Why Obama Failed To Create A Single-Payer and Universal Medicare-For-All Program In The United States

“Jeffrey B. Kindler, who retired as Pfizer's chairman and chief executive at the end of 2011, has joined Lux Capital as a venture partner...The hiring marks Mr. Kindler's most prominent business appointment since his contentious departure from Pfizer. He became the pharmaceutical giant's chief in 2006...His signature achievement was orchestrating the $68 billion takeover of Wyeth in 2009, kicking off a huge wave of health care mergers by drug maker...At Lux, Mr. Kindler will again be called upon for his deal-making skills, helping to find new health care investments and working with existing portfolio companies. The firm has already invested in the likes of Cerulean Pharma and Kala Pharmaceuticals….Besides his new post at Lux, Mr. Kindler works as a senior adviser to Paragon Pharmaceuticals and as a director at Starboard Capital Partners, a private equity firm.”

--from the August 8, 2012 issue of the New York Times

Why Obama Failed To Create A Single-Payer and Universal Medicare-For-All Program In The United States

In his 2010 book The Promise: President Obama, Year One, Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter indicated why a Single-Payer and Universal Medicare-For-All Program, similar to the Canadian health care system, was not established in the United States by the Democratic Obama administration between 2009 and 2012:

“…The [Obama health care reform] plan called for…winning support—or at least neutrality—from the insurance and drug industries (compensated by the arrival of 30 million new customers)…Obama…said the goal was `comprehensive health care reform by the end of the year.’…He warned `liberal bleeding hearts’ not to get…ambitious about universal coverage…Everything…([except] a single-payer plan, which he had ruled out in 2008…) was on the table…Jeffrey Kindler, the CEO of Pfizer, the drug giant, happens to be a Democrat…The industry would pay for the media to build public support for the plan…On May 11 [2009]…Obama met in the Roosevelt Room with industry…representatives…

“…The White House began cutting its own deals…Obama agreed to speak to the AMA convention—the first president to do so in a quarter century—and open the door to malpractice reform…in exchange for doctors’ not actively opposing him…All the claims of no quid pro quo couldn’t obscure the major deal cut in the Roosevelt Room in July [2009] between Rahm Emanuel and Billy Tauzin…representing the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, better known as PhRMA…The Drug industry…stood to gain billions from the legislation…

“On one level the loud public option debate was good for the overall prospects of the bill because it distracted media attention from…the mandates forcing individuals to buy insurance…Rahm…told anyone who would listen that a public option wasn’t necessary…Rahm…thought he could satisfy the base by having Obama lash out rhetorically at insurance companies, but it wasn’t enough. Liberals wanted to see the president fighting for them…”

New Orleans and New York City: `Destroyed By A Rising Flood'?

How Obama and National Security-Deloitte LLP Advisor Jim Jones Worked For `Change' In 2009

“General James Jones, USMC (Ret), former National Security Advisor... has joined Deloitte LLP as Senior Advisor. In his new role, General Jones will work in an advisory capacity with Deloitte’s federal and commercial clients and Department of Defense practice.
“Appointed National Security Advisor to President Barack Obama on January 20, 2009, General Jones also served as president and chief executive officer of the U.S. Chamber Institute for 21st Century Energy.

“`General James Jones is a game-changing hire who will provide valuable and unique insights for our Federal Practice,” said Robin Lineberger, CEO, Federal Government Services, Deloitte LLP. `…He...will have a particular focus on Deloitte’s Department of Defense practice.’…

“Led by General Charles F. Wald (USAF, Retired), Deloitte’s Department of Defense (DoD) practice works with DoD clients… Deloitte has been working with the DoD since 1912, and today approximately 1,400 Deloitte practitioners work with all branches of the Department of Defense in Greater Washington and beyond. Serving more than 80 percent of the world’s largest companies across 20 industry sectors, Deloitte has reach back to leading practices of the private sector… “

--from a January 17, 2012 Deloitte LLP press release

How Obama and National Security-Deloitte LLP Advisor Jim Jones Worked For “Change” In 2009

One reason the Democratic Obama administration--whose White House National Security Advisor Jim Jones was hired to advise the clients of Deloitte LLP’s Pentagon practice in 2012-- failed to produce much radical democratic change in the United States between 2009 and 2012 might be because President Obama’s typical workday at the White House in 2009 apparently didn’t include much day-to-day contact with many U.S. grassroots anti-war, anti-racist or anti-corporate political activists, although “Obama…was on TV more than any of his predecessors,” according to Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter’s 2010 book The Promise: President Obama, Year One. As the same book also observed:

“A normal day in the [Obama] White House began around 7:30 a.m., when a dozen senior staff gathered in Rahm Emanuel’s office…At 8:45 Rahm would usually hold a legislative strategy meeting…Obama began his day by joining Michelle [Obama] in the fitness room, where she often got going before 6 a.m…The president read…the Wall Street Journal and USA Today over breakfast…He walked downstairs to the Oval Office around 9:15, sometimes later…He and Rahm would go over a quick-to-do list…

“At about 9:30 Obama received the Presidential Daily Briefing on national security (led by NSC advisor Jim Jones or his deputy, Tom Donilon). Later the name was changed to the National Security Session to reflect that the thirty-to-forty-minute briefing had been broadened…At around 10:30 came the Economics Daily Briefing, led by Larry Summers…

“…The president didn’t like sitting at his desk all day…The Obama workday was brisk, with an occasional brief break for some…sports talk or a careful toss with one of the footballs or basketballs that came around Reggie Love’s desk…Obama liked to hear some of the milder staff gossip…The afternoon was usually devoted to more meetings and four or five telephone calls, often with foreign leaders, capped by a casual review of the day’s events with a few senior staff. He went upstairs for dinner…around 6 p.m., frequently followed by a drop-by at an evening reception…By 8 p.m. it was usually time to go back to his study in the residence…

“…This was a man who in 1993 retreated to Indonesia for a few weeks shortly after getting married to labor on his first book…Obama…had repeatedly expressed his objection to `relitigating’ the Vietnam War and the 1960s…He infuriated some liberals by saying in a May [2009] speech at the National Archives that he didn’t want long investigations of Bush and Cheney that would `relitigate the last 8 years’…Obama responded by traveling far more widely in his first year than had any previous president. In 2009 he made 10 foreign trips to 21 foreign nations (4 of them twice)…Obama…immersed himself in the details of…counterterrorism…

“Bob Gates…was almost certainly the most influential member of the Cabinet…His pedigree as a Republican and former CIA director gave Obama political cover…From the start Obama was inclined to back Gates against liberal critics. When photographs surfaced documenting the torture of detainees in Afghanistan and Iraq, the White House…at first declined to block their publication. But…Obama…reversed his position…”

 

