Obama names three top officials to depleted Treasury Department
In the news this morning, President Obama names three top officials to the Treasury Department and tells The New York Times he is considering whether to pursue an alliance with moderate elements of the Taliban.
Politico is among the news outlets noting a dearth of top-level officials at Treasury and damage that’s doing as the administration tries to ease the financial crisis. Today came word of three nominees who are now serving as counselors to Secretary Tim Geithner.
They are David S. Cohen for Assistant Secretary of Treasury, Terrorist Financing; Alan B. Krueger, Assistant Secretary of Treasury, Economic Policy; and Kim N. Wallace, Assistant Secretary of Treasury, Legislative Affairs. Still, Reuters says, the top ranks remain thin.
The Times writes up its Friday interview with Obama. The lead: “President Obama declared in an interview that the United States was not winning the war in Afghanistan and opened the door to a reconciliation process in which the American military would reach out to moderate elements of the Taliban, much as it did with Sunni militias in Iraq.” Transcript is here.
The newspaper also writes about Obama’s follow-up phone call to expand on why his domestic policies are not socialist. He said his policies are not ideological — they’re responses to a crisis created by “lax regulation and extravagant risk taking” that occurred under former president George W. Bush. He also said it was Bush who initiated what the Times calls “large-scale government intervention in the markets and the expansion of social welfare programs.”
The Washington Post reports on Obama’s planned visit to Turkey next month. The decision to go there “reflects the moderate Muslim nation’s central place in his emerging diplomatic approach to the Islamic world.”
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