Free Republic

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will meet with Donald Trump this weekend to discuss the secretary of state position, a source close to the president-elect with direct knowledge of his thinking told NBC News....

WASHINGTON — President Obama was getting his daily economic briefing one recent morning when a fly distracted him. The president swatted and missed, just as the pest buzzed near the shoes of Lawrence H. Summers, the chief White House economic adviser. “Couldn’t you aim a little higher?” deadpanned Christina D. Romer, the chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers. ..... By all accounts, much of the tension derives from the president’s choice of the brilliant but sometimes supercilious Mr. Summers to be the director of the National Economic Council, making him the policy impresario of the team. The widespread assumption,...

Only weeks ago, the political world was buzzing about a "team of rivals." America was told that finally, after years of yes men running the government, we were getting a president who would follow Abraham Lincoln’s lead, fill his administration with varying viewpoints, and glean empirically sound policy from the clash of ideas. Little did we know that "team of rivals" was what George Orwell calls "newspeak": an empty slogan "claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts." Obama's national security team, for instance, includes not a single Iraq war opponent. The president has not only retained...

People love Doris Kearns Goodwin's book on the Lincoln presidency, "Team of Rivals." More important, for this moment in American history, Barack Obama loves it. The book is certainly fun to read. But its claim that Abraham Lincoln revealed his "political genius" through the management of his wartime Cabinet deserves a harder look, especially now that it seems to be offering a template for the new administration. "Lincoln basically pulled in all the people who had been running against him into his Cabinet," is the way Obama has summarized Goodwin's thesis, adding, "Whatever personal feelings there were, the issue was...

November 21, 2008, 4:00 a.m. Not Just a Team of RivalsVictory lesson from Obama. By Mackubin Thomas Owens There seems to be a general consensus regarding the success of the “surge” in Iraq. In addition, the security policies put in place by the Bush administration have kept the country safe for seven years. Contrary to the expectations of many observers, there have been no attacks on the U.S. homeland since 9/11 and recent reports indicate that U.S. Special Operations Forces (SOF) and the CIA have been relentlessly pursuing al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations.During the campaign, President-Elect Obama criticized many...

Inspired by the wisdom of Abraham Lincoln, President-elect Barack Obama is considering appointing a "team of rivals" to his cabinet - if rumors about the nomination of Hillary Clinton to be secretary of state are true. But there's more mythology than history in the idea that Lincoln showed exceptional political skill in offering cabinet positions to the men he had beaten in the race for the 1860 Republican nomination. For one thing, there was nothing new in what Lincoln did. By tradition, presidents-elect reserved a cabinet position, often secretary of state, for the leading rival in their party. John Quincy...

During the Primary Campaign, President Elect Obama said that he was the true inheritor of the legacy of Ronald Reagan. Since the election he has likened himself to Abraham Lincoln. His cabinet strategy has been compared to Lincoln's Team of Rivals. Additionally Obama, has been quoting the "great emancipator" at every opportunity. Of course nothing can be further from the truth. Lincoln's Team of Rivals was meant to be a coalition government rather than a cabinet (that's why it didn't work), and the only thing that Obama will emancipate is your paycheck from your wallet. Historians were asked to take...