Obama's Steven Rattner-Quadrangle-GM-Auto Industry Bailout Connection

“Starting in the transition [after the November 2008 election], Obama’s point man on autos was Steven Rattner, a founder of the private investment firm Quadrangle…The widely circulated idea that Obama gave the unions a special break was wrong. As [UAW President] Ron Gettlefinger contemplated a deal that would provide…for the closure of 17 plants, massive new layoffs, wage freezes, cuts in retirement, vacation, and health care benefits, and a promise not to strike for 6 years, he walked the streets of Washington for 2 hours…
“On June 1 [2009] Obama made his…announcement…The U.S. government would pump another $30 billion into GM…buying its ownership stake to roughly 60 percent…In July [2009]…Rattner returned to New York under a cloud. The investment business he founded was being investigated for its role in a pension fund scandal…”
--from The Promise: President Obama, Year One book by Jonathan Alter in 2010

“Steven L. Rattner…led the Obama administration’s efforts to restructure the auto industry….He became embroiled in a kickback scandal involving New York State’s pension fund….A former financial reporter for The New York Times who is currently a contributing opinion writer for The Times, Mr. Rattner entered investment banking in the 1980s. He became a deal maker in the media and communications sectors for the likes of Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley and Lazard. In 2000, he co-founded the Quadrangle Group, a media-focused private equity firm. In January 2008, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg chose the firm to manage the investments of his multibillion-dollar fortune….In November 2010, Mr. Rattner agreed to pay $6.2 million in repayments and penalties to settle a suit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission...The next month, Mr. Rattner agreed to pay $10 million to settle two lawsuits brought by…New York’s attorney general. The suits charged that Quadrangle paid kickbacks to win lucrative contracts managing assets of the pension fund.

“Quadrangle also struck a deal with…the S.E.C., paying $12 million to end its role in the case. The firm acknowledged paying more than $1 million in fees to a political consultant, Hank Morris, in exchange for his help in landing a state investment contract. Mr. Morris pleaded guilty to securities fraud…Mr. Rattner is now the chairman of Willett Advisors, a firm that was spun off…to take over the management of the fortune of Mr. Bloomberg, a longtime friend, when Mr. Rattner left the firm….In 2009….he filed federal disclosure forms that listed his net worth as between $188 million and $608 million….He…specialized in…brokering deals on behalf of companies like Viacom and Comcast...He also…he pursued leveraged buyouts of media companies like the takeovers of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and most of the American titles of Dennis Publishing, including men’s magazines like Maxim and Stuff.

“Mr. Rattner had also become influential in the Democratic Party, giving millions of dollars to candidates like Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama. His appointment as the White House’s car czar, in charge of its ambitious plan to reorganize General Motors and Chrysler, was in part the culmination of years of hosting fund-raisers…”

--from the New York Times website

“The government did not have to bail out the auto companies in order to keep workers employed and producing something (whether cars or something else)…. If the government wanted to keep the workers producing cars, it could buy the auto companies themselves...Maintenance of employment does not appear to have been the objective of government policy…The government has encouraged layoffs by requiring deep cuts in company costs as a condition of the bailout. The companies have sought concessions on past obligations from workers and bondholders, concessions on future wages and benefits from workers, and massive layoffs. Under GM’s government-mandated restructuring plan (after the first round of bailouts), the company promised to lay off 47,000 workers worldwide by the end of 2009….Chrysler’s plan promised to cut 35,000….The Obama administration rejected both plans as inadequate, saying that viable restructuring plans for both companies would require deeper cost cutting….

“The government could have nationalized GM or Chrysler for much less than what it handed over in bailout money….Some commentators compared the auto companies to the bankrupt railroads of the 1970s, which were nationalized (as Conrail) and later re-privatized.…From a purely economic standpoint, the government could have easily nationalized GM for much less that it gave out in bailout loans... “
--from a 2009 article in Dollars and Sense magazine

Obama’s Steven Rattner-Quadrangle-GM-Auto Industry Bailout Connection

When the Democratic Obama administration used public funds to bail-out General Motors’ management in 2009, thousands of U.S. automobile industry workers lost their jobs and some of their previously-negotiated benefits; and the average wages for post-2010 newly-hired U.S. automobile industry workers were drastically cut.

Yet if the U.S. automobile industry had just been nationalized by the Democratic Obama administration in 2009 and placed under democratic worker and community control on a non-profit basis, jobs for all UAW workers without any loss in benefits could have been saved or created by the U.S. federal government--without using billions of dollars of U.S. government to purchase stock in the still financially unprofitable, “too big to fail” General Motors transnational corporation of the GM executives and the Wall Street firms and billionaires that still control the remaining shares of GM stock.

One reason Obama failed to nationalize GM and the other financially bankrupt U.S. automobile corporations in 2009 might because he relied on a multi-millionaire Wall Street financier and major Democratic Party campaign contributor named Steven Rattner to formulate his administration’s policy on restructuring the U.S. automobile industry-- instead of just allowing UAW members and the people who lived in communities in which GM operated factories to democratically determine how firms like GM should be restructured.

And, coincidentally, besides arranging the bail-out of GM management in 2009, former Quadrangle and current Willets Advisers executive Rattner has been busy both managing the multi-billion dollar fortune of the Republican Mayor of New York City, Michael Bloomberg, and apparently involved in a Quadrangle kickback/pension fund scandal that violated both Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] regulations and New York State laws in recent years.

Obama's Illinois State Senate Career and Robert Putnam-CIA Connection

“…Obama's willingness to hear out insurers and their lobbyists is revealing given the posture he strikes today on the presidential campaign trail - that lobbyists, insurance companies, and other big-industry special interests have an outsized and polluting influence on policy-making in Washington…And yet while serving in Illinois, Obama was willing to accept campaign contributions from lobbyists. Obama's state Senate campaign committee accepted contributions from insurance companies and their lobbyists - including $1,000 from the Professional Independent Insurance Agents PAC in June 2003, and $1,000 from the Illinois Insurance PAC in December 2003 - while the Health Care Justice Act was wending its way through the Illinois General Assembly. Obama also collected money from the insurance industry and its lobbyists for his successful US Senate campaign in 2004….”

--from a September 23, 2007 Boston Globe article

“Graduating from Swarthmore…in 1963, Robert Putnam went on to study at Balliol College, Oxford…He then went to Yale to do graduate work….Following graduation, he joined the University of Michigan faculty, becoming a full professor of political science in 1975. In 1979, Robert Putnam moved to Harvard as a professor of government and subsequently served as department chair from 1984 to 1988. In 1989, he was appointed dean of the Kennedy School of Government and Don K. Price Professor of Politics. He is now the Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University…Robert Putnam has served on a variety of bodies including the staff of the National Security Council. He…is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission…Robert Putnam is currently President of the American Political Science Association (2001 – 2002). He is an occasional consultant to the Department of State, the Central Intelligence Agency and The World Bank….”
--from the www.infed.com website

Obama’s Illinois State Senate Career and Robert Putnam-CIA Connection

Unlike the lobbyists of U.S. health insurance corporations and U.S. drug companies, most U.S. anti-war activists want to see a Single-Payer and Universal Medicare for All—similar to Canada’s health care system-- or a free health care system established in the United States. And most U.S. anti-war activists want to see the Central Intelligence Agency abolished.

Yet between 2009 and 2012, the Democratic Obama Administration failed to establish a Single-Payer and Universal Medicare for All—similar to Canada’s health care system--or a free health care system in the United States. Nor did the Democratic Obama Administration abolish the Central Intelligence Agency between 2009 and 2012.

One reason might be because 2012 Democratic presidential candidate Obama both accepted campaign contributions from insurance companies and their lobbyists and participated in an elite forum, the Saguaro Seminar, that was run by a Central Intelligence Agency Consultant named Robert Putnam when Obama was a member of the Illinois State Senate.

In his 2010 book The Promise: President Obama, Year One, Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter described Obama’s pre-White House career as an Illinois state senator in the following way:

“…As early as 1991, before the publication of his book, he [Obama] confided to his future brother-in-law, Craig Robinson, that he might want to run for president someday…To get elected to the Illinois State Senate in 1996 he [Obama] challenged the petitions of the incumbent, Alice Palmer, and…forced her and the other candidates off the ballot, allowing him to run unopposed. In Springfield [Illinois]…even the Republicans warmed to him over time, partly through poker and golf. His reception in Chicago’s Black community was harsher. The thrashing he received in a 2000 primary campaign against incumbent congressman Bobby Rush made him humbler.

“Only in the last 2 of his 8 years as a state senator…did he win passage of meaningful legislation…He won a reputation as a…legislation who would compromise, and compromise again…In 1997…Harvard’s Robert Putnam…invited Obama to participate in the Saguaro Seminar, an elite forum…He [Obama] bought a mansion in Chicago with the proceeds of book sales…When reporters went looking for his papers from his years in the Illinois State Senate they found that his schedules had been lost, destroyed, or…never kept in the first place…”

 

Obama's MacArthur Foundation-Sidley Austin-Commission on Presidential Debates-Minow Family Connection

“Martha Minow is Dean and Jeremiah Smith, Jr. Professor of Law at Harvard Law School,… Ms. Minow is Vice-Chair of the board of the Legal Services Corporation, a… government-sponsored organization...She previously chaired the board of directors for the Revson Foundation and served on the boards of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, the W.T. Grant Foundation, and the American Bar Foundation. She currently serves on the Covenant Foundation and Facing History and Ourselves….Ms. Minow is a member of the Audit Committee and the Institutional Policy Committee of the Foundation.”

--from the MacArthur Foundation website

“Sidley’s Government Strategies group works at the crossroads of law and policy, helping clients develop and implement strategies which protect and further their business interests….Sidley represents an array of clients on matters relating to public policy, including regulatory, legislative and oversight/investigations matters involving the U.S. Congress, federal agencies and other institutions that shape law and policy…. Our government strategies team works…with Sidley’s related practices to leverage the firm’s synergies and resources to further our clients’ interests in sectors ranging from the life sciences, to energy, the environment, communications, technology, financial services and international trade….Led by former U.S. Congressman Rick Boucher, with strong assistance from partner Daron Watts…our practice includes lawyers and professionals who work with key legislators and executive branch officials who have a direct influence on policies of interest to our clients. A number of our team members have held senior positions in government…For any particular client need, Sidley utilizes a…team of lawyers…that includes several of our former government officials:

“A 14 term U.S. Congressman (who served for more than 25 years on the U.S. House of Representatives Committees on Energy & Commerce and the Judiciary); a former long time Health Policy Director for a senior Senate Finance and HELP Committee member;  a former Senior Counsel to the House Financial Services Committee; the Acting General Counsel for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); the Acting Chief Counsel of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA);the Acting U.S. Attorney General; four Associate White House counsels; the General Counsel of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA); the deputy Associate Administrator for Congressional Relations of the EPA; the General Counsel of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB); and the Legislative Counsel and Parliamentarian to the House Energy & Commerce Committee.

“Whether a client’s need requires knowledge of…telecommunications,…financial services, or trade policy—or knowledge of the individuals who will mold a particular Congressional or agency action—Sidley possesses full service capabilities to assist.”

--from the Sidley Austin Corporate Law Firm website

“Newton Norman Minow (born January 17, 1926) is an American attorney and former Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. .. He is Senior Counsel in the Chicago headquartered law firm of Sidley Austin LLP (formerly Sidley and Austin prior to a merger with Brown & Wood), a large international law firm with multiple areas of expertise, including telecommunications related law….Minow has sat on the Board of Directors at Foote, Cone & Belding Communications Inc.; Tribune Co.; Manpower, Inc.; AON Corp.; CBS, and Sara Lee Corporation. He has been Chairman of the Board at RAND Corporation. ..He is a life trustee of Northwestern University and the University of Notre Dame. He…is a vice-chairman of the Commission on Presidential Debates…”
--from Wikipedia website 

Obama’s MacArthur Foundation-Sidley Austin-Commission on Presidential Debates--Minow Family Connection

Most people in the United States don’t think it’s democratic for the alternative third party candidates who aren’t either Democrats or Republican presidential candidates to be excluded from the Commission on Presidential Debates’ televised presidential candidate debates in 2012.

And most people in the United States don’t think it’s ethical or democratic for the Chicago-based Sidley Austin corporate law firm to attempt to gain special consideration for its corporate clients from U.S. government regulatory agencies and Congress by apparently hiring former U.S. government officials as law firm partners to represent the special interests of Sidley Austin’s corporate clients before U.S. government agencies and Congress.

Yet the tax-exempt, multi-billion dollar MacArthur Foundation has apparently not been eager to provide much grant money to many anti-war grassroots critics of either the undemocratic way the Commission on Presidential Debates’ rigs the U.S. presidential election process or the unethical way that the Sidley Austin corporate law firm apparently hires former U.S. government officials to represent the special corporate interests of its clients before U.S. government agencies and the U.S. Congress.

One reason might be because 2012 Democratic Presidential Candidate Obama, himself, apparently used to work for the Sidley Austin corporate law firm of MacArthur Foundation board member Martha Minow's father: former FCC Chairman and Commission on Presidential Debates Vice-chairman Newton Minow.

As Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter recalled in his 2010 book The Promise: President Obama, Year One:

“…One of his professors, Martha Minow, now the [Harvard] Law school dean…recommended him [Obama] for a job as a summer associate to her father, Newton Minow, a senior partner at the Chicago firm of Sidley Austin. That’s where Barack met Michelle [Robinson Obama], who was his supervisor at the firm…”

  The same book also noted that Obama’s Harvard Law School “classmate Julius Genachowski, [is] now the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission…” So it’s also not too likely that the FCC is going to criticize former FCC Chairman Minow’s Commission on Presidential Debates for violating any FCC “fairness” doctrine by excluding third party candidates like Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein, for example, from its 2012 televised presidential debates on the public television airwaves.

Hawaii's `Non-Profit' Punahou School Assets Increased By $28 Million After Obama's Inauguration

In 2009 funding for the public school system in Hawaii was decreased by around $468 million. Yet between July 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011 the total net assets of the “non-profit” and tax-exempt elite, private prep school in Hawaii from which Democratic President Obama graduated in 1979--the Punahou School--increased from over $288 million to over $316 million, according to its Form 990 financial filing for 2011.

The Punahou School claims to be a private educational institution that is run on a “non-profit” basis. Yet between July 1, 2010 and June 30, 2011, the total revenues earned by the Punahou School exceeded its total expenses by over $16 million. In addition to collecting over $73 million in tuition and fees from the parents of its preppie students, the Punahou School also collected over $9.5 million in investment income from its endowment funds’ and Ltd. Partnership stock portfolio between 2010 and 2011, as well as over $17 million from the tax-deductible contributions and gifts which it received.
And, coincidentally, the annual salaries received by officials in the “non-profit” Punahou School private prep school administration since Obama’s inauguration were significantly higher than the annual salaries received by most U.S. public school teachers between 2009 and 2012. Punahou School President James Scott was paid an annual salary of $433,00, the Punahou vice-president and treasurer was paid an annual salary of $276,00 and the principal of the Punahou School’s Academy division was paid an annual salary of $298,000 between July 2010 and June 30, 2011.

Obama's Hawaiian Punahou Prep School Connection

“Hawaii's public schools are in crisis.

“Simply put, there isn't enough money to keep them open full-time. With…a $468 million budget cut to Hawaii's Department of Education, in September the Hawaii State Teachers Association (HSTA) voted to accept a two-year contract that includes 17 furlough days for both the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 academic years….The cuts have been scheduled for regular school days, reducing Hawaii's public instruction from 180 days to 163, the fewest in the nation and ten days less than the state second from the bottom, North Dakota….

“There is no shortage of frustration to go around, particularly among parents of public school children. One such parent is Jack Yatsko,…the father of fifth and eighth grade daughters on the island of Kauai….Of the 34 furlough days planned this year and next, Yatsko said, `this is educational neglect.’…

“…The latest two-year contract…reduces...pay by nearly 8 percent as it slashes instructional days for students…Governor Lingle… imposed 14 percent budget cuts on the Department of Education…Hawaii's fourth and eighth graders' test scores lag behind in National Assessment of Educational Progress rankings.

“Hawaii's state employee furloughs haven't been limited to educators and school employees. One furloughed state employee is Raymond Catania...Catania, who has two teenage daughters, one a sophomore at Kauai High School, pulls no punches.
"`By forcing teachers to take furloughs, it hits our children. Rich families can send their kids to Punahou (where Obama studied) or other private schools, but the working class can't afford that so our kids get cheated.’ …Catania said that with Hawaii's huge military presence, it is painful to see military expenditures increase, while the host state suffers what he considers disproportionate cuts to education and human services….

"On Oahu, Kyle Kajihiro, program director for the American Friends Service Committee…sees the current economic crisis as a pretext to cut programs for political or ideological reasons….

"I have to question why the defense budget keeps going up and up and schools keep getting cut. It's unconscionable." Citing the National Priorities Project, Kajihiro points out that since 2001 Hawaii residents have paid a $3 billion share of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "For that same money, Hawaii could have funded 54,718 elementary school teachers for a year," he said. Hawaii has around 13,000 public school teachers.”

--from a November 6, 2009 Truthout article by Jon Letman

“Aloha! My name is Jim Scott, president of Punahou School in Honolulu, Hawai‘i. Punahou School…is the largest single-campus private school in America with 3,750 students. All of our students go on to college, with over 90 percent coming to the mainland for college…I personally benefited from financial aid as a former Punahou student; so did President Obama, Punahou Class of ’79, who attended Punahou from fifth through twelfth grades…Today 40 percent of the children in Honolulu attend a private school…”

--from Punahou Prep School President James Scott’s Sept. 28, 2011 speech at the Office of Non-public Education’s Private School Leadership Conference

Obama’s Hawaiian Punahou Prep School Connection

Most working-class people in the United States attend or graduated from underfunded U.S. public school system schools—like the public schools of Hawaii. But some U.S. public officials, like Barack Obama, are preppie jocks who graduated from exclusive private schools like Hawaii’s Punahou School—which currently undemocratically requires the parents of most of its students in Hawaii to cough up over $17,000 to have their kids sit in a Punahou School classroom. Perhaps that’s one reason why the Democratic Obama administration failed to produce much change in the United States that created more affluence and more qualilty education for U.S. working-class families and public school students between 2009 and 2012? As Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter noted in his 2010 book The Promise: President Obama, Year One:

“…Some black Chicagoans found Obama too `bourgeois’ for their tastes—too middle-class…The rap that Obama lacked a common touch reappeared in…[the 2008] campaign…The…reason Hillary Clinton hung on so long in the [2008] primaries was Obama’s weakness among white working-class voters…Obama…reminds them that a class of…elites had left them behind…As one of the…kids at the elite Punahou School in Honolulu, he [Obama] was a…jock…”

Obama's War In Afghanistan and Former CIA Official (and Saban Center Senior Fellow) Bruce Riedel

“Martin Indyk, an Australian national and naturalized US citizen was the former deputy director of research at the American Israel Public Affairs Policy Committee [AIPAC]…Indyk would later go on to found the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. The center was initially funded by a $13 million grant from Israeli dual citizen and television magnate Haim Saban, famously quoted by the New York Times as saying, `I’m a one-issue guy and my issue is Israel.’…By targeting and taking over Middle East policy at Brookings in 2002, Saban and Indyk were able to `leapfrog’ AIPAC messaging…to first place…The takeover of Brookings Middle East policy by an AIPAC operative and Israeli-American businessman represents an evolution in AIPAC influence over think tanks…”

--from Foreign Agents: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee from the 1963 Fulbright Hearings to the 2005 Espionage Scandal by Grant F. Smith

“Bruce Riedel is a senior fellow in the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution. He retired in 2006 after 30 years service at the Central Intelligence Agency including postings overseas in the Middle East and Europe. Riedel was a senior advisor on South Asia and the Middle East to the last four presidents of the United States in the staff of the National Security Council at the White House….He was also deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Near East and South Asia at the Pentagon and a senior advisor at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in Brussels. In January 2009, President Barack Obama asked him to chair a review of American policy towards Afghanistan and Pakistan, the results of which the president announced in a speech on March 27, 2009….In December 2011, Prime Minister David Cameron asked him to advise the United Kingdom’s National Security Council on Pakistan…He is a graduate of Brown (BA), Harvard (MA) and the Royal College of Defense Studies in London.”

