Formal Announcement expected Friday
This morning the New York Times confirmed earlier reports that President Elect Obama has chosen retiring Illinois Republican Congressman Ray LaHood to be his Transportation Secretary.
Although he is a moderate Republican with a record of voting in favor of alternative transportation, I have to say I’m pretty disappointed with this choice. Frankly, I expected more from Obama after he wrote a letter to Transportation for America with the awesome statement, “Everyone benefits if we can leave our cars, walk, bicycle and access other transportation alternatives.” The Times article talks about how good he’ll be at spending money on roads and how his is not opposed to Amtrack.
Well, whoopty freakin’ do’! We as a country are living on borrowed time when it comes to how we’ve built our transportation systems. As the last year has shown, depending on wealth sucking vehicles dependent on price volatile fuels is not a great way to run a country and and weather an economic downturn well.
I hope I’m wrong, but this is not a promising sign to me.
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on Dec 22nd, 2008 at 12:10 pm
I wouldn’t panic just yet. Obama has repeatedly said that he is looking for able administrators to carry out his plans. He provides the vision not the cabinet members. I fear the greatest single limiter to his presidency will be the economy not friction within his administration.