I’m not going to lie — much of what I know about the presidential Cabinet and senior staff, I learned from The West Wing. And while Jed Bartlet’s Cabinet does make for good TV, perhaps it would be prudent to ground myself a bit more in the real world.

Fun fact: Every member of the United States Cabinet is known as a “secretary” except for the attorney general.

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

Secretary of Homeland Security

Secretary of State

Credit: Public domain photo.

Hillary Rodham Clinton

Formerly: U.S. Senator (D-NY), First Lady, attorney

Status: Confirmed.

Obama has been both praised and criticized for putting together a “Cabinet of Rivals,” including his former primary opponent.

Confirmation problems: The most famous – and, in some circles, controversial – member of Obama’s Cabinet, Clinton has already faced obstacles in the process of her nomination and confirmation, namely the potential conflict of interest between her new post and Bill’s business deals.

Job description: As the highest-ranking Cabinet member, the secretary of state heads the Department of State, which could basically be called the U.S. Foreign Affairs Department. Duties include negotiating with foreign representatives and providing coordination and supervision of non-military, interdepartmental activities of the U.S. government abroad. The secretary of state also acts as the principal foreign policy adviser to the president.

Immediate issues for this administration: Reconstructing the reputation of the United States around the world, pursuing peace in the Middle East, rebuilding the nuclear pact with North Korea, and tempering the tension between India and Pakistan.

How this affects you, the average Northwestern student: The beauty pageant chicks had it right: it’s all about world peace. Plus, if you ever want to go on study abroad and not have people throw food at you in every country, you might appreciate a boost in America’s reputation abroad.

Secretary of the Treasury

Credit: Public domain photo.

Timothy Geithner

Formerly: President and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Under Secretary of the Treasury for International Affairs

Status: Passed committee, waiting on Senate floor vote.

Having worked as a Treasury official in the 1990s and as one of the point men on Wall Street to the current Treasury secretary during the recent financial crisis, Geithner comes into his position loaded with experience, though some consider his close comparison to the current secretary to be a negative association.

Confirmation problems: Geithner’s confirmation made headlines when he acknowledged not having paid Social Security and Medicare taxes for several years. He also failed to maintain the immigration status of a housekeeper that worked for him. These issues prompted a delay on his committee hearings, but the committee eventually voted in his favor.

Job description: The secretary of the Treasury is the principal economic adviser to the president and is responsible for recommending both domestic and international financial, economic and tax policy. The Treasury secretary is also in charge of monitoring the national debt.

Fun fact: The Department of the Treasury used to administer certain programs of national security and defense, including Customs Service and the Secret Service. Those duties were shifted to the Department of Homeland Security upon its creation in 2003.

Immediate issues for this administration: Pulling the country out of recession and stabilizing the economy.

How this affects you, the average Northwestern student: Want a job when you graduate? Yeah, that’s what I thought.

Secretary of Defense

Credit: Public domain photo.

Robert Gates

Formerly: Secretary of Defense, Director of Central Intelligence

Status: Confirmed

Secretary Gates is a moderate Republican and the only returning member of President George W. Bush’s Cabinet; he was appointed secretary of defense in Dec. 2006. By keeping him in the Cabinet, Obama expressed his desire to keep some form of continuity between the two administrations; there is disagreement about whether this is a good idea.

Confirmation problems: None; since he’s a returning member, he does not have to be re-confirmed by the Senate.

Job description: The secretary of defense advises the president on the armed services and military, and the two of them together constitute the National Command Authority, which has the sole authority to launch strategic nuclear weapons; both must agree before a nuclear strike by the U.S. may be ordered. By law, the secretary of defense must be a civilian who hasn’t served actively in the armed forces for at least 10 years.

Fun fact: In 1947, the position of “secretary of war” was divided in three – secretary of the navy, secretary of the air force, and secretary of the army – and all were put under a Cabinet-level secretary of defense.

Immediate issues for this administration: Ending the war in Iraq by transferring power back to the Iraqis.

How this affects you, the average Northwestern student: If you’ve ever known anyone who has done a tour of duty in Iraq, you probably owe it to them to care about how this conflict is going to end.

Attorney General

Credit: The Obama-Biden Transition Project.