--from the Brookings Institution website

“Media mogul Haim Saban has donated $1 million to super PACs supporting President Barack Obama and Democratic congressional candidates, according to a report filed late Friday with the Federal Election Commission.

“Saban donated the money on June 25th to Unity PAC, a fundraising committee created to raise cash for Priorities USA, (Senate) Majority PAC, House Majority PAC…”

--from the July 13, 2012 issue of Hollywood Reporter

Obama’s War In Afghanistan and Former CIA Official (and Saban Center Senior Fellow) Bruce Riedel

Most U.S. anti-war activists--as well as most people in the United States—have, for many years, wanted all U.S. military forces to be withdrawn from foreign countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan. Yet in 2009, President Obama ordered 40,000 additional U.S. troops to put their boots on the ground in Afghanistan and escalated U.S. aerial and drone attacks in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. And in 2012 there are still 68,000 U.S. troops with their boots on the ground in Afghanistan and still frequent U.S. aerial and drone attacks in both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

One reason might be because in 2007 a 30-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency named Bruce Reidel--who’s currently a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy that AIPAC’s former deputy director of research founded--apparently began advising 2012 Democratic presidential candidate Obama to escalate U.S. military intervention in Afghanistan and Pakistan during his first term as U.S. president. As Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter recalled in his 2010 book The Promise: President Obama, Year One:

“On January 30 [2009], ten days after being sworn in, Obama called Bruce Riedel at home. Riedel, a former CIA official, had begun advising the Obama campaign in 2007. Now the president asked him to conduct a review of…U.S. military efforts in Afghanistan…
“…[Former Defense Secretary] Gates, [Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton, and the rest of the national security team agreed that the 12,000 additional troops authorized by Bush in December wouldn’t be enough…in Afghanistan…So on February 17 [2009] after a pair of meetings in the Situation Room, Obama approved…17,000 more troops…Upon arriving at the NATO summit in Strasbourg on March 27 [2009], he added 4,000 more…The autumn of 2009 was when Afghanistan became Obama’s war…He decided to send 40,000 more troops, bringing the total commitment to around 100,000…

“…The war had to be paid for. In April [2009] Obama asked Congress for an $83 billion supplemental appropriation for Afghanistan and Pakistan…On May 4 [2009] a B-1 bomber drooped a two-thousand pound bomb on a building in the Afghan city of Farah, killing dozens of civilians…

“…Obama moved toward the heavier use of pilotless Predator drones in…Afghanistan, and increasingly across the unmarked border into Pakistan…The drones often killed bystanders…By mid-2009 the air force had fewer pilots flying airplanes than remotely controlling the drones from the ground…The Predators nailed several `high=value terorist targets’ in Obama’s first year…Liberals who assumed that in his heart Obama was for withdrawal were mistaken…He had promised repeatedly during the 2008 campaign that he would step up U.S. efforts in Afghanistan and now he was doing so…
“On August 17 [2009] Obama…addressed the Veterans of Foreign Wars…Significantly he called Afghanistan `a war of necessity.’…`You know what?’ Obama said. `We gotta pay them [Afghan government soliders] more.’ He issued an immediate order for a pay increase, and in December [2009] the Afghan army had its highest recruitment success…Early on, the president eliminated withdrawal as an option…The United States, he concluded, simply couldn’t do without a substantial military presence in the region…

“On the day after the [October 1, 2009] London speech [General] McCrystal was summoned to Copenhagen to meet with Obama…Obama found that he liked McCrystal personally and thought he had the right approach for completing the mission…On October 29 [2009] Obama…saluted as the flag-draped coffins containing 18 servicemen killed in Afghanistan were removed from a cargo plane. They were among the 55 dead in Afghanistan in October [2009], the bloodiest month for Americans since the war began in 2001…The next day he asked the generals for a `surge’ similar to the one [General and CIA Director] Petraeus had executed in Iraq…It was time to see if it could be applied in Afghanistan…

“If Obama’s escalation ended in more failure, he couldn’t claim that he wasn’t warned…[In November 2009] the president gave preliminary approval to the plan…which called for 40,000 more troops to be sent to Afghanistan over 21 months…”

 

50th Anniversary of 1962 October Surprise-Cuban Missile Crisis War Scare

To mark the 50th anniversary of the Democratic Kennedy Administration's 1962 mid-term election campaigh's "October Surprise"--Cuban Missile Crisis War Scare, U.S. anti-war readers might be interested in checking out the following 1988 Turner Broadcasting Network documentary that's posted on youtube:

Obama's Speechwriters and 9/11 Commission-John Kerry-Digital Promise-Foundation Connections

“Ben Rhodes has been the Deputy National Security Adviser for strategic communications since September 2009. Previously, he served as President Obama's foreign policy speechwriter.

“Prior to joining the Obama campaign, Ben worked as Special Assistant to…Lee H. Hamilton…He worked closely with…Hamilton through his tenure as Vice-Chair of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission)…He is the author, with Hamilton and Thomas H. Kean, of Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission.”

--from the Partnership for a Secure America website

“…Jon Favreau, whose grandfather, Robert, was a New Hampshire state legislator and whose uncle, Peter, is a former Manchester police chief, has served as Obama's speechwriter since November 2004…Favreau started in politics by working as a college intern in Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry's Washington office in 2002. Upon graduation, he joined Kerry's 2004 White House campaign; within a few months he was promoted to deputy speechwriter…Hired as Obama's lone speechwriter that November, Jon began co-writing rhetoric that four years later would help propel Obama into the Oval Office…”

--from the January 24, 2012 issue of the UnionLeader.com website

“The list of White House salaries…shows that Jon Favreau, President Barack Obama’s speechwriter, is one of the top earners at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave….Favreau’s $172,000 salary puts him right up there with the members of Obama’s inner circle…The only person earning more is Dr. David E. Marcozzi, the director of public health policy, who is paid $192,934 a year….While in college, Favreau was an intern in Sen. John F. Kerry’s Washington office. After graduation, he went to work on Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign as a speechwriter.
“After Kerry’s defeat, Favreau found himself in Washington without a job…[Robert] Gibbs, who was then the communications director in Obama’s senatorial office, recommended that Obama hire Favreau as a speechwriter….Obama offered him the job.

“Favreau is not the only Obama campaign speechwriter who found work at the White House.
“Ben Rhodes is earning $102,000 a year as deputy director of speechwriting. Sarah K. Hurwitz earns $85,000 per year as a senior presidential speechwriter.

