So I'm thinking about the Republican Veepstakes, and trying to see how many members of the Bush cabinet I can name without a cheat sheet, and I remember this old line of President Nixon's, “every Cabinet should include a future president”. Which thorough the magic of google brought me to this paragraph from a (rather too complimentary?) Nixon obituary reprinted from the Washington Post
The man who said that “every Cabinet should include a future president” deserves large credit for the sumptuousness of so many of his appointments. This was not a leader unnerved to have commanding personalities working for him. Like perhaps none since the New Deal, the Nixon administration brought to prominence dozens of figures who became national fixtures. Mentioning Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, William Simon, Dick Cheney, George Bush, Bob Dole (as Republican national chairman), William Safire, Pat Buchanan and Alexander Haig only scratches the surface.
Nobody is ever going to say that about George W. Bush. How many members of the Bush cabinet can you even name without help? And, now that you've peeked, how many of them (or other top Bush people) look like a future President? I make it about one—Colin Powell, and, while he certainly hasn't trashed it fatally, he hasn't done his reputation much good by his service in this Administration. As for the rest of them, …
On the whole it's a pretty sad lot.
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