Eric Holder

Formerly: Deputy Attorney General (Clinton administration), D.C. U.S. attorney, Superior Court Judge

Status: No committee vote yet.

As a major departure from the Bush administration’s policies, Eric Holder has stated that he clearly defines waterboarding as torture, and has also declared his intention to follow through on Obama’s anticipated executive order to shut down Gitmo. Holder was Janet Reno’s No. 2 at the Justice Department during the Clinton administration and also served on Obama’s vice presidential selection committee. If confirmed, Holder will be the nation’s first black attorney general.

Confirmation problems: Holder has been the most challenged member of Obama’s Cabinet. In particular, he was questioned about and criticized regarding his involvement in Clinton’s controversial pardon of Marc Rich and clemency to a group of Puerto Rican nationalists during his time as deputy attorney general.

Job description: The attorney general is both the president’s legal affairs adviser (death penalty, pardons, etc.) as well as the nation’s top law enforcement officer; he or she is considered the chief lawyer of the federal government. The attorney general also traditionally represents the U.S. government in cases before the Supreme Court, though today they only appear on behalf of matters of “exceptional gravity or importance.”

Fun fact: The plural of “attorney general” is “attorneys general.”

Immediate issues for this administration: The closing of Guantanamo Bay.

How this affects you, the average Northwestern student: Again, the whole international reputation thing. I mean seriously, we really don’t want to be those dudes that torture people. Plus, his opposition to the death penalty will make for an interesting dynamic at the Justice Department over the next four years.

Secretary of the Interior

Credit: Public domain photo.

Ken Salazar

Formerly: U.S. senator (D-CO), Colorado attorney general

Status: Confirmed.

Salazar spent years working on public lands issues in Colorado, and he is considered a solid and not unexpected choice for Obama’s Cabinet. He has pledged to redirect national attention and public funds to national parks and the maintenance of public lands, as well as “clean up the mess” at the Interior Department, which was plagued with scandal under the Bush administration.

Confirmation problems: None.
Job description: The secretary of the interior is concerned with issues of managing and conserving public lands, including the national parks, and the administration of programs relating to Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians. (The Bureau of Indian Affairs is housed within the Interior Department.) His department oversees agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management, the United States Geological Survey and the National Park Service.

Fun fact: Because the policies of the Interior Department tend to heavily impact western states, the secretary of the interior is usually from a western state.

Immediate issues for this administration: Finding a way to finance the many public lands and national park projects that have stalled due to lack of funding.

How this affects you, the average Northwestern student: National parks are a great place to relax after a terrifying final. Wouldn’t it be sad if they were all full of trash and dilapidated infrastructure?

Secretary of Agriculture

Credit: Public domain photo.

Tom Vilsack

Formerly: Governor of Iowa

Status: Confirmed.

As the former governor of a largely agricultural state, Vilsack is a conventional pick for the post of Agriculture Secretary. Vilsack ran for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination but dropped out in early 2007, almost 11 months before the first primary.

Confirmation problems: None, although there were reports of some organic food organizations circling petitions protesting Vilsack’s support of genetically modified food. Despite this opposition, Vilsack was confirmed on the same day Obama was inaugurated.

Job description: The secretary of agriculture leads the USDA in developing and executing policy on farming, agriculture and food. The department administers the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Food Safety and Inspection Service, as well as the national Food Stamp Program. The secretary is the president’s main adviser on issues relating to this field, including recommending policy in the interests of farmers, ranchers, and consumers alike.

Fun fact: The U.S. produces over 40 percent of the world’s corn.

Immediate issues for this administration: Address and begin to alleviate the effects of the recession, including bankrupt farmers and the battered agriculture industry, and the sharp increase in demand for food assistance programs. Address child nutrition and hunger, which both he and Obama have made a priority for the next four years. Finally, the USDA and Vilsack will be involved in energy policy decisions, specifically as they apply to ethanol and other biofuels, for which both he and Obama are advocates.

How this affects you, the average Northwestern student: The prices of the stuff you buy at the store everyday – eggs, milk, beer – are determined by policy set by the USDA. Plus, if you don’t actually manage to get a job when you graduate, you’re going to need food stamps.

