President-elect Barack Obama (D) is beginning to make his selections for his cabinet. The cabinet is a group of senior presidential appointees who head various government departments, and is the premeire ‘advisory board’ providing guidance to the president, and most are in the presidential line of succession.
The cabinet is currently made up of the Secretary of State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of Defense, Attorney General, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Commerce, Secretary of Labor, Secretary of Health & Human Services, Secretary of Housing & Urban Development, Secretary of Transportation, Secretary of Energy, Secretary of Education, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and the Secretary of Homeland Security. In addition, several other administrative officers are considered ‘cabinet level’ including the Vice president and the White House Chief of Staff.
Obama has thus-far officially announced his intent to appoint Eric Holder, former Deputy Attorney General under President Clinton (D), as Attorney General and Tom Daschle, former Democratic Senate Majority Leader, as Secretary of Health & Human Services. In addition, media speculation indicates that Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) will be Obama’s appointment as Secretary of State and Timothy Geithner, President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, as Secretary of the Treasury.