My Biden dream team tweet
Yesterday afternoon I did a quick tweet on what would be my dream team for the Biden Cabinet. Most of my tweets get maybe a dozen responses.
This tweet has had over 10,000 replies and retweets!
Within minutes of making it I was getting replies from Democrats in the US telling me how I was wrong. And as they replied, their followers saw it and I’ve now had over 10,000 responses.
One of the things that has puzzled me is how 70 million Americans could vote for Donald Trump. Having now had 10,000 angry Democrats hurl abuse at me, I now understand why so many people voted for Trump despite his manifest flaws. They are the GOP’s best weapon.
To be fair to those responding, not all have been angry. In fact I haven’t even read 2% of the responses. But there has certainly been a lot of abuse. There has also been some excellent humour as people do their own sarcastic dream teams with additions such as Thanos as Secretary of Defence.
Something which has amused me is that this was clearly a tweet of my personal preferences. It wasn’t me saying who I think Biden would appoint, or who I think is in the running. It was purely my personal preferences. But 10,000+ people felt the need to say they disagree in various ways.
As it has got so much attention, I thought I would expand on why I chose the people I did.
State: Mitt Romney
Romney was the candidate in 2012 who said Russia was the No 1 foe of the US, and everyone (including Obama) scoffed and said he was stuck in the 1980s. Romney has been proven right.
Romney was shortlisted to be Trump’s Secretary of State and was the only honourable Republican Senator who voted to convict Trump. Selecting him would be a huge slap in the face to Trump but would be bipartisan outreach to the mainstream Republicans.
The Secretary of State doesn’t set foreign policy. The President does. Most foreign policy is bipartisan anyway. Appointing Romney would work well domestically and internationally. And it would have reality mirror a West Wing episode, which is always a good thing.
Treasury: Lawrence Summers
Biden needs a strong economy for him or Harris to win in 2024. The economy was the one area Trump was seen as better. Summers was Treasury Secretary to Bill Clinton when the economy was booming, and was the last time the US was running a surplus and paying off debt.
Defence: Pete Buttigieg
Buttigieg obviously is up to far more than being Mayor of South Bend. As a former veteran, making him Secretary of Defence would be a good fit. He’d be respected by soldiers as someone who has served. He would also bring youthful energy and vigor to what is a very massive bureaucracy.
Attorney-General: Geoffrey Berman
Berman is the former US Attorney for the Southern District of New York who was sacked by Trump for refusing to drop investigations into the Trump organisation and family.
What better person to head up the Department of Justice than Berman. He would ensure any federal crimes by Trump and associates would be prosecuted, and he can’t be accused of being a partisan hack as he is a Republican who was initially appointed by Trump. If you want to see Trump in jail, Berman is your man – not because he is anti-Trump, but because he believes no one is above the law.
Education: Michelle Rhee
Okay I know this one is a non starter for Biden. The teacher unions would implode. But this was about who I would like to see and Rhee is a former Chancellor of DC Public Schools (appointed by Democrats). She gave teachers huge pay rises in exchange for being able to sack bad teachers. Reading and maths pass rates increased by 14% and 17% under her. If you want to increase literacy and numeracy rates for under-privileged students, I’d pick Rhee.
Homeland Security: Tammy Duckworth
A Democratic US Senator wounded in active service seems non controversial to me.
Trade: Paul Ryan
This seems to be the one that has upset people the most. My rationale is that Biden appears to be pro free trade, unlike Trump who was anti free trade. Biden has said he wants the US to rejoin the (CP)TPP.
Trump has led the Republican Party away from free trade. Ryan was the most prominent person I could think of (as McCain has died) who could lead them back to supporting free trade. In the past trade policy has been reasonably bi-partisan.
DNI: David Petraeus
The intelligence community has been broken after years of attacks from Trump. They need a strong leader who can rebuild them. A former CIA Director under Obama seems ideal. Petraeus isn’t partisan like Brennan. His departure because of his affair and mishandling of classified (not secret) information shouldn’t rule him out from future service
Anyway the above is a slightly longer version of my two minute tweet. I didn’t write it expecting anyone to agree with them. I did it to spark a debate. I seem to have over-achieved 🙂
UPDATE: The Spinoff has an article on this.