Obama's Team of Brainiacs

by: tremayne

Wed Dec 03, 2008 at 11:36

One "change" we're seeing in the newly forming administration is the return of expertise and a respect for academic accomplishment. George Bush loved to brag about being a C student. Somehow I don't think that approach will continue in the Obama White House. And while good leadership doesn't require an advanced degree, it doesn't hurt to have some expertise. I put together this comparison of Bush's original team and Obama's so far (source: Wikipedia). I've bolded those with more education.

Position	Bush 2001 Team	Obama 2009 Team
POTUS	George Bush: MBA Harvard	Barack Obama: JD Harvard
VP	Dick Cheney: MA Poli Sci Wyoming	Joe Biden: JD Syracuse
Sec. State	Colin Powell:MBA GWU	Hillary Clinton: JD Yale
Sec. Defense	Donald Rumsfeld: AB Princeton	Robert Gates: Ph.D. Georgetown
Att.General	John Ashcroft: JD Chicago	Eric Holder: JD Columbia
Sec.Treasury	Paul O'Neill: Master of Public Adm. Indiana	Tim Geithner: MA John Hopkins
Homeland Security	Tom Ridge: JD Dickinson	Janet Napolitano: JD Virginia
UN Ambassador	John Negroponte: BA Yale	Susan Rice: Ph.D. Oxford
Sec.Commerce	Donald Evans:MBA Texas	Bill Richardson: MA Int.Affairs Tufts
NSA	Condoleezza Rice: Ph.D. Denver	James Jones: BS Georgetown
Chief of Staff	Andrew Card: BS Engineering S.Carolina	Rahm Emanuel: MA Speech and Comm. Northwestern

Again, having a degree doesn't guarantee anything. Afterall, Michael "Brownie" Brown, former FEMA head, has a JD. But after 8 years of a crew with questionable competence in their designated roles and an administration often strongly anti-science, it will be nice to see some experts back in charge.

Update: Responding to comments, my assumption was that MBA = 2 years (like most MAs) and law degrees take 3 years, hence the "more" above. But feel free to dispute in comments. Wasn't making a qualitative judgement which would be harder because not all graduate programs/law schools are created equal.

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