names-hls-alumni-to-transition-team-posts/

Two days after winning the election, the Obama team has quickly set to work putting together a transition team which wil coordinate the move to the White House in January. Yesterday, Obama appointed three of his HLS classmates and one former HLS professor and alumnus to top transition team posts.

Michael Froman ’91 and Julius Genachowski ’91 were named to the transition team’s 12-member advisory board. Formerly managing director at Citigroup, Froman was chief of staff to former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. His work may begin soon—the Obama team is said to be considering candidates for the Treasury Secretary post and may announce their choice as early as this week.

In the end, it might not matter much, as this could be "normal" in politics.  I hadn't heard that Froman was an Obama classmate at Harvard (although, not surprised by it).  That does change some "color" to the dynamic, as this is not just a donor "friend of the campaign" without previous closer connection to Obama. 

So, I'm happy to concede the point - that this was a non-issue - if it's all on the up and up.  I would still argue that our leaders aren't free to do whatever they want, though, while in office, as the ever present threat of big money campaign donor abandonment shapes their decisions.  That is how politics works post-1970's campaign finance reforms legalizing corporate political bribery in America. 

-AF

----------
formerly:  wlcgeek; keegclw; and GodLovesU - Hopefully, fourth time's a charm when it comes to remembering login info.!