Secretary of Commerce

(No nominee right now)

Obama originally nominated New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as commerce secretary, but he withdrew himself earlier this month over an investigation into political contributions he received. So far, Obama has not named another nominee, though reports have been circulating that Symantec CEO John Thompson is a top contender.

Job description: The commerce secretary is a lead adviser to the president on issues of foreign and domestic commerce. The department is also in charge of issuing patents and trademarks, helping to set industrial standards, and collecting important economic and demographic data, such as the decennial census.

Fun fact: Until 1913, the jobs of the labor secretary and the commerce secretary were combined under one post.

Immediate issues for this administration: Administratively, the next secretary has his work cut out for him; the department oversees 10 bureaus with 10 separate cultures and (arguably too small) operating budgets. Also, the 2010 decennial census is coming up, and the system is far from perfect.

How this affects you, the average Northwestern student: The demographic information gathered by the census is used as the foundational information for how to divvy up tens of billions of dollars of the federal budget among a number of federal programs, so… yeah, accuracy might be kind of important.

Secretary of Labor

Credit: Public domain photo.

Hilda Solis

Formerly: U.S. House representative (D-CA)

Status: No committee vote yet.

Hilda Solis is known as one of the “most reliably pro-union voice in the House,” and has a number of ties to unions – including accepting campaign contributions from an array of unions. She supported House efforts to raise the minimum wage and is considered a strong voice for the working class and the Hispanic community.

Confirmation problems: GOP committee members were frustrated with her “non-answers” during her committee confirmation hearing, leading them to threaten put a hold on her nomination. But with at least 58 Democrats (including Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Bernie Sanders (I-VT)) in the Senate, it’s likely she’ll get confirmed eventually.

Job description: The secretary of labor advises the president on laws involving unions and the workplace, including the relationship between businesses and workers. Issues dealt with by the department include: occupational safety, wage and hour standards, unemployment insurance benefits, and re-employment services (such as worker training).

Fun fact: Six women have served as the secretary of labor, which is more than any other Cabinet position.

Immediate issues for this administration: Keeping the American auto industry afloat and negotiating the card-check issue, which is a contentious subject with Republican members of Congress. She has also voiced her intentions to raise the wages and retirement benefits for workers.

How this affects you, the average Northwestern student: If you ever want to be able to buy an American car again – don’t lie, you know you’ve been eyeing that 2009 PT Cruiser – then you might want to pay attention to this whole auto bailout business and the connection to the American auto workers union.

Secretary of Health and Human Services

Credit: Public domain photo.

Tom Daschle

Formerly: U.S. senator (D-SD)

Status: No committee vote yet.

Tom Daschle spent 18 years in the Senate – including 17 days as Senate Majority Leader – before being defeated in his 2004 reelection bid. He served as one of the national co-chairs for Obama’s presidential campaign. Once confirmed, Daschle will be given a West Wing office – a perk that no secretary has been given in decades – so that he may also fulfill his other new title as the White House director of the new Office of Health Reform.

Confirmation problems: Daschle’s tax records are being scrutinized closely, which has slowed the progress of his confirmation, but no signs of impropriety have been found.

Job description: The health and human services secretary advises the president on issues of health and welfare. The department runs a number of health-related agencies, including the FDA and the NIH.

Fun Fact: The first secretary of health and human services was Patricia Roberts Harris, who was also the first African-American woman to hold a Cabinet post.

Immediate issues for this administration: Behind the economy and national security, health care reform is the biggest and most urgent issue facing Obama’s administration; a clear vision for the future is needed and has yet to be fully articulated on any side of the aisle.

How this affects you, the average Northwestern student: About 18 percent of the U.S. population is without health insurance. The future of the health care system depends on what is done now, so if you want to retire with a full set of teeth and both hips intact, and thus make all of us back at Northwestern very proud of you, pay attention to the debate.

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development

Credit: Obama-Biden Transition Project.

Shaun Donovan

Formerly: New York City housing commissioner, HUD deputy assistant secretary for multifamily housing during the Clinton administration

Status: Confirmed.

As the head of the NY Department of Housing Preservation and Development, Donovan has been working since 2004 to bring more affordable housing to New York City, which boasts infamously high rent prices and low home ownership. Donovan took a leave of absence from his job to work on the Obama presidential campaign.

Confirmation problems: None.

Job description: The HUD secretary advises the president on issues relating to urban housing and oversees the department’s administration of a number of housing programs such as the Federal Housing Administration.

Fun fact: The Department of Housing and Urban Development is known as “HUD.”

Immediate issues for this administration: Scale back the mortgage crisis and promote affordable housing, especially in urban centers.

How this affects you, the average Northwestern student: Rent is a bitch, especially in the city.

Secretary of Transportation

Credit: Obama-Biden Transition Project.

Ray LaHood

Formerly: U.S. House representative (R-IL)

Status: Confirmed.

The only newly appointed Republican to Obama’s Cabinet, LaHood is a centrist known for his ability to reach across the aisle and strive for bipartisan cooperation. Obama’s appointment of a second Republican – as well as an Arab-American – is also being seen as a move to increase the diversity of the Cabinet, though not everyone is pleased.

Confirmation problems: LaHood was found to have close ties to a Republican power broker indicted in the Blagojevich pay-to-play scandal.

Job description: The transportation secretary advises the president in issues of – you guessed it – transportation, including things like aviation standards and shipping regulations. The department houses a number of agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration.

Fun fact: LaHood is a close friend of new White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel.

Immediate issues for this administration: The biggest overhaul of U.S. transportation policy since Eisenhower: The Obama administration plans on spearheading a multibillion-dollar plan to create millions of jobs by rebuilding crumbling roads, bridges and rail systems.

How this affects you, the average Northwestern student: The CTA raised El fares again, and damn it if a plane didn’t land in a river recently. Okay, those things have little to do with the work of the transportation secretary, but seriously, that shit is bananas. In reality, though, it’s in your best interest to keep the Department of Transportation agencies like the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration up and running smoothly.

Secretary of Energy

Credit: Public domain photo.

Steven Chu

Formerly: Nobel-prize winning physicist, professor

Status: Confirmed.

Steven Chu did something really neat with cooling and trapping atoms with laser light, earning him a Nobel Prize in physics in 1997. As energy secretary, Chu is expected to continue his advocacy of alternative energy and nuclear power and encourage a shift away from fossil fuels, which contribute to global warming.

Confirmation problems: None; in fact, he was confirmed the same day Obama was inaugurated.

Job description: The secretary of energy is responsible for advising the president on energy policy, including nuclear safety. The department is charged with the nation’s nuclear weapons program, radioactive waste disposal, energy-related research and domestic energy production and conservation. The Department of Energy also sponsors more basic and applied scientific research than any other federal agency.

Fun fact: Chu is also the first Nobel Prize winner to be appointed to a Cabinet position.

Immediate issues for this administration: Obama’s energy team – including Chu and energy heavyweights Carol Browner, Lisa Jackson, and Nancy Sutley – are expected to usher in dramatic change in the way the U.S. approaches climate change, energy efficiency and the development of cleaner fuels. For one thing, they’ll recognize that global warming really does exist and, you know, hopefully try to do something about it.

How this affects you, the average Northwestern student: Maybe Chu will finally convince you, once and for all, that global warming really does exist. (Or maybe not.)

Secretary of Education

Credit: Obama-Biden Transition Project.

Arne Duncan

Formerly: CEO of Chicago Public Schools

Status: Confirmed.

During his time working with the Chicago public school system, Arne Duncan was recognized for implementing extensive changes, including closing underperforming schools, opening 53 new public schools, and implementing a pay-for-performance teacher compensation program.

Confirmation problems: None; along with seven others, Duncan was approved on the same day as Obama’s inauguration. In fact, Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) told Duncan he was the “best” of Obama’s “several distinguished Cabinet appointments.”

Job description: The secretary of education advises the president on issues of education in America.

Fun fact: With just 5,000 employees, the Education Department is the smallest Cabinet-level department.

Immediate issues for this administration:

Despite our best – well, mediocre, or possibly even epically bad – efforts, American children are falling behind in every sense. Public education is in big trouble, and Duncan definitely has a lot to deal with.

How this affects you, the average Northwestern student: A shiny degree from Northwestern may not mean as much for you or future generations of overachievers if the entire American standard of education is lowered beyond its current (embarrassing) state.

