By Julianna Goldman and Hans Nichols
(Bloomberg) — President-elect Barack Obama’s Cabinet is notable for its diversity, experience in government, and absence of people from the business community.
Obama, who campaigned as an advocate for Main Street against the influence of lobbyists and special interests, hasn’t staffed his Cabinet with a single person who has executive business experience. The depth of executive mostly rests with those who ran states: three current and former governors.
“It is a void that the folks that the president-elect has selected seem to be overly biased toward government service or regulatory activities,†said Peter Morici, a business professor at the University of Maryland.
Obama, 47, who moved faster than any modern president- elect in selecting a Cabinet, leaves today for a 13-day vacation in Hawaii with only a few gaps.
He still needs to make a number of second-tier appointments, including sub-Cabinet and deputy-level positions. And he hasn’t announced his picks to lead the Central Intelligence Agency or his director of national intelligence.
John Brennan, a former counterterrorism chief for the CIA who was an adviser to Obama’s campaign, was considered the frontrunner to head the agency, though he withdrew his name last month after party activists voiced concern over his ties to CIA interrogation tactics.
Obama plans to name retired Navy Admiral Dennis Blair as director of national intelligence, according to a former intelligence official in contact with the transition team.
The Obama transition team declined to comment on the Cabinet appointments.
No Car Czar
The president-elect hasn’t named a car czar to oversee the $13.4 billion loan program for U.S. automakers that was announced yesterday. And Obama, who raised record amounts of money from Wall Street during his presidential campaign, still hasn’t appointed ambassadors to foreign countries.
“The secondary and tertiary levels tend to be filled historically with people who have been good to the campaigns,†said Craig McDonald, executive director of Texans for Public Justice. “Many of them want to get on the list to get a cushy job, and many of them will.â€
The lack of business representation in the Cabinet reflects the difficulties of aiming for a speedy confirmation process while subjecting appointees to the new realities of more intensive financial disclosure, said James Lucier, managing director of Capital Alpha Partners LLC in Washington.
“It would always be nice to see more people with a business background in the Cabinet, but the reality is that you can’t just bring people off the proverbial street,†Lucier said.
Rahm’s Millions
Rahm Emanuel, who will be White House chief of staff, may come closest, having earned more than $16 million in the few years he worked for the firm then known as Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, according to financial-disclosure reports, and as a director of Freddie Mac.
Former President Bill Clinton’s first Cabinet had five members with significant experience in private industry, including his first Treasury secretary, Lloyd Bentsen, who worked in insurance in the 1950s, and Commerce Secretary Ron Brown who was a lawyer and lobbyist at Patton Boggs.
President George W. Bush, a former chief executive officer himself, appointed six individuals from the business community including former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, a onetime CEO of Alcoa Inc.
More Hispanics
With Bill Richardson as commerce secretary, Hilda Solis as labor secretary and Ken Salazar as interior secretary, Obama has picked more Hispanics than Clinton or Bush.
Bush named five women in his first Cabinet, while Obama ties Clinton with four. Obama has also named several women to White House posts and to head agencies — Mary Schapiro will lead the Securities and Exchange Commission, Christina Romer will head the Council of Economic Advisers and Melody Barnes will direct his Domestic Policy Council.
Obama has mostly picked current and former lawmakers from states that helped win him the presidency. Some appointees were named even though they supported Hillary Clinton during the primary battle, including Clinton herself.
Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, who campaigned unsuccessfully for Clinton, is Obama’s choice for agriculture secretary; Solis was also a Clinton backer.
Obama has chosen past and present lawmakers from Colorado, New York, California, Illinois, Iowa and New Mexico — all states that went for him.
Napolitano, Daschle
The exceptions: Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano, who will lead the Department of Homeland Security, and former South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle, Obama’s pick for the Department of Health and Human Services. Their states went for Republican John McCain.
He “has explicitly indicated he wants people to take diverse positions and argue,†said Fred Greenstein, a presidential historian at Princeton University.
Obama has also named two Republicans: Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Representative Ray LaHood. Bush named Democrat Norman Mineta to head the Department of Transportation.
The past three presidents, with degrees from Columbia, Harvard and Yale, have stocked their Cabinets with Ivy Leaguers. Bush had five Harvard graduates, two from Princeton and one from Yale; Clinton had five from Harvard, one from Princeton and three from Yale.
Diverse Schools
If Obama’s choices are confirmed, his Ivy Leaguers will represent a more diverse range of elite schools.
Two will hold degrees from Harvard — Education Secretary- designee Arne Duncan and Housing and Urban Development Department-designee Shaun Donovan; two from Princeton — Obama’s choice for OMB director Peter Orszag and EPA administrator Lisa Jackson; and one each from Yale, Dartmouth and Columbia — Clinton, Treasury Secretary-designee Tim Geithner and Obama’s choice for attorney general, Eric Holder.