2012 Dream Team Cabinet
Tevi Troy ·
Oct 25, 2010 at 11:16am
The Washington Post's Zach Goldfarb's had a piece yesterday speculating on what a cabinet full of Nobel Prize winners would look like.
- President: Barack Obama
- State: Elie Wiesel
- Treasury: Edward Prescott
- Defense: Thomas Schelling
- Justice: Gary Becker
- Health & Human Services: Elizabeth Blackburn
- Interior: Elinor Ostrom
- Agriculture: Richard Heck
- Commerce: Paul Krugman
- Labor: Peter Diamond
- Housing & Urban Development: Jimmy Carter
- Transportation: Al Gore
- Energy: Steven Chu
- Education: Toni Morrison
- Veterans Affairs: Jody Williams
- Homeland Security: Henry Kissinger
Unsurprisingly, the pool skewed left, which inspired me to write the following item on what corresponding prize a GOP president might look at to select a cabinet.
- State: John Bolton
- Treasury: John Taylor
- Defense: Victor Davis Hanson
- Justice: Gary Becker
- Health & Human Services: Charles Krauthammer
- Chief of Staff: Bill Kristol
- Commerce: Michael Barone
- Labor: George Will
- Housing & Urban Development: Bob Woodson
- Education: Alan Charles Kors
- Veterans Affairs: Victor Davis Hanson
- Homeland Security: Heather Mac Donald
I wonder what Ricochet readers think. Which Bradley winners would you put in a GOP president's cabinet, and where? Alternatively, is there a better filtering mechanism than the Bradley Prize for creaming the top echelon of conservative talent?
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Comments :
Sep '10
Re: 2012 Dream Team Cabinet
This cabinet would probably produce the greatest conservative newspaper column in history. Too bad Bill Buckley isn't around anymore to be President.
Jun '10
Re: 2012 Dream Team Cabinet
A proper conservative cabinet would be limited to State, Treasury, Defense, and Justice.
Jul '10
Re: 2012 Dream Team Cabinet
Exactly.
I would write it like this
May '10
Re: 2012 Dream Team Cabinet
Seems like half of Goldfarb's cabinet are actively opposed to that which they are supposed to support. Elie Wiesel is generally opposed to the state, Paul Krugman is opposed to commerce, Steven Chu is opposed to energy, Al Gore is opposed to transportation, Toni Morrison is opposed to education, etc.
Hey, why does VDH get to double-dip? I would love to see George Will vs Richard Trumka, though hopefully not in a cage match.
Obama could earn some bonus points by appointing Rhee to Education, but he'd never do it. Mustn't vaguely annoy a union. No sir, no way.
Aug '10
Re: 2012 Dream Team Cabinet
Here, here! Although I would keep the Dept of the Interior, which could handle all of the energy, HHS, labor and commerce issues as well as the transportation and agriculture stuff.
Someone please educate me; could a president axe the Depts of Energy and Education without approval from congress?
Jun '10
Re: 2012 Dream Team Cabinet
Frozen Chosen "Someone please educate me; could a president axe the Depts of Energy and Education without approval from congress?" Good question. I recall that when Carter wanted to downsize the CIA, he couldn't actually fire anyone. He had to put a hiring freeze on the agency and let attrition do the rest.
Oct '10
Re: 2012 Dream Team Cabinet
Victor Davis Hanson as Secty. of both Defense and Veteran Affairs? I love VDH, but if he's made Secty. of Defense, might he put in place a defense policy based on hoplite yeomen?
Edited on Oct 25, 2010 at 4:57pmAug '10
Re: 2012 Dream Team Cabinet
Agriculture - Wendell Berry
Sep '10
Re: 2012 Dream Team Cabinet
Since this is fantasy and near Halloween too, here is my dream team:
Treasury: Count Dracula
War: Frankenstein's monster.
Education: Baron von Frankenstein.
Interior: The Creature From The Black Lagoon
National Security Advisor: Hoyt from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the remake).
State: John Bolton
Director CIA: The Invisible Man
Ambassador to the U.N.: Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (the original)
Justice: The Phantom of the Opera.
Health and Human Services: The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Jul '10
Re: 2012 Dream Team Cabinet
I can't believe that Carter beat out Rigoberta Menchu on Zach's list.
Aug '10
Re: 2012 Dream Team Cabinet
Gary Becker would make a terrible AG. His "economics of crime" is entirely premised on the idea that you can trade-off certainty of punishment for severity. That is, increase prison sentences. The problem with this is that people (especially criminals, who tend to be short-sighted and impulsive) tend to discount the future. It would have been much better to create much stricter parole and more aggressive policing than longer prison terms, at least in terms of deterrence. (Incapacitation is another story).
In other words, ending the post 1965 crime wave probably required some increase in incarceration, but we could have done so at lower cost in both tax dollars and human misery if public policy weren't inspired by Becker.
Oct '10
Re: 2012 Dream Team Cabinet
A *true conservative's* cabinet would look like this:
State: John Bolton
Treasury: John Taylor
Defense: Victor Davis Hanson
Justice: Gary Becker
...and then eliminate the rest of the federal agencies.
Oct '10
Re: 2012 Dream Team Cabinet
Did Victor Davis Hanson run over someone's dog? Why would we inflict trying to tame two bloated bureaucratic cabinet agencies on him?
I agree with Greg Alterton though. I suspect Victor would reach into a comfortable play book (Operation Marathon II?) for the Persian nuclear problem. Pretty ingenious if you think about it. The Iranians are expecting a sophisticated 21st century air attack only to be defeated by a bunch of US Marines in a phalanx yelling "Remember Thermopylae!"
Edited on Oct 26, 2010 at 6:57amJun '10
Re: 2012 Dream Team Cabinet
Greg Alterton: Victor Davis Hanson as Secty. of both Defense and Veteran Affairs? I love VDH, but if he's made Secty. of Defense, might he put in place a defense policy based on hoplite yeomen? · Oct 25 at 3:38pm
Edited on Oct 25 at 04:57 pm
The United States is essentially a nation of hoplites (legionnaires, yeoman infantry, minutemen, or whatever you want to call them). The provinces are still basically conservative, religiously traditional, family oriented and heavily armed. Our cities are without question quite decadent, but the countryside still supplies our military with the raw manpower to field the world's most potent fighting force.
Re: 2012 Dream Team Cabinet
Thanks for the comments on my whimsical offering about a Bradley Prize vs. Nobel Prize cabinet. Some responses:
A number of folks made the good point that we could do with fewer Departments.
Craig McLaughlin's Halloween cabinet made me laugh.
I agree that it's not fair to stick Hanson with 2 huge bureaucracies.
Becker is probably not my first choice for Attorney General -- I just liked the fact that someone was on both the Nobel and the Bradley list. Upon further review, I'd select the folks from the Federalist Society (winners of a group Bradley Prize) come up with a more traditional AG pick.
Oct '10
Re: 2012 Dream Team Cabinet
Admit it, Tevi. In your heart of hearts, you know you want Chuck Norris as Attorney General.
Re: 2012 Dream Team Cabinet
If Chuck Norris were Attorney General, all of the criminals would immediately surrender.
Sep '10
Re: 2012 Dream Team Cabinet
This originally started off as a list of comic / movie superheroes - perhaps later...
Here's a slightly more serious take: