Bill Richardson To Join Obama's Cabinet

N.M. Gov Will Be Named To Head Commerce Dept.; Obama To Announce Economic Team Monday

(CBS/AP)  A Democratic official says President-elect Barack Obama will name New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as commerce secretary.

The official says Obama plans to announce Richardson's selection after Thanksgiving. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to speak publicly about the negotiations.

Richardson was energy secretary and U.N. ambassador under President Bill Clinton. Richardson would be the most visible Hispanic named to Obama's Cabinet.

Richardson ran for the Democratic nomination but dropped out in January and endorsed Obama.

Obama is set to make the formal announcement of the top members of his economic team tomorrow.

CBS News has confirmed that Obama will name New York Federal Reserve President Tim Geithner as his Treasury Secretary, and former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers to direct the National Economic Council.

Geithner would have chief responsibility for tackling the economic slowdown and credit crunch. At the New York Fed, he has played a critical role in the government's response to the financial crisis and has worked closely with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Ben Bernanke, the Fed chairman.

Summers, 53, treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton and one-time president of Harvard University, will advise Obama from the White House.

The men will confront an economic crisis that continues to deepen in spite of hundreds of billions of dollars in federal emergency spending in recent weeks.

If confirmed by the Senate, the 47-year-old Geithner takes over the Cabinet job of administering the next administration's perilous mission to stem the economic nose dive and restore financial equilibrium.

Word of his likely selection Friday helped send the Dow Jones Industrials soaring 6.5 percent after several days of steep losses.

Summers will coordinate the federal response to the economic meltdown across several agencies and also help shepherd Obama's new recovery plan, which aims to create millions of new jobs rebuilding roads, modernizing schools and creating alternative energy sources by January 2011.

Both men will appear with Obama at a Monday news conference in Chicago.

The move followed in one-two fashion Obama's declaration on Saturday that his administration planned to create 2.5 million jobs over the next two years.

Obama wants Congress to approve it quickly to approve the recovery plan so he can sign it shortly after his Jan. 20 inauguration.

"These aren't just steps to pull ourselves out of this immediate crisis. These are the long-term investments in our economic future that have been ignored for far too long," Obama said in the weekly Democratic radio address on Saturday.

He called the plan "big enough to meet the challenges we face" and said that it would kindle job creation and shore up the nation's economic foundation.

"We'll be working out the details in the weeks ahead, but it will be a two-year, nationwide effort to jump-start job creation in America and lay the foundation for a strong and growing economy," Obama said.

The announcement of the appointments comes as Obama moves quickly to fill slots for his incoming administration.

On Saturday, Obama named longtime spokesman Robert Gibbs as White House press secretary. Gibbs went to work for Obama's Senate campaign in 2004 and was communications director while Obama was in the Senate.

The president-elect is virtually certain to offer Congressional Budget Office chief Peter Orszag the job of directing the White House Office of Budget and Management, and Orszag is likely to accept, Democratic officials said Saturday.

[ademocrat]

Bill Richardson still hasn''t apologized or even admitted his mistakes accusing Wen Ho Lee of espionage. Even the judge in the case said Bill Richardson misstated the case. This guy isn''t fit to be in anyone''s cabinet, much less Obama''s.

Sign the petition to tell Obama not to nominate him:
http://www.petitiononline.com/GovBillR/

[ademocrat]

Bill Richardson still hasn''t apologized or even admitted his mistakes accusing Wen Ho Lee of espionage. Even the judge in the case said Bill Richardson misstated the case. This guy isn''t fit to be in anyone''s cabinet, much less Obama''s.

Sign the petition to tell Obama not to nominate him:
http://www.petitiononline.com/GovBillR/

[ademocrat]

Bill Richardson still hasn''t apologized or even admitted his mistakes accusing Wen Ho Lee of espionage. Even the judge in the case said Bill Richardson misstated the case. This guy isn''t fit to be in anyone''s cabinet, much less Obama''s.

Sign the petition to tell Obama not to nominate him:
http://www.petitiononline.com/GovBillR/

[ademocrat]

Bill Richardson still hasn''t apologized or even admitted his mistakes accusing Wen Ho Lee of espionage. Even the judge in the case said Bill Richardson misstated the case. This guy isn''t fit to be in anyone''s cabinet, much less Obama''s.

Sign the petition to tell Obama not to nominate him:
http://www.petitiononline.com/GovBillR/

[ademocrat]

Bill Richardson still hasn''t apologized or even admitted his mistakes accusing Wen Ho Lee of espionage. Even the judge in the case said Bill Richardson misstated the case. This guy isn''t fit to be in anyone''s cabinet, much less Obama''s.
Sign the petition to tell Obama not to nominate him:
http://www.petitiononline.com/GovBillR/

[ademocrat]

Bill Richardson still hasn''t apologized or even admitted his mistakes accusing Wen Ho Lee of espionage. Even the judge in the case said Bill Richardson misstated the case. This guy isn''t fit to be in anyone''s cabinet, much less Obama''s.
Sign the petition to tell Obama not to nominate him:
http://www.petitiononline.com/GovBillR/

[ademocrat]

Bill Richardson still hasn''t apologized or even admitted his mistakes accusing Wen Ho Lee of espionage. Even the judge in the case said Bill Richardson misstated the case. This guy isn''t fit to be in anyone''s cabinet, much less Obama''s.
Sign the petition to tell Obama not to nominate him:
http://www.petitiononline.com/GovBillR/

[ademocrat]

Bill Richardson still hasn''t apologized or even admitted his mistakes accusing Wen Ho Lee of espionage. Even the judge in the case said Bill Richardson misstated the case. This guy isn''t fit to be in anyone''s cabinet, much less Obama''s.
Sign the petition to tell Obama not to nominate him:
http://www.petitiononline.com/GovBillR/

[biblethumpar]

Obama is surrounding himself with competent people,
that is a very good sign.
such a 180 from what led us to this depression we are in.

[suki66-2009]

Actually fine politician is an oxymoron.
What is it with every announcement coming after Thanksgiving? What is so special about that date? Everyone will be shopping or in a food coma and not notice who he appoints to what position? Come to think of it, that''s probably it.

[ffoulkes-2009]

I hear ya, donbl1, you can''''t even hire a Texan to build a freaking fence or barn...

________________________________________
Posted by Rowdydfw at 09:57 PM : Nov 23, 2008
Well%u2026I agree you couldn%u2019t hire me right NOW%u2026to do that, but I have done it all in the past%u2026.

I have a really good job just now sitting behind my desk getting fat, but if I lost this one, I would be out there doing what needs done. My family has to be fed no matter what I have to do to accomplish this%u2026(in Tx. Btw%u2026)

[ffoulkes-2009]

Look, lets be reasonable, Rowdy is set on Obama being a communist which is fine, I guess. But what can obama do to prove he is not. What do you need to see from him to be certain that he is not a communist. There has to be something

________________________________________
Posted by DJ_IL at 09:10 PM : Nov 23, 2008

1. He can sign an executive order permanently protecting the 2nd amendment.
2. He can propose either a flat tax or a national sales tax to make all taxation equal.
3. He can allow states to take care of all state affairs including Social services, infrastructure, education, etc.
4. He can ensure the %u2018Fairness Doctrine%u2019 will never be implemented.
5. He can allow%u2026no insist on drilling for oil hard and heavy here along with alternative energy research and development.

That would do for starts%u2026for me anyhow.

[ffoulkes-2009]

Anybody notice how the neocon poster child-in-chief has disappeared as of late? I think he can''''t get out of there fast enough.

Posted by ghostfighter at 03:02 PM : Nov 23, 2008
_______________________
Wow...he is in the headlines more now than during the election. He is working on many projects...perhaps you should read more of the stories on the news sites and stay away from the liberal attack group sites...

[ffoulkes-2009]

Another fine politician being lost to the Obama fraud--too bad, would have voted for him!

Posted by stlouisman3 at 12:19 PM : Nov 23, 2008
____________________________
Fine....Politician...

Aren''t the two mutually exclusive?

[donbl1]

Strat, the effectiveness for the solutions from Team Obama will be related to whether they are willing to use market forces to make their efforts more dynamic.

[Stratmaster7]

wow... so we all actually just agreed on a plan. There must be something horribly wrong with it lol


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Posted by Stratmaster2 at 10:14 PM

hey, anybody got Obama''s text number so we can text him the idea?

[Stratmaster7]

wow... so we all actually just agreed on a plan. There must be something horribly wrong with it lol

[Stratmaster7]

Seems to me like like rail and krap could be tied up for years and years...good grief the easement right of way issues alone are huge costs and time delays...and how are you going to hire transient people willing to work remote locations and move around?

How many lawsuits are pending right now to build the damned fence at the border? Can you imagine what light rail is going to stir up? How many people would have to get out of the way of it and lose their homes and how long it will take to convince them to do it?


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Posted by Rowdydfw at 10:11 PM

This can all be done at the city and state levels. New Mexico just did it :)

[donbl1]

strat, right on.

I think it would give a dramatic increase to American technology and manufacturing technology.

Lots of ways to spend money. Some have multiplier effects on the economy and some are just spending money.

[Stratmaster7]

minimum 40 mpg of course