Secretary of Veterans Affairs

Credit: Public domain photo.

Eric K. Shinseki

Status: Confirmed.

Gen. Eric Shinseki made headlines in 2003 when, as Army chief of staff, he testified before Congress that stabilizing Iraq would take more troops than had been committed. (He turned out to be right.) A few months later he retired, citing disagreement with the Bush administration’s war policy. Shinseki was the Army’s first four-star general of Japanese descent.

Confirmation problems: None; he was confirmed on Inauguration Day.

Job description: The secretary of veterans affairs advises the president on issues of veterans benefits and is responsible for the department that administers benefits to veterans and their survivors. Services covered by the department include disability compensation, pension, education, home loans, life insurance, vocational rehabilitation, survivors’ benefits, medical benefits and burial benefits.

Fun fact: The Department of Veterans Affairs is the fourth-largest federal government department behind the Department of Defense, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Agriculture.

Immediate issues for this administration: Addressing and correcting the problem of the staggeringly high number of unemployed and homeless veterans as well as modernizing the currently inefficient system, especially in the area of veteran disability claims.

How this affects you, the average Northwestern student: Veterans served our country. Show some respect.

Secretary of Homeland Security

Credit: Public domain photo.

Janet Napolitano

Formerly: Governor of Arizona, Arizona attorney general, U.S. attorney

Status: Confirmed.

As the governor of a southwest state, Janet Napolitano is known for her centrist view on immigration, as well as calling for tougher enforcement of the border but opposing proposals that would punish illegal immigrants already living in the U.S. She is also a breast cancer survivor.

Confirmation problems: None; Napolitano was approved on Inauguration Day.

Job description: Created in 2002 as a response to the attacks of Sept. 11, the Department of Homeland Security is charged with protecting the U.S. from terrorist attacks from the civilian sector (as opposed to the Department of Defense, which oversees military operations) and responding to natural disasters. As part of the job description, the department oversees the TSA, the Secret Service, the Coast Guard, FEMA, and a number of programs and agencies dealing with immigration.

Fun fact: The creation of the Department of Homeland Security in 2002 was the biggest reorganization of government in American history, moving 22 agencies under the purview of the new department.

Immediate issues for this administration: Evaluating and possibly reorganizing or exporting FEMA to another department. Napolitano will also have to address both the REAL ID Program and the half-built fence on the border of the U.S. and Mexico, both issues she opposes and that fall under the jurisdiction of her department.

How this affects you, the average Northwestern student: You should care about FEMA because of Hurricane Katrina. You should care about the Transportation Security Administration because of the threat of terrorist attacks. And you should care about the Secret Service because we just elected a president who has been receiving death threats regularly since 2007.

But then you’re asked to run for Treasurer of your sorority. Your a cappella group needs someone to take charge of arranging music, the Social Chair of your dorm just quit, and you finally made it into BLAST. Not to mention your weekly commitment to Campus Kitchens, and you really need to keep your job at Norris. So what’s a Northwestern student to do?

Stock up on Red Bull, kiss the Dean’s List goodbye, and dive in.

Spreading yourself too thin is not exactly a rare phenomenon at Northwestern, and you may be happy (or incredibly distressed) to learn that such behavior doesn’t have to end in college — particularly if you fancy yourself a budding politician. Whatever complexes you develop here can follow you into the rest of your life, especially if you take a job in Congress. (I hear Senate seats in particular are available at a store near you.)

According to the ASG student group directory, there are over 350 groups at Northwestern, or about 1 for every 23 students. (So many options!) Compare that to Congress. With 535 members (plus five non-voting, but committee-serving delegates) and 219 committees and subcommittees, that works out to about one committee per two members.

Talk about spreading yourself thin.

Most members of Congress sit on at least five, if not more — and with a new Congress in the process of divvying up committee assignments for the new session, voters need to be aware of what exactly their representatives are getting themselves into by taking on so many posts.

The problem with spreading yourself too thin – both at Northwestern and in Congress – is that something is going to get the shaft. You may forget to pick up the decorations for your dorm’s Halloween munchies, or you may neglect to read the fine print for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Bill that will change the way Americans interact with intelligence agencies.