“And Adam P. Frankel earns $65,000 per year as a senior presidential speechwriter.

“Like Favreau, Frankel worked on the Kerry presidential campaign as a speechwriter….”

--from a July 6, 2009 News.Muckety.com article

“…With an initial Board of Directors recommended in part by Members of Congress and appointed by Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Digital Promise was formally launched by President Barack Obama in September 2011 with startup support from the U.S. Department of Education, Carnegie Corporation of New York, William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.”

--from the Digital Promise website

“Adam Frankel is Executive Director of Digital Promise. Previously, Adam was Special Assistant to the President and Senior Speechwriter for President Obama…”

--from the Digital Promise website

Obama’s Speechwriters and 9/11 Commission-John Kerry-Digital Promise-Foundation Connections

Most U.S. grassroots anti-war activists and anti-war alternative journalists whose anti-war work is not being subsidized by grants from various U.S. power elite foundations have questioned the accuracy of the 9/11 Commission’s official version of what actually happened on September 11, 2001 in Downtown Manhattan. Yet between 2009 and 2012 the Democratic Obama administration has not been eager to order a new and fuller independent investigation of the September 11, 2001 events.

One reason might be that President Obama’s foreign policy speechwriter and White House Deputy National Security Adviser for Strategic Communications in recent years, Ben Rhodes, previously worked as a Special Assistant to 9/11 Commission Vice-Chair Lee Hamilton and was the author, with Hamilton and 9/11 Commission Chair Thomas Kean of the “inside story of the 9/11 Commission.”

Other Obama White House speechwriters in recent years have included former speechwriters for the defeated 2004 Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry and the current executive director of the Obama-launched and Carnegie Corporation of New York and Gates Foundation-subsidized Digital Promise organization.

In his 2010 book, The Promise: President Obama, Year One, Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter described the role that 2012 Democratic presidential candidate Obama’s speechwriters played in putting together the speech he read when was first inaugurated as the U.S. president in January 2009:

“…Several Obama speechwriters…had worked on the Inaugural Address…Adam Frankel…was writing speeches for a man whose portrait he though would one day likely appear on U.S. currency…Obama’s approach to speechwriting was to begin the process by speaking aloud at length, while [Jon] Favreau or others took notes…Favreau worked on a couple of drafts on his laptop at Starbucks, with help from Ben Rhodes and…Adam Frankel and Sarah Hurwitz. He sent it to [David] Axelrod and Obama after Christmas [in 2008]…Over the weekend of January 10-11 [2008] Obama holed up in the Hay-Adams Hotel where he rewrote more than half the text…”

  But the same book also noted that “Obama had carefully choreographed his “Inauguration” and “he selected Rick Warren, pastor of the immense Saddleback Church in Orange County, California, to handle the invocation, a gesture to conservative evangelicals;” although “Warren’s selection was controversial because of some disparaging comments he had made about homosexuals…”

Obama Team Was Briefed By George W. Bush's Administration

“Former president George W. Bush is earning major money on the speaking circuit in his post-presidential life....Bush has made an estimated $15 million since leaving the White House. The former president reportedly boasts a speaking fee between $100,000 and $150,000…”

--from a May 20, 2011 huffingtonpost.com article

Obama Team Was Briefed By George W. Bush’s Administration

Most grassroots U.S. anti-war activists believe that former U.S. President George W. Bush, former U.S. Vice-President Cheney and former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair should be brought to trial on war crimes allegations as a result of their role in launching the 20003 US/UK/Nato attack on people in Iraq. Yet between 2009 and 2012 former U.S. President George W. Bush has apparently been allowed to earn a lot of money from his post-White House career book contracts and speaking fees, instead of being indicted by the Democratic Obama Administration’s Justice Department for possible war crimes and violation of the Nuremberg Accords.

One reason might be because the Republican Bush Administration apparently briefed the Democratic Obama Administration in a helpful way prior to the January 20, 2009 inauguration of 2012 Democratic presidential candidate Obama. As Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter recalled in his 2010 book The Promise: President Obama, Year One:

“…Obama was grateful for the generous help extended by everyone in the Bush White House from the start of the transition…President Bush made a point of making sure that the Obama team was fully briefed on all national security matters. The result was a series of meetings, the first ever between outgoing and incoming senior officials…”

Obama's Gary Gensler-Goldman Sachs-Commodity Futures Trading Commission (and Jefferson Davis-Slave-owning Family) Connections Revisited

“Less than a year ago, federal markets regulator Gary Gensler could reflect fondly on his association with Wall Street mogul and former politician Jon S. Corzine.

“The two had known each other for years, working together at Goldman Sachs and then in Congress, where Corzine was a senator and Gensler was a Senate aide. Invited by Corzine last November to speak at Princeton University about financial regulation, Gensler reminisced about their days crafting legislation and got in a friendly jab about Corzine’s upcoming wedding.
“`Jon, your life has changed a lot since our days together on a trading floor if this is your idea of a bachelor party,’ Gensler said.

“Now, the relationship has taken on an entirely different cast. Gensler, as chief of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), is one of the key regulators probing the brokerage firm MF Global that Corzine led into bankruptcy…”

--from the November 4, 2011 issue of The Washington Post

“President Obama should replace Gary Gensler as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission chairman with someone who will enforce speculation limits on Wall Street oil and gas traders, Sen. Bernie Sanders said in a letter sent to the White House on Monday. Sanders said Wall Street speculators were responsible for a spike in crude oil prices that, in turn, artificially drove up gasoline prices this spring to a nationwide average of about $4 a gallon for regular unleaded. Under Gensler, the commission has failed to enforce a provision in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which required rules to be implemented by no later than January 17, 2011, to eliminate, prevent, or diminish excessive oil speculation.

“`In blatant disregard of the law, Chairman Gensler has allowed oil and gasoline prices to be dictated by Wall Street speculators instead of supply-and-demand fundamentals,’ Sanders wrote to the president. `As a result, the American people continue to pay much higher prices for gasoline than they should.
"`At a time when gasoline prices have been a serious problem for our nation's economy and especially for people who must drive long distances to and from work in rural states like Vermont, the commission's refusal to enforce the law is inexcusable,’ the senator added.

"Gensler's term expired in April but he continues to serve as chairman.

“Sanders on March 5, 2012 sent a letter to Gensler and other commissioners urging them to stop flouting the law that required regulators to adopt tough new trading limits. The letter was signed by 24 other senators and 47 members of the House of Representatives….”

--from a June 4, 2012 press release of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont’s office

Obama’s Gary Gensler-Goldman Sachs-Commodity Futures Trading Commission (and Jefferson Davis-Slave-owning Family) Connections Revisited

Between 2009 and 2012 the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has apparently allowed Wall Street speculators to artificially drive up gasoline prices to nearly $4 a gallon in recent months. One reason might be because the head of the Democratic Obama Administration’s Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Gary Gensler, worked for many years as a Goldman Sachs executive on Wall Street before being appointed by Obama to his current public office. As Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter noted in his 2010 book The Promise: President Obama, Year One:

“…Gary Gensler, the new head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission…had…worked at Goldman Sachs and he had worked on the Obama campaign…”

  Coincidentally, in the same book, Alter also observed that “Obama is not himself a descendant of American slaves, but…a descendant of African goatherds on one side and Jefferson Davis on the other.” In addition, in its March 2, 2007 issue, the Baltimore Sun reported the following:

“According to the research, one of Obama's great-great-great-great grandfathers, George Washington Overall, owned two slaves who were recorded in the 1850 census in Nelson County, Ky. The same records show that one of Obama's great-great-great-great-great-grandmothers, Mary Duvall, also owned two slaves….The records show that Overall, then 30, owned a 15-year-old black female and a 25-year-old black male, while Mary Duvall, his mother-in-law, owned a 60-year-old black man and a 58-year-old black woman. (Slaves are listed in the 1850 census by owner, age, "sex," and "colour," not by name.)”

Black Male Worker `Seasonally Adjusted' Unemployment Rate Still 14.2 Percent in September 2012

The official “seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Black male workers over 20 years-of-age in the United States was still 14.2 percent in September 2012; while the number of Black male workers over 20 years-of-age with jobs decreased by 14,000 (from 7,049,000 to 7,035,000) between August and September 2012, according to the recently released Bureau of Labor Statistics data. In addition, between August and September 2012, the number of Black male workers over 20 years-of-age in the U.S. labor force decreased by 26,000 (from 8,228,000 to 8,202,000); while the number of Black female workers over 20 years-of-age in the U.S. labor force decreased by 73,000 (from 9,455,000 to 9,382,000) during the same period.

The official “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Black female workers over 20 years-of-age was still 10.9 percent in September 2012; while the unemployment rate for Black youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age was still 36.7 percent during that same month. For all Black workers in the United States (male, female and youth), the official unemployment rate was still 13.4 percent in September 2012; and the total number of all Black workers in the U.S. labor force decreased by 34,000 (from 18,379,000 to 18,345,000) between August and September 2012.

The official “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age was still 21.2 percent in September 2012; while the number of white youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age in the U.S. labor force decreased by 21,000 (from 4,609,000 to 4,588,000) between August and September 2012. The official “seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all white workers in the United States (male, female and youth) decreased from 7.9 percent in September 2011 to 7 percent in September 2012, as the total number of white workers in the U.S. labor force decreased by 1,039,000 (from 124,701,000 to 123,662,000) during the past year.

The official “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Latino youth between 16 and 19 years-of-age was still 27.8 percent in September 2012; while the number of Latino youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age with jobs decreased by 50,000 (from 861,000 to 811,000), according to the “not seasonally adjusted” data. According to the “seasonally adjusted” data, the official jobless rate for all Latino workers in the United States (male, female and youth) was still 9.9 percent in September 2012; while the “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Latino female workers over 20 years-of-age was 9.8 percent during that same month. The “not seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for Latino male workers over 20 years-of-age was 7.6 percent in September 2012; while the “not seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for Asian-American workers in the United States was 4.8 percent during that same month.

The official “seasonally adjusted” unemployment rate for all male workers in the United States over 16 years-of-age was still 8 percent in September 2012; while the official “seasonally adjusted” jobless rate for all female workers in the United States over 16 years-of-age was 7 percent during that same month. And the official unemployment rate for all youths between 16 and 19 years-of-age in the United States was still 23.7 percent in September 2012.

According to the October 5, 2012 Bureau of Labor Statistics press release:

“…Employment increased in health care and in transportation and warehousing but changed little in most other major industries…The number of long-term unemployed (those jobless for 27 weeks or more) was little changed at 4.8 million and accounted for 40.1 percent of the unemployed…The number of persons employed part time for economic reasons (sometimes referred to as involuntary part-time workers) rose from 8.0 million in August to 8.6 million in September. These individuals were working part time because their hours had been cut back or because they were unable to find a full-time job…

“In September, 2.5 million persons were marginally attached to the labor force, essentially unchanged from a year earlier…These individuals were not in the labor force, wanted and were available for work, and had looked for a job sometime in the prior 12 months. They were not counted as unemployed because they had not searched for work in the 4 weeks preceding the survey…Among the marginally attached, there were 802,000 discouraged workers in September…Discouraged workers are persons not currently looking for work because they believe no jobs are available for them…

“Manufacturing employment edged down in September (-16,000)…In September, job losses occurred in computer and electronic products (-6,000) and in printing and related activities (-3,000).

“Employment in other major industries, including mining and logging, construction, wholesale trade, retail trade, information, professional and business services, leisure and hospitality, and government, showed little change over the month…”

 

Harvard University and Harvard Law School's Obama Administration

“Harvard’s endowment posted a 21.4 percent gain for fiscal year 2011, bringing the endowment’s value up to $32 billion, the University announced Thursday in the annual report of the Harvard Management Company….The increase from $27.4 billion at the close of the 2010 fiscal year is also nearly double the 11 percent rate of growth that Harvard Management Company posted that year….The increase in liquidity, or the ability to convert investments into cash, will allow Harvard Management Company to take advantage of sub-market priced securities…As a part of developing its internal investment team, Harvard Management Company is devoting its resources to investigating new opportunities abroad, especially in China…During the financial crisis of 2008, Harvard’s endowment suffered heavy losses, plummeting by nearly 30 percent to $22.6 billion….While Harvard Management Company invests the money, the Harvard Corporation, the University’s highest governing body, determines the endowment payout rate…”

--from the Sept. 22, 2011 issue of The Harvard Crimson

“…Harvard Law School alumni have filled the halls of the U.S. government since Barack Obama's '91 election as the…President…in November 2008. In putting together his administration, Obama selected more than 70 Harvard Law School alumni and faculty who will assist him in crafting…policy in areas as diverse as the economy, the environment, and the military.”

-- from an August 03, 2009 article on the Harvard Law School website

Harvard University and Harvard Law School’s Obama Administration

Since a Harvard Law School graduate named Barack Obama was inaugurated in January 2009, not much progress in restoring economic prosperity for most U.S. working-class and middle-class people at home, protecting the earth from environmental destruction by transnational corporations (like BP) or reducing foreign civilian and U.S. military casualties in countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan has been achieved. Yet between 2009 and 2012 the value of the domestic and foreign corporate stocks, bonds and hedge fund investments contained in the tax exempt and “non-profit” Harvard University/Harvard Management Conpany endowment’s stock portfolio increased from $22.6 billion to over $30 billion.

