Something that should have been obvious from the beginning and is now becoming more evident every day. There was a lot of talk about Biden’s age and about what were perceived as other limitations that he had.
But it’s becoming more obvious every day that it’s not so much about him as an individual as it is about the administration he’s building. The early announcements of the people he’s appointing show a wide and deep collection of qualified, competent, and diverse public servants.
I’m especially excited to see John Kerry in a new cabinet-level post as a special presidential envoy for climate, and a Latino as the head of the Department of Homeland Security. Doesn’t it seem embarrassingly silly now that people worried when Biden occasionally stumbled over a sentence or two?
Biden has been around a long time and knows a lot of people. He understands the positions and agencies he has to fill. He knows how things work in the federal government. In other words, he doesn’t have to learn this from the ground up.
There have been some mild concerns over the purposefully left out young and leftists voices however an experienced and competent team is probably a more pressing matter in this current time.
Also, cabinet-level positions don’t usually go to young people but to seasoned ones, but as in Obama’s administration, I expect to see many younger people at all levels. Pete Buttigieg has been mentioned for Veterans’ Affairs, a great choice I think.
There’s been talk that Warren and Sanders could be more useful in the Senate; it’ll be interesting to see what happens with them. Biden probably doesn’t want to see Treasury as politicized at this point.
