Just Throwing This Out There: Obama's New Cabinet Shuffle.

[TrollBuster9090]

Clinton, Holder, and Petreus are leaving. There's bound to be a cabinet shuffle.


SECRETARY OF STATE JOE BIDEN:


VICE PRESIDENT CHRISTINE GREGOIRE:


AMBASSADOR TO THE U.N. HUMA ABEDIN:


AMBASSADOR TO THE E.U. WES CLARK:


Biden's already been VP, and Sec State has always been his dream job. Then put Christine Gregoire (former Gov. of Washington State) in as Obama's VP. That way you'll have TWO female heavyweights to duke it out for the Presidential Nomination in 2016. Huma Abedin moves to the U.N. as a visible symbol that A) The USA is not 'anti-Muslim,' B) Muslims and Jews can get along (she's married to Anthony Weiner), and C) Republicans' bad behavior will not be successful (she's the one Bachmann and the wingnut brigade tried to bring down with smears over her father's indirect association with the Muslim Brotherhood). And Clark, well heck, he just plain deserves a higher profile position in the Democratic Party.

[Whisp]

1. interesting! Biden was always hot for SoS, right?

and now his charm isn't needed for re-election but for something he is an expert at.

do Presidents do this sometimes, change VP in second term?

[TwilightGardener]

2. Biden was elected by the people. I don't think he can just

switch jobs--nor would he.

[ellenfl]

3. i agree. his is an elected position, not a cabinet position. eom

[jberryhill]

13. Who elected President Ford and VP Rockefeller?

[ellenfl]

20. they weren't elected. biden was. how many elected vps have quit to become a cabinet member? eom

[jberryhill]

23. It doesn't matter

It's a silly scenario, but there is nothing that prevents it.

People elected Hillary Clinton to be a Senator from New York. She resigned in favor of appointment to the cabinet.

I have no idea what religious principle is believed to prevent an elected official from resigning for appointment elsewhere.

[CTyankee]

25. I don't think it is silly. There is a certain elegance to it, IMO. Biden gets his lifetime wish at

last, Gregoire gets a leg up on a woman being considered for President along with other women, Clark gets recognition (actually, I want that job, can I go to Brussels to be the U.S. representative to the EU? Please? ) Abedin would be an awesome appointment.

So, I'm humming along with this idea...

[Whisp]

6. ok, couldn't think of an example like that

but I'm no US politics historian.

Was just wondering.

but yeh, Biden would still make the best SoS ever.

[Bucky]

27. He'd be far from the 1st VP to resign to take another job.

Obama hasn't really groomed a successor. It's not the Democratic way. But it might be nice to throw a new fresh face into the mix

[ellenfl]

29. what other vp has resigned to take another job? eom

[Bucky]

30. Aaron Burr, who quit to run for governor, lost, and then murdered one of guys who opposed him.

But you know how those New Yorkers are.

[ellenfl]

33. he didn't quit to take another job in the federal gov. sorry, i should have been specific. eom

[TrollBuster9090]

7. Well, it's happened in the past (ie-Nixon with Agnew), so there is a precedent.

Although it's a lousy precedent.

But the procedure is simple. The VP resigns, and the President nominates a new one, who has to be approved by the Senate. That's all there is to it.

So, in the case of Nixon, his VP Spiro Agnew got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, and had to resign. Nixon then nominated Gerald Ford and the Senate approved him. Then Nixon resigned over Watergate and Ford became President by default. It generated a crisis of confidence in government at the time, given that a guy was suddenly President that nobody had voted for.


Say, maybe this is a chance to wash the bad taste of that out of our mouths. Do an interim VP switch for a GOOD reason?

[Angry Dragon]

4. could work

that way Obama would not be taking anyone out of the House or Senate

[TrollBuster9090]

9. And Biden has always been after that job, anyway. So everybody's happy. nt

[Angry Dragon]

11. That will be the time when all the democrats are all happy at the same time

except for Tuesday night

[TrollBuster9090]

19. Good point. :)

[ellenfl]

21. i'm not sure those who voted for biden as vp would be happy. eom

[rso]

5. shuffle

I suppose Biden can resign as VP and be appointed as SOS. But I do not see how Obama can "appoint" a VP since it is an elected position.

[TrollBuster9090]

8. It's been done before (Nixon/Agnew), and it's allowed in the Constitution.

The President nominates a VP, who has to be approved by the Senate.

[jberryhill]

12. Yes, vacancies in VP are appointed.

We did this twice in the 1970's.

Gerry Ford was appointed by Nixon to replace Agnew.

Nixon resigned, Ford became president. Ford then appointed Nelson Rockefeller as VP.

We had a president and a VP for whom NOBODY voted.

And we lived to tell the tale.

[ellenfl]

22. but agnew didn' t resign to take another position, so his position had to be filled. i doubt

biden would abuse the trust the voters have in him by throwing away the electoral win.

[jberryhill]

24. Bull

People are appointed to cabinet positions from all sorts of other elected positions. I guess you objected to Hillary Clinton resigning from the Senate?

And, as long as we are talking about voters, there is NO voter who picked Biden as the veep nominee in the first place. The presidential candidate is selected by a primary process in which voters choose that nominee. The only person who ever decided to have Biden as VP is Barack Obama if you want to get right down to it.

I mean, sure, in some alternative universe there are millions of voters who said "Gosh, I really don't want Obama as president, but I'm so fired up to have Joe Biden perform the only two duties of VP that I guess I'll have to vote for Obama."

[vaberella]

10. What in the world? Why don't you make Wes Clark the SOS?! WTF?!

Biden is a great Veep....stupid choice to even put Biden on SOS and the people voted for him..since he comes with Obama.

[TrollBuster9090]

17. Hahah! Actually, I was hoping he'd get that job in 2008. But Clinton was a good choice, too.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

32. Yes!

[Tx4obama]

14. I think the FIRST female VP should be elected, not appointed.

Also, Joe Biden needs to stay as VP because if anything were to happen to Pres Obama then Joe would be the one that is ready to take over on day one.

[TrollBuster9090]

16. The ideological side of me agrees, but the practical side doesn't.

We needed a nudge to break the glass ceiling stopping African Americans from being President (in this case, the nudge was a giant clusterf@#k known as the Bush Administration), and we'll need a nudge to break the glass ceiling stopping women from being President.

My personal opinion is that, if we'd waited for these attitudes to evolve naturally, we'd have had to wait another 50 years for a non-white President, at least.

If it's done this way, the glass ceiling will have been broken in a rather benign way, setting the stage for the first woman to be elected President. It has the giant side benefit of solidifying women voters' loyalty to the Democratic Party, and encouraging them to vote in 2014.

Just my two cents.

[madinmaryland]

15. Stop bogarting and pass it around! That must be some good shit you are smoking.

[TrollBuster9090]

18. Heh, you can get high off the second hand smoke, thank you very much.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

26. You can't just swap a vice president for a secretary of state.

Joe Biden was elected Vice President. You can't move any other person into that position because they weren't elected. Agnew was replaced because he had to resign and there was a vacancy to be filled. Biden isn't going to resign, nor should he.

[Blue4Texas]

28. VP could resign and new one appointed

If VP wants to be Secretary of State but his replacement would have to be someone ready to be president, who is?

[Honeycombe8]

31. Biden is VP, & an excellent one. He doesn't want to change. Obama doesn't want a new VP. The end.nt