Daniel's Cabinet Advice

-Treasury - Tim Geithner
-State - Bill Richardson
-Defense - Gates for at least six months, then Wesley Clark (this isn't nearly as essential as people think it is, except for appearances. And appearances can mean a lot. We have to remove ourselves from Iraq safely, and one way to do it safely is to not do it abruptly).
-NSA - Richard Lugar (in 1991 he and Sam Nunn demonstrated that they understood the real post-Cold War threats that America faced by passing a landmark non-proliferation bill. Perfect guy to advise Obama on national security threats. Nunn would have been good too, but Lugar is a Republican and it would be nice to have a bipartisan cabinet. Plus he's from Indiana, and it would be great to flatter the Hoosiers and keep Indiana blue).
-Education - Joel Klein?!?!?! (repeating reasonable sounding buzz on this one)
-CEA Chair - Paul Krugman (he is "shrill", but he's incredibly intelligent and probably the most believable Keynesians around - he'll be a nice counterweight to the "neoliberals" that will have Obama's ear - Rubin, Summers, et al.)
-Labor - Robert Reich (eh)
-Health and Human Services - Robert Reischauer (intelligent budget hawk, and my boss... perfect guy to reign in Medicare - experience at CBO and MedPac)
-Transportation - Tim Kaine (could really energize the nation to get some major public infrastructure investments underway)
-Ambassador to the UN - Bill Clinton (I don't know why people suggest Colin Powell for this. I love the guy, but his darkest moment, in my mind, was at the UN. We don't want to send him back there and remind people).