The idea behind the Congressional committee system is that it allows members to specialize, thus lowering the amount of time they supposedly spend trying to read through every single brief. But the most important function of committees has become determining the congressional power structure. And just like the correct activity can pad a college student’s résumé, a well-placed committee assignment can greatly increase a congressperson’s street cred and his individual importance to special interests that will donate money to his coffers. Small fries, right?

Not really.

In college, spreading yourself too thin ends up being inefficient because you are unable to commit enough time to any one activity to make any sort of impact. The problem is slightly different in Congress; you spread yourself thin enough that you can only care about one thing, and everything else becomes politically motivated. After all, it’s easy to barter for the votes of an entire committee if they don’t really care, or they represent another body identified with one party or another – just like you’re at that student advocacy group meeting because hell, they just need more people. This sets up the tenets of congressional vote trading; you vote for my bill, I’ll vote for yours. You join this club with me, I’ll join that club with you. The seeds of corruption are thus sewn.

The problems get worse in the offices of smaller states, which naturally have smaller staffs. Representatives from Hawaii may have a D.C. staff of 25, while a representative from California has a D.C. staff of more than twice that size. This is not to say that representatives from smaller states should have fewer committee assignments, but a recognition of the reality of personal limits might go a long way to aiding efficiency and legislative effectiveness.

It’s not easy to be a member of Congress, and it certainly isn’t a piece of cake to attend Northwestern. But congressional committees are where the work gets done in Congress, and student groups are the cherry on top of a fantastic university. Both would be more effective if its members would stop spreading themselves too thin.

Full disclosure: The author served as a Senate intern for 10 weeks in the summer of 2008.

The executive board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced today that Chicago is one of four finalists to host the 2016 Summer Olympics. The city’s three remaining competitors are Madrid (Spain), Tokyo (Japan), and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil).

The most recent evaluation report put Chicago third behind Madrid and Tokyo. But early rankings don’t necessarily mean much; London was originally ranked third behind Paris and Madrid for the 2012 Olympics before going on to win the bid in 2005.

“I feel relieved, exhilarated and very much honored,” Chicago bid leader Patrick Ryan said, according to the Associated Press. “We are going to study the report and we’re going to learn from that and correct all the deficiencies.”

Six U.S. cities have hosted the Olympics eight times. (Los Angeles and Lake Placid have each hosted twice.) Chicago was supposed to host in 1904 but the Games were relocated to St. Louis to coincide with the St. Louis World’s Fair. The first International Special Olympics Games were hosted in Chicago in 1968.

Tokyo hosted the Games in 1964, and Madrid placed third in the bid for the 2012 Olympics. Rio would be the first South American city to host the Olympics.

The finalist cities will now compete in a 16-month race; after the final four submit detailed bid files to the IOC by Feb. 12, 2009, a panel of IOC experts will visit each of the cities. The panel will release an evaluation report and the full IOC will vote by secret ballot on October 2, 2009.

According to the Chicago 2016 Web site, a special event is planned for Friday, June 6, at 11:30 AM in Daley Plaza to celebrate the selection of Chicago as a finalist.

Everyone knew when today began where it would end up; it was just a matter of how we’d get there.

The Associated Press tally, which included 11 delegates Senator Barack Obama was guaranteed as long as he gained 30 percent of the vote in South Dakota and Montana, declared Obama the winner in the early afternoon. Other news outlets were more cautious, though FoxNews.com and MSNBC.com (among others) ran banner headlines like, “AP: Obama Clinches Democratic Nomination With Superdelegates,” prescribing the credit to the AP. (A good strategy considering FoxNews’ history in this particular area.) As of 7:45 p.m. CST, even the Wikipedia page about the election stated that Obama was the Democratic nominee. (Hey, if relationships aren’t official until they’re on Facebook, then election results aren’t official until they’re on Wikipedia, right?) At around 9 p.m., CNN “projected” Obama to be the winner.

Obama will claim victory in a speech in St. Paul, Minnesota later this evening. The Drudge Report leaked the text of the speech, in which Obama declares, “Tonight, I can stand before you and say that I will be the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.”

It won’t become official official until Obama accepts the nomination at the Democratic National Convention on August 28, which is also the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” speech. But with over 2,118 committed delegates as of Tuesday night, it’s about as official as it gets: Obama will go up against Senator John McCain as the first ever African-American to run on a major party ticket.

Obama is currently 42 delegates short of the nomination, while Clinton is still 201 delegates shy. Primaries today in South Dakota and Montana will divide 47 delegates, and around 200 superdelegates are still undeclared, though a number are expected to pledge to Obama tonight, pushing him over the edge and securing the nomination.

UPDATE, 10:52 a.m. CST: Clinton’s campaign co-chair is denying the reports that Clinton will concede to Obama tonight. Nonetheless, Obama still may be able to claim victory pending a rush of superdelegate endorsements after the last two Democratic primaries today.

UPDATE, 2:08 p.m. CST: Obama is now 35 delegates away from the nomination, having picked up six superdelegates so far today. He also picked up six of the 13 Florida delegates pledged to John Edwards. (Some of the delegates only get a half a vote, as per the decision of the Democratic Rules Committee this weekend.)

UPDATE, 4:00 p.m. CST: Clinton told New York lawmakers today that she’d be willing to accept the VP spot next to Barack Obama. The question is now whether he’ll offer it.

UPDATE, 6:03 p.m. CST: Obama is ten delegates away from clinching the Democratic nomination, according to CNN. Meanwhile, the Associated Press decided two hours ago that Obama has already clinched the nomination, though the campaign doesn’t appear to have broken out the bubbly quite yet.

The Democratic Party’s rules and bylaws committee is meeting this weekend to decide the fate of Michigan and Florida delegations. In addition, Democratic leaders will put pressure on uncommitted superdelegates to make a decision after the last Democratic primary is held next Tuesday, June 3 in Montana and South Dakota, well before the Democratic convention in August.

“The time has come to make a decision. I think we need a general election that’s 5 months. I don’t think August is enough time,” Reid said.

So who will represent the Democrats in the general election this fall?

Reid said that “simple math indicates” that Barack Obama is the likely nominee.

May has been a great month for gay rights. New York Governor David Paterson’s spokewoman announced yesterday that the governor sent a memo on May 14 ordering New York state agencies to recognize same-sex marriages performed in states and countries where they are legal. The memo was sent the day before the California Supreme Court struck down a ban on gay marriage.

The governor’s decision came after a New York state appeals court found in February that failing to recognize such legal marriages is a violation of the New York human rights law. The issue of gay marriage has had a long and convoluted history in New York; the state was one of the first testing grounds of legislation brought about by proponents of same-sex marriage back in 2004. Courts have ruled, stayed and struck down various rulings going every which way. In 2006 the New York Court of Appeals ruled that there is no constitutional right to same-sex marriage under the New York Constitution. But in February, 2008, a panel of judges ruled that because New York legally recognizes out-of-state marriages of opposite-sex couples, it must do the same for same-sex couples.

At this point two states — Massachusetts (in 2004) and California (earlier this month) — have legalized gay marriage. When the Massachusetts law was passed in 2004, it stated that gay couples need not be state residents to wed; however, then-Governor Mitt Romney resurrected a 1913 law banning non-resident marriages in the state if the marriage would be prohibited in the partners’ home state. (That law was originally passed in order to thwart interracial marriage.) Subsequent court and agency decisions determined that only residents of Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Mexico could marry in Massachusetts, unless the parties said they planned on moving there after the marriage.

According to the directive, New York will also begin recognizing gay marriages that were performed outside the country, such as in Canada.

Marriage licenses for gay couples in California could be available as soon as June 17. Four states — New Hampshire, Vermont, New Jersey and Connecticut — currently permit civil unions. A number of other states recognize some rights for gay couples. The debate about the right of same-sex couples to marry is partially hinged on the benefits of such unions: family health care plans, tax breaks, stronger adoption rights and property inheritance, among others. Proponents argue that to limit gay marriage is to restrict basic rights of a group of citizens, while defenders of the “one man, one woman” idea argue that marriage is an institution based in a religion that considers homosexuality “unnatural” and sinful.

In a book titled “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception,” former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan writes that the current Bush administration relied on an aggressive “political propaganda campaign” instead of the truth to sell the American people on the Iraq war. While this isn’t exactly news to us, it’s still rather damning for the lame-duck administration; a former high-ranking aide reveals the sordid innerworkings of one of the most unpopular administrations in history. According to McClellan, Bush carefully managed the situation in Iraq so that it was “almost guaranteed that the use of force would become the only feasible option.”

Current Bush Press Secretary Dana Perino issued a statement today saying that McClellan is “disgruntled” and that she and her colleagues were “puzzled” by his words.

McClellan (the second of four Bush press secretaries) insists in the book that, despite the fact that he lied to the American people over and over again — in his words, some of his assertions from the podium were “badly misguided” — he kept his mouth shut out of a sense of duty. “When words I uttered, believing them to be true, were exposed as false, I was constrained by my duties and loyalty to the president and unable to comment,” he says. “But I promised reporters and the public that I would someday tell the whole story of what I knew.”

The book discusses, among other things, the CIA leak scandal surrounding Scooter Libby and Karl Rove; the administration’s use of “propaganda” to sell the war; and how the press corps were too easy on the administration during the run-up to the war.

Quotes from the book were first reported Tuesday night by Politico.com. The memoir is scheduled to go on sale June 1. (PublicAffairs, $27.95)

“I still like and admire President Bush,” McClellan writes. “But he and his advisers confused the propaganda campaign with the high level of candor and honesty so fundamentally needed to build and then sustain public support during a time of war. …In this regard, he was terribly ill-served by his top advisers, especially those involved directly in national security.”

Former Georgia Rep. Bob Barr was chosen today as the Libertarian Party’s candidate for president. The former Republican won in the sixth ballot round at the Libertarian Party convention in Denver, beating out research scientist Mary Ruwart.

Barr was elected to the U.S. House as a Republican in 1994 and represented a conservative district of the Atlanta suburbs for four terms. In 2006 he left the Republican Party to become a registered Libertarian, and last month he formed a presidential exploratory committee. The Washington Post speculated last week that Barr could act as the “new Nader,” drawing votes from the conservative base of the Republican Party away from John McCain in the general election. Libertarian candidates in the last two elections drew less than 400,000 votes each.

History & Platform
Barr was born in Iowa and attended USC, George Washington and Georgetown Universities. He worked for the CIA from 1971 to 1978. While he was in Congress, he was regarded as one of its most conservative members; in 2002 he was described by the Athens Banner-Herald as “the idol of the gun-toting, abortion-fighting, IRS-hating hard right wing of American politics.”
- Consistent with the Libertarian platform, Barr believes in small government and minimal government intrusion. He supports cutting federal spending significantly and adopting a “consumption tax,” like a national sales tax, to replace the IRS and all federal income taxes (essentially overturning the 16th Amendment).
- Though he has been dubbed an “anti-drug warrior” because of his support for the War on Drugs, Barr flipped positions last year and began lobbying for the legalization of marijuana. He has said that he’s not pro-drug, just anti-government intrusion.
- He was the main author and sponsor of the Defense of Marriage Act, which states that same-sex marriages cannot be federally recognized and that states don’t have to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.
- Barr led the charge to get President Bill Clinton impeached both before and after the Monica Lewinsky scandal broke.*
- He sat on the Board of Directors for the National Rifle Association from 2001 to 2007.
- He has been outwardly critical of the Bush administration. In 2007 he helped form a group called the America Freedom Agenda in order to bring to attention the “abuses and losses of our fundamental, constitutionally guaranteed liberties since 9/11.”
- He favors a withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

Fun fact
Barr appeared in the movie “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” He met with Borat’s character in the U.S. Capitol, where he was given cheese that was (allegedly) made from the breast milk of Borat’s wife. Watch the bit here.

*This article originally stated that Bob Barr had led the charge only after the scandal broke. Thanks to Lance Brown for pointing out the error.

But with just 60 delegates needed to secure the Democratic nomination, anonymous Democratic officials are saying that he’s begun the search by engaging Johnson, who did a similar job for John Kerry in 2004 and Walter Mondale in 1984.

For a good breakdown of Obama’s probable criteria and choices, check out this article at the Huffington Post.