One reason could be because the more than 70 Harvard Law School-trained alumni or Harvard Law School professors that Obama recruited from the elite Ivy League law school classrooms of Cambridge, Massachusetts to help him craft his administration's economic, environmental and military policy probably spent most of their time at Harvard Law School with their heads just stuck inside corporate law books, instead of actually working for radical democratic change within U.S. society. In 2009, for example, executive positions in the Democratic Obama Administration were occupied by Harvard Law School-trained alumni or Harvard Law School professors like the following people:
1. Preeta Bansal ’89 General counsel and senior policy adviser, Office of Management and Budget;

2. Jeremy B. Bash ’98 Chief of staff for CIA Director Leon Panetta;

3. Jacqueline A. Berrien ’86 Chair, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission;

4. Charles Blanchard ’85 General counsel, Department of the U.S. Air Force;

5. Jason E. Bordoff ’04 Associate director for climate change at the Council on Environmental Quality;

6. William Burke-White '02 Office of Foreign Policy Planning, State Department;

7. Cassandra Q. Butts '91 Senior Advisor in the Office of the Chief Executive Officer at the Millennium Challenge Corporation;

8. Nancy-Ann Min DeParle ’83 Director, White House Office for Health Reform;

9. Norman L. Eisen ’91 Special counsel for ethics and government reform, Office of the White House Counsel;

10. Chai R. Feldblum ’85 Commissioner, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission;

11. Michael Froman ’91 Deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for international economic affairs;

12. Jocelyn Frye ‘88 Deputy assistant to the president for domestic policy and director of policy and projects for the first lady;

13. Juan Garcia ’92 Assistant secretary of the Navy for Manpower and Reserve Affairs, in the Department of Defense
14. Julius Genachowski ’91 Chairman, Federal Communications Commission;

15. Ian H. Gershengorn ’93 Deputy assistant attorney general, Department of Justice;

16. Daniel Gordon '86 Administrator, Office of Federal Policy Procurement;

17. Joshua Gotbaum '78 head of U.S. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation;

18. Michael J. Gottlieb ’03 Associate counsel, Office of the White House Counsel;

19. Danielle C. Gray ’03 Associate counsel, Office of the White House Counsel;

20. William Gunn ’86 General counsel of the Department of Veterans Affairs
;
21. Nicole Y. Lamb-Hale ’91 Deputy general counsel of the Department of Commerce’s Office of General Counsel;

22. Scott Blake Harris ’76 General counsel, Department of Energy;

23. Emily Hewitt ’78 Chief judge, U.S. Court of Federal Claims;
24. Ketanji Jackson ’96 Member, U.S. Sentencing Commission;
25. Helen Kanovsky ’76 General counsel, Department of Housing and Urban Development;

26. Juliette Kayyem ’95 Assistant secretary for intergovernmental programs, Department of Homeland Security;

27. Ron Klain ’87 Chief of staff to the Vice President;

28. Harold Hongju Koh ’80 Legal adviser, Department of State;

29. David Kris ’91 Assistant attorney general, head of National Security Division, Department of Justice
;
30. Marisa Lago '82 Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for International Markets and Development
31. Michael E. Leiter ’00 Director, National Counterterrorism Center;

32. Stuart A. Levey ’89 Undersecretary of the Treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence;

33. John Levi '72 LL.M. '73 Board member, Legal Services Corporation;

34. Wilma Lewis ’81 Assistant secretary for Land and Mineral Management at the Department of the Interior;

35. Chris Lu ’91 White House Cabinet secretary;

36. Bruce E. MacDonald LL.M. ’92 Overseer of military commissions;

37. Robert Malley '90 Envoy to Egypt and Syria;

38. Raymond Mabus ’76 Secretary, U.S. Navy;

39. Demetrios Marantis ’93 Deputy U.S. trade representative;

40. Tim Massad ’84 Chief counsel of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Troubled Asset Relief Program;

41. Andrew McLaughlin ’94 Deputy chief technology officer for the Obama Administration;

42. George Munoz '77 President's Commission on White House Fellows;

43. Quentin Palfrey ’02 Associate general counsel of the Department of Commerce’s Office of General Counsel;

44. Tom Perez ’87 Assistant attorney general, head of the Civil Rights Division, Department of Justice;

45. Thomas Perrelli ’91 Associate attorney general, Department of Justice;

46. Samantha Power ’99 Senior director for multilateral affairs, National Security Council;

47. Stephen Preston ’83 General counsel Central Intelligence Agency;
48. Blake Roberts ’06 Deputy associate counsel to the president, Office of the White House Counsel;

49. Paul L. Oostburg Sanz '99 General Counsel of the Navy;

50. Edith Ramirez '92 Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission;

51. Paul Sarbanes '60 President's Commission on White House Fellows;

52.. Anne-Marie Slaughter ’85 Director of policy planning, State Department;

53.. Larry Strickling ’76 Assistant secretary for Communications and Information, Department of Commerce;

54.. Todd D. Stern ’77 Special envoy for climate change;

55.. Willard Tom ’79 General Counsel of the Federal Trade Commission

55.. Gloria Valencia-Weber '86 Board member, Legal Services Corporation;

57.. Robert Verchick '89 Deputy associate administrator, Environmental Protection Agency Office of Policy, Economics, and Innovation;

58. Solomon B. Watson IV '76 General Counsel of the Army;

59.. Barry White ’67 Ambassador, Norway;

60.. David Barron ’94 Principal deputy assistant attorney general, Office of Legal Counsel, Department of Justice;

61. Jody L. Freeman LL.M. ’91 S.J.D. ’95 Counselor for energy and climate change, White House Office of Energy and Climate Change;

62.. Elena Kagan ’86 Solicitor general of the United States;

63.. Daniel J. Meltzer ’75 Principal deputy counsel to the president, Office of the White House Counsel;

64.. Dean Martha Minow Member of the board of advisors, Legal Services Corporation;

65.. Cass R. Sunstein ’78 Administrator, Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, Office of Management and Budget; and

66.. Laurence Tribe '66 President's Commission on White House Fellows.

And as Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter observed in his 2010 book The Promise: President Obama, Year One, “eventually a full quarter of Obama appointees would have some connection (as alumni or faculty) to Harvard…” So it’s not surprising that between 2009 and 2012 the Democratic Obama Administration’s government of Harvard people, by Harvard People and for Harvard people was increased the value of Harvard University Inc.’s assets much more than it increased the percentage of U.S. national wealth possessed by most U.S. working-class and middle-class people. Or that, coincidentally, over $400,000 in campaign contributions have been made by Harvard University-affiliated individuals to the 2012 Obama presidential campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics' Open Secrets website..

Yet a U.S. federal government of Harvard people, by Harvard people and for Harvard people is not as democratic a government as “a government of the people, by the people” and “for the people” (to paraphrase Abraham Lincoln).