CITIBANK | How One Bank Picked The Obama Administration

 

During the second half of 2016 the media went into meltdown with the release of leaked emails from the DNC party. A story that I think a lot of people missed at the time was to do with an email sent October 6, 2008 from Michael Froman, who's currently at the Council on Foreign Relations as a distinguished fellow in D.C., but at the time was an executive at Citigroup, to John Podesta who was then co-chair of President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team. It contained 3 attachments each one detailing lists of potential candidates for Obama's new cabinet.

 

LISTS | Wikileaks - 10/06/2008

Attached are three documents:

• Diversity List.doc | [Download link]

  A list of African American, Latino and Asian American candidates, broken down by Cabinet/Deputy and Under/Assistant/Deputy Assistant level, plus a list of Native American, Arab/Muslim American and Disabled American candidates.

• Women.doc | [Download link]

  While you did not ask for this, I prepared and attached a similar document on women.

• Cabinet Example.doc | [Download link]

  At the risk of being presumptuous, I also scoped out how the Cabinet-level appointments might be put together, probability-weighting the likelihood of appointing a diverse candidate for each position (given one view of the short list) and coming up with a straw man distribution.
  

 

 

This was sent a month before Obama even knew he was going to be president. Since then a large portion of the people who where on those lists did actually make it into the Obamas cabinet. Now don't get me wrong I am all for diversity in all areas of life. Government should be a place filled with people that directly mirror they the type of people they govern. This however seems contrived and forced. Especially coming from an executive at Citibank. Citibank has had the largest government bail out since the 2008 recession.

 

The Most Important WikiLeaks Revelation Isn’t About Hillary Clinton | New Republic - Oct 14, 2016

The cabinet list ended up being almost entirely on the money. It correctly identified Eric Holder for the Justice Department, Janet Napolitano for Homeland Security, Robert Gates for Defense, Rahm Emanuel for chief of staff, Peter Orszag for the Office of Management and Budget, Arne Duncan for Education, Eric Shinseki for Veterans Affairs, Kathleen Sebelius for Health and Human Services, Melody Barnes for the Domestic Policy Council, and more. For the Treasury, three possibilities were on the list: Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, and Timothy Geithner.

 

WikiLeaks emails shows Citigroup’s major role in shaping Obama administration’s cabinet | RT - Oct 14, 2016

Janet Napolitano was listed as the choice for Homeland Security, Rahm Emanuel for chief of staff, Robert Gates for Defense, Eric Holder for the Justice Department or White House Counsel, Susan Rice for United States Ambassador to the UN and Arne Duncan for Education.
Hillary Clinton wasn’t mentioned, but John Kerry was listed for Secretary of State and for the Treasury, three possibilities were on the list: Robert Rubin, Larry Summers, and Timothy Geithner.
Froman had served in the Clinton administration and moved to Citigroup along with Clinton’s Treasury Secretary, Robert Rubin.

 

Forget the FBI cache; the Podesta emails show how America is run | The Guardian - Oct 31, 2016

Read these emails and you understand, with a start, that the people at the top tier of American life all know each other. They are all engaged in promoting one another’s careers, constantly.
Everything blurs into everything else in this world. The state department, the banks, Silicon Valley, the nonprofits, the “Global CEO Advisory Firm” that appears to have solicited donations for the Clinton Foundation. Executives here go from foundation to government to thinktank to startup. There are honors. Venture capital. Foundation grants. Endowed chairs. Advanced degrees. For them the door revolves. The friends all succeed. They break every boundary.
But the One Big Boundary remains. Yes, it’s all supposed to be a meritocracy. But if you aren’t part of this happy, prosperous in-group – if you don’t have John Podesta’s email address – you’re out.

 

Well we all have John Podesta's email now but I still don't feel part of this prosperous in-group.