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November 19th, 2008
Obama Transition Team Announces Chris Lu as Cabinet Secretary
Posted by EugeniaFrom Change.gov:
Washington - President-elect Barack Obama today announced the following key White House staff: David Axelrod, Lisa Brown, Greg Craig, and Chris Lu. David Axelrod will serve as Senior Advisor to the President, Lisa Brown will serve as Staff Secretary, Greg Craig will serve as White House Counsel, and Chris Lu will serve as Cabinet Secretary.
“I am pleased to announce these new additions to our team, and I’ll be relying on their broad and diverse experience in the months ahead as we work to strengthen our economy, reform Washington, and meet the great challenges of our time,” said President-elect Barack Obama.
Chris Lu, Cabinet Secretary
Christopher P. Lu has worked for President-elect Obama in a number of roles over the past four years. He was Legislative Director and Acting Chief of Staff in Obama’s Senate office, as well as a policy advisor during the presidential campaign. Chris is now the Executive Director of the Obama-Biden Transition Project, where he manages the day-to-day operations of the transition. From 1997 to 2005, he was Deputy Chief Counsel to Rep. Henry A. Waxman on the Democratic staff of the House Government Reform Committee (now the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee). A graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Law School, Chris was a litigation attorney at Sidley Austin in Washington, D.C. (1992-1997), after a clerkship with the Honorable Robert E. Cowen of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit (1991-1992).
Posted in About Obama, Asian Americans and Politics, presidency |
November 19th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
One word: AWESOME.
November 20th, 2008 at 5:13 am
What exactly does a Cabinet Secretary do? Let’s hope that more Asians are in the Cabinet besides providing service and advice.
November 20th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Where the heck are all the Asian American cabinet members? Bush had Elaine Chao and Norman Mineta. Mineta was also in the Clinton cabinet. There isn’t a single Hispanic either. I’m happy with the cabinet picks so far but disappointed with the lack of diversity.
November 20th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Cabinet Secretary is a pretty powerful behind-the-scenes position. He acts as the liaison between the President and the Cabinet and oversees Cabinet meetings.
I’m hoping for more AAPIs in the Cabinet as well, but so far, only HHS, AG, and State have been discussed, and State may still be in flux.
November 21st, 2008 at 4:01 am
Do not pin our hopes on this; or on the Cabinet Secretary position, which is not a cabinet job.
Asian Americans need a visible, front position to elevate us as an inseparable part of America. But just looked at Elaine Chao! When was your last time seeing her on Television? —-I mean a national television?! I did not!
By the way, did you see Obama come down talking to Asian Americans just like he did to Hispanic Americans and Jewish Americans, during his last years compaigne ? I did not.
November 22nd, 2008 at 1:08 am
He should really consider former Gov. Gary Locke or General Shinseki. If he ignores AAs, one alternative would be to push the 80-20 PAC to vote against Obama in 2012, which would definitely get some coverage. And then Obama will have looked back at 2008 and say, “Hmm. I guess I should’ve picked some Asian Americans for cabinet positions. Oops.”
November 22nd, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Every day I wait for an announcement that Obama has picked an Asian American for a HIGHLY VISIBLE role in Washington and every day so far, I am HIGHLY DISAPPOINTED! So today, I hear about Chris Lu, a name I am not really familiar with, but am glad to hear about his selection nonetheless. However,it’s just like my disappointment in what I call “Hollywood in Black and White.” Asian Americans are not really represented in the media at all and if they are, it’s usually in a “Jackie Chan” type of role or other stereotypical role. I was hoping that Obama would select more Asian Americans for high level positions but I do not see “results” yet. Therefore, I think that Asian Americans of all ethnic heritages in the good ol’ US of A should band together to bring this to the attention of Obama ASAP way before Jan. 20. Any ideas on how we can quickly mobilize as a group and get our dissatisfaction and disappointment across to Obama and the media? Let’s show the world that this “model minority” is a misnomer of oppression for all Asian Americans and get some action in the white house!!
November 25th, 2008 at 9:20 pm
the jews still in control, there was a deal making before the election between obama and aipac/jews.
November 25th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
asianUSA -
Statements such as yours are not only paranoid and ridiculous, but also completely reprehensible. As a minority that has struggled with accusations of somehow possessing an unfair advantage in education and wealth, AAPIs should be among the last to resort to blanket, monolithic generalizations about another community.
It is precisely the backwards, ignorant views of those like you that a broad coalition for change repudiated in this election. As AAPIs, we should be ashamed that you claim to be one of us. Luckily, true patriots everywhere, AAPI or otherwise, recognize that your views belong in the dustheap of history.
December 1st, 2008 at 7:56 am
haha I doubt rko honestly admires or even cares for the jewish power factor, but seeing one of his clan sending out offensive vibes that might in a small way, like an Eng “I hate blacks” here, a chinazi there, ..help get the jewish back up against aapi’s political ambitions, is not, well, kosher. Anyway, the appointments so far just fine by me. Yellow Planet Project, put your plans on hold!
December 3rd, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Dear All,
Because of you guys voting for Obama la-ma ding-dong, we do not get an Asian American member in the cabinet. Now, you learn a hard lesson, don’t you?
December 3rd, 2008 at 7:44 pm
today is 12/3/08, i am still waiting for obama to appoint an asian-american into the cabinet, remember, we are 5% of the u.s. population! we need representation and media coverage.
December 3rd, 2008 at 9:14 pm
Technically Jim, Chris Lu is in the Cabinet but he is without a department to head. I have no idea what’s he’s going to do. I don’t understand why Shinseki isn’t more prominent in discussions regarding a Secretary of Defense. I’m disappointed too, but unlike @K Wu above I don’t engage in early fingerpointing and childish name calling. Wu — must I have to point out to you that your name itself is a prime target for ethnic slurs? An old saying about people in glass houses comes to mind. Sigh.
Yes, we are all pretty frustrated. On the other hand, Obama hasn’t finished with all of his appointments and he’s not even President yet. Let’s see what happens further along.
December 3rd, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Dear abnamer,
Why would my name “a prime target for ethnic slur”? Haven’t you guys waken up and smell the coffee? Keep waiting and you will not see an Asian American holding an important cabinet post in the Obama team.
December 4th, 2008 at 9:26 am
When Obama does not appoint Asians on visible posts, then we know what we will have to do the next elections in 2012, right?
We as Asians will send him out of the white house, cause then obama will have to pay the price for that mistake.
December 5th, 2008 at 4:36 pm
I agreed with Mike 100%. Look at what happened to the Latinos community. All they got was “chopped liver” (Navarrette, CNN). Richardson risked his pol. career for supporting Obama during the primary and all he got was Commerce sec. not the sec. of state.
So far, all I see is the Clinton’s people were picked in his top posts of the cab. I think Obama wants our country to live in the 90’s (the Clinton era), so much for the change that he promised us.
December 6th, 2008 at 1:26 am
This is really unbelievable. One of the reasons I supported Obama was because I felt he was talking to me as an asian-american. Now I feel totally ignored again. I’m very disappointed he hasn’t made a greater effort for diversity in his cabinet.
December 6th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
@K Wu: You are willing to discount Obama before he is in office. I don’t think you’ve given him much of a chance. It’s been fairly clear that we can’t play traditional identity politics with him. Can I point out that we’re merely paying the price for the early Asian American support for Hillary Clinton over Obama before Super Tuesday? Take a look at Clinton’s Asian supporters in California. It reads like a who’s who of Asian American politicians. While Obama is fairly ecumenical in who he is hiring, I think we’re just going to have to take our lumps on this one.
He just added another Asian to the team, Christina M. Tchen, to be White House Director of Public Liaison. I would not be surprised to see more.
That said, as I’ve said before, we’ll have to adopt a wait and see attitude and figure out how to get more Asian Americans into government. You know, employ our traditional stance on hard work and see if we can move up in the Administration over time.
December 6th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Dear Abenamer,
With all due respect, I will not hold my breath and wait & see as you suggested there. Instead, I continue to ask all Asian Americans to unite as one group like the African American and the Latino American and make our voices heard. We need to act not to wait and see. Besides, we do not need to wait until Obama gets in the office and starts evaluating his performance and even he himself did not wait. So far, I have to give him the credit for assembling his cabinet team quickly and working behind the scenes to get the congress to support the Big Three’s. That, I respect him. However, for ignoring the Asian Americans or not giving the sec of state role to Richardson is a big slap to Latinos community and this is the point I am trying to make.
Regardless of our differences, I again call for our unity as one voice and one group so that the Asian Americans will have more active roles in the government.
December 7th, 2008 at 12:42 am
Well, you don’t have to wait for long. Shinseki is in as Department of Veterans Affairs. That’s clearly a pretty good move on Obama’s part.
@K Wu, I think you need to make your ask more concrete. What would make you happy? For me, I want a President that works to eventually move America to a center-left nation. If that means Clinton over Richardson, so be it. These appointments aren’t forever you know. You can’t judge a guy simply by the appointments he starts with. If that was the case, we should simply want Bush over Obama since he had Mineta and Chao in his cabinet. I say no to baseless calls for identity representation and yes to good progressive policy that ultimately allows our country to move ahead.
December 8th, 2008 at 6:20 am
[...] This brings us finally to the question of AAPI appointments. Allan has done an admirable job of responding to a lot of the comments we’ve been receiving on the subject, particularly at this earlier post on Chris Lu. [...]
May 7th, 2009 at 11:50 pm
While as diversity is a consideration, so-called Asians do not have the political influence being that they are not a major voting block. Setting aside emotions, Obama did not come to talk to Asians for that reason. He did go to talk to Black people whoes voting block gave him the democratic nomination. Yet, he awarded Blacks only one of the 15 major cabinet positions and so-called Asians with three of those positions. Although the Asian vote has little influence over who gets nominated or elected as President. Obama betrayed a major voting block by appointing only one of their members to a major cabinet position. Without the overwhelming Black vote for Obama, Hillary Clinton would have surely been the Democratic front runner.
May 14th, 2009 at 6:13 am
For the record, there are four African American members of the Cabinet:
- Attorney General Eric Holder
- United State Trade Representative Ron Kirk
- Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Lisa P. Jackson
- Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice
Not to mention senior staff such as Valerie Jarrett, Deputy White House Counsel Cassandra Butts, and Domestic Policy Council Director Melody Barnes.
And the Asian American vote was very clearly decisive in several key states, including Nevada, Virginia, Florida, and Pennsylvania. In these states, Obama’s margin of victory among the Asian American vote comprised a significant factor in the final victory, especially in light of comparisons with past presidential elections.
Regardless, the reality is that President Obama has already demonstrated a strong commitment to justice for all Americans, regardless of how politically “influential” they may be. Plenty of past presidents could point to symbolic appointments without following through on real change. It’s clear that President Obama is far more concerned with truly addressing the issues facing communities of color than with superficial patronage.