Longshot presidential candidate may unveil cabinet selections before election

Please be warned in advance, this is a rumor for which I cannot find any independent confirmation. Nevertheless, it’s interesting so I’m writing about it.

Blogger Bob Harris, a supporter of Dennis Kucinich’s struggling presidential campaign, has reported that Kucinich will soon unveil his “projected” cabinet selections, eight months before the first primary and a year-and-a-half before the presidential election.

Harris says he thinks this is a “pretty neat idea,” which he hopes will become a standard for candidates in the future.

At first I thought this was a wacky stunt from a candidate desperate for publicity. The more I think about it, though, this strikes me as a clever but impractical idea.

Candidates are already asked, from time to time, about the kinds of people who would be considered for cabinet posts and/or a running mate. They usually brush aside these questions for fear of appearing presumptuous.

Nevertheless, I suspect many voters would be interested in candidates’ ideas for a cabinet. After all, would-be presidents are frequently asked about the kinds of judicial nominees we can expect if he or she is elected, why not hear about what kind of people he or she would name to be attorney general or secretary of state?

There are, however, a few flaws in this approach. First, some of the potential cabinet members may be rivals for the presidential nomination the candidate is seeking. John Kerry, for example, might be willing to consider John Edwards for attorney general and Carol Mosley Braun for the Department of Education, but he’d have a tough time naming these individuals during the heat of a primary fight. It would give competitors positive public attention and appear condescending towards rival candidates at the same time.

Second, presidents (and presidents-elect) spend months carefully vetting and selecting cabinet members after the election. Rigorous background checks are completed long before individual names are presented to the Senate for confirmation. A presidential campaign lacks the time and resources to begin that kind of process during the primary season.

Few serious contenders for the nomination would want to deal with a controversy, for example, that arose from naming a “projected” cabinet secretary with a significant controversy in his or her background. These campaigns have their own problems to deal with; they won’t want to add to the headaches.

And lastly, it would seemingly lock-in everyone involved. Candidates who ultimately got elected would be expected to largely follow the list released during the campaign. If a president strayed from the pre-announced list, questions would arise about why some were being slighted. In addition, those people who were named in advance would face questions about whether they would accept the post for which they are being considered. That would pose practical problems for public officials who are currently serving in elected office, and many would be pressured to publicly distance themselves from consideration, even if they’d be inclined to accept the nomination after the election.

That being said, part of me hopes the Kucinich rumor is true and that his campaign will release such a list in the coming weeks. It would be interesting to see who he’d pick for which post and what kind of reaction the announcement would generate. I would not, however, expect the more serious candidates to follow Kucinich’s lead.