Selecting Romney's Cabinet

While nothing is certain in this life except death and taxes, particularly under the governance of the Obama administration, I am feeling rather optimistic that Governor Romney will indeed be our next president.  With that in mind, the governor’s organization has reached out to me to help vet the very best candidates to fill his cabinet.  Okay -- not really -- but if Governor Romney were to ask me, the following would be my recommendations for good people to help restore Americans’ faith in our government so that it might be administered constitutionally for a pleasant change.  That said, here are your future cabinet secretaries under President Romney:

Department of State:  John Bolton

Bolton is an exceptionally smart man with clear insight into the workings of world affairs.  His stint as President Bush’s ambassador to the U.N. showed that he knows the impotence of this corrupt organization and what truly must be done to further America’s interests and keep the world safe for freedom’s sake.  Bolton would set a tough pro-America tone and reinvigorate what is a feckless and wimpy group at Foggy Bottom.

Department of the Treasury:  Ron Paul

While Paul is a nut job and sounds like Dennis Kucinich on foreign policy, he is dead on accurate with his assessment of domestic policy, especially when it comes to the Federal Reserve.  Romney should appoint Dr. Paul and then give him carte blanche to clean house, starting with an exhaustive audit of the Federal Reserve.

Department of Defense:  David Petraeus

Move General Petraeus from his current position handling intelligence and instead have him mold and form the Defense Department for the future generation of wars that might be thrust upon America.  Petraeus is smart and knows how to win wars and what that entails strategically, tactically, and logistically.  Working with a new Joint Chiefs Staff, he could set policy that would help to secure America’s safety in the world.

Department of Justice:  Chris Christie

Christie’s tough no-nonsense approach to… well… everything, would restore integrity with him as our new Attorney General.  This is direly needed in light of the corrupt and incompetent job done by Eric Holder.  Christie would not play political favorites and thus turn what has become a politically motivated cabinet back into the top law enforcement agency in the country of which Americans can once again be proud. 

Department of the Interior:  James Inhofe

Inhofe would manage our natural resources responsibly without caving to the enviro-whackos on policy, particularly when it comes to the specious anthropogenic “global warming” nonsense.

Department of Agriculture:  Rick Perry

Perry has a long history involved with agriculture and would do a fine job overseeing this department.

Department of Commerce:  Steve Forbes

After the devastation wrought on our economy by Obama, Bush, Pelosi, Reid, the Democrats and Rino’s, we will need a brilliant businessman along with President Romney to help steer government away from hurting commerce and towards getting out of the way of our small businesses in order to get the economy moving again.  Forbes would do splendidly as commerce secretary accordingly.

Department of Labor:  Scott Walker

After Obama’s allowing of unions to set U.S. labor policy, Governor Walker would be a great pick in providing the appropriate balance between unions and businesses.  The fact that he has taken on public tax-payer unions and saved millions of dollars in Wisconsin accordingly would be a warning shot across the bow to other public unions that the tax payers will not be fleeced by them anymore.

Department of Health and Human Services:  Rand Paul

The younger Dr. Paul would be very good at trimming the fat in this department while ensuring that only vital functions were retained and funded, all without infringing on Americans’ liberties and Constitutional rights like the Obama administration has done.

Department of Housing and Urban Development:  None

This is a department whose tasks are better and more efficiently handled at the state level, if even necessary then for some smaller states.  Cutting this department is the first step to trimming federal government largess and returning to a constitutional governance accordingly.

Department of Transportation:  Marion Blakey

Ms. Blakey as the CEO of the Aerospace Industries Association would be a dynamic and innovative leader for this department.  She would bring true usefulness to it and ensure tax payer dollars for transportation were used wisely accordingly.

Department of Energy:  None

Disband this department which was created during the Carter Administration to supposedly wean us off of foreign sources of oil and energy.  Obviously this is a goal at which it has failed horribly.  Return the nuclear regulatory functions to where they once were administered with the Navy, and return all other required functions to the states where necessary.

Department of Education:  None

Again, eliminate this department and return funding to the individual states where they can better and more efficiently administer to the educational needs of their students.

Department of Veterans Affairs:  Allen West

Colonel Allen West would do an exemplary job looking out for the needs of our veterans, just as he did when he was in the Army.  His integrity and devotion to his troops would be well utilized here in serving those that have sacrificed so much to protect America.

Department of Homeland Security:  Rudy Giuliani

Unlike the lip-service paid to security by Janet Napolitano, Mr. Giuliani understands the ramifications of it better than nearly anybody else in the country.  His management skills and no-nonsense demeanor would actually improve our national security without infringing on more of our constitutional rights.

 

Now I am sure that my recommendation of many of the good folks on this list will cause many of our liberal friends to blow an aneurysm.  That said, it is my opinion that these folks I have chosen are serious people whom are well qualified and would do admirable jobs in each of their positions instead of merely being assigned for political patronage or to make the cabinet appear to meet some politically correct standard.  I have no illusions that some of these people will ever be asked, or that they will necessarily accept the appointment if asked.  I certainly don’t expect  that some departments will be eliminated, although if Romney wins by as large of a margin as I suspect he might, there will be no better time to get rid of these unnecessary and extra-constitutional departments.  We shall see very soon what the future will hold.  In the meantime, I think I will forward my list to Governor Romney just in case he needs some better suggestions. 

A Taxing and De-"Grading" Issue

It would seem that a coalition of rabid Democrats, partisan leftists, Euro-style socialists, uber-progressives, and assorted American Marxists have all devised a brilliant plan to distract the American people’s attention and thus help their inept would-be champion, Barack Obama,  gain re-election.  You see, Obama was swept into office on the magnificent-sounding themes of “hope and change”.  What we have since discovered over the course of these last 3 ½ years though is that the magnificence promised in restoring the economy, strengthening friendships throughout the world, and even healing the earth are nothing more than empty rhetoric.  In other words, despite assurances to the contrary that if only we would pass the gargantuan stimulus package, we would see unemployment not rise above 8%. It has not been below 8% since. Obama’s policies would see jobs return, the housing market rebound, and the world overall transformed to a safer place.  Fast forward to the end of Obama’s first (and hopefully only) term and by any objective standard, President Obama’s stewardship has proven to be an utter failure.  So what is one to do when one cannot run on the ruin and destruction of one’s own record?  Well, unleash your surrogates to launch a scorched earth campaign against your opponent, of course.  If you look horrible on paper, make the other guy look even worse… even if you have to lie and fabricate non-existent issues to do so.  It is a Chicago thing, you see.

Enter the progressive coalition and their despicable and mendacious poster-boy Harry Reid.  They must distract the American people from noticing the complete failure of Obama’s executive administration if he is to stand a chance at re-election.  How best to do that is to manufacture a seemingly slanderous scandal regarding Mitt Romney and his income taxes.  The left wants to know why Romney won’t release more than two years of his past income taxes if he has nothing to hide; never mind the fact that this is all that is legally required when running for office.   In the attempt to create even the appearance of possible malfeasance on Romney’s behalf, they bemoan the fact that Romney refuses to even acknowledge their sincere requests.  Now there are plenty of legitimate issues to criticize Romney on without having to create one as foolish as this.  But, the left is desperate it would seem.

Unfortunately, despite the mendacity of the plan by the left, it is probably smart politics nonetheless.  Why even the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid came out and said that some “un-named source” that worked with Romney in the past had told Prince Harry that the reason Romney won’t release the whole last decade of his tax records is because he didn’t pay taxes for most of those years.  Of course there is no proof whatsoever… not even the name of the source to verify the veracity of it.  But that didn’t stop Harry Reid, who even had the gumption to take these unsubstantiated, un-sourced, and exceptionally-unlikely and untrue allegations and pontificate for all of the world and MSNBC to report while he was on the Senate floor.  (Side note: Harry Reid refuses to release the last decade of his taxes too, but when asked about the glaring hypocrisy, he stated that he wasn’t running for president.)

So what is poor Mitt to do? 

I think I have a solution for him. 

You see, President Obama has sealed all of his college records and transcripts so that they would not be made public.  A reasonable explanation for this has never been given by Obama.  If Obama’s grades were good and reflected his supposed brilliance, why would he not want to release them for all of America and the world to see?  If his grades were bad, why would he not release those anyway?  After all, he is President of the United States of America now and the grades he had from nearly thirty years ago are pretty much irrelevant to his job today.  Besides, Al Gore, John Kerry, and George W. Bush all were “C” students, so if he had mediocre or poor grades, he wouldn’t be without company.  But, Obama doesn’t put this issue to rest.  One has to wonder why?  What does he have to lose by disclosing those records to the public?  What is President Obama trying to hide?

I read an interesting hypothesis on this the other day that was put forth by the former Libertarian Vice Presidential nominee, Wayne Root. 

First, Mr. Root just happened to go to Columbia University and was a supposed class mate of Barack Obama (or Barry Soetoro as he was then-known).  They both were from the class of 1983.  The only problem is that Mr. Root never met Obama in all of his years there.  In fact, he never even heard of him.  Further, the Wall Street Journal reported that an investigation was done that included the calling of 400 Columbia classmates at random in 2008 and did not find one of them that had ever met Barack Obama.   Mr. Root was even a Pre-law and Political Science major, just like Obama, and yet had never heard of him.  So Mr. Root’s theory is this:

A) He (Obama) rarely ever attended class.

B) His grades were not those typical of what we understand it takes to get into Harvard Law School.

C) He attended Columbia as a foreign exchange student.

D) He paid little for either undergraduate college or Harvard Law School because of foreign aid scholarships given to a poor foreign students like this kid Barry Soetoro from Indonesia.

 

Now I don’t necessarily buy this hypothesis, but it certainly does offer a plausible explanation for Obama’s reticence in exposing his college records.  Further, if Harry Reid can go and make completely unsubstantiated charges out of thin air with no proof whatsoever, then why can’t a classmate with the same major as Obama who never met the guy in all of his years at Columbia raise legitimate questions and go on a similar fishing expedition?

So back to Romney and the solution to his problem with the leftist coalition.  Romney needs to call Obama and the left’s bluff.  Romney should immediately call a full press conference and issue a statement to the nation and to Obama.  He should say that he will disclose the rest of his tax records for the preceding decade if Obama will release all of his college records.  After all, what could be so horrible in Obama’s records that he is so afraid to show them to the American people?  And if indeed there is something that bad, then perhaps it would be a good idea for America to know about it.  I think it is safe to say that not another word from Obama and the leftist coalition will be uttered regarding Romney’s tax records.  And in the unlikely case that they continue to harp on this, then Romney will have managed to jujitsu his way out of it and thus put Obama on defense instead of offense.  Like Romney told Harry Reid early on in the non-existent scandal, Obama will have to “put up, or shut up”.