The Bloomberg Zinni Independent Ticket
Dick Meyer of CBS News has proposed a cabinet for the (nascent) Independent Party. It’s a fun read.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg as President and running mate, General Anthony Zinni will need a great cabinet. Here’s a sampling:
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Homeland Security: The world’s greatest logistics genius is Fred Smith, the man who invented FedEx. As an advocate of tiny government, not just small government, Smith may think the Department of Homeland Security shouldn’t exist. And that’s fine. But he is also one of the few people competent enough to actually manage this bureaucratic beluga. If he can disassemble it after running it for a couple years, that’s cool.
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Secretary of Commerce: Instead of wasting a Cabinet slot on currying favor and money with business, how about letting one of the greatest business growers in economic history try a few tricks? That would be John Doerr, the brilliant dean of Silicon Valley venture capitalists. Starting in 1980, Doerr was instrumental in sprouting Compaq, Intuit, Netscape, Lotus, Sun Microsystems and Amazon.com, just to pick a few names.
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Secretary of Energy: To round out the trio of people who will reinvent environmentalism is the man who appears to be the smartest person on the planet, Nathan Myhrvold, once chief technologist at Microsoft. An entrepreneur in his own right, Myrhvold is stocked with gazillions and various high degrees in physics, geophysics and mathematical economics. He is now a part-time paleontologist. If he can figure out why the dinosaurs died he can figure out our fossil fuel problem.
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Secretary of Transportation: Did you know that you don’t have to be a citizen to be in the Cabinet? It’s true. That makes this pick easy: Richard Branson, who reinvented the airline business with his Virgin Air. We need much